The second round of the FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX) took place this weekend in Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. It was the resume of the series after a long break of four months since the first round held in Birmingham, on 1st July.
Abu Dhabi was the second and the penultimate round as well before the series heads to Melbourne for the final round on November 25th.
The track was narrow out and some sectors were limited to a single line. This made heat races more serious than usual to grab a good gate selection before the main events, especially with a two-row gate format. It wasn´t the case for defending champions Ken Roczen and Shane McElrath. Both riders had difficulties during their respective heat races that put both of them in the second row.
Despite their efforts, neither Roczen nor McElrath could end up on the podium as both have lost the red plate. Roczen finished 14-3-1 (he had a huge crash in the first main battling for first place) while McElrath went 8-8-11.
On the other hand, Joey Savatgy and Max Anstie emerged as the overall winners in their respective classes and the new red plate holders as well.
Rick Ware Racing´s Savatgy was consistent all day. He won the heat race and then finished second in the first main, but moments later he was credited with the win due to Friese penalization for taking Dean Wilson out. In the next two motos, Savatgy went 4-2, enough to secure the overall and grab the red plate by 5 points over Ken Roczen.
Dean Wilson (FirePower Honda) finished 5th in the first Main and then took revenge in the second race by taking the win. Finally secured second place overall with third place. The podium was filled by Vince Friese from MCR Honda via 3-2-8.
SX2: Max Anstie takes the red plate
In the SX2 class, Anstie took the win in two out of three finals to take the overall and the red plate as well by 32 points of advantage over defending champion and round one winner Shane McElrath (8th) who struggled with bad starts all day long. Chris Blose (1-3-3) and Maxime Desprey (2-10-2) rounded the podium for the first time in the series as they finished second and third overall respectively.
As for the standings, Max Anstie opened a huge gap of 32 points over McElrath with just one round to go.
RESULTS: OVERALLS AND STANDINGS
WSX Overall:
SX2 Overall:
WSX Standings
SX2 Standings:
