The controversy surrounding the pass that Jason Anderson made on Justin Barcia during the Jan. 21 Monster Energy AMA Supercross in San Diego, Calif., carried over to the series’ visit to Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif., this weekend.
Following his move past Barcia in their heat race at SnapDragon Stadium in San Diego, Anderson posted a confrontational tweet about the No. 51 TLD/Red Bull/GAS GAS rider. Anderson called out Barcia’s similarly aggressive riding style and stated that Barcia had no room to complain about the pass.
Though the tweet was aired live during the television broadcast, Anderson had taken down the post by the end of the race.
In Anaheim, while the two riders were not involved in an on-track battle during the three-race Triple Crown event, talk of the incident extended into Saturday night’s post-race press conference. Anderson, who finished second overall in the Triple Crown on his No. 21 Monster Energy Kawasaki machine, explained his take on what happened in San Diego.
“I did tweet that and then the AMA came over and asked me to take it down,” Anderson said. “That was kind of surprising to me. It’s just whatever. At that point, I was like, I gotta focus on this main event and everything like that.
“At the end of the day, both he and I race pretty hard and I don’t think either of us have room to complain about any of that stuff that goes on. But for me, I’m just trying to move forward and trying to be the best me and just try to race.
“Obviously for us, we have to leave that stuff behind us to be successful and look forward. That’s just part of the mental game that we have to deal with as our career goes on,” Anderson added. “Sometimes it gets heated, and we definitely take stuff personal on the track out there, because there’s a lot at stake.”
As Anderson mentioned, the two riders are known for being unrelenting on the track — and sometimes, that involves banging handlebars and making contact. Due to those tendencies, Barcia has also become known by the nickname “Bam Bam” through his career.
During last week’s post-race press conference in San Diego, Barcia offered a similar response to Anderson when asked about the incident, stating a desire to “mature” and move past the situation.
“I didn’t complain at all,” Barcia claimed. “The AMA came over to the truck and asked what happened, and I told them he came over and cussed me out.
“Move on from it and let’s go racing. It’s a long season and I don’t feel like I need to pay [Anderson] back or anything, but I race hard, so let’s go … I want to have good racing all year with these guys.
“I wasn’t going to put any retaliation after, it was a solid pass. It was a bummer I went down, obviously, I was not happy, but I wasn’t going to go up to him and fight or do anything stupid.”