BEST IN THE PITS | 2022 ANAHEIM 1 SUPERCROSS
Factory and privateer supported teams trickled into the 2022 Anaheim 1 Supercross pits on Thursday January 6th to prepare for the Monster Energy Supercross season opener this Saturday. Excitement levels are high for this season with many riders having either switched teams, switched trainers or have stuck with the same team, but switched to all-new motorcycles (example: Red Bull KTM and Rockstar Husky). The Motocross Action wrecking crew is ready to cover the 2022 SX season with full force, see below for up close detail photos of Eli Tomac’s and Dylan Ferrandis’ new Star Racing Yamaha YZ450F’s, Alex Martin’s ClubMX Yamaha YZ450F, Justin Bogle’s Twisted Tea Suzuki RMZ450, Mitchell Harrison’s AJE GasGas MC 250F and more from the pits at Anaheim.
Photos by Trevor Nelson & Josh Mosiman
Some last-minute EFI tuning on Jason Anderson’s factory KX450.
Here’s an up close shot of the new electric water pump on the Star Racing Yamaha 250s. They claim it reduces coolant temperatures by 20-degrees, decreasing rotating mass and load on the engine and increases horsepower. Honda first came out with this mid-outdoors last season on Jett Lawrence’s bike and now Star Racing Yamaha, BarX Suzuki and MotoConcepts Honda have it on their bikes.
Nate Thrasher’s Star Racing YZ250F.
Surprisingly, Colt Nichols isn’t running the electric water pump on his YZ250F because he doesn’t need the extra power. Nichols actually detunes his YZ250F to make it more manageable on Supercross.
Our video guy Travis Fant getting the shots for another round of Inside the Pro’s Bikes videos.
A fresh set of Gaerne SG12’s ready for action.
A1 is finally here!
Some tweaks on Jett Lawrence’s bike even though he isn’t racing A1 due to an injury.
Christian Craig and family strolling into A1.
Up close with Malcolm Stewart’s factory FC450 engine.
Justin Barcia’s GasGas MC 450F has a secret GoPro mount in the front number plate now that the AMA isn’t allowing GoPro’s to be mounted on helmets for safety reasons.
Carson Mumford’s BarX Suzuki RM-Z250.
Ken Roczen’s factory HRC CRF450.
The KTM challenge electric bikes and their generators underneath.
The PC bikes.
Lots of vent holes on the airbox cover of Michael Mosiman’s GasGas MC 250F.
Mitchell Oldenburg’s Smartop CRF450.
Adam Ciancirulo’s mechanic Justin Shantie getting the bike ready for press day.
It’s going to take some time to get used to seeing the #14 and #3 together under one rig… Wait, that happened before didn’t it? Yep. Kevin Windham and Eli Tomac both rode under the Factory Connection Geico Honda rig during Windham’s final seasons.
Chase Sexton’s HRC Honda.
Hunter Lawrence’s Cycra shrouds have some additional protection.
Olly Stone (left) and Derik Dwyer (right) both are new to the GasGas team. Olly worked at Pro Circuit Kawasaki for 9 years before becoming Justin Barcia’s mechanic for 2022 and Derik Dwyer was with Jeremy Martin for a few years before joining TLD as Pierce Brown’s mechanic.
Jalek Swoll is the lone Rockstar Husky FC250 rider for the West coast. RJ Hampshire and Stilez Robertson are racing East.
Michael Mosiman’s GasGas with his new number for 2022.
Nate Thrasher’s KYB fork caps.
Shiny rigs and massive stadiums. Yep, Supercross is back!
Tomac’s YZ450F is fitted with a factory FMF muffler that’s made shorter than the regular FMF muffler.
Alex Martin’s FMF muffler sticks out further than Tomac’s.
Up close on Tomac’s engine.
The other side of Eli’s engine. Notice the beautiful titanium bolts.
Eli Tomac’s new race bike is mean looking.
Eli Tomac’s YZ450F air box cover looks stock from the side, but it has a neat little custom cut-out in the front.
Carson Brown earned a fill-in ride with the new AEO KTM team for 2022 when Ty Masterpool and Austin Black were injured.
Sadly, PRMX’s star rider Justin Hill is out for the season opener due to a shoulder injury.
Justin Bogle’s new Twisted Tea RMZ450 ready to go. We saw him breaking this bike in on Wednesday at Lake Elsinore.
Justin Bogle’s Yoshimura RS-12 muffler.
Justin Bogle’s ride underneath the Anaheim A.
That’s a lot of EZ-UPs! The TPJ rig is ready for another season of Supercross with support from Fly Racing.
This sign is synonymous with Supercross.
Alex Martin’s ClubMX Yamaha YZ450F.
The ClubMX team has grown a lot since you saw them last. They have new sponsors and a new rig for 2022. They bought the old Geico Honda rig.
Cameron Callaghan is Alex Martin’s mechanic under the ClubMX rig. He was helping their team truck driver Joe Danno setup their new rig on Thursday.
The Twisted Tea Suzuki rig.
Taylor Muto was once a mechanic for MXA’s Josh Mosiman. Now he’s been with the BarX Suzuki team for a few years.
The Troy Lee Designs rig is always one of the most flashy in the pits.
Dylan Ferrandis’ YZ450F.
Eli Tomac has his map switch on the handlebars while Ferrandis has his mounted into the handlebar pad.
It’s all in the details…
The beautiful HRC Honda rig.
The Smartop MotoConcepts Honda rig.
Eli Tomac’s YZ450F from behind. Does this look more narrow than a stock YZ450F to you?
The AJE GasGas team has Mitchell Harrison (64), Chris Blose (66) and Mitchell Falk (612) riding for the team in 2022.
Matching FMF exhausts on the AJE GasGas rides.
There are new protocols for Covid testing at Supercross in 2022. The riders, family of riders, mechanics, crew members and members of the media that are vaccinated are allowed to have a season pass for the 17-round series where they can by-pass the Covid testing fees and lines each weekend. For the riders, crew members and other working members that aren’t vaccinated, they need to be tested each weekend for a $50 fee.
This is the rig used for covid testing.
Underneath the Star Racing Yamaha 450 rig.
“Big Wave Dave” is one of the truck drivers for the Rockstar Husqvarna team.
The famous Angels A sign.
The AJE team is using WP XACT Pro Cone Valve forks with stock GasGas MC 250F shocks. They also have carbon fiber engine mounts.
The AJE GasGas bikes have many P3 Carbon fiber covers.
The AJE team also has some factory looking teflon covers over the exposed wires.
Red Bull KTM is ready to unload their rig on Friday. Stay tuned as we continue to update this article with more pit photos from Anaheim.
