Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
Are you ready for Round 12 of the 2020 Monster Energy Supercross Series, or Salt Lake City 2 as everyone is now calling it? First of all, let’s not beat around the bush about Sunday’s race and the return to the track for Supercross. As much as it was incredible to see our favourite sport back on the starting gate, once the gate dropped the riders appeared a tad apprehensive as they raced their first main event in 85 days. Not only was the track in rough condition by the time the main events came around, but as I’ve mentioned before, these riders are creatures of habit and they’re all used to things being done a certain way. Sunday’s return to racing was anything but normal as everyone had to go through the evasive Covid-19 testing when they arrived at the track. Also, the number of team personnel were limited, and their trusty mechanics weren’t allowed on the gate with the riders. I’m sure all this accumulated to add to the uneasiness the riders were feeling as they lined up for their first race back. Add in the dry and broken-down track, the extreme heat, and what we saw were two very tentative main events, except for, perhaps, Adam Cianciarulo who made a massive mistake while leading early in the 450SX main event and almost took out his teammate as well as Ken Roczen and Cooper Webb.
So, what are we going to see tonight at SLC 2? Well, one thing (maybe the only thing) that will be the same is that once again it’s very warm in Utah so the track will take another beating throughout practice and qualifying. However, with the main events being at night, the temperatures will have dropped, so it should be a pleasant evening for racing. But, if we look forward to Sunday’s race and Round 13 of the series, currently the forecast is calling for temperatures of just 14 Celsius and a 90% chance of rain. No one ever said racing was easy, and these riders are definitely getting everything thrown at them in these first few races back.
I would expect the racing to be much more aggressive and precise tonight as the riders have now had two full days to process their performance from Sunday as well as acclimatize themselves with the SLC area. As we have all seen on their Social Media channels, most have been busy training and enjoying their days in this beautiful city. So, as they take to the track today, I’m sure the riders will feel better prepared and more comfortable. This should translate into better action on the track and a more exciting show for us to watch tonight. The track should also be much improved for Round 12, although its rare clock-wise direction and multiple right-hand corners may present some issues for the riders. For years the sport of SX has mostly used left-hand turning first turns for the riders to have the ability to keep their right foot on the peg, near their rear brake. Many, including myself, feel that, for all intents and purposes, this has improved safety, simply because there is less of a chance of there being a first turn pile up. You could argue that a left-hand first turn isn’t any safer as the riders tend to charge into it with more aggression, thus increasing the chances of them coming together and crashing. With a right-hand first turn, like we’re going to see tonight, the riders may be less aggressive and try to take it easier. I guess we’ll have to wait to see on this one. The first two turns on today’s track are right handers so the riders are going to have to be extra careful on the opening laps. Also, as we saw on Sunday, in order to keep the dust down, the track crew was busy watering every chance they had. With more right-hand turns today, will this cause more problems with the rider washing their front ends out on the slippery SLC soil? As I said, we’ll have to wait to see! I personally have always found that tracks that run in a clock-wise direction and have more right hand turns lack a little flow and are harder to pass on. But that’s just me.
Heading into tonight’s 450SX main event, two riders that have to be more aggressive are Ken Roczen and Cooper Webb. For Roczen, he comes into Round 12 eight points behind Eli Tomac, and you have to think that even if Tomac started backwards on the gate, he could still finish on the podium. So, unless the pressure of getting close to his first ever SX championship causes Tomac to have a meltdown, Roczen must return to winning main events tonight. One thing that did surprise me on Sunday was that Tomac appeared to have better throttle control on the hard and slippery SLC track. I’ve always thought of Roczen as being the smoother rider, but that didn’t seem like the case on Sunday. After not getting a great start, maybe Roczen got a little panicked early on in the race and then was just not able to get the flow in the second half of the main event. He did appear to be a little frustrated when he wasn’t able to get by Webb for second, not to mention his giant save on the final lap when he almost jumped off of the track. Mistakes like that late in a race usually come from either a lack of focus or from simply being tired. For Roczen, I wouldn’t think he would lose focus at the point in the race and with so much at stake so I would lean more towards a little arm pump and fatigue. Whatever it was, he got away with it, and maybe that near miss will sharpen his focus and we’ll see a much-improved Ken Roczen tonight. For Cooper Webb, his plan of attack is a simple one: He must win tonight and continue winning for the next two weeks, then hope that Roczen and Tomac run into a few troubles. Perhaps if the weather forecast holds true for Round 13, this coming Sunday will be a mudder and that will be a game changer for the points standings. But for tonight, my humble prediction is that we’ll witness a great battle up front in both classes and in the end, it will be a Red Rider night in SLC with Chase Sexton and Ken Roczen taking the victories.
