Yamaha Motor Canada Presents the Race Recap from Glendale SX

As Round 2 of the 2019 Monster Energy Supercross rolled into the exciting sports town of Glendale, AZ, all eyes were on Blu Cru riders Colt Nichols and Justin Barcia to see if they could repeat their opening round heroics. As far as the track in Glendale, well, it couldn’t have been more of a contrast to the A1 track if it tried. While the opening round track was slow, technical and with the rain and mud, the Glendale track was fast, high speed and fairly routine for the top SX riders on the planet. As we saw last night, some riders adjusted very well to the faster, harder packed track, while others found themselves thinking ahead to Round 3.

In the 250 class, Adam Cianciarulo bounced back after struggling in the opening round to take a dominating win over last week’s winner Colt Nichols. Cianciarulo rode brilliantly on the slippery-as-ice track to grab his first win of the season. Even though the Glendale track wasn’t terribly technical, the riders still had to respect it as they were hitting the sections at a much higher speed than last weekend.

For our own Jess Pettis, he was forced to ride the always stressful LCQ in order to qualify for the 250SX main event. However, in that race he finished second and got himself into the big race of the night. From there, Pettis rode strong as he once again had to battle Cameron McAdoo throughout the main event. As much as we all want to see Pettis battling for a Top 5 position, we have to keep in mind that these races are still part of his steep learning process. Pettis has never raced on such a hard packed, slick and fast SX track before, so his 12^th place finish might not have been as good as last weekend, but it’s still a great finish for the new KTM rider.

The 450 class was really forced to battle through some adversity last night as a few laps into the main event, Malcolm Stewart crashed hard in the whoop section and the race had to be red flagged. After a lengthy delay while the medic crew tended to Stewart’s broken femur, the riders had to have a staggered restart. For Ken Roczen, who was leading the race prior to the restart by two seconds, the restart wasn’t kind to him as his lead was gone when Jason Anderson then passed him. Anderson’s pass was very aggressive and he ended up taking out Roczen. Then, in the closing laps, Blake Baggett closed in on Anderson, made a somewhat surprising pass, and then took off to his first ever 450SX win. Anderson held on for second while Roczen remounted and took the third step on the podium.

As the riders head back to Anaheim for Round 3 and the first Triple Crown race of the 2019 season, Ken Roczen will take the red plate into Anaheim and the rest of riders will do their best to take their first victory of the season. If the first two rounds are any indication, this series is wide open and we will no doubt see multiple winners in 2019. See you in Anaheim!

250 Main Event
1. Adam Cianciarulo (Kawasaki)
2. Colt Nichols (Yamaha)
3. Shane McElrath (KTM)
4. RJ Hampshire (Honda)
5. Jimmy Decotis (Suzuki)
6. Dylan Ferrandis (Yamaha)
7. Chris Blose (Husqvarna)
8. Sean Cantrell (KTM)
9. Garrett Marchbanks (Kawasaki)
10. Michael Mosiman (Husqvarna)
11. Cameron McAdoo (Honda)
12. Jess Pettis (KTM)
13. Robbie Wageman (Honda)
14. Justin Starling (Husqvarna)
15. Dylan Merriam (Husqvarna)
16. Martin Castelo (Suzuki)
17. Jacob Hayes (Yamaha)
18. Devin Harriman (KTM)
19. Deegan Vonlossberg (Yamaha)
20. Jerry Robin (KTM)
21. Enzo Lopes (Suzuki)
22. Mitchell Harrison (Yamaha)

450 Main Event
1. Blake Baggett (KTM)
2. Jason Anderson (Husqvarna)
3. Ken Roczen (Honda)
4. Eli Tomac (Kawasaki)
5. Marvin Musquin (KTM)
6. Justin Barcia (Yamaha)
7. Justin Brayton (Honda)
8. Dean Wilson (Husqvarna)
9. Cole Seely (Honda)
10. Cooper Webb (KTM)
11. Aaron Plessinger (Yamaha)
12. Vince Friese (Honda)
13. Justin Hill (Suzuki)
14. Chad Reed (Suzuki)
15. Justin Bogle (KTM)
16. Kyle Chisholm (Suzuki)
17. Alex Ray (Suzuki)
18. Carlen Gardner (Honda)
19. Ben Lamay (Honda)
20. Ronnie Stewart (Husqvarna)
21. Cheyenne Harmon (Yamaha)
22. Malcolm Stewart (Honda)