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SX BLOG<br />
HONING THE TRIPLE...<br />
Round four of the Monster Energy Supercross series took place in<br />
Glendale, Arizona and for the first time this season we saw the<br />
Triple Crown format crop up. We’re three years into using this format<br />
at three races a year and although I’m a fan of it, I’m not sure<br />
everyone else is just yet. The jury is out on this first radical change in<br />
supercross since 1985.<br />
There are some good things,<br />
in that every race the fans<br />
watch actually counts towards<br />
something. The shorter<br />
races (250SX class does<br />
10 minutes plus a lap, the<br />
450SX is 12 minutes plus<br />
a lap) definitely have some<br />
intensity that the heat sprints<br />
lack and the change that<br />
was made to make all three<br />
Mains the same amount of<br />
time was a good one, the first<br />
year the racers just didn’t<br />
have enough laps to make<br />
any passes if they had a bad<br />
start.<br />
So, we saw some great action<br />
and some riders that<br />
generally shine at this type of<br />
format didn’t have the best<br />
of nights and some riders<br />
that didn’t have the greatest<br />
stats at previous Triple<br />
Crowns did. Honda’s Ken<br />
Roczen was dominant in all<br />
three “Mains” (we NEED a<br />
better name for these things,<br />
we already call the real<br />
mains “mains” and these are<br />
shorter and there are three<br />
of them. So they’re different.<br />
We need record keeping for<br />
these “mains” in our sport<br />
but they need a name you<br />
know what I mean?) which is<br />
a good sign for him going forward<br />
because he hasn’t been<br />
amazing at the more intense<br />
chases. Monster Kawasaki’s<br />
Eli Tomac was second and<br />
Rockstar Husqvarna’s Jason<br />
Anderson was third.<br />
Good starters like Roczen’s<br />
teammate Justin Brayton<br />
didn’t get those usual decent<br />
getaways and had to work<br />
like hell to get up into the<br />
mix and same with Malcolm<br />
Stewart on the BullFrog Spas<br />
Honda team - he didn’t shine<br />
as much as some would<br />
think.<br />
The triple crown format isn’t<br />
something that I’d want to<br />
see for all 17 rounds but as<br />
a change of pace, it’s been<br />
refreshing. As a former mechanic<br />
though I feel for the<br />
teams and staff…most of the<br />
factory teams have second<br />
back-up bikes they can use<br />
(a new rule put in last year)<br />
so they aren’t in danger of<br />
missing a race, but smaller<br />
teams can’t do that. The gaps<br />
between races is long enough<br />
now to give the teams<br />
enough time to do what they<br />
need to do in-between so<br />
everything is jusssst about<br />
figured out right.
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