Good, Bad, 'n Ugly: San Diego 1

250 Class

The Good: Carson Brown | 8th Place

Carson Brown has to be under consideration for breakout rider of the season after the first leg of the 250 West series. He did race in 2019 and made four Main Events, with a season-high finish of 14th place, but he eventually had to pull out of the series with a wrist injury. If we take a look at this season, though, he's made every Main Event so far, and he has finished inside the top 15 every time with two top-ten finishes. He's also 11th in the championship standings. That's a pretty consistent stats sheet for a second-year rider who is on a smaller team. If he can log some more top ten finishes after the West series returns to action, I'd imagine a couple of factory teams will at least have to take a look at him for 2021. I think he has a pretty high ceiling.

The Bad: Austin Forkner | 2nd Place

Austin Forkner gave it everything he had in San Diego, but it still wasn't enough as Dylan Ferrandis gave him about 300 chances to escape before finally making the pass stick and sprinting away from him. As dominant as Austin was during the East series last year, it's pretty evident that he has met his match this year with Dylan and is the second-best guy in the class right now. His only hope at this point is that Dylan's struggles with starts after the break, and he's able to capitalize with some big points hauls as a result because Dylan has him covered in late-race pace at the moment and it's not even that close.

The Bad Bonus: Mitchell Oldenburg | DNQ

I really like Mitchell as a rider, and he seems to be a great guy as well, but he has struggled with injuries a lot over the past few years. I believe the last time he completed a full Supercross season without injury was 2016. This time it's a partially torn ACL and a torn meniscus, and while he plans to give the last four rounds of the season a shot after the break, I wouldn't be surprised if he pulls out before the end. He's a tough guy; I'm not denying that, but that's a gnarly injury to try to push through. We'll see how he fares in Seattle. 

The Ugly: Cameron McAdoo | 22nd Place

Luckily, Cameron's DNF in the Main Event was not due to a crash. He has taken a few diggers recently, and I'd hate to see him miss any more time during his first season with Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki. After all, this year is a big opportunity for him, and I'm hoping to see him secure a couple of podiums before it's all over. I don't believe any real details have been revealed about why he was forced to retire from the race (except that it was a mechanical issue), but I'm sure it was something that the team will address and make sure it won't happen again. One thing I am sure of? Cameron needs to re-group during this six-week break and come out swinging in Seattle. If the second half of the season doesn't yield some impressive results from him, how likely is it that he'll be brought back to Pro Circuit in 2021?

450 Class

The Good: Adam Cianciarulo | 2nd Place

Things were not trending in the right direction for Adam during the three rounds following Anaheim 1. He scored a seventh, sixth, and an eighth, with a couple of crashes mixed in there as well (one of which resulted in a bruised tailbone). Then he was much better in Oakland and was able to hold on for a fourth-place finish despite dealing with some soreness, and he looked to be back on his game in San Diego. He was very aggressive during his heat race and was able to take the win quite convincingly. The game plan must have remained the same for the Main Event, too, as he wasted no time getting aggressive with Cooper Webb and taking the lead on lap one. He went on to lead 20 laps before Cooper was finally able to make a move on him with some brilliant racecraft. Adam tried to respond, but Cooper was too good at jumping through the whoops and seemed to gain time on Adam every lap in that section. It was still an excellent ride for Adam, and I think it's safe to say that the train is safely back on the tracks. That first-career 450 win is coming, folks. 

The Good Bonus: Blake Baggett | 3rd Place

Whaaat?! Blake Baggett got a start near the top five and moved his way up into a podium position by the end of the race?! Color me surprised! Okay, not really. As I've said previously, speed has not been an issue at all for Blake this season. His starts, however, have been horrible. But give him a good start, and he'll get a good result. Now he just needs to figure out how to do this on a weekly basis.

The Good Double Bonus: Cooper Webb | 1st Place

I touched on the whole "Cooper's Back" topic last week, which is why I'm not going to dive super far into it. But, holy cow, Cooper showed everyone how it's done in San Diego. He was extremely patient behind Adam Cianciarulo for 80% of the race, inching closer and closer as the whoops broke down, and he found his jump line. Adam struggled to adapt to the way the whoops broke down, and that gave Cooper the advantage he needed. He put together a fantastic couple of corners that brought him right onto Adam's back wheel and forced Adam to take a defensive line in the section before the finish line. Adam's attempt was unsuccessful, and Cooper rode off into the sunset. Just a few weeks ago, many of us were questioning if Cooper was already too far out of it to make a challenge, and now he's only nine points down in the standings. This is going to get spicy. 

The Bad: Aaron Plessinger | 10th Place

This isn't a true "Bad," but more of a coulda-woulda-shoulda "Bad." And I say that because Aaron rode fantastic for the first six laps of the race. He looked very frisky, and at one point, I seriously thought he was going to make a move on Cooper Webb for second place. He wasn't able to make that happen, but it still looked like he was on pace to secure his best finish of the year until he spun out on lap seven. He still finished in tenth place which is not bad at all, but it could have been so much better. I think he has the potential to have the biggest improvement in results of the "middle" group of riders as we advance into the second half of the schedule. 

The Ugly: Rockstar Energy Husqvarna

Well, for a team with three riders on the roster, San Diego went quite horribly for the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna squad. Zach Osborne was the top finisher in 11th place, with Dean Wilson finishing in 13th and Jason Anderson finishing a lap down in 14th. Let's look at how exactly they all ended up outside the top ten. Zach? Well, he started in 22nd place, and I think that pretty much explains it right there. 10th or 11th is probably about as high as someone is going to get when they start in dead last in this class. As far as Dean goes, he said that he didn't ride well all day, and the final result shows that. I'm impressed that Dean even started the season after the injury he sustained at Monster Energy Cup, so while he seems to be disappointed with his season so far, I think he has done an excellent job and has plenty of time to turn it around. Finally, it sounds like Jason got into it a bit with Justin Brayton, and Justin is the one who ended it. It also didn't help that Jason crashed again later in the race. So, yeah, the team didn't straight up suck by any means, but this will be a weekend they'd rather forget. 

You can check out my personal Power Rankings here.

Words by Grant Dawson
Photos by Steve Giberson