Looking back over the years there have been a few races that stick in my mind that have left me shaking my head. Last weekend’s supercross round in Salt Lake City fits right in that category. It was one of the strangest races I have witnessed in a long time. Going into that round, Anderson had a 38 point lead and all he had to do was qualify for the night show and finish top 5 and the championship was his. I am pretty sure the team’s strategy was exactly the same plan I just mentioned. Team Manager Bobby Hewitt has been around long enough to know what his rider needed to do for the night. The weekend started off a little different for Jason because he suffers from altitude sickness. This means Jason has to adjust to the altitude in Salt Lake City if he plans on racing. Just a few years ago Jason attended the Colorado outdoor national at Thunder Valley and he didn’t realize he had issues with racing at 6000 feet plus. During the first moto he started to get dizzy and had to pull off. After the event, Jason was told that he has a problem with altitude and it is very common. The plans for this past weekend were for Jason to fly in early that morning, race and get out of SLC before he became effected by the altitude. That program was all dialed in but what the team could not predict was the first corner incident that happened to Anderson in the final. As the gate dropped and the twenty-two 450s raced to the first corner, you could see that Anderson was getting squeezed out. Before you knew it Jason was lying on his back in the first corner, the bike was five feet away and Jason was in last place. It’s go time for the points leader! If you were watching the same race as I was, I thought to myself ‘Jason should be able to work his way up to at least tenth if all goes well.’ Just to add more drama to the race, on lap two, Jason pulled into the mechanic’s area pointing to his front wheel area. I am guessing his mechanic had no idea what the issue was. Is it the front brake? Is it a flat tire? Is the front fork screwed? I bet a million things were going through the mechanic’s head as he saw his rider freaking out while pulling into the pit area…oh and your rider is in last place too. Talk about drama. It took approximately two minutes for his team to change the complete front wheel and get him back out in the race. When Jason re-entered the race he was already two laps down and Marvin was out front. Talk about a stressful situation for Anderson and his team.
Way back in 2010, I brought sand specialist Kornel Nemeth from Hungary to race the Gopher Dunes national. I knew Kornel would be fast and could possibly win it for the team. The game plan was simple, get a good start in both motos and work your way to the front and cruise. That was the plan in the pit area prior to the race. Pretty easy. Well, Kornel got off the line okay but as he entered the first turn a few riders in front of him went down hard. Kornel slammed into them and cartwheeled over the bars. I couldn’t believe what I had just witnessed. My rider was lying in the sand, and his bike was on top of a pile in corner one. Kornel jumped up, fixed his levers, got on the gas and finished an impressive second place. You can bet that for moto two I told Kornel, “Let’s make sure you get around the first corner safe and sound. We know you have the speed to win.” Wouldn’t you believe it, Kornel went down again in the first corner and I was in complete shock. I said there is no way this could happen to a rider at this level. I guess what I’m getting at with my story is to stress that you can go into the race with a plan but with so many variables, it’s not that easy to control the actions of others.
I was impressed that Anderson was able to work his way up to seventeenth for the night after being down two whole laps. The track really dried out from the heavy winds that afternoon; I don’t think it really mattered how much water you put down, it was going to dry up real fast. Now the series goes to Las Vegas and it’s the last round of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross series. Anderson has a 14 point lead on Marvin, and I’m sure the Factory Husky team had a few meetings this week. I don’t think we will see any real drama this weekend, or will we? Will Marvin look to take out Jason? I really don’t think we will see that happen as both riders ride for the same company. Marvin doesn’t have a teammate to help block Anderson, so I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens in Vegas.