Supercross at San Diego by the numbers: Eli Tomac, Jett Lawrence take early lead

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Eli Tomac and Jett Lawrence took the early lead in the NBC Power Rankings with their victories at Anaheim 1 and here are some of the other numbers you need to know heading into Supercross Round 2 at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, California for this weekend’s race.

This will be the 40th time Supercross has run in San Diego in 39 seasons and the first time they’ve raced at Snapdragon Stadium, ending a run of eight races at Petco Park. Two races were held there in 2016, (the second year the series ran at Petco Park), with Ryan Dungey sweeping the venue.

Tomac may have difficulty earning a second consecutive victory in 2023 as this is his third-worst venue in terms of career-average finish. In nine visits to San Diego, he has an average of 6.3, largely due to a failure to start in 2018 when he was credited with a 22nd-place finish. On the plus side, Tomac has one win and two podium finishes to offset that disappointment.

Making his bid for two more difficult, San Diego is a venue that has not been kind to repeat winners. The last five races there have been won by a different rider. In fact, no active rider has multiple wins in San Diego with Ken Roczen winning in 2017, Jason Anderson in 2018, Tomac in 2019, Cooper Webb in 2020 and Chase Sexton last year.

Tomac and Webb each have two 250 wins on this track and Roczen has the most podium finishes (five) among active riders.

Second in the points’ standings, Webb also has one win and two top-five finishes in five San Diego starts,

Supercross Round 2 numbers
Chase Sexton leads Eli Tomac in San Diego in what would be a precursor of what the outdoor season looked like. Feld Motor Sports/MX Sports Pro Racing/Align Media

Third-place Sexton has the most recent success in San Diego; he won his first Supercross race there last year. He stood on the podium seven more times last year, including second-place finishes in St. Louis and Salt Lake City, but would not ascend to the top box again until the Pro Motocross season.

Last year featured first time winners in San Diego in both classes. Sexton won in 450s and Michael Mosiman in 250s. Sexton’s win made him the 65th rider to win in the premier class.

Another major storyline from last year was the overflow of tempers when Justin Barcia and Justin Bogle skirmished throughout the race. Ultimately, Barcia cleaned out Bogle and was disqualified post-race.

Supercross Round 2 numbers
Along with Chase Sexton in the 450 class, Michael Mosiman was a first-time winner in 250s at San Diego. Feld Motor Sports/MX Sports Pro Racing/Align Media

The egalitarian nature of San Diego carries over into the 250 class, where there have been no repeat winners in the last seven races.

This will be the first time Jett Lawrence has raced in San Diego. He competed in the East division in the past two seasons, while 2020 was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic that forced the final three West division races of 2020 to be run in Salt Lake City.

RJ Hampshire finished 15th in San Diego in 2019, the only time he raced in 250 West division.

Cameron McAdoo finished ninth there in 2019 and 22nd in 2020.

After last week’s postponement of the Oakland race, San Diego moves up to the second round. Oakland will now run on February 18, which was an open date on the schedule.

More SuperMotocross coverage

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Marvin Musquin will miss San Diego with wrist injury

What success looks like for Team Next Level Racing

Malcolm Stewart lets one slip away in Anaheim 1

Yamaha announces Austin Forkner out for the remainder of 2023 SX and then took to Instagram to describe his accident

Carson Mumford to fill in for Forkner beginning at Oakland

Dylan Ferrandis resets expectations for 2023

Nerve damage ends Adam Enticknap’s SX career

Eli Tomac wins Round 1 for first time in career

SuperMotocross set to introduce Leader Lights beginning with the World Championship finals

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In a continuing effort to help fans keep track of the on track action, SuperMotocross is in the process of developing and implementing leader lights for the unified series.

Currently Supercross (SMX) utilizes stanchions in the infield that are triggered manually by a race official. At least two stanchions are used in each race as a way to draw the eye to the leader, which is especially useful in the tight confines of the stadium series when lapping often begins before the halfway mark in the 22-bike field. This system has been in place for the past two decades.

Later this year, a fully automated system will move to the bike itself to replace the old system. At that point, fans will be able to identify the leader regardless of where he is on track.

The leader lights were tested in the second Anaheim round this year. An example can be seen at the 1:45 mark in the video above on the No. 69 bike.

“What we don’t want to do is move too fast, where it’s confusing to people,” said Mike Muye, senior director of operations for Supercross and SMX in a press release. “We’ve really just focused on the leader at this point with the thought that maybe down the road we’ll introduce others.”

Scheduled to debut with the first SuperMotocross World Championship race at zMax Dragway, located just outside the Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 3D carbon fiber-printed LED light will be affixed to each motorcycle. Ten timing loops positioned around the track will trigger the lights of the leader, which will turn green.

SMX’s partner LiveTime Scoring helped develop and implement the system that has been tested in some form or fashion since 2019.

When the leader lights are successfully deployed, SuperMotocross will explore expanding the system to identify the second- and third-place riders. Depending on need and fan acceptance, more positions could be added.

SuperMotocross is exploring future enhancements, including allowing for live fan interaction with the lights and ways to use the lighting system during the race’s opening ceremony.