Anaheim 1 Race Report

The 2017 Monster Energy Supercross Series kicked off its seventeen-round series with an incredible night of racing at Angels Stadium in Anaheim, California. A tradition in the two-wheeled racing world, it’s a first glimpse of action after a long off-season. With Justin Barcia sidelined due to injury, the Autotrader.com Toyota JGR Suzuki team turned to Weston Peick and fill-in rider Jake Weimer. Weston delivered an eighth place finish in the main and Jake almost cracked the top ten with an eleventh. Davi Millsaps is fresh off of a championship in Canadian motocross and scored a seventh place finish in the 450 main. Millsaps' teammate Blake Baggett had a strong performance in his heat race and it looked like he was caring that over directly into the main with a good start. An early race crash for Blake would see him working his way from the back into fourteenth by the end of the race. Trey Canard of the Red Bull KTM team had a hard crash in practice but powered his way into the main with a gritty ride in the LCQ. The pain from the earlier crash would prove too much for Trey and he would sit out the main event. In the 250 class all eyes were on the Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki Supercross rookie Austin Forkner. Austin settled into a comfortable second place finish in his heat race and looked like a contender from the start. Forkner started the main event in seventh place after lap one and was working his way up when a crash in the whoops ended his charge. He would remount and finish the night in eighth place. Making his return to the Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki team was Justin Hill. Justin rode hard in the main event, coming from an eighth place start to a fifth place finish. Hill was was fast all day and should be battling for podium spots every weekend.