Courtesy of RacerX
February 4, 2018 1:30am
by Aaron Hansel
Smooth and Rough. Fire and Ice. Outstanding and abysmal. You can use just about any combination of opposites you like, and chances are, you can find a way to metaphorically apply them to the racing that went down in the O.co Coliseum tonight. It truly was a night of opposites, with a few riders leaving Oakland in triumph, while others were left dealing with wounds, some figurative and some literal, that are all but guaranteed to leave lasting scars on their 2018 supercross campaign.
Jason Anderson was one of the lucky riders whose main event could not have gone any better. The Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing rider turned what could have been a very nasty night into a victory, extending his points lead to fifteen over Ken Roczen. The win didn’t come easily either—Anderson overcame a big crash in practice, started outside the top five and had to work his way forward, catching Roczen in the final stages of the race to stage one of the best battles we’ve seen in a long time. How good was it? Well, when was the last time the final lap started when first and second place sailed over the finish line jump right next to each other?
“At the beginning of the day, during practice, I endo’d so hard,” Anderson said afterward. “I got away from the bike pretty good, I belly flopped down the backside, but my bike hit me in the back. All day my back was sore and honestly, it kind of scared me. One of the worst things that can happen to you on the track happened to me in the first couple laps. I was very hesitant all day after that. In the heat race I wasn’t that good, I was literally like a fifth place guy, and I really had to bring it around. That battle at the end, it was crazy. We were both making mistakes, the track was so hard to just hit your marks. The lappers played a factor too because you were used to one line the whole time, and whenever you got behind them you had to switch it up and you didn’t know how deep the holes are. It was insane, but it felt great. The track was so out of control, you could have made a pass anywhere. I tripled on behind him [Ken Roczen] and got next to him in the whoops, but there was only one good line in the whoops and I went a little bit right and almost went down the last lap there. I went into the corner and I knew whoever hit that next section the best was going to win. You couldn’t really plan your passes tonight, it was crazy.”
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RacerX 2018 Oakland SX Saturday Night Live