In the opening moto of the Minneapolis SX “Triple Crown”, Rockstar / Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson finished second to Eli Tomac, and Jason looked in a hurry to make up for it with a win in moto two. With Eli back in fifth, Jason made an impatient aggressive move on Justin Brayton for the lead. The failed pass attempt caused contact and sent the #21 off track.
When looking at the video, it looked like Jason did everything right to find the first safe place to reenter the race, but after the race was over he was docked one position—from 5th to 6th—”for being on the throttle off of the track.” In other sports I think this would be referred to as a “make up call.” While there have been a few times where Jason has crossed the line and maybe deserved a penalty, this was not one of them.
Watch video of the incident.
What makes this penalty hurt even more is, he would have would have won the overall if he had that one position back. Jason won the final moto to give himself a 2,6,1 moto score for 9 points to Tomac’s 1,4,3 moto scores for 8 points. I know the Rockstar Energy / Husqvarna team will probably appeal this one and if I was the deciding vote he would likely get that position back.
