Phoenix Supercross is the site of a dream come true for GEICO Honda’s Christain Craig.
GEICO Honda’s Christian Craig completed his comeback to Monster Energy AMA Supercross tonight by winning round five of the 250SX West Series at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, tonight.
Craig, who retired from the sport at the end of 2014, showed that his talent has no expiration date as he took the lead on the opening lap of the 15-lap main event to post his first career supercross victory in his 16th career start. In doing so, Craig joined his father, former factory Yamaha rider Mike Craig, as an AMA Supercross winner. Ironically, Christian Craig came out of retirement so that his own son, Jagger, could see him race. That desire and a lot of hard work led to Christian Craig becoming the 101st different winner in the support class and the first supercross winner in University of Phoenix Stadium, a new venue for the series.
“What a road for me,” Craig said. “This is unbelievable. A year ago I was working construction, building homes in the winter in Minnesota. I never thought I’d be here, but I worked my butt off and…I saw this one coming.”
Psychic or not, Craig still had to earn the win. He trailed GEICO Honda teammate Jimmy Decotis through the first turn at the start of the main event and then steamed by Decotis in the whoop section to take over the lead. At that point, reigning Monster Energy AMA 250SX West Champion Cooper Webb appeared to be buried deep in the pack, yet he somehow managed to quickly move his Yamalube/Star Racing/Yamaha into fifth place, behind Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull KTM’s Mitchell Oldenburg and Monster Energy/Pro uCircuit/Kawasaki’s Joey Savatgy. That was a good thing as a big crash at the rear of the pack took down several riders, including Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne, who suffered an arm injury and was carted off the track, his night ending prematurely.
Webb was flying as he got around both Savatgy and Oldenburg within the first three laps and quickly began to reel-in Decotis while Craig built up a lead of over 2 seconds. If there was any expectation that Decotis might try to block Webb, it didn’t happen. Webb powered past the GEICO rider in the rhythm section that led outside the main arena to take over second place.
That set up another showdown with Craig, who was only 3.1 seconds ahead of Webb with two thirds of the race left. Webb quickly ate into that gap, mounting his first challenge for the lead on lap nine. However, Craig rebuffed Webb’s attempt and even pulled out about three to four bike lengths over the champ. Webb then tried to set up Craig a second time, pulling underneath the Honda rider in the right-hand corner after the step-on-step-off jump, only to tuck the front end and crash. Webb got back in the race quickly, but Craig had all the cushion he would need to claim the win by 2.8 seconds.
“I put all the stuff together finally, got a good start and made the pass for the lead,” Craig said. “Cooper [Webb] was catching me, and I was just going to try to block him again, try to run away with it. But he ended up going down right next to me, and from there on out it was like, ‘I got this.’ This is surreal. Two podiums and, to top it off…Well, it’s not topped off. We’ve still got more races to win…It’s a big weight off my shoulders. It has been a long road. I’m happy. I did it.”
Webb was fortunate not to lose another spot to Savatgy, who was right on Webb’s tail as Webb got back underway. Webb kept Savatgy at bay, and the difference in their finishes meant that the Monster Energy AMA 250SX West Supercross Series points battle is now knotted at the top, with both men holding 98 points; technically speaking, Webb is actually back into the series points lead as he controls the tiebreaker by virtue of his greater number of wins. Oldenburg and last week’s runner-up Colt Nichols rounded out the top five.
Round six of the series is scheduled to take place at Petco Park in San Diego, February 13, the final California stop on the 2016 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Tour.
2016 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series
University of Phoenix Stadium
Glendale, Arizona
Results: February 6, 2016 (Round 5 of 8)
250SX West Main
1. Christian Craig-Hon
2. Cooper Webb-Yam
3. Joey Savatgy-Kaw
4. Mitchell Oldenburg-KTM
5. Colt Nichols-Yam
6. Chris Alldredge-Kaw
7. Alex Martin-Yam
8. Kyle Cunningham-Suz
9. Jimmy Decotis-Hon
10. Kyle Peters-Hon
11. Michael Lieb-Yam
12. Cole Martinez-Yam
13. Cole Thompson-KTM
14. Fredrik Noren-Hon
15. Hayden Mellross-Yam
16. Scott Champion-Yam
17. Trevor Reis-Yam
18. Noah McConahy-Hus
19. Chase Marquier-Hon
20. Chris Howell-Hus
21. Austin Politelli-Yam
22. Zach Osborne-Hus
2016 Monster Energy AMA 250SX West Supercross Series Points Standings (after 5 of 8 rounds)
1. Cooper Webb-98/3 wins
2. Joey Savatgy-98/1 win
3. Christian Craig-87/1 win
4. Colt Nichols-81
5. Zach Osborne-74
6. Jimmy Decotis-71
7. Mitchell Oldenburg-66
8. Kyle Peters-62
9. Jordon Smith-61
10. Kyle Cunningham-54
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