Main Event Lap Time Graphs: 2016 Anaheim 1 SX

Cooper Webb was the fastest rider on opening night. Photo by: Hoppenworld

The 2016 Anaheim 1 Supercross and round one of the 2016 Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM World Championship series, kicked off at Anaheim, California’s Angel Stadium. The sold out crowd and the anticipation of a new season brought to life the perfect environment for Monster Energy Supercross. With a packed stadium watching, Rockstar/Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson notched his first-ever 450SX main event win and the defending Western Regional 250SX Champion, Yamalube/Star Racing/Yamaha’s Cooper Webb started his title defense off with a perfect night. Both will start their 2016 Supercross Championship campaigns with a perfect 25 points on the board.

In the battle for fastest lap 450SX lap time at the Anaheim 1 SX, that honor went to the man that finished fourth in the 450SX Main Event, Monster Energy/Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac (1:01.954). While Eli was faster than anyone on a 450, he was not able to put his new Kawasaki on the podium. The second fastest lap time (1:02.104) was turned in by the main that reached the checkered flag first on Saturday night, Jason Anderson. Anderson started just inside the top ten and used the fastest average lap time of the main event (1:03.177) to pass his way to the lead on lap fourteen.

The third (1:02.169) and fourth (1:02.333) fastest times of the night were clocked by HRC Racings Cole Seely and Red Bull/KTM’s Ryan Dungey. Seely used his sprint speed to check out early, but he had the lead taken away by Anderson on lap fourteen and second place stolen from him by Dungey on the final lap. Even with a crash, Dungey’s average lap time (1:03.542) was the second fastest of the night. It’s that machine-like consistency that allows the #1 to make the occasional mistakes and still land on the box week in and week out.

Full 2016 Anaheim 1 SX results here>>>

As for who was the overall fastest lap times on the night, the top two times were recorded in the 250SX main event. Cooper Webb (1:01.392) and Troy Lee Designs/KTM’s Jessy Nelson (1:01.397) had the two fastest lap of any sized bike on Saturday night. To be fair to the 450 riders the track had deteriorated quite a bit by the time their second—the first gate drop was red flagged—start went off. While Webb and Nelson’s fastest lap times were close, it was Webb’s average lap time (1:03.416) that brought him his first main event win of 2016. Webb’s average lap time was seven-tenths of a second faster than Nelson’s (1:04.108) which allowed him to chop away at Nelson’s early race lead.

The third (1:02.256) and fourth (1:03.210) fastest 250SX laps belonged to GEICO/Honda’s Jimmy Decotis and Rockstar/Energy’s Zach Osborne. There were not a lot of surprises at Anaheim 1, but Decotis was definitely a surprise for me. Jimmy rounded the first turn around tenth, checked in after lap one in eighth and was the fourth rider to take the checkered flag. The fourth place finish was a career-best for the New England “Rippa”, but if fourth is what he gets with a bad start, expect some podiums in his immediate future.

You can check out the top ten 250 and 450 times from the 2016 Anaheim 1 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 3 250SX riders matched up against the top 3 450SX finishers lap-for-lap.

Updated 2016 250SX West and 450SX Championship Points>>>

Each graph charts the lap times of the top five finishers in each main event. 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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