Morning Report: 2018 Oakland SX

Photos by: Mark Lester

The 2018 Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM World Championship series, heads to Northern California’s East Bay for round five and 2018 Oakland SX. Today’s race got off to an early start with track walk starting bright and early at 7:30am and the first Free Practice untimed sessions hitting the track at 9am. The racing today will start at a special 4pm PST/ 7pm EST.

On first impression the track looked like typical hard-packed California soil, but like always up in Oakland, the ruts began to appear as soon as the riders put in a few laps. The track is not as wet as it usually is in Oakland, but we will still see the normal hazards popping up. As far as big rhythm options, there’s not much to separate the riders, but there are four good bowl berms for passing.

In the first 250SX Free Practice sessions, GEICO / Honda’s Christian Craig was blazing fast. His fluid on the pegs style suits the ruts of Oakland well, and he went right to work—laying down the fastest 250SX lap time of 53.189. Christian wants his first win of ’18 badly, so tonight could be that night.

The usual suspects were all fast in the 250 class, but it was Monster Energy / Pro Circuit / Kawasaki’s Adam Cianciarulo, and GEICO / Honda’s Chase Sexton with the second and third fastest laps. The whoops are good sized this morning and AC looked like the fastest rider through them early on. Last year’s Oakland winner and the defending Champ, Autotrader / JGRMX / Suzuki’s Justin Hill, looks to be getting his mojo back. He was the fifth fastest in Free Practice.

In the 450SX Free Practice sessions, Monster Energy / Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac did not look comfortable early on and was only able to throw down the eleventh fastest lap time. Red Bull / KTM’s Marvin Musquin was surprisingly fast through the bigger whoops. The #25 was skimming through them like everyone else, staying on top of them and keeping the KTM pointed straight. He ended the session with the fastest lap time of 53.102.

We also like what we have seen from Team HRC / Honda’s Ken Roczen so far this morning. Oakland has not always been good to the #94, but he looked super comfy in the first practice session. Kenny had the second fastest lap and looked like “the man” through the whoop section.

In the first 250SX qualifying session, the track is seriously beginning to break down, and Cianciarulo and Craig were on their own level. They were the only two to break the 52-second barrier, while they were trading the number one spot the entire session. In the end, AC had the fastest lap with a 51.679, just ahead of Craig’s 51.840. Both were a full second ahead of Sexton in third. Both AC and Craig appear not to be bothered by how badly this Oakland circuit is breaking down.

Two riders returning from injuries today in Oakland are Troy Lee Designs / KTM’s Alex Martin and IBCorp / Yamaha’s Michael Leib. Both went right to work on getting back up to speed. So far, Martin is the ninth fastest qualifier with Leib solidly up in seventeenth—fastest overall in the B group.

With the track looking like a completely different animal from earlier, the 450SX riders hit the track for their first qualifying sessions of the day. Early in the session, Musquin went to the top of the board, but Team HRC / Honda’s Cole Seely wanted to see what being on the top of the leaderboard was like. In all my years, I have never seen Seely finish a qualifying session on top either on the 250 or 450, but that is exactly what happened today. Cole was the fastest overall in session one with a 52.808.

While Seely being fastest overall was surprising in the opening sessions, that was not even close to the biggest surprise. Some of the bigger surprises came from Monster Energy / Kawasaki’s Josh Grant and privateer Kawasaki rider Tyler Bowers. They laid down the second and fifth fastest lap times, while Championship contenders Rockstar Energy / Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson and Tomac were tenth and thirteenth fastest.

For the final qualifying sessions of the day, the ruts continued to get deeper, but it was the cupped out kickers in the whoops that were making life difficult. During the 250SX and 450SX B and C groups, we saw quite a few bikes cartwheeling through the last five whoops.

In the A group’s final session, Adam Cianciarulo cemented his spot as the #1 qualifier in Oakland. Adam was once again down in the 51’s and he dropped his fastest overall time down to 51.551. While only three riders—AC, Shane McElrath and Craig—finished in the 51’s, AC seemed to be able to click them off at will. If he can eliminate those little crashes tonight, I do not see anyone beating him.

Looking for surprises to report in the final 250 sessions, Aaron Plessinger qualifying in seventh is one. The #23 is usually better the more chopped up and rutted up the track gets, but today he is a full second off the leaders’ pace. The day is still young, so don’t be surprised to see the red plate up front later on in the main event.

In final 450 sessions of the day, we finally saw some riders pulling the trigger on some different lines. Before the whoops, there’s a triple onto a table, step-off the top riders were doing, and it looks a few tenths faster. There are also a couple different options through the rhythm sections they were taking long looks at. We will see what happens in the show.

At the end of the 450 qualifying sessions, Monster Energy / Knich / Yamaha’s Justin Barcia was on top of everyone. Before the final sessions, there were no 450 riders down under the 52-second mark, but in the final session Barcia, Musquin, Anderson and Seely all made it happen. Nobody on any sized bike was faster than AC on his 250, though.

Get all Oakland SX qualifying times here »