Photo by: Simon Cudby

“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.

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Last Saturday night at the Monster Energy Supercross finale in Las Vegas, Jason Anderson accomplished what I had previously stated was the impossible. He won the Supercross Championship. It is interesting to point out that all the analysts, myself included, knew he had the talent to win a championship but felt his maturity was lacking. Anderson is a guy who has made a few ridiculous mistakes along his journey including picking up quite a few enemies along the way. I thought for sure this would bite him in a 17-race series, but he proved everyone wrong. Not only did he win the championship, he did it his way. The maturity everyone assumed he needed to win a title never materialized. Even with his take-no-prisoners dirty style, Anderson still logged wins and ultimately finished on top.

Marvin won the opener, but because of a shoulder injury did not light the candles again until round 12 in Indy. Photo by: Simon Cudby

Throughout 2018 Anderson established himself as the Alpha dog. Week in and week out, guys like Blake Baggett, Marvin Musquin and Cole Seely allowed Anderson to treat them like a little brother. Three races into the series, Anderson had established a mental edge over all of his competition with the exception Eli Tomac, who spent the season battling his own issues. Eli officially surpassed Damon Bradshaw as the most wins for a Supercross rider without actually earning a major championship title. The Tomac camp must be wondering how many years in a row Eli will be the fastest rider without bringing home the sport’s most prestigious championship.

We picked Ken Roczen ahead of Anderson to start the year, but a personal war and Instagram beef over a girl with Cooper Webb ended with Kenny out of the series injured and back on the operating table. Will that mistake be the final lesson learned on the way to becoming a SX legend, or a final blow to his psyche? Photo by: Mark Lester

Eli has had an incredible amount of success in Supercross, but I don’t see him maintaining his dominance without winning a Supercross championship. This summer is incredibly important for Eli and his career trajectory. If Anderson, Roczen, Baggett or Musquin can beat Eli in the outdoor championship, we could see the beginning of the end for him. On the other hand, if Eli charges out and skillfully dominates the series, it won’t be long until we start to hear the “Anderson got lucky” whispers.

Eli Tomac now has 21 premier class wins and no Championships to his name. To put that in perspective, that is more wins than legends like Jeff Stanton (17 wins & 3 Championships) and Jeff Ward (20 wins & 2 Championships) had in their careers. Photo by: Octopi

While I agree no rider ever earns a Supercross Championship without a little luck, Jason Anderson created some of his own luck. In Daytona, he could have easily rested on his point lead and cruised to a 15th or 16th place finish. Instead, Anderson fought for every point, while Eli on the other hand was hemorrhaging points early in the season. Let’s think back to San Diego: Eli was on a roll and could have easily jumped back into the championship picture, but after suffering a first turn crash, he calmly rode off the track, picked up his mechanic and left the stadium. Reports were that his bike was too damaged to continue, but riders fighting for a championship usually salvage whatever they can on their bad nights. What made San Diego even stranger was Eli knew how important every point was, a lesson he learned firsthand with his loss to Ryan Dungey by a mere 5 points in 2017.

No matter what some cynics think or what happens from here on in Jason Anderson’s career, he will forever be able to look in the mirror and call himself the 2018 450SX AMA / FIM Supercross Champion. That my friends is as good as it gets. Photo by: Simon Cudby

As time passes, it will be interesting to see if this championship is similar to Jeff Emig’s one and done championship in 1997 or if we are heading into the Jason Anderson era. Winning championships at the highest level has a history of providing riders the confidence and expectations to attain future titles. Not since 1997 has a rider claimed a Supercross Championship and not backed it up with at least one more.

2019 is a long way away, but Anderson has a newfound confidence and Marvin Musquin has shown he is not afraid to bang bars with Eli. In 2019, I believe Ken Roczen will finally be healthy, but who knows, maybe Cooper Webb will finally realize his potential. Will Justin Hill or Zach Osborne be the next 450 rookie sensation? Only time will tell!

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