2020 AMA Supercross
Round Four – Glendale

By Trevor Hedge – Images by Hoppenworld

SX2

SX2 Main 1

After one of the most memorable 250 Mains in recent memory the previous week at Anaheim it was going to be interesting what unfolded in Arizona. When the opening moto of this week’s triple crown format got underway Christian Craig got a great start only to be then bumped wide by Austin Forkner in turn one, the Kawasaki man then took the lead from Alex Martin late on the opening lap.

Championship leader Justin Cooper dropped the bike on lap one and suffered some damage to his levers that put him at the back of the field.

Both Michael Mosiman and Dylan Ferrandis steadily worked their way past Alex Martin.  Christian Craig had to scythe his way through the field after that early love tap from Forkner had sent him off the circuit at the beginning of the race, but it only took him a few laps to move up to fifth, and then fourth after relegating Alex Martin down another position.

Ferrandis got the better of Mosiman later in the race to move up to second place but Forkner had a commanding five-second lead with two-minutes remaining in the moto.

Christian Craig chased Mosiman hard in the closing stages of the race and put a pass on the Husqvarna rider as they started the final lap, stealing third place which he then carried all the way to the flag.  Forkner the race winner over Ferrandis.

Aaron Tanti was the highest finishing Aussie in ninth place while countrymen Luke Clout and Jay Wilson were 13th and 14th respectively.

SX2 Main 2

Justin Cooper scored the holeshot over Derek Drake, Michael Mosiman and Austin Forkner in the second moto and just as it was looking like Cooper was on course to make amends for his mistakes in the opening bout, he lost the front and went down!

Drake inherited the lead while Forkner moved up to second place. The luckless Christian Craig was on the deck and out of the race.

Forkner took the lead from Drake with four-minutes remaining while Dylan Ferrandis then moved past Michael Mosiman to take third place.

Once in the lead Forkner pulled away from Drake with apparent ease and the KTM rider then had his hands full with Ferrandis as that second place was now under threat.  It didn’t take Ferrandis long before he blew past Drake and left him behind.

Forkner the clear winner with a 3.5-second advantage over Ferrandis at the flag while Drake kept Mosiman at bay in order to clinch the final step on the rostrum.

Luke Clout looked set for a top ten finish but a fall on the final lap cost him that chance, he remounted to salvage 12th.  Jay Wilson the top finishing Aussie in tenth while Aaron Tanti carded a 17th place finish.

SX2 Main 3

Justin Cooper scored the holeshot ahead of Martin Castelo, Brandon Hartranft, Austin Forkner and Dylan Ferrandis in the third and final moto.

Both Aaron Tanti and Jay Wilson made mistakes on the opening lap that relegated them to the back of the field but countryman Luke Clout had started strongly and was running in eighth position as they started lap two.

Ferrandis moved up to second place as the race approached the halfway stage, Forkner then pushed Hartranft further back to fourth. Up front Cooper now had a four-second lead.

Luke Clout got up as high as sixth but was overhauled by Mosiman and Oldenburg in the closing laps to eventually finish eighth ahead of Alex Martin.

Justin Cooper the race winner from Dylan Ferrandis while Austin Forkner was a distant third.

That third place though was enough for Forkner to claim the round win over Ferrandis with Mosiman rounding out the overall podium.

250 Results/Standings

SX1

450 Main 1

James Stewart was the first rider into turn one as the opening 450 Main got underway but Zach Osborne emerged out the other side as the early race leader. Eli Tomac then moved up to second place and Ken Roczen into third. 

Roczen then pushed his way past Tomac and was all over Osborne.

Osborne then went down, his pursuers only narrowly avoiding running him over.

Up front it was now game on with a Roczen versus Tomac battle. Adam Cianciarulo had kept his nose clean over the opening couple of laps and started closing in on Tomac but Eli responded and pulled away from Cianciarulo as the race progressed, staying close enough behind Roczen to maintain pressure on the German.

By half-race distance Tomac was all over Roczen and started to put his Kawasaki alongside the Honda.

In the final laps though Roczen proved to have Tomac’s measure and pulled clear to take victory by two-seconds.

Adam Cianciarulo rounded out the podium ahead of Malcolm Stewart and Jason Anderson.  Chad Reed finished 18th.

450 Main 2

Cooper Webb had the inside line to turn one in the second bout but Adam Cianciarulo came in hard and skittled him out of the way, a punted Webb then took out Justin Bogle who then barged into Zach Osborne as the last link in that chain reaction that had been started by Cianciarulo.

Eli Tomac had emerged with the lead from Cianciarulo out of turn one but Roczen then wasted no time moving up to second place.  Justin Bogle was down hurt which caused officials to stop the race so medical attention could be provided before the field came around to start lap two, a stricken Bogle still in the middle of the track.

From the re-start it was Ken Roczen with the early advantage over Webb, Plessinger, Cianciarulo and Tomac.

By the end of the second lap Roczen had a two-second advantage over Webb as Kawasaki team-mates Tomac and Cianciarulo pushed Plessinger back to fifth place, ahead of Jason Anderson and Blake Baggett. 

Cianciarulo and Tomac then worked their way past Webb to make it a Kawasaki 2-3 but by half-race distance Ken Roczen had a five-second lead.  Cianciarulo then went down and had slipped to eighth by the time he was back up and running.

Jason Anderson got the better of Webb through the whoops to take third place before then coming under pressure from fellow KTM rider Blake Baggett.

Roczen the victor by seven-seconds over Tomac while Anderson rounded out the podium. Baggett got the better of Webb for fourth. Cianciarulo recovered to salvage a sixth place finish ahead of Brayton and Barcia.  Chad Reed came home in 19th position.

450 Main 3

Martin Davalos took the early lead after what was a messy start for most of the front runners in the final 450 Moto.

Jason Anderson made short work of Davalos early on lap two, Cooper Webb was in third ahead of Blake Baggett.  Ken Roczen, Eli Tomac and Adam Cianciarulo had been tripped up at turn one on the opening lap but were running in seventh and eighth while Chad Reed had been left on the deck in the melee.  The red flag then came out after Chris Blose went down hard in the whoops, riders were sent back to the gates for a full re-start.

Ken Roczen scored the holeshot off the re-start ahead of Cooper Webb and Jason Anderson. Eli Tomac almost jumped onto the back of Zach Osborne’s Husqvarna on the opening lap and dropped the Kawasaki, rejoining the action down in 13th position.

It only Tomac a few minutes to work his way back up to sixth place and his next target was now Kawasaki team-mate Adam Cianciarulo.

Ken Roczen had a five-second lead by half-race distance ahead of Jason Anderson, who had moved past Cooper Webb and up into second position.

Both Kawasaki riders worked their way past Davalos, Cianciarulo then caught Webb and started challenging the #1 KTM for third. Cianciarulo took that third place with two-minutes left on the race clock. 60-seconds later though Cianciarulo went down real hard over the bars in the whoops, and from then could only watch from the sidelines as riders filed by.  Cooper Webb had got caught up a little on Cianciarulo’s bike which allowed Tomac to slip past and steal third place from the defending champion.

Ken Roczen the clear victor, untroubled all the way and cruised home on the final lap to a six-second victory over Anderson with Tomac rounding out the race podium.

Roczen thus goes 1-1-1 for the overall victory ahead of Tomac and Anderson and the German extending his championship lead to eight points over Tomac.

450 Results/Standings