Glendale Supercross Brainstorm
By Billy Rainford (B-Rain…Brain…Brainstorm)
Glendale was round 5 of the 2022 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series. State Farm Stadium was our first stop in an actual football stadium. It just feels and sounds different than the baseball parks we’ve been in up to this point. Even riders I spoke to said the same thing. It’s different to look around and it just has a much bigger feel to the whole thing. I like it.
Another cool thing about the race in Arizona is that you’re really not likely to get a mud race. Even the parking lot they put us in was carpeted with short, tight grass (or “ground cover,” as they likely call it here). It felt really forgiving to walk on and gave your legs and feet a nice break on the way to and from the vehicles.
Having said that, watching Chris “Brown Dog Wilson” Ganz ride either an electric bike or a scooter back and forth to the track makes me think something along those lines would be nice for me to have. All of us ex-racers have knee or leg problems we’re dealing with…
#11 Kyle Chisholm said he was actually able to ride a bit the week leading into Glendale, so that was good. He’s a lock for the win in the 450 LCQ every week, and he did it again at Round 5.
He took 17th overall (15-15-20).
#118 Cheyenne Harmon was riding with a couple broken toes in Glendale.
I told him that broken toes are a weird injury – they don’t sound like a big deal on someone else, but when it’s actually you with them it’s a much different story.
He wasn’t able to make it into the 3-race night show.
I kept trying this wide-angle shot but was never really happy with the result, so now they’ll just clog my external hard drive until the end of time.
We had two Canadians in the KTM KJSX event in Glendale. #6 was Matteo Giusti and #12 was Chandler Powell.
Matteo: 9th
Chandler: 7th
I can’t even imagine what being in a massive stadium like that would feel like to a kid that age. I did it when I was 19 in the Pontiac Silverdome and was freaked out enough at that age!
We’ll have another Canuck on the track this week at A3 when Evan Wiltsey from Lantzville, BC heads to LA.
It was nice to see Cole Martinez in the pits. He’s moved over to racing the WORCS off-road series these days.
| Series Points Report | 1/21/2022 | |||
| Place | Nbr | Name | Finish | Total Points |
| 1 | #1 | DANTE OLIVEIRA HOLLISTER, CA |
1 | 25 |
| 2 | #34 | COLE MARTINEZ RIMROCK, AZ |
2 | 22 |
| 3 | #75 | TREVOR STEWART RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA |
3 | 20 |
| 4 | #24 | TYLER LYNN MONA, UT |
4 | 18 |
| 5 | #50 | AUSTIN WALTON SPARKS, NV |
5 | 16 |
| 6 | #27 | JUSTIN HOEFT CASTAIC, CA |
6 | 15 |
| 7 | #22 | TRAVIS DAMON- MC LAKE HAVASU CITY, AZ |
7 | 14 |
| 8 | #200 | DARE DEMARTILE LINCOLN, CA |
8 | 13 |
| 9 | #39 | COLE ZELLER MURRIETA, CA |
9 | 12 |
| 10 | #26 | MATT MAPLE ESCONDIDO, CA |
10 | 11 |
For some weird reason, I’ve always enjoyed watching people write. Here’s what I noticed in this shot: For some reason, I assumed Mitchell Oldenburg would be a lefty and Vince Friese has a very loose grip on the pen when he signs.
If you were wondering what happened to #55 Justin Rodbell in that first qualifying session, he had some sort of freak front brake issue. The Partzilla PRMX guys sorted it out before he went out for second qualifying and he placed 22nd and missed the night show this week. Watch for a full bounce back round at A3.
This was a good hang session in Cole Thompson’s pits before the racing started.
In “Groundbreaking News,” #23 Ryder Difrancesco is the real deal. His 1:05.635 best qualifying lap would have put him 16th in the 250 Pro class.
#29 Michael Mosiman had a rough night. He went from dead last in the first race to 10th. His 2nd race was as it should be in 2nd, but then the 3rd one got away from him late when he was running 4th and finished 15th for 9th overall.
He sits 3rd in points but he’s losing touch with the top 2.
#96 Hunter Lawrence took the 250 overall (2-1-2) and finished things off with a classic “shoey” after the podium presentation. He’s now 8 points behind Christian Craig.
Vince Friese keeps making things difficult for Christian Craig to win. You have to love #62’s enthusiasm and unwillingness to simply roll over, but I think we’ve found the line.
It would be fairly easy to pile onto #94 Ken Roczen right now. Something is up with him and his results show that. I wanted to see what a difference it would make if he got a good start and then he did.
He was up front in the first race but seemed to get pushed around a little out there. I watched as Anderson and then Stewart went around him and was left scratching my head.
I’m not sure what piece of the puzzle is missing but it’s is out there somewhere.
#21 Jason Anderson gave #27 Malcolm Stewart a lot of room on the inside on this pass. He seems to be one of only 2 riders who can ride with #3 Eli Tomac this season.
The other rider who’s shown he has the speed to match Eli in a Main is #23 Chase Sexton. Many pundits have been picking Chase for wins lately, but his first race in Glendale showed he’s got a little bit of maturing to do before I make my move from automatically choosing Eli to choosing Chase for wins, but make no mistake, that day is coming.
These shorter Triple Crown rounds favour the good starters. Lately, you wouldn’t put Eli in that group, but he proved us all wrong on Saturday. If and when he gets his starts dialled (maybe that time is now), who is going to be able to stop him from getting his 2nd SX title this season?
If Eli wins at A3, this title is his. Boom, I said it.
Those were just a few thoughts I had from notes I jotted down in my infamous notepad in Arizona. See you all in Anaheim this weekend.
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