Eli Tomac was dominant in everything in Phoenix. The #3 qualified #1, won his heat race, won the main event and had the fastest lap-time of the night. Photo by: Hoppenworld
The 2015 Phoenix Supercross and round two of the 2015 Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM World Championship series was all about getting that ever-elusive first win for two riders: Star Racing/Yamaha’s Cooper Webb in the 250SX class and GEICO/Honda’s Eli Tomac in the 450SX class. Unlike week one in Anaheim, the races were not won on the start; both riders earned their first-ever main event wins after hard-fought battles with the winners from week one and a pass for the lead. There would be no holeshot and runaway winners in week two.
In the 450SX class main event, week one winner, RCH/Soaring Eagle/Sycuan Casino/Suzuki’s Ken Roczen, looked poised to make it two in a row after blowing by Red Bull/KTM’s Ryan Dungey and Tomac on the opening lap to take over the lead. The #94 would tried to check out like he did in Anaheim, but this time his former 250SX rival on the #3 Honda was in a good position and up for a good fight. For the first five laps, Tomac watched Roczen and studied his lines, and on lap six he began to mount a full offensive on the German. After the two of them went back and forth for two or three laps, Tomac secured the lead for one final time through the whoops and pulled away for his first-ever 450SX win. From there, Roczen cruised in to finish second with Dungey finishing third. With Tomac finishing 20th at round one, the #94 now heads to round three with the red plate for the second year in a row. Dungey moved up to 2nd in the points with his first podium of the year, while Tomac’s 25 points on the night moved him up from 20th to 7th in the 450SX Championship.
In the 250SX class, Troy Lee Design/KTM’s Jessy Nelson came into Phoenix with a head full of steam after his first-ever win at round one, but it was Webb winning his first at round two—and he had to pass Nelson to do it. After starting the main event second behind Rockstar/Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne, Webb was passed by GEICO/Honda’s Malcolm Stewart and Nelson before clocking in and going to work on lap two. Up front, Stewart pulled out to an early three-second lead, but that lead was short lived. Webb quickly passed Osborne and Nelson, had caught the #34 by lap three and was in the lead and checking out by lap four. At the end of the main, it was Webb scoring his first win, Stewart notching his best-ever finish in second and Nelson hanging on to the red plate with his second-straight podium to start the year.
In the lap time battle, it was Eli Tomac capping off what was a perfect day and night with the fastest lap (55.346) of the main events. With the fastest lap in day qualifying (54.403), a dominant heat race win and a dominant main event, he simply could do no wrong. Tomac’s speed was blazing fast, but keeping with the theme of 2015 parity, there were two riders within a half second of him: Roczen (55.605) and JGRMX/Auto Trader/Yamaha’s Weston Peick (55.762). Nobody is surprised to see Kenny so close to the front, but Peick’s raw speed in 2015 has been an eye opener.
The fastest 250SX rider on the night was Cooper Webb (56.076) by nearly a full second over Nelson’s (56.859) second fastest lap of the main event. For Cooper, Phoenix was more than just a win; it was a statement that he’s here to battle for the Championship in 2015. The third fastest 250SX time (56.869) of the night was logged by Stewart on the opening lap while trying to runaway and hide. Unfortunately for Mookie, Webb sprinted to four-straight 56-second laps, passed him and walked away.
You can check out the top ten 250 and 450 times from the Phoenix SX below. Scroll down to see how the main events broke down lap-for-lap with MotoXAddicts’ lap-time comparison charts. Also, see how the top three 250SX riders matched up against the top three 450SX finishers lap-for-lap.
Full 2015 Phoenix SX results here>>>
| Top 10 450 Times | Top 10 250 Times |
|---|---|
| 1. Eli Tomac – 55.346 2. Ken Roczen – 55.605 3. Weston Peick – 55.762 4. Ryan Dungey – 55.923 5. Davi Millsaps – 56.587 6. Cole Seely – 56.735 7. Jason Anderson – 56.802 8. Justin Barcia – 56.961 9. Trey Canard – 55.978 10. Broc Tickle – 57.063 |
1. Cooper Webb – 56.076 2. Jessy Nelson – 56.859 3. Malcolm Stewart – 56.869 4. Justin Hill – 56.979 5. Aaron Plessinger – 57.004 6. Tyler Bowers – 57.006 7. Chris Alldrege – 57.463 8. Zach Osborne – 57.487 9. Shane McEllrath – 57.496 10. Zach Bell – 57.531 |
Chart description and directions on how to use them:
Each graph charts the lap times of the top five finishers in each main event and the top three 250SX finishers versus the top three 450SX finishers in graph number three. You can run your cursor over the lines to see which rider the line signifies and that rider’s time for each lap. Click on a rider’s name on the right to remove them from the chart so you can run riders’ times against each other heads up. Also, riders are colored to match their bike brand.
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