2016 Atlanta Supercross Qualifying Report

Ryan Dungey has the red plate and a twenty-three point lead. Photo by: Andrea Barnett

The 2016 Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, heads to Atlanta, Georgia for round number eight and the Atlanta Supercross. Tonight’s race inside Atlanta’s Georgia Dome will mark the thirty-ninth running of the Atlanta SX, and Ricky Carmichael and Jeremy McGrath lead all riders with five wins apiece in Atlanta. The winningest active riders in Atlanta are Yoshimura/Suzuki’s James Stewart and Red Bull/KTM’s Ryan Dungey, and we expect to see both the #7 and the #5 on the line tonight inside the Georgia Dome.

The Atlanta Supercross is round number eight of the 2016 Monster Energy Supercross series, but just round number one for the 2016 Eastern Regional 250SX Championship. On the line for the 250SX East are six main event winners—GEICO/Honda’s Malcolm Stewart, Monster/PC/Kawasaki’s Tyler Bowers, Star Racing/Yamaha’s Jeremy Martin, TLD/KTM’s Justin Hill, Rockstar/Husqvarna’s Martin Davalos and The Viewing/Fasthouse’s Darryn Durham—and a large cast of riders with the ability to score their first in ’16. A few riders that come to mind as possible first time winners in ’16 are Star Racing/Yamaha’s Aaron Plessinger, TLD/KTM’s Shane McElrath, Monster/PC/Kawasaki’s Arnaud Tonus and GEICO/Honda’s RJ Hampshire. With all of the above possibly battling for wins and the Championship in 2016, this is looking to be an awesome series in the East.

In the first 250SX East qualifying sessions of 2016, Malcolm Stewart spent the majority of the session on top of the board and finished session one with the fastest lap 47.466. For a while, that lap was a half second faster than anyone on track, but Jeremy Martin threw down a 47.534 at the end of the session. Both Stewart and Martin are on the list for Championship favorites in 2016, but both still have to prove they can keep it together for a whole series. For Mookie, it’s about keeping it on two wheels, and for Martin, it’s about making all the main events. Martin has missed three main events over the first two years of his Supercross career.

The third (48.036), fourth and fifth fastest laps in the opening 250SX session were clocked by Tonus (48.036), Plessinger (48.176) and Bowers (48.476). Tonus showed speed last year in Supercross but was not able to put together fifteen laps, and he ended his season early with Epstein Barr virus. We’re hoping to see the Motocross World Championship transplant build some confidence in ’16. Plessinger comes into his sophomore year following his Rookie of the Year performance in 2015 and has been mentioned by quite a few people as someone to watch in 2016. As for Bowers, he has a lot of question marks heading into Atlanta, but speed is not one of them. Bowers was in the fight for the West Championship in ’15, but a back injury has us questioning his health and fitness heading into tonight.

After impressing with the fastest lap in session one, Stewart went over a second and a half faster (45.865) in the final session to lock down the first gate pick in Atlanta. Mookie was the only 250SX rider under the 46-second mark, nearly a half a second faster than second place (46.240) Jeremy Martin—who had his fastest lap after time expired. After qualifying, we have to conclude that both Stewart and Martin are in Atlanta not just to win but to establish themselves as the riders to beat in the East.

Justin Hill was the sixth fastest rider in the opening session, and the #36 moved up to third by the end of session two with a 46.388. Justin is a past winner, and after a rough year on the KTM in 2015, he will be looking to get to the back on top of the podium for the first time since 2014. Another rider that had a great 2014 and a rough 2015 was Martin Davalos. In 2014, Davalos had two wins and battled for the Eastern Regional 250SX Championship, but the podium became a distant memory in 2015. The 2016 Atlanta SX marks the start of Davalos’ tenth year in the 250SX class, and it’s time for the Ecuadorian to score that ever-elusive Championship. Martin finished qualifying today with the fourth fastest lap and will have a good gate pick to start the Championship off.

The fifth (46.912) and sixth (47.205) fastest overall 250SX times belonged to Aaron Plessinger and Arnaud Tonus. Both were near the top in both qualifying sessions and both will be looking for their first-ever main event wins tonight. For Arnaud, it’s all about getting comfortable in Monster Energy Supercross after spending his entire career in the MX2 World Champi[onships over in Europe. If Arnaud can stay healthy and gain some momentum, he could surprise a lot of people.

In the first 450SX session today, Ryan Dungey continued to blow minds with his newfound raw speed. Ryan was the fastest with a 45.720 and was joined by only two other 450’s in the 45-second range—Monster/Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac (45.843) and HRC/Honda’s Trey Canard (45.930). Both Trey and Eli ran their 45-second laps early on in the session while Dungey took his time finding the speed. The track is steadily improving, so we expect to see the overall fastest laps to come out of the final sessions.

The fourth (46.104) and fifth (46.354) fastest 450’s in the opening session was RCH/Soaring Eagle/Suzuki’s Ken Roczen and Rockstar/Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson. Kenny is coming into Atlanta with a large wave of momentum after winning two of the last three main events. Historically, the #94 has clocked his overall fastest laps in the final session, so we expect him to move up the board. Anderson has consistently had top five speed in ’16, but he needs to take some time out to practice starts on the Atlanta soil. The #21 has consistently rounded the first turn around midpack and has had to fight for every position in ’16.

A big surprise in the opening 450 session was Monster/Kawasaki’s Wil Hahn. The #54 has been struggling for much of 2016, but in the opening session, he clocked the sixth fastest lap (46.639). It’s only practice, but when you’ve been to five LCQs, you need to find confidence wherever you can get it. We are big fans of Wilbur’s, and we’re hoping he can convert that speed into a solid finish tonight.

Over the first six rounds, all we heard from Christophe Pourcel was wait until round seven or eight for good results. All year, the #377 would qualify in the top five and finish the main events outside the top ten. Well, last weekend was round seven, and it ended up being the #377’s first top ten finish of the season. This afternoon, he started off round eight with the fastest overall qualifying time (45.294). All year CP377 has just rolled around for most of qualifying only to uncork one fast lap that put him inside the top five on most days. Today, though, the Frenchman put together multiple fast laps which leads us to believe he’s here to back up his round seven or eight claims.

On the final lap of session two, Ryan Dungey did all he could to knock Pourcel off the top spot, but the best he could do was second with a 45.416. Dungey was one of just a few riders that was able to put together multiple 45-second laps, and that is why the #1 is the defending Champion with a twenty-three point lead over Ken Roczen in the Championship.

Finishing with the third (45.492) overall fastest laps at the end of the day was Roczen. Roczen will have the third overall gate pick and a head full of momentum heading into the night show tonight. Unfortunately for the #94, it’s hard to make up any significant points on Dungey. When Dungey hasn’t won, he has been second, and even though Roczen has won two of the last three main events, he has only made up one point on the defending Champ in those three rounds.

Tonight could be different, though. From Pourcel in first with a 45.294 to Tomac in eighth with a 45.843, there’s only about a half second of separation. With a good start by Roczen and a bad start by Dungey, we could possibly see a decent points swing tonight. Will that happen? We doubt it, but it would definitely reignite what could quickly turn into a snoozer if Dungey pads his lead any more.