In a year that has seen nine top factory riders crash, get injured and miss at least one race and with three top contenders—Ken Roczen, Cole Seely and Justin Barcia—crashing out for the rest of the season, staying healthy has been more key than ever in the 450SX class. Rockstar Energy / Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson is the only preseason 450SX Championship favorite that has kept it together for all eleven rounds, and for that he has a massive 42 point lead in the Championship over Marvin Musquin in 2nd and a 60 point lead over his number one challenger, Eli Tomac. Both have missed one round apiece, with Eli also crashing out and scoring just one point in two other main events.
Don’t misunderstand me, though. I am in no way saying Jason was given the wins or the points lead he has; he was winning and had the red plate when everyone was healthy. We are just saying the size of the gap is due to the growth of the injury list. Jason’s points lead is mostly due to a newfound maturity level that has translated into a much more patient and consistent rider in ’18.
In eleven rounds, the #21 has amassed four wins and nine podiums with his three so-called bad nights equating to two fourths and a seventh place finish. I think Jason learned a lot over the last few years training with arguably the most consistent rider in history, Ryan Dungey, and he is putting those lessons to work in ’18. In spots where Jason might have tried to force something in the past, Jason is backing it down and scoring as many Championship points as he can.
In St. Louis last weekend, Jason knew he had nothing for Eli—even calling the #3 “savage” in an interview—and he happily took the 2nd place points. While Eli may have scored his fifth win of ’18 and closed three points on Jason, Eli is still 60 points back from the Husqvarna rider, who actually extended his lead in the points overall. Only Jason can take the title away from himself at this point, and with the cushion he has and the way he is riding, we cannot see that happening.
After Jason’s 2nd in St. Louey was officially in the record books, he answered some questions for the press.
Jason, congratulations. I know you’re managing a championship right now, but you also have personal goals and races you want to win. How hard is that management when you’re behind Eli in the early laps and you’re wanting to win, but you’re also having to kind of maintain something?
For sure, I really want to win some races before the season’s over. I don’t want it in my head to manage it at all. Tonight, I started out second right behind Eli [Tomac] and he had some of those sections—like that triple in the back and stuff like that—that he was nailing every lap. He was nailing that quad and turn and three over, and I honestly just didn’t have it in me. I felt like if I kept trying to do some of those lines that it could bite me. This is one of those times to where sometimes you have to swallow your pride a little bit. But at the same time, Eli was just savage, he was crushing us. Hopefully come back next weekend and battle for that win again.
It seemed like this track was one of the better tracks with a lot of options through the rhythm sections. Does that make a night of racing better for you? Do you like that when it has so many options? Does it keep you more motivated?
The track tonight, it was tacky. It’s the best dirt on the circuit, but the way it was built this weekend, I feel like the sizing was off a little bit. A lot of the jumps were either big, or even the quad or whatever. I went to go table-single in the first lap of the main event and I cased the crap out of the table-single part. It was just odd. The track was awesome, but it broke down. It was probably one of the most broke down tracks we’ve ridden all year.
This is your eleventh-straight week of racing. I know a lot of guys get to this point of the year where they’re still a little bit away from a break and they’re ready for some time off to regroup and recover, but you’re kind of in the swing of things right now. How do you feel as we start winding the season down?
Racing eleven weekends in a row is pretty gnarly. I think that’s the hardest part about the 450 class. I think that’s why like us three we’re on the podium quite a bit, and I think that’s the hardest thing to do is be solid every weekend. For me, I’m just trying to keep it light. I still want to be the same guy every weekend, and that’s a tough thing to do. It’s my fourth year in the 450 class and it hasn’t come easy. I’ve been at this point in the year sometimes where I just do not want to ride my dirt bike. But at the same time, I feel like we live and we learn and we just keep our heads down more and more from year to year and just try and get better and try and achieve our goals.
You came into this year on a brand-new bike. I know that there was a lot of development in that thing from the midway part of last year to now. Are you still learning a lot about that thing now, or is everything figured out and you just have a baseline setting you come into each week with?
I feel like I’m always trying to be better, but sometimes I feel like with the new bike and everything, you don’t know how it is from track to track. But at the same time, I feel like our bike—with the way it is—the new bike is pretty solid all around that you can’t really be too wrong on a lot of things. There’s a couple weekends—like Daytona last weekend—I don’t feel like I made the best decisions. I had a good base setting and I just went back to that this weekend. I felt a little bit better but still got smoked, so I need to keep working.
Photos by: Simon Cudby
