I Told You Webb Would Be Strong! | The 2023 San Diego SX Rundown

I raved all last week that San Diego was going to be all Cooper Webb, to the point I even put him atop my (nearly perfect) Vurbmoto Power Rankings. There were times in practice where I thought my prediction was spot on, as he teeter-tottered the top spot a few times throughout the day. Malcom Stewart would eventually take top qualifying position, only a fraction of a second in front of Chase Sexton and Cooper Webb, respectively. I even tweeted, “I think Webb has the whoops thing figured out now.” While I ironically didn’t pick him for my PulpMX Fantasy team, I had my fingers crossed that I wouldn’t eat crow on the rest of my week-long hype up. As a fan of epic racing, I just refuse to manifest a 2023 Tomac runaway season. And that’s nothing against him; I think we all expect him to be on top. I am just doing my best Tony Robbins to envision the best season of racing possible. You can thank me in a few months!

I’d say my vision board produced for San Diego. Adam Cianciarulo would take the 450 Main Event – hell yes to this as well – with Webb and Tomac in tow. It’d only take three laps for Webb to move into the lead, but, unfortunately for my power rankings accuracy, it then only took one lap for Tomac to move past Webb. From there it looked like Tomac was just going to Tomac and run away with the race. That’s when Webb decided he’d just do what he does in the last 5 minutes and mount and all-out assault to catch Tomac. Admittedly, lappers helped Webb close the gap, but the lead diminished from over 4 seconds to only 1.148 seconds at the finish. Tomac has officially led 30, yes THIRTY, of 42 laps so far during the two races this season. 

I don’t want to get ahead of myself here, but I would say Webb is in this for the long haul. Him and Tomac are the only two racers with average laptimes below 51s; that’s a statement for Webb, IMO. Tomac most certainly looks insanely phenomenal, but we all know how pressure has affected him in the past. I personally think he’s past that stage, but who knows. We’re hopefully in for a very interesting season between these two. Remember those 7 rounds in SLC in 2020? Yea, let’s do that again, all season.

San Diego also proved Barcia, Roczen, and Sexton can be right there, and if Malcolm Stewart gets a few glitches sorted out with IT, he has the ability to do some massive damage as well. Luckily, there won’t be another unforeseen break in the schedule, so we’re officially only 6 days away from getting our next supercross fix! 

Oh, there’s a 250 class, too? They say it throughout the broadcast, so no need to beat the horse here, but yes Jett is Jetterational. Hampshire and McAdoo looked poised and so incredibly fast, but Holy Down Under Jettson just makes it look like a cakewalk. Or maybe it’s donutwalk in his case? It’s definitely a “go back and do some homework” type of week if we want those boys to have a chance at chipping away at Lawrence.