The West Region of the Monster Energy AMA Lites Supercross Championship reconvened after a one-week break at San Diego, California’s Qualcomm Stadium for round six of their 2011 season. San Diego, California has been hosting SX races since 1980 and has played host to the small bore series since 1985 when Todd Cambell rode his KX 125 to the inaugural San Diego SX support-class win. Since that day, there have been 24 Lites/125 class races, with Kawasaki winning more than anyone else at nine Main Event wins. Last year, the San Diego SX was won by the 2010 West Champ, Monster Energy/ProCircuit/Kawasaki rider Jake Weimer. This year, the current leader in the points, Josh Hansen, could only manage an eleventh.

Tomac looked to be on a mission all day long in Qualcomm Stadium

Monster Energy/ProCircuit/Kawasaki pilot Josh Hansen comes into San Diego off one of the grittiest rides in SX history, winning Anaheim II just a couple hours after badly breaking his hand. Two weeks had passed when he showed up at Qualcomm for round six, and nobody—other than Josh and his team—really knew how bad his hand really was. Qualifying practice was delayed until 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon due to inclement weather, so everyone was left to wonder about his condition longer than expected. Around 4:30, Hanny’s qualifying group hit the track, and it was quickly evident that he was in some real discomfort. The usually fast veteran could only manage ninth fastest in the few hot laps that he threw down as he looked for lines, saving his broken hand for the night show.

Ken Roczen was fastest qualifier in every session in the mud.

The fastest man in qualifying by nearly a full second was the German Red Bull/KTM teenager, Ken Roczen. With the slick and sloppy conditions, Ken looked right at home and was fastest in both his sessions. Kenny, during the off week, raced the KTM 350 in Houston, and it immediately looked like the experience had added a new level to his arsenal. The usual suspects were up front on the timing sheet with Star Racing’s Kyle Cunningham, Troy Lee Designs/Honda’s Cole Seely, Monster/PC/Kawasaki’s Broc Tickle and the GEICO Powersports/Honda rookie Eli Tomac rounding out the top five. Also back in action was Hanny and Tickle’s Pro Circuit teammate Tyla “The Styla” Rattray. Tyla had been out for a few weeks with an injury, and with the weather in San Diego, was being mentioned as a favorite all weekend.

As the rain fell on the 20,000 die-hard fans that were braving the weather and the shortened qualifying practice came to an end, you could sense that something special might happen later in the night. The lights went out in Qualcomm for the opening ceremonies, and it was time to get round six of the Lites West Region rolling.

Heat 1

#72 (Paluzzi), #66 (Decotis), and #20 (Tickle) would battle all of Heat 1.

Heat one of the Lites program featured second place in points Broc Tickle, his teammate Tyla Rattray and Kyle Cunningham. The surprise of the night, though, was Star Racing’s veteran Kyle Cunningham grabbing the holeshot. Mr. Cunningham got off the line a bike length before anyone else and easily grabbed the first holeshot of the night. Behind Cunningham was his teammate Nick Paluzzi in second with the GEICO Powersports fill-in, Jimmy Decotis, in third. Cunningham would crash two turns later, and Paluzzi would inherit the lead with Decotis applying pressure to his rear tire.

Just behind the top two, the ProCircuit teammates Tickle and Rattray were having a battle of their own. Tickle would briefly lose touch with the top two, but with two laps to go, started to gap Rattray and head into the battle for the lead. Decotis was sticking a tire in on Paluzzi in every turn for five and a half of six laps in the heat and, with half a lap to go, made his move. On the start straight sweeper Decotis pushed Paluzzi wide but in the process left himself open for the sneaky Tickle who squared up the turn and went by both of them for the win. Decotis and Paluzzi would finish second and third.

Heat 1 transfers

1 20 Broc Tickle
2 66 James Decotis
3 72 Nick Paluzzi
4 28 Tyla Rattray
8 166 Dakota Tedder
9 831 Ryan Smith

Heat 2

#194 Ken Roczen would lead the field through turn one for Heat 2.

Heat two was a chance for everyone to see if Hansen was going to be healthy enough to at least bring his B-game into the Main Event. The board went sideways, and the gate dropped. The first rider to break out into the clear was Ken Roczen, and he held the advantage through the super slick first turn. Behind the young speedster was another teenager, Eli Tomac. Josh Hansen and Cole Seely came out of the first turn in third and fourth. Kenny quickly took off, using his European rain experience to his advantage, and Eli went with him. As the two teenagers checked out, Seely was hounding the wounded Hansen, making the pass for third and easily staying in that position to the checkered flag. Up front, Roczen and Tomac showed that, with Hanny not being 100%, they would be the guys to watch in the Main Event.

Heat 2 transfers

1 194 Ken Roczen
2 19 Eli Tomac
3 36 Cole Seely
4 100 Joshua Hansen
5 49 Ben Evans
6 903 Antonio Balbi
7 149 Casey Hinson
8 132 Kyle Beaton
9 152 Scott Champion

LCQ

Nearly every LCQ this year has featured one of the top satellite team riders, and this week was no different. Rockstar/Suzuki veteran Martin Davalos struggled in his heat race with crashes and was the designated non-privateer this week. Martin knew what he had to do: his race was made easier when he holeshotted the LCQ, leaving the privateers behind to vie for the one remaining transfer spot. Travis Bright got in and out of the first turn right behind Davalos and stayed there—despite a brief challenge from Jake Canada—for the remainder of the LCQ, taking the final transfer spot of the evening.

LCQ transfers

1 23 Martin Davalos
2 965 Travis Bright

Main Event

(#19) Eli Tomac would lead his teammate Decotis (#66) and Hanny through turn one in the Main Event!

As the night wore on the rain would come and go, but as the 30-second board went up, it was coming down as hard as ever. During the parade lap, riders were taking an extra long look at the long sweeping first turn and for good reason: it was getting sloppy.

When the starting gate crashed down, GEICO Powersports Eli Tomac would be the first one over it and the first one through the slop. By turn three, Eli had already pulled two or three bike lengths on the pack of riders behind him that featured Josh Hansen, Eli’s surprisingly confident teammate Jimmy Decotis, Tyla Rattray, Kyle Cunningham and Broc Tickle. Roczen went down early in turn one and would remount in dead last.

GEICO Powersports Jimmy Decotis was incredibly fast and comfortable in the mud.

Tomac has been getting closer and closer to his first win and had clearly come to San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium to claim it. With the injured Hansen holding up a field of hungry riders, Tomac put his head down and disappeared quickly from the pack. By lap four, Tomac had gapped the field by eight or nine seconds and was well on his way to completing his mission.

On lap five, with Tomac seemingly now out of reach, Decotis was the first to get by Hanny. Rattray, Tickle and Seely all managed to do the same by lap six. Cunningham tried to apply some payback to his pass on Hanny, but like every other main event of the year, found himself with the short end of the stick. Passing Hanny over the finish line jump, Cunningham whipped into Hanny’s face with a look back. One turn later, Hanny got the last laugh when he put the #35 on the ground. Cunningham ended up eleventh. By lap seven, the three-rider freight train of Rattray, Tickle, and Seely had made their way by Decotis, and the race was on.

(#100) Hansen was in obvious pain with a broken hand, but managed 6th on the night and retained his points-lead.

All doubt of who was going to win was erased by lap ten. Tomac was twelve seconds gone and lapping into the top ten. Still, the rest of the podium was up in the air. Rattray was leading Tickle and Seely, but looked to be holding the two riders up slightly. Rattray was not going to give up second spot without a fight. He held onto his position with the iron fist of a former GP World Champ. Seely would make some valiant attempts to get by Tickle, but in the end, his lack of aggression landed him one spot off the podium.

On lap fifteen, Tomac crossed the line for his first-ever professional SX win. The excitement of the young Honda rookie surely was felt as far away as his hometown of Cortez, Colorado. Eli may have taken six races to complete his mission of winning a SX race, but you can bet it won’t take him six more to do it again. Rattray improved on his best-ever SX finish of third by one spot to take the second step on the box, while his Monster Energy/ProCircuit/Kawasaki teammate would finish third. Roczen, who came around in 17th after turn one, would fight his way back up to seventh spot by the end of the Main. Kenny now heads out to begin testing for his MX2 World Championship campaign in Europe.

Tyla “The Styla” Rattray would have his best SX finish of his rookie SX year with a 2nd in round six.

Josh Hansen finished sixth, a Championship ride considering the amount of pain the man was in. Rather than sit on the couch and let it heal, Josh sacked up and raced, proving once again that he wants this Championship as much as anyone has ever wanted one. With a sixth place finish and fifteen points, Hanny was able to retain his points-lead in the series by a mere three points heading into the break. With seven weeks off of racing coming up, Hanny will be able to get the healing time he needs to come to Seattle ready to lock this title down. It won’t be easy, though. Veteran Broc Tickle appears to wants this just as bad, and Tomac now has the confidence to win.

Tickle would grab the third spot on the podium and pull to within three points of Hanny heading into the West break.

Main Event results

1 19 Eli Tomac
2 28 Tyla Rattray
3 20 Broc Tickle
4 36 Cole Seely
5 66 James Decotis
6 100 Joshua Hansen
7 194 Ken Roczen
8 49 Ben Evans
9 71 Ryan Morais
10 35 Kyle Cunningham
11 903 Antonio Balbi
12 23 Martin Davalos
13 831 Ryan Smith
14 55 Tommy Weeck
15 72 Nick Paluzzi
16 149 Casey Hinson
17 152 Scott Champion
18 965 Travis Bright
19 166 Dakota Tedder
20 132 Kyle Beaton

Tomac (middle), Rattray (right) and Tickle (left) celebrate a great night of mud racing in San Diego.

Author

Dan Lamb is a 12+ year journalist and the owner of MotoXAddicts.