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You are making a difference to millions of riders worldwide. Thank you. Roczen cruised to an easy heat win, with Justin Brayton with a strong second-place run. Out of all plus riders who hit the track over the course of this weekend, you can make the case that Craig was the best. He was lights out from the beginning of press day track time, all the way until the Main Event. It felt clear even in qualifying that it would take a lot for the No. Once he got around Friese for the lead, that was game, set, and match.
Not a bad night at all for the second-year pro out of Pennsylvania. Hammaker, officially credited with the Main Event holeshot, was a fixture in the top three from start to finish on Saturday. Despite a last-ditch effort by the latter to take second, Hammaker was able to stay strong for a great run in the opener. Saturday could have been an absolute disaster for the Kawasaki rider out of Japan.
Shimoda bit on a head fake by Craig and nailed the starting gate before it dropped. As the entire field went by, he began to work his way through the tall grass. In a very impressive effort, Shimoda made it from 22nd all the way up to 7th in a little over 15 minutes. Needless to say, this was likely not what he was hoping for, but this was excellent damage control.
Even more impressive was that he was nearly in the top three off the start, just behind Hammaker and Friese. Hopefully, we can see Wageman in spots like this more often, because he looked the part in Anaheim. Save for some real pressure by his teammate Sexton, Roczen had clear waters from the gate drop to the checkered flag. A great sign for Roczen as well was that there was no major lap time drop-off in the Main Event. Barcia ended up gaining a second on him late, but the lead was above 10 seconds and he made it back up more or less before the finish.
It was also a milestone night for Roczen. That now puts him at the top for the most ever, breaking a tie with James Stewart and Chad Reed. All things considered, this was a great way for Roczen to open things up in Especially considering how unraveled on him. For a rider who has never done good in the season opener, this second place must feel like a win for Webb.
There were multiple poor qualifying efforts a year ago and look where he ended up. Heat Race was a different story, however. Webb ended up falling over on his own defending against Tomac and ended up finishing fifth. He was hanging just outside of the top five, but riders making mistakes in front of him gave the defending Champion the break he needed. Sometimes, all you need to do is be in the right place at the right time, and that was the case for Webb on Saturday.
Given how snakebitten he has been in openers in years past, this feels like some positive karma. On the flip side, his streak of opening-round podiums has reached five in a row now. It felt clear as the day went on Barcia may not be in a spot to win, but a good result was certainly on the table.
Like Webb, Bam Bam slipped through the cracks and found himself in second place. Digressing, Barcia ended up giving way to Webb before settling for a third-place finish. To close things out, to anyone on the GasGas team that may see this, keep the red rims on the bike, they looked spectacular. A post shared by Method Race Wheels methodracewheels. By all accounts, he probably should have won Anaheim 1 on his first attempt, but a couple of crucial mistakes kept him from doing so.
First, as he was getting close to the rear wheel of Roczen, he hit an odd rut out of a rhythm section and had to dismount, losing a few spots as a result. A few laps later, Sexton ended up going down in the whoops after the finish jump, which brought him close to outside the top What could have been the lead in the biggest race of the year was now looking like a mulligan for Sexton.
The Honda HRC rider then showed great mental toughness, bulldogging his way back up into the top five. Even going right to the finish, Sexton took Marvin Musquin to the brink, only losing out on fourth by 0.
This is the kind of ride where if Sexton can compete for this title, he will look back on fondly. If tonight was any indication, he has the speed and mentality to do just that. Yes, a sixth-place Main Event finish is fine, but Tomac never felt like he was where he should have been. If you rank the best laps of all the top 10 riders, he ranks eighth of those. Numbers-wise he was over a second and a half back of the best lap of the Main Event, put up by Sexton. However, given that this is his best opening round finish of the last three years, Tomac should take this and get ready for Oakland.
A venue which he has won at twice in the last four trips there. Mookie Fever stocks were looking tremendous during qualifying, but it was not meant for Stewart to get his first win in Anaheim. Stewart ended up having a solid race going until he got completely cleaned out by Musquin around the halfway mark. To say he was not happy with Musquin would be the understatement of the evening. He had to be held back by a track worker after he got into his face.
Given the nature of how he got taken down, hard to blame Stewart here. The finish does not tell the whole story for El Hombre in Anaheim, he was better than expected in his Kawasaki debut. Anderson had a second-place close to secure, but some Bam Bam retaliation knocked him far back of second, let alone the top five. There were rumblings that Anderson was running well in preseason testing, but we got to see it with our own eyes at Angel Stadium. Watch out for the No. Hard to make an 11th sound impressive, but given the circumstances, AC deserves some major props.
With an AC joint sprain, he was running in a podium spot for a large chunk of the night managing the injury.
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