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Jason Anderson Scores 3rd Place Finish in Supercross Opener

Published On: 1/13/2025

Monster Energy's SX Racers place 3rd, 4th and 5th in 450 Supercross Opener in Anaheim.

Wild night, as usual, to open the 54th season of Monster Energy AMA Supercross at Anaheim’s (Calif.) Angel Stadium. And while crashes took a couple Monster Energy contenders (former multi-time SX champ Eli Tomac and multi-time SMX champ Haiden Deegan) out of podium contention, Monster Energy/Kawasaki’s Jason Anderson emerged from the carnage and on the 450 main event podium with a strong 3rd place finish.

Anderson, for his part, was quick to credit Kawasaki engineering for the work they did in the off season with the KX450, specifically on the motor, which Anderson felt gave him an advantage at Anaheim, specifically off the starts.

“A lot of the stuff we did to our motorcycle (during the off season) was pretty in-depth,” he said. “It wasn’t like a normal off season as far as bike changes where I feel like I’m working on my chassis setup or a different area. I mean, we changed our motor completely. So, it was really cool to see it work. I feel we made progress with the bike. And, obviously, on the starts, it’s nice to have a bike that I feel will put me up there and give me the opportunity to have better results.”

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With that Anderson’s new Monster Energy/Kawasaki teammate, Jorge Prado, backed the fact that the new KX 450 motor is insanely fast as he pulled the main event holeshot. Then quickly on Prado’s rear fender as the No. 1 qualifier from his pole position was Tomac (Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha). But no sooner did Tomac get past the multi-time MXGP champ did Tomac hit the dirt – and get run over by eventual race winner Chase Sexton (KTM).

 

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Undaunted, and undoubtedly fired up, Tomac made sure everyone in the stadium had one eye on him, with the other on the leaders, as he charged back from dead last to 5th, one spot behind his Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha teammate Cooper Webb (4th). Rounding out the 450 class top ten was Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha’s Justin Cooper in 7th, while Prado, in his Monster Energy AMA Supercross Anaheim 1 debut, overcame a crash which knocked him out of the top ten, and placed 14th.

 

In 250 Western Region Supercross (WSX) action Monster Energy’s Haiden Deegan (Star Racing/Yamaha) wadded ‘er up right after the first corner off the start and, visorless, had to rush from second-to-last place to make the top ten, and then hustled his way late in the contest up to an impressive 5th place finish. Joining Monster Energy’s Deegan in the 250 class’s top ten were rookie Cole Davies (Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha) in 8th and Garrett Marchbanks(Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki) in 9th.

 

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Anaheim 1 450 class results                              250 WSX class results

3rdAnderson (Monster/Kawasaki)                                5thDeegan (Monster/Star/Yamaha)

4thWebb (Monster/Star/Yamaha)                                 8thDavies (Monster/Star/Yamaha)

5thTomac (Monster/Star/Yamaha)                                9thMarchbanks (Monster/PC/Kawasaki)

 

Overall Standings (1 of 17 rounds)

450 class                                                             250 WSX class

3rdAnderson, 20 points                                                5thDeegan, 17 points

4thWebb, 18 points                                                       8thDavies, 14 points

5th - Tomac, 17 points                                                      9thMarchbanks, 13 points

 

Notes & Quotes

  • The anticipated battle between first time WSX racer Deegan and Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Levi Kitchen never got off the ground as Kitchen, dealing with an illness, opted instead to race ESX for 2025.
  • Showing that newfound Kawasaki power in the 250 class was Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Garrett Marchbanks, who pulled the holeshot in the 250 main. Marchbanks was in a battle for a podium finish, but went down in the whoops section and ended up 9th.
  • Anderson would make his second-straight Anaheim 1 podium, but not without a fight from Webb. The two Monster Energy racers have a long history of excellent battles in supercross.
  • Anderson would bang into defending Monster Energy AMA Supercross champ Jett Lawrence off the start, with Anderson somehow recovering his front end – which nearly went sideways heading into the first turn. Jett Lawrence would get the worst of it as he got tied up on a couple extended Tuff Blocks and ended up in last place out of the start.
  • “I think that the Lawrence brothers (Jett 12th, Hunter 11th) and that HRC Factory Honda team have a lot of work to do – and they’d better get it done fast because they spotted Chase (Sexton) and Eli (Tomac) a lot of points. And it’s going to be tough to make those points up.” NBC announcer and former 4-time SX champ Ricky Carmichael.
  • Good to see Monster Energy/Kawasaki’s newly retired racer Adam Cianciarulo on the NBC Sports announcers team. The freshman TV talent did a great job interviewing racers and adding insight to the Anaheim 1 contest.
  • Sold out crowd at A1! Great way to start the 2025 Monster Energy AMA Supercross season. Feld Motorsports can always count on the SoCal crowd to pack Angel Stadium.

Up next: Monster Energy AMA Supercross hits the I-5 in SoCal, down to San Diego’s Snapdragon Stadium, for Round 2 of the series on Saturday, Jan. 18.