SAN DIEGO, California: Chase Sexton began his tenure with Kawasaki with the fastest qualification lap last week in Anaheim, but it was the second and third fastest in time trials, Eli Tomac and Jorge Prado, who rose to the top in the Main Event.
Mitchell Oldenburg had a hard get-off in Qualification 2 with six minutes remaining on the clock. Eli Tomac was at the top of the board at the time with a lap of 52.182.
And that is where Tomac remained until the end of the session, posting the fastest time of the day to secure the best gate pick in his heat.
Jorge Prado (52.417) underscored his strong showing last week with the second fastest time in Qualification 2.
The Anaheim 1 podium was mirrored with Ken Roczen (52.426) landing third and Hunter Lawrence (52.480) fourth.
Justin Cooper (52.497) rounded out the top five.
Qualification 1
Eli Tomac picked up in San Diego where he left off at Anaheim, and landed on top of the chart with a time of 54.595.
“I’m feeling really good right now,” Tomac said. “Put together a couple of good laps toward the end. Tried a couple of different rhythm combinations. There’s a ton of traction out there; a lot different than Anaheim.”
Justin Cooper (55.575) was second.
The weekend began with a question of whether Malcolm Stewart would even race — and race he did. Stewart posted a lap of 55.917 to edge last week’s winner Tomac.
Stay tuned for more as some timing and scoring issues are sorted.
“We had a power surge in that first session,” Mike Pelletier, director of racing for the AMA, said heading into the second qualification session. “We were unable to capture most of the times in that first session, so after talking to the teams and riders, we decided to add three seconds to give them a little more time.”
Pelletier acknowledged Malcolm Stewart was most likely fastest in Qualification 1
Qualification 1 results (provisional)
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