Supercross Statistics | Seattle in Numbers

2023 Monster Energy Supercross continues to deliver and, as a result, there are countless points of interest that emerge from the stadium each week. In this regular feature that has become a hit, throw yourself into some miscellaneous facts and statistics from the eleventh round of the current term. This is a little delayed this week, because of KTM's opening event, so apologies.

• Chase Sexton entered Seattle's night show as the fastest qualifier for the twenty-fourth time in his career (sixteenth time in 450SX). That means that he has pulled pole position in forty-two percent of his premier class starts. '23' was 00.487 clear of the rider in second, which makes that his third-best advantage of the season. Houston (01.095) and Anaheim 2 (00.719) were the locations where he had his largest margins.

• Justin Barcia qualified in fourth for the second week in succession, which may not sound like much to talk about. For Barcia, who typically struggles for pace on a single lap, it is rare to see him near the front in the day. '51' has qualified inside of the top five twice thus far this season, Indianapolis and Seattle, whereas he had only done it once at this point last year. Let's call that some sort of progress, yeah?

• Cooper Webb mentioned his struggles throughout the day in Seattle and the results indicate that he was indeed a tad off. Ninth was where he was eventually classified in timed qualifying, but when was the last time that he qualified so poorly? It was at round twelve last year, which was Seattle! What a coincidence. That was 367 days ago. By the way, it has been 780 days since he last topped timed qualification. The last time was at Indianapolis 3, round six of 2021 Monster Energy Supercross.

• Daytona marked the ninety-second time that Tomac has climbed onto a 450SX podium. There is no way for '1' to reach one hundred this term, so he may fall just short of the centenary. If he can maintain a clean streak of podiums from this point on then he will finish the season, and potentially his indoor career, with ninety-eight. One would think that his podium percentage would be higher than fifty-eight percent, no?

• Seattle marked the one hundred and eighty-fifth time that Tomac has started a main event in the Monster Energy Supercross series (one hundred and fifty-eight of those have occurred aboard the bigger bike). It is often overlooked that he has only missed nine 450SX starts since he jumped to the premier division. The man is a picture of consistency! Will that be the trait that helps him finish the job in the coming weeks?

• Tomac took his sixth victory of the year at the eleventh round of 2022 Monster Energy Supercross. History repeated itself on Saturday night – that was his sixth triumph of the current season. Tomac has never won more than that in the first eleven stops. The first time that he won six times in the first eleven rounds was in 2017 Monster Energy Supercross, but he did not win the championship that year.

• The final sentence there is so poignant. Tomac has started 2023 Monster Energy Supercross in a fashion that is remarkably similar to that of 2017. How so? Nine of his eleven results are identical. Tomac had six wins, a fifth, a sixth and an eighth in both terms. The main difference is he had one less podium in the first eleven stops of 2017 Monster Energy Supercross and that ended up being a fifteenth, which ultimately cost him the title.

• This is certainly the most irrelevant fact that could possibly be presented, but round eleven is now where Tomac has had the most success as a Monster Energy Supercross athlete. '1' has won event eleven on five occasions now, something that he has only matched at round eight. Is this evidence of some kind that he tends to hammer down in the middle of the term or a coincidence? Well, in the humble opinion of this scribe, the latter.

• Seattle was not just a resurgence for Tomac in the results column, it was also an extremely valuable chance for him to unearth some confidence in the whoops. Not only did he have the quickest time in that section, but he also posted three additional times that were better than anyone else. There are surely some readers wondering why this is such a big deal, but just glance at that table below. It contains the races that had dedicated sectors for the whoops and where Tomac ranked.

• For clarity, seeing as the third round was a Triple Crown, an average of three mains was calculated to arrive at an overall score. Now, do those numbers seem like they reflect a man who is a whoop monster of sorts? It is interesting that the downward spiral in the whoops is in line with that mid-season slump that he has just emerged from. Did the whoops reflect an overarching problem with his confidence and bike set-up? This is something to dig into.

• There is a minor asterisk on the times that were set in the whoops on Saturday night. Those who were skimming, like Tomac, were going wide to do that and therefore losing some time. The times for that sector were not recorded until the very first whoop, so any time lost in the turn to set up for a better run in the whoops was not counted. One could play that game every single week, but it is something work considering.

• Sector two is another one worth noting when it comes to Tomac. '1' was doing a weird line in the first rhythm section, where he rolled the first jump and ended up doing a very unique combination. This is something that he stuck to, despite the fact that all data pointed to the fact that it was so slow. In timed qualifying, for instance, he had the sixteenth-best time in that section. Sixteenth! It was slightly better in the main, seventh, but he was still half a second slower than the fastest.

• The pendulum swung between Tomac and Webb often in the main, more so than most would have realized. There was a three-lap period where it seemed that Webb was on a tear, then Tomac was able to respond before a couple of so-so laps. It was on lap sixteen that Tomac really broke Webb, it seems, as he did his ninth-fastest lap of the race. Shall we look at the moment where Webb was on a charge, first of all?

• This is a brilliant point to return to that second sector. In that time period above, so a total of five laps, Webb gained 01.685 on Tomac in sector two. That is a significant difference on a portion of the track that made up seven seconds of a total lap! Tomac was adamant that his special line was the best way to do things. Imagine how different the main would have been, had he matched Webb and tripled onto the table on most laps? The later period, where Tomac broke Webb, is below.

• Unsurprisingly, Chase Sexton posted the quickest lap of the main event for the sixth time this term and had sprint speed that no one else could match. Dive into his times prior to his fall in the table below, but let's dive into this fastest lap thing quickly. Tomac has not set the fastest lap in a main since his San Diego victory and Webb has not done it all this year. The fastest times have come from Sexton, Jason Anderson and Justin Barcia since round two.

• It was on lap four that Sexton stalled it in a corner. Roczen closed the gap at that point, of course, but '23' turned it back up and stretched his lead back out. Incredibly, he already had an advantage of 02.663 by lap two. The margin dropped to 01.459 when he stalled it and then it was back up to 03.051 three laps later, then it was 03.966 when he hit the dirt. The win was in his grasp, one could certainly argue, but that could be said about so many races.

• The most surprising thing about Sexton is that he did not have the best time in any of the sectors, despite the fact that his pace was so strong. Is that a testament to just how good he is? It is worth noting that he actually had the three best laps of the main event. The quickest sectors in the main went to Adam Cianciarulo (one), Anderson (two and five), Justin Hill (three) and Tomac (four). Quite a unique spread of athletes, no?

• By missing the podium in Seattle, Sexton's podium percentage in the premier class dropped down to fifty percent. It was fifty-one percent, prior to round eleven, but now sits at a nice round number. Another podium finish in Glendale, Arizona, would push it back up to fifty-one percent. Forty-one percent was his podium percentage entering the current season, which is another reminder of the progress that he has made.

• Had Sexton finished seventh in Seattle, instead of fifth, his average finish would have fallen down from third to fourth. Another fifth at the next stop would prompt that but, as it stands, his average remains the same as Tomac (third) when rounded to a whole number. Sexton's average has sat at the number three since his victory at round three, Anaheim 2, in January. So many threes there!

• Webb is the only rider who has finished in the top five at every round of the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross series, but how many athletes have pieced together a perfect streak of top-ten results? Eli Tomac, Chase Sexton and Jason Anderson are the only others. In comparison, three riders were in this position at the same point last year (Tomac, Barcia and Malcolm Stewart).

• Grant Harlan (thirteenth) and Fredrik Noren (fourteenth) were the only stars to record season-best results in Seattle, Washington. Cade Clason (twenty-second) was the only athlete to end with their worst finish of the season. Not much to report in this category, unfortunately. Onto Arizona!