2016 San Diego 1 SX – Qualifying Report

Ryan Dungey will fight to get the red plate back later tonight. Photo by: Devin Davis

Round number two of the 2016 Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM World Championship series, headed to the southern tip of California for the first of two stops at San Diego’s Petco Park Stadium today. San Diego has been hosting SX races since October 25, 1980 when Mike Bell grabbed the win on his Yamaha, but 2016 marks only the second year in the beautiful new Petco Park in the heart of downtown San Diego. Chad Reed is considered the king of San Diego SX with six total wins, but those all were earned at Qualcomm Stadium across town, so he will be looking for his first win inside this beautiful facility.

Last weekend the riders all made their 2016 debut at the Anaheim 1 SX, and they will all try to put to use what they learned at the opener. Over the years, the first few rounds of the Supercross series have been a discovery mission for the riders and teams, and so far, what they’ve found out is that Rockstar/Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson has come into 2016 ready to stamp his name as a 450SX Championship contender. The #21 has the red, Championship-leading background on his 450, while Star Racing/Yamaha’s Cooper Webb carries the red plate in the 250SX Western Regional Championship from his win at opening night in Anaheim.

In the first 450SX qualifying sessions of the day, it was the Crafty Frenchman Christophe Pourcel laying down the fastest lap (49.296) on his Rockstar/Husqvarna. Last week, the former two-time 250SX Regional Champion waited until session two to pull the trigger, but today he wasted no time. Behind Pourcel in the opening 450SX sessions was Monster/Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac (49.360) in second, the red plate holder, Anderson in third (49.527), Red Bull/KTM’s Ryan Dungey in fourth (49.706) and HRC Racing’s Trey Canard in fifth (49.895). With two Husky’s in the top three, it’s easy to conclude the Rockstar Energy Racing squad has their 450’s dialed in today.

If we were looking for some surprises to report in the opening session, it would be RCH Racing/Suzuki’s Ken Roczen (10th), Monster/Yamaha’s Chad Reed (11th), Yoshimura/Suzuki’s James Stewart (14th) and JGRMX/Yamaha’s Justin Barcia (16th). Under the circumstances, it’s not too much of a surprise to see JS7—returning from a concussion a week ago—clocking the fourteenth fastest lap, but for the other three, it’s surprising anytime you don’t see one of their numbers on the leaderboard.

*Editors note: James Stewart is a scratch for tonight’s San Diego SX

In the last 450SX session of the day, the defending 450SX Champion laid claim to the poll position gate choice in the night show with a 48.664. Ryan had been struggling to find the speed of the top 450 riders, but late in the session, he went nearly a full second faster than his previous fast lap.

Grabbing the next four spots on the qualifying leaderboard was Tomac (48.768), Roczen (48.769), Pourcel (48.789) and Anderson (48.979). All five were the only rider to run a sub-fourty-second lap time and all were within three-tenths of one another. This is setting up to be an awesome main event, but if CP377 does not get the start, we’re not sure he’s willing to take the chances needed to get to the front.

Of the surprises in session one, only Roczen was able to move up from his earlier disappointing session one. Once again Reed (11th) and Barcia (15th) were outside the top ten, while Stewart did not even ride the final session of the day. All these boys were on most everyone’s preseason favorites list, but they’re going to have to find some speed when the lights go out.

In the first 250SX Western Regional qualifying sessions today it was GEICO/Honda’s Christian Craig (49.883) uncorking the fastest lap over Webb (50.004) in second. At Anaheim 1, Craig looked fast and even qualified fifth, but he did not appear to have the raw speed to challenge the #1. The #38 had not raced a SX in a couple of years, so last weekend may have been more about shaking the cobwebs out than it was about challenging for wins. This weekend, though, Jessy Nelson is injured and Craig may be looking to fill in as the guy to challenge the champ.

Behind the top two in the first 250SX sessions was one of the biggest surprises, speed wise, of the new year. Troy Lee Designs/KTM’s Mitchell Oldenburg was fourth overall fastest qualifier at A1, and he continued to impress with the third fastest lap (50.108) in the opening session in San Diego. Rounding out the top five in the opening sessions were Rockstar/Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne (50.215) and Monster/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Joey Savatgy (50.331).

In the final 250SX session of the day, there was very little change in the top five and absolutely no changes in the top three. Just like in session one, it was Webb (49.306), Craig (49.370) and Oldenburg (49.548) recording the top three fastest laps of the day. Oldenburg continued to surprise and even occupied the top position until late into the final qualifying session. It was Craig pushing Oldenburg to second just a split second before the #1 took the #1 spot overall. Last week, Oldenburg was only able to use his newfound speed for a ninth in the main, so we’ll look for more out of him tonight.