Howdy y'all and welcome back to Motosport.com Gearhead weekly hot takes, with just of smidge of cold takes mixed in, on the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Anaheim 2 Triple Crown! I am your favorite Gearhead Ryan Roberts, here to keep you entertained with the recap you demand!
Thankfully after two weeks of mud and mud lite, we had a dry track to see what the riders were truly capable of this week and try to get clarity on the season. After this round I am proud to report that we do not have much more of a clear picture than we did before this week. This non-clarity actually makes for a great series as we have had 4 rounds and 4 winners in both 250 and 450 series. This is truly one of the greatest starts to a series that I can remember. A lot of years by round 5 you know who is going to be the two riders competing for the championship and that does start to take away from one aspect of the excitement but this year there are six or seven riders that could win this thing.
Cooper Webb won the night going 2-2-5 in the three motos of the Triple Crown in the 450 class. That is one of the enjoyable things about the Triple Crown is that Coop didn't win one moto but did end up winning the overall. Triple Crowns are about consistency and a lot of riders struggle with that. You must get three good starts and whomever does that typically wins. Eli Tomac has been dominant in TC's winning almost half of them and he did end up second overall in this round with a 5-7-1 finish. Chase Sexton won the first moto but then followed it up with an eleventh. Jason Anderson won the second moto but then finished eighth in the last moto after incurring a penalty after he took an excursion besides the whoops and went too fast for the AMA's liking. Coop was the only rider whose worst moto finish was fifth or better and that little bit of consistency gave him the overall. Usually someone wins a Triple Crown finishing with a 1-2-2 or 1-2-3 moto finishes but this year there is so much parity that all it took was not finishing worse than fifth to get the "W" this week.
On the 250 side, Levi Kitchens took home the win finishing 1-2-3 giving Pro Circuit Kawasaki a much-needed victory. R.J. Hampshire finished second and cut the deficit to the championship lead to nine points from 13 back. Levi Kitchen and Jordon Smith are now sharing the red plate so what we know in the 250 class is even less than 450's. Levi was steady all night and did the exact opposite of what R.J. would do and that is ride steady. R.J. finished 2-1-7 and could just not hold it together in the last moto and went down causing him to not give a serious threat to take home the overall win. This was the typical R.J. experience though and I want to see him win a championship, but I just don't know if he can keep it together through all nine rounds and finish the job. Consistency is more important than overall speed in the 250's and whomever has the least number of huge mistakes wins. In the 450 class consistency is definitely important but there are four or five guys that can keep it on the rails for all seventeen rounds but that isn't the case in the 250's. You get half the rounds and cannot make mistakes, but we will see how it ends up.
That is it from the first Triple Crown of the season! Onto Detroit where we know we will get a dry race and always has some great action. Will Aaron Plessinger get redemption from last year or can Jett Lawrence get his season back on track? You thought you would go a whole Gearhead review post without a Jett Lawrence reference, and you were wrong! Detroit is always a strange race. Maybe it is the vibes of the city or maybe it is the cold? All I know is, if you want a hot deal and someone to give you the best service you have ever had in your life, hit up your Gearhead at MotoSport.com and we will get you hooked up the only way we know how and that is with great service! Until next week, this is your favorite Gearhead Ryan Roberts closing up shop and heading to Detroit!
