The gates have dropped and the 2023 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship is in full swing! With lots of storylines coming from the Anaheim 1 Supercross over the weekend, we fired off several questions to former long-time pro racer Jason Thomas.

Talk about the insane track conditions, specifically the toughest areas and what that leads to with the dynamics of the race.

With so much rain leading up to the event, the base soil was thoroughly soaked simply from a lack of drainage. Luckily, Feld Motor Sports had gotten the track crew inside Angel Stadium early enough to build and cover the jumps, protecting them from the deluge. The tough part of that is the transition between the soft base soil and where it meets the dry, hard jumps. A ledge forms at that transition point and riders often refer to this as a “g-out.” Those “g-out” sections were the culprit for most of the mistakes we witnessed all day and night. There is simply nothing that can be done other than continual track work when possible. Riders will often stiffen their fork setting to compensate for the harsh impact of the ledge but when trying to seat bounce triples, a stiffer setting will only help so much.

Eli Tomac crashed and still won on the new Yamaha YZ450F. Does this mean he’s good to go?

He was wildly impressive. Remember, he had never won Anaheim 1 and somehow only had one podium in nine previous attempts. To see him at the front all afternoon, win his heat race, and win despite a crash had to be troubling for his rivals. He’s usually a “start slow and then slowly ramp up” guy. Being that good this early is a scary proposition.