“Cooksey’s Hard Truth” presented by Scott Sports is a weekly editorial written by Chris Cooksey. Chris will be diving in and out of controversial subjects and bringing you his hard truth about the racing and the riders from around the world of Supercross and Motocross.

The 5th round of Monster Energy Supercross was nothing short of amazing for spectators and had more drama and storylines than I can remember. In fairness, my memory sucks.

We witnessed crashes, take-outs and redemption on the incredibly dangerous 2018 Oakland SX track. We also had another misplaced tuff block claim Tyler Bowers near the end of the 450 main event. Seriously, this is getting ridiculous! Tuff blocks are soft and have a place, but let’s use common sense and not put them on landings or rhythm section transitions. If Acerbis track markers were used instead of the tuff blocks, many accidents would have been simple off track excursions. If sponsor logos are a concern, just hang a banner three feet outside of the track, but enough about tuff blocks, this 450 main was one for the ages!

We see a new Anderson/Roczen rivalry brewing in 2018. Photo by: FELD

As a spectator who did not have the pressure or risk of having to ride this extremely dangerous track, I enjoyed the show. If all tracks were this treacherous, we would only have a couple guys left at the end of the season. The ruts were deep, causing even the best of the best supercross riders to fall victim to mistakes.  As it turned out, Jason Anderson was merely trying to survive the night after a horrendous crash in practice that easily could have ended his season. Jason applied a relaxed non-charging style as he gradually worked his way to the front. Other than the obvious and straight up clean out of Marvin Musquin, Anderson rode relatively unscathed.

From the start of the season, Jason Anderson has looked more mature, patient and determined, but last night he reminded us who “El Hombre” is. He cut so far inside his former training partner and barely avoided going over the berm himself. In the process, Anderson completely cleaned out the front wheel of Marvin who is nursing a sore shoulder which he injured in Houston.

Was this Jason Anderson pass dirty in your opinion? Check out the video below and let us know in the comments or on Facebook

I watched this incident many times, and my opinion is that it was intentional and dirty. I don’t know what the problem is between them, but there is clearly beef. I thought back to the A2 post-race press conference where I asked Anderson about his standing with the Baker Factory. He replied, “me and Aldon, yeah, we are cool.” I was curious as to why he didn’t mention the rumored beef between him and Marvin, which led me to think there was one. Oakland was proof enough to me of an existing beef, and if there wasn’t one before Oakland, there certainly is one now. You can read this interview we did with Marvin for more details on their training partner situation and Marvin’s reaction to what he called a dirty pass.

Anderson has the points lead and must avoid getting caught up in this type of drama. In my preseason preview, I said he wouldn’t win the title because of his lack of maturity, and up until now, Anderson was proving me wrong. Marvin is basically out of the points and could be a real thorn in Anderson’s side as he chases his first Monster Energy Supercross Championship. Don’t look for Red Bull KTM riders Marvin or Broc Tickle to do Anderson any favors as their teams are not exactly on the best of terms. Top engineers from the company who normally spend their time with Marvin and KTM and Husqvarna parent company are now giving Anderson the bulk of attention. It’s going to be interesting watching this sibling rivalry play out.

Was this Justin Barcia pass dirty in your opinion? Check out the video below and let us know in the comments or on Facebook

Another “leopard who can’t change his spots” is Justin “Bam Bam” Barcia. While his takeout of Eli Tomac was not as blatant as the Anderson’s clean out of Marvin, it was still a takeout. This came just one week after Barcia apologized to Ken Roczen and Tomac for incidents in the past. I will let this incident slide as aggressive racing as he did leave Tomac a little room on the outside, but with his history, Barcia is guilty until proven innocent.

Fortunately for Barcia he has been open about his new attitude. I watched his move on Eli many times and believe it was good hard racing. Barcia had wheel tapped into the turn and had a ton of momentum entering. Eli looked to anticipate a big slam, and it didn’t materialize as Barcia tried leaving room. Unfortunately Eli crashed, but if this was a move from Broc Tickle, Dean Wilson or Ken Roczen, message boards everywhere wouldn’t be calling for their heads. Barcia however has been anything but a model citizen throughout his career and bench racers everywhere are calling for Barcia’s head on a stick.

Both of these incidents resulted in contact, but only one had malicious intent. If Jason Anderson wants to win this title he might want to play back the 1992 Las Vegas Supercross where Damon Bradshaw let a personal vendetta against Jeff “Chicken” Matiasevich cost him ten points to eventual 1992 Supercross Champion Jeff Stanton, who beat Bradshaw by three points in the final season standings. If Mr. Anderson wants to be champion, he needs to have a Matrix-like focus directed at wining the Championship. Ryan Dungey won four titles avoiding this type of drama and that wasn’t an accident.

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