The fantasy carnage continues in the 2022 Monster Energy Supercross Championship Series, as Round 3 at San Diego had an entirely different podium than the previous round in Oakland. It’s tough sledding in the supercross fantasy leagues so far this year, no doubt about it. Not much in the way of trends are developing, as the equal distribution of speed among the top riders gives enormous importance to the least predictable part of the race—the start. Regardless, I’m going to bravely charge into the 2022 Anaheim 2 Supercross fantasy tips for the RMFantasySX.com league.Chase Sexton
Five riders have been in the top 5 after two rounds. That puts Justin Barcia, Chase Sexton, Malcolm Stewart, Eli Tomac, and Cooper Webb at the top of the list for Anaheim 2, with Barcia, Sexton, Webb being top 5 riders at A1. On the flipside, Tomac and Stewart are the only riders coming into A2 with two consecutive top 5 finishes. That leaves Jason Anderson, Dylan Ferrandis, Aaron Plessinger, and Ken Roczen (A1 winner) on the outside—yikes. Well, no one said this job is easy.
Eli Tomac
Chase Sexton and Eli Tomac come into Anaheim 2 with the most momentum. Sexton notched his first career 450SX win in San Diego, and he won by a comfortably large margin. With the first-win jitters in the past, Sexton is fully capable of scoring a back-to-back win at A2. Sexton looked great at A1 when he wasn’t making mistakes. Tomac is the only top 12 rider to improve at each round, going 6-4-2. He didn’t have anything for Sexton at Oakland, with Ferrandis and Cooper in shouting distance at the checkered flag. With that in mind, I’m going with Sexton for the win and Tomac in P2.
Justin Barcia
Justin Barcia went 3-3 before running into trouble, including Justin Bogle, in San Diego. Barcia has a reputation for fading as he moves through the Supercross series, though usually not quite this soon. Even after being taken out by lapper Bogle, Barcia was less than nine seconds off the podium. That’s enough for me to go with Barcia to return to P3 at A2.
Cooper Webb
Malcolm Stewart’s consecutive P5s in Oakland and San Diego prompts me to put him in P5 for A2. I try to recognize trends, and you don’t have to have a Master’s degree in Statistics to notice 5-5. With Stewart set in P5, that leaves Webb in P4.
Malcolm Stewart
If you want to put Jason Anderson, Dylan Ferrandis, Aaron Plessinger, or Ken Roczen in your top 5, I won’t try to dissuade you. All four could very easily be in the A2 top 5—that’s how unpredictable the 2022 Supercross series is so far in the 450SX class. Of that group, Roczen seems to be having the most problems, going 1-13-7 in the opening rounds. I want to see him turn things around before putting him back in the top 5. Ferrandis needs to get his starts worked out, Anderson has to stay out of trouble, and Plessinger hasn’t established consistent speed. As far as where to put any of those riders in the top 5, I can’t help you. All have visited the podium in 2022 as their only top 5 appearance.
Jason Anderson
The only top 5 finisher this year that I haven’t mentioned is Marvin Musquin, who isn’t looking good. Musquin led the Main Event at San Diego before fading to P10. The previous week in Oakland, he was a P8 finisher. That doesn’t convince me to bump anyone out of the top 5 to give him a slot at A2, even though he grabbed P4 at A1.
Dean Wilson
The Wild Card is P12 for A2, and that’s never an easy pick. There are four primary contenders for the P12 nod—Max Anstie (14-15-12), Justin Brayton (13-DNS-11), Shane McElrath (18-14-13), and Dean Wilson (12-10-14). Wilson’s three finishes and Brayton’s two finishes each average out to exactly P12. Three is a better sample than two, so I’m going with Wilson for P12. Adam Cianciarulo, who went 11-12 in the first two rounds due to a shoulder injury, is out for the 2022 Supercross season with a knee injury sustained at San Diego, so don’t pick him
After three rounds, Don Williams in the top 43-percent of RMFantasySX players.Photography by Will Embree/SMX Pictures2022 AMA Monster Energy Supercross Championship Series Standings (after 3 of 17 rounds)
Hello everyone and welcome once again to Ultimate Motorcycling’s weekly Podcast—Motos and Friends.
My name is Arthur Coldwells.
This week’s Podcast is brought to you by Yamaha motorcycles. Discover how the YZF-R7 provides the perfect balance of rider comfort and true supersport performance by checking it out at YamahaMotorsports.com, or see it for yourself at your local dealer.
This week’s episode features Senior Editor Nic de Sena’s impressions of the beautiful new Harley-Davidson Low Rider ST that is loosely based around the original FXRT Sport Glide from the 1980s. Hailing from The Golden State, these cult-status performance machines became known as West Coast style, with sportier suspension, increased horsepower, and niceties including creature comforts such as a tidy fairing and sporty luggage.
In past episodes you might have heard us mention my best friend, Daniel Schoenewald, and in the second segment I chat with him about some of the really special machines in his 170 or so—and growing—motorcycle collection. He’s always said to me that he doesn’t consider himself the owner, merely the curator of the motorcycles for the next generation.
Yet Daniel is not just a collector, but I can attest a really skilled rider. His bikes are not trailer queens, they’re ridden, and they’re ridden pretty hard. Actually, we have had many, many memorable rides on pretty much all of the machines in the collection at one time or another.
From all of us here at Ultimate Motorcycling, we hope you enjoy this episode!
