Phoenix Supercross - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 2

​The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
2017 Monster Energy Supercross
Round 4 - Glendale


250

The Good: The Battle for the Championship
The battle is on for the 2017 West Coast 250 Supercross Championship as Shane McElrath, Justin Hill, and Aaron Plessinger have separated themselves from the rest of the field. Hill and McElrath are the two that are really going at it, though, and I expect to see another heated battle between the two of them at Oakland. Hill may be hot, but McElrath has kept his cool and continued to be consistent. With only four points separating them, Oakland has the potential to be a great race, though much like the early part of the season, there's rain in the forecast in the days before the event. I can't wait.

Justin Hill and Shane McElrath.


The Bad: Aaron Plessinger | 4th Place
Aaron Plessinger has the speed to win. He's shown that in qualifying, and in heat races. The problem is that he can't buy a start. Every week, he gets a midpack start and slowly works his way through the field. By the time he gets to fourth, third, or second, the leader is uncatchable. This is what killed his championship hopes last year, and it seems to be killing his championship hopes this year as well. The good news is that he's not completely out of it yet as he's only ten points out of the championship lead. So if he can turn his starts around over the next few weeks and rack up a couple of wins, he'll be right back in this thing. I mean, how great would a three-way battle for the championship be? Pretty great if you ask me. I'll be pulling for Aaron to get a good jump out of the gate this weekend.

Aaron Plessinger.


The Ugly: GEICO Honda
How is GEICO Honda's season going? Not that great. Jeremy Martin, who was their best hope for the championship on this coast, didn't land on the podium at the first three rounds of the championship, and was unable to race Glendale due to a practice crash–effectively ending his quest for the title. That's gotta hurt a little bit for both Jeremy and the team. Jeremy once again misses out on the 250 Supercross title that he wants so badly, and GEICO Honda once again misses out on winning a 250 West Coast title. The other GEICO rider on the West Coast, Jimmy Decotis, has been putting in some solid top ten finishes all season. That's great for him, but we typically don't see GEICO Honda as only a top ten team. We expect for their riders to be competing for wins and championships. Anyway, Jeremy will be back for Oakland with nothing to lose and should be a threat to win. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see him run away with it if he gets a good start.


450

The Good: Eli Tomac | 1st Place
Whoa, Eli! This is the Eli Tomac we expected to see at the first three rounds! Not only did he win in Glendale, he absolutely ran away with it. At one point, he had over an 18-second lead. That's pretty dang impressive. So what caused this sudden turnaround? It sounds like he made some bike changes that helped out quite a bit, but maybe the domed stadium and bigger track had something to do with it as well. Regardless of what caused this drastic change, I hope that Eli stays at this level for the remainder of the season because the more riders that can challenge Dungey, the better.

Eli Tomac.


The Bad: Marvin Musquin | 9th Place
Well, that didn't go according to plan. Marvin was the closest to Dungey in the standings coming into Glendale, but he lost a pretty big chunk of points at the end of the night. He just got a mediocre start and struggled to move forward for most of the main. He was also stalked by his training buddy, Jason Anderson, as he tried to slice through the pack which probably made it a little harder to move forward. Bad races happen, but this really hurt Marvin's chances of winning the championship. Hopefully he can bounce back next week and get back on the podium.

Cooper Webb and Marvin Musquin.


The Ugly: Weston Peick / JGR Suzuki
Weston's great start to the Supercross season came to an end in Glendale as he crashed hard during qualifying, lacerating a kidney and breaking his wrist. This leaves JGR Suzuki without either of their big-name riders for Oakland...and possibly longer. Peick is also JGR's third rider to get hurt this year. Matt Bisceglia suffered an injury before the season started, and had to switch to 250 East. Justin Barcia crashed a few weeks before A1 and has yet to make his 2017 debut, and now Weston Peick has undergone surgery for his wrist (the kidney will heal on its own). Pretty rough year so far if you ask me. On the bright side, this possibly means more races on a JGR bike for Jake Weimer.

Weston Peick.



Words by Grant Dawson
Photos by Steve Giberson

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