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JASON ANDERSON
450 MX / 4TH
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> Jason Anderson enters the 2018 outdoor motocross series fresh off his rst AMA Monster Energy Supercross 450SX Championship. It was his best professional season to date as he won several races and was ultra-con- sistent en route to that title. He certainly showed off his speed and endurance and had an all-around breakout success. However, with all the pressure coming down to the nal round of the series just two weeks ago, it would be tough for him to bounce back and get set for the outdoor series. The mental wear and tear of holding the points lead for nearly an entire season is tough to recover from entering a new series. Nonetheless, he strolled into Hangtown ready to compete like always to try and nd, surprisingly, his rst ever outdoor 450 overall victory.
Jason Anderson looked pretty good in the rst qualifying practice sessions of the season. He initially struggled
in the rst session, but he rebounded by throwing down the third fastest lap time of the second and nal session of the morning. He would end up qualifying with the fth fastest lap time overall and he was ready to do battle in northern California.
Anderson got off to a quick start in the rst moto of the season. He settled into second place behind the holeshot man, Christian Craig. He shadowed Craig the entire rst lap and nearly made the pass on a few occasions but couldn’t get it done quite yet. It would take him an extra lap before he would pass the Honda HRC rider for the lead. He led until lap four when the freight train of Eli Tomac and Marvin Musquin came thumping by. Both riders passed Anderson sending him back to third and into the sights of Justin Barcia. Anderson initially looked like he would be able to keep Barcia at bay but the pressure from Bam Bam continued to intensify. Anderson eventu- ally got passed by him and slid back to fourth. He just did not seem comfortable and he wasn’t riding loose and on the edge like his normal self. He dropped off the pace of the top three and settled into his own little bubble
in fourth. It stayed like that until late in the race when Ken Roczen started applying the pressure to him. This shook Anderson out of his funk and he actually pulled back away from Roczen and caught back up to Barcia. He hounded Barcia the last two laps but could not get close enough for a pass. He’d be stuck with the fourth-place nish. It was still a solid result and he’d go back and regroup for moto two.
Anderson started the second moto similarly to his rst moto. He rounded the rst lap in second and was all over early leader Justin Barcia. His pressure proved to work as he made the pass on lap three to assume the lead. This time around he looked more comfortable and he built a nice little cushion over the rest of the eld. He held
it for four laps until Marvin Musquin slotted into second place. Musquin quickly reeled him in and the pass on lap eight and then Tomac would pass Anderson on lap nine. Anderson just did not have the pace of those guys and it seemed to take the wind out of his sails. He started slipping further backwards in the last few laps. Barcia got him on lap ten, Baggett got him on lap thirteen, and then Benny Bloss got him on lap fourteen. He stopped the bleed- ing on the nal lap to hold on to nish sixth place. De nitely not how he wanted to end the day but his 4-6 would be good enough to notch him fourth overall on the day.
42 GRITMOTO • MAY 21, 2018