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JASON ANDERSON
450 SX / 3RD
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> Coming into the 2018 season, many fans and people within the industry believed this AMA Monster Energy Supercross series would be a title fight between Eli Tomac, Marvin Musquin and Ken Roczen. Not many people had Jason Anderson on that list but after two rounds the New Mexico rider had the points lead because of his second-place finish at the opener and his victory one week ago at Houston. After being on the outside looking in for about two years now, Anderson appears to have finally put all the pieces together to become a serious title contender. Especially with Tomac and Musquin having their issues already this season, one could say that this has become Anderson’s championship to lose. Anderson confirmed all of those thoughts when he went out and threw down the fastest lap time in qualifying practice. He looked very
fast and loose and was ready to translate that into the three main events at this year’s first Triple Crown race. Main event number one started awful for the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna rider. He got the worst of starts and did not come around lap one until twelve other riders went before him. Thirteenth was not where he wanted to be, so he immediately went to work on
the riders around him. He made passes on Musquin, Roczen, and Webb in successive laps midway through the race in impressive fashion putting him in eighth place. He put the hammer down to try and pick up at least one more spot before the end of the race and he’d do just that by passing Justin Barcia in the final laps of the race. Seventh place is certainly not where he should or want to be, so he was ready to redeem himself in the second main event. The second main event started nearly as poor as the first one. This time Anderson came out of lap one in tenth place. However, it only took him two laps to leapfrog around four riders to assume control of sixth place. He’d remain there chasing after Weston Peick in fifth until the halfway point. He finally found an opening after trailing Peick for several laps and took over fifth place. Anderson made his next pass much quicker, getting around Justin Brayton for fourth the following lap. Now he was left to chase down Josh Grant in third he had a decent gap built up. The gap would prove to be not big enough as Anderson chased him down and passed him for third after a healthy battle. There were only a few laps left by the time he reached third, so Anderson would end up finishing right there. He’d look to keep improving his finishes in the third and final race of the evening. This time Anderson finally nailed a great start. He began in second right behind Eli Tomac and started pressuring the Kawasaki rider. Anderson knew he was faster, so he took his time and eventually made the pass on lap six. From there it was smooth sailing on his way to the victory. Unfortunately for Anderson, his 7-3-1 would not be good enough for the overall win on the night but it would earn him third place. He also would extend his points lead to eleven and hold onto that red number plate for another week.
14 GRITMOTO • JANUARY 21, 2018