Andrea's Angle: San Diego
January 24, 2024
Welcome back to Andrea's Angle, a column showcasing my perspective as a newbie to Supercross. Excited to share my thoughts on San Diego!
Pre-Race & Opening Ceremony
Another mudder, I can't believe it! What happened to sunny California?
Luckily, this track wasn't nearly as bad as last week in SF,
namely because it didn't rain until the day of, and the dirt was way drier and hardpacked.
During track walk, I was in awe at how rocky and dusty the soil was.
I actually watched this race from the stands, and it was a really fun one to be a part of the energy of the crowd.
As for opening ceremonies, I'm proud of Adam Cianciarulo for taking my advice and doing a little dance on stage. We need more of that!
Takeaways
- Turning corners seemed quite hard since the dirt / mud was so sticky.
- It became almost impossible to blitz the whoops (ride fast and skim along the top) - they broke down quickly and needed to be jumped 2x2.
- Lots of bikes were smoking, which I'm told is actually steam because the engine is overheating. In mud races, riders rely on the clutch to keep the bike moving, which generates a lot of friction, and thus heat.
- Riders also seemed to be casing jumps left and right (jumping short and landing on the top of the jump). It made me wonder how they would even make that split second decision of which jumps to do.
- Lappers were an issue to the leading riders (anyone struggling in the mud went significantly slower than the riders at the front, and were lapped). Since the track was muddy and rutted, there only seemed to be one good racing line. This made it difficult for lappers to move out of the way for the leaders while also focusing on their own results.
Big congrats to Aaron Plessinger on his first 450 Supercross win! I've never seen the Supercross community come together like that for another rider. Being in the stands was electric - I'm not a huge fan of Plessinger, but I found myself standing up, clapping with the crowd, and feeling genuinely happy for him.
While San Diego was a happy and triumphant moment for Aaron, I'd say the theme underlying the race for other riders was tension. There was more friction between riders than I've seen before - whether it be annoyance at lappers or heated moments between riders battling for position.
Drama
Not to get too gossip columny on you guys, but there was some riveting post-race drama that I need to talk about for a second. We had not one but two apologies on social media, strong opinions all over X (formerly known as Twitter), and more.
Cooper Webb vs Chase Sexton, ft Eli Tomac
Webb was not happy that Sexton didn't let him by / slowed him down when getting lapped, as that may have cost Webb the win.
Sexton has since apologized to Webb on social media.
I've also heard that Webb was irritated at Tomac, his teammate, for similar reasons. This was more of a contentious topic
amongst fans since Tomac was riding fast enough to keep up with Plessinger, and didn't come into any direct contact with Webb.
Jett Lawrence vs Jason Anderson
Post helmet-grabbing, Jett posted an apology on his Instagram story. Unfortunately for Jett, Jason later revealed in an Instagram post that everyone BUT Jett has apologized to him directly, and it was his PR team that put out the apology.Another angle of the post race altercation 🍿
— Supercross LIVE! (@SupercrossLIVE) January 21, 2024
🎥- @CultMoto #SupercrossLIVE #SMX pic.twitter.com/nxYhDLVuN8
I specifically want to talk about the comments on that post - there were a ton of riders coming out of the woodworks, and some hating on Jett. My take on the situation is - Jett was 100% in the wrong for putting his hands on Anderson at all, and it's messed up to hide behind your PR team and not apologize directly. Simultaneously, I don't think a whole bunch of riders should be piling on hate when they are not involved in the situation. I was especially put off by Austin Forkner's comment ridiculing Jett for, a couple years ago, coming to him crying (after a mistake he made led to Forkner breaking his collarbone and shoulder). So you're mad at him for... genuinely feeling bad and remorseful about the injury he caused you? Are we really making fun of men for crying in 2024? That's a really sad mentality in my opinion.
After all that craziness and a 450 class with no clear frontrunner, I'm really looking forward to the Triple Crown this Saturday at Anaheim 2! For those of you who don't know, triple crown races happen about twice a season, and instead of heat races and main events, there are three main events instead (with the top 22 qualifying riders). Hopefully that will continue to shake things up!
See you next week,
Andrea
