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Jason Anderson returns to the championship conversation

By Brett Smith

Jason Anderson – the captain of Team Fried – is back in the title chase and, statistically, he’s in the perfect position. Issue #4 of FAST 3 explains.

In 2018, Jason Anderson was a somewhat unexpected premier class champion. He entered the 2018 season with three career wins and a career best third overall in the 2016 championship. He was no slouch, but most believed Eli Tomac, Marvin Musquin, or Ken Roczen were the title favorites following the Villopoto/Dungey era. Case in point: in the 2018 Racer X Supercross preview show, everyone picked Eli Tomac.

Seventeen rounds, 4 wins, 11 podiums and Jason Anderson was your 2018 Supercross Champion. Didn’t matter that Eli Tomac had 8 wins or that Marvin Musquin had 12 podiums. Jason had been fast – four times the fastest qualifier and set the fastest lap in two mains. Ultimately, it was his consistency that won the 2018 championship. 

But then he didn’t win in 2019 or 2020 or 2021. He left Aldon Baker’s training facility in early 2020. He left the only team he’d raced for professionally at the end of 2021. He went green for 2022. There were a lot of questions at the beginning of 2022.

Lots.

He’s answered those questions. “El Hombre” is back and here are the stats to prove it.

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Jason Anderson has three wins. The first to three takes 69% of the titles. 

Jason Anderson is the first rider to win three rounds in 2022. Again: Jason Anderson is THE FIRST to three wins. Not Eli Tomac. Not Cooper Webb. Not Ken Roczen. Jason Anderson. 

Based on history and stats alone, he’s gotta be your title favorite. If you’re not a fan of stats or history (why not) then… I don’t know what else to do.

Actually, one more try… since 2000, the first to three wins has won the championship 77% of the time! That’s 17 of 22 champs. Only David Vuillemin (2002), Ryan Villopoto (2010), James Stewart (2011), Eli Tomac (2017) and Kenny Roczen (2021) have bucked the trend.

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Jason Anderson broke a 47 race winless streak!

When Jason won at round four in Anaheim, it snapped a winless streak that started back at round nine of his 2018 championship season. That’s almost four years, nearly the length of a presidential term. But it’s not the longest gap between races. Far from it, actually. 

Larry Ward (123 races) went almost a decade between wins! He got his first win as a rookie in 1990 and did so at his hometown race in Seattle (check out the full race here on youtube). He didn’t win again until round 8 in 1998. That’s 8 years! More context: Ricky Carmichael only competed in 115 main events in his entire 450SX career.

Here’s the Top 5 all-time win gaps based on races they entered…

  1. Larry Ward: 123 (Rd 4 Seattle 1990 to Rd 8 Tampa 1998)
  2. Mike Larocco: 96 (Rd 10 Pontiac 1995 to Rd 2 Anaheim 2 2002)
  3. Justin Barcia: 55 (Rd 15 Seattle 2013 to Rd 1 Anaheim 2019)
  4. Jason Anderson: 47 (Rd 9 Atlanta 2018 to Rd 2 Oakland 2022)
  5. Davi Millsaps: 46 (San Diego 2010 to Anaheim 1 2013)
Jason Anderson is a top 20 all-time Supercross racer
Jason Anderson has entered the conversation as a top 20 talent all-time. Photo: Octopi Media.

Jason Anderson is establishing himself as one of the top 20 all-time

It’s not Ricky Carmichael or Eli Tomac legend status, but Jason Anderson has solidified himself as one of the Top 20 greatest of all-time in supercross. With his win at Minneapolis 2022 he’s now:

  • 19th in all-time podiums. He tied Jean Michel Bayle with 38 career 450 podiums. With another 2 podiums, he’ll be 16th all-time. 
  • 20th in all-time points. He passed Johnny O’Mara for the spot. On current pace, he’ll be Top 15 by the end of the season.  
  • 21st in all-time wins.  He tied Broc Glover and Mike Larocco with 10 career 450 wins. With another 2 wins, he’ll be 18th all-time.

We’ve talked a lot about Eli Tomac, Cooper Webb, and Ken Roczen the last few years. The 2022 Racer X Supercross Preview didn’t even include Jason Anderson with either of the top two tiers of riders this season. But with 3 wins in 7 rounds, snapping a 47 race winless streak, and pushing into the Top 20 all-time of 450 podiums and points, El Hombre’s back. 

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