Houston, Texas is the stage for round four of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship and SuperMotocross World Championship. NRG Stadium marks the first time the series has been out of California and the championship points are starting to settle in. Today is also the first Triple Crown race of the year as well as being the second round of SMX Next. Stay tuned for all the action from today.
450 CLASS
All three main events brought the heat tonight with Ken Roczen starting race one with a win. Roczen is always one to watch in the shortened mains and it’s no surprise to see him grab the win to start off the night. Chase Sexton hung tough for second with Eli Tomac rounding out the podium in third. Hunter Lawrence crashed out of his position in race one and is making things hard on himself right off the start.
Race two saw the fireworks with Hunter Lawrence making up for his crash in race one. The Honda HRC rider started second and stalked the early leader Jorge Prado for the first 10 laps. Lawrence finally made the move and finished the main in first after 17 laps. After his crash in race one, he’s back in the hunt for the overall.
Cooper Webb jumped to second at the checkers. The reigning number-one had some serious speed towards the end of the race and passed Prado in quick succession behind Hunter Lawrence. Webb’s 4-2 give him six points heading into race three. Prado held on for third after grabbing the holeshot and leading the first half of the race.
Big news from race two was Eli Tomac’s huge get off through the rhythm section while running sixth. He bailed off the bike but remounted unscathed and finished 13th. Tomac was in the mix with Roczen and Justin Cooper but the big crash will likely hinder his overall score.
Tomac fired back in the final race of the night with the holeshot and the win. He battled shortly with Jason Anderson for the race lead but Tomac reclaimed the top spot and ran away with the win by over seconds. Even with the win, Tomac’s scores of 3-13-1 put him fourth on the night. Tomac still leads the points standings by four over Hunter Lawrence.
Hunter Lawrence rode his way to second in race three and second overall. The main two winner was in the running for the night’s win but Cooper and Roczen’s results played against his hand. Lawrence couldn’t track down Tomac in end but he still held on for second overall with 7-1-2 scores. He technically tied on points with Roczen but got the tie breaker and now jumps to second in the championship.
Cooper Webb and Ken Roczen went at it for third and fourth on track with the overall win hanging in the balance. Webb’s pass on Roczen put him just one point ahead in the overall rankings with Roczen and Lawrence sitting tied for second. Roczen stayed close but wasn’t able to respond, giving Webb the edge for the night. This marks Webb’s first win of the season and he moves to fifth in the championship.
“This feels amazing,” Webb said. “Honestly, it’s weird not to win [a race], but I’ll take any skin I can get right now. It’s been a really tough month mentally, physically, and emotionally. Even yesterday was a rough day. Just to come in here today and make this happen means so much. It’s never over. I thought last week might be the nail in the coffin, but that’s a Cooper Webb move to come back a week later, put myself in a good position, and win.”
“This could have been my night,” Roczen said. “I got a little bit held up by my teammate [Anderson] and that forced me into a couple mistakes where I lost the rhythm and two positions. Here we are, back in third place. It’s the difference between catching Cooper [Webb] and winning and doing what I did.”
“The first [race] is where it all went bad for me,” Lawrence said. “Just a silly little mistake. I’m happy with how the night went from that point on. I rode really well and this format is one of the tougher ones for me. Short duration sprints don’t come easy to me. I’m pretty happy with how it went after the first [race] and what could have been. We did good damage control and pulled four points back on the lead.”
“That was such a high-speed on-off there, the triple on-off, and in the transition, I ended up stomping on my rear brake,” Tomac said. “Thankfully, I was able to get through my bars – I was like, ‘Wow, I really need to step through my bars right now.’ I felt a little tag by the bike, but the limbs are good, I’m good, and I’m excited I was able to get that rebound in the final race. If I’m going to toss one away, this is the one to do it at, and I’m just happy to get fourth overall, because that was a ride.”
450SMX OVERALL RESULTS (Top 10)
| 1. | Cooper Webb | (Yam) | 4-3-2 |
| 2. | Hunter Lawrence | (Hon) | 7-1-2 |
| 3. | Ken Roczen | (Suz) | 1-5-4 |
| 4. | Eli Tomac | (KTM) | 3-13-1 |
| 5. | Chase Sexton | (Kaw) | 2-9-6 |
| 6. | Jason Anderson | (Suz) | 6-7-5 |
| 7. | Jorge Prado | (KTM) | 5-3-11 |
| 8. | Malcolm Stewart | (Hus) | 8-6-10 |
| 9. | Justin Cooper | (Yam) | 9-4-12 |
| 10. | Dylan Ferrandis | (Duc) | 11-10-7 |
250 CLASS
Haiden Deegan continues to tighten his grip on the 250 West points lead. The Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha rider made it three wins in a row and captured all three individual wins on Saturday night. Simply put, Deegan dominated every time he hit the track.
He posted the fastest qualifying lap and took first for each of the checkered flags. It wasn’t as easy as it looks on paper either. He passed his way into the lead during race two and three and saw brief battles with the likes of Levi Kitchen and Max Anstie. Deegan made quick work of the other riders and a perfect score sees him 19 points up in the overall point standings.
“I’m just trying to get into the lead and win races,” Deegan said. “I’m down with cat and mouse [with Kitchen]. Aggressive is pretty much my middle name at this point. It was a good race and it was nice to hear some cheers out there. I appreciate that. I tried to make it entertaining for them and hope they enjoyed it.”
Levi Kitchen grabbed his first podium of the year with a second place finish. Kitchen was picked to be a title contender but falls in the first three races have set him back significantly. This week he flipped the script and used the consistency we expected to see at the start of the season. Kitchen showed some good fight and put his Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki up front for 2-2-3 finishes. Good starts and podiums in all three main events made him a shoe-in for a spot on the overall box but he’s still seventh in the 250 West point standings.
“It’s been a rough start to the season,” Kitchen said. “I’m pretty happy with tonight, to just get a couple good starts and kind of feel that pace. Haiden is riding phenomenal and I’m just trying to go out there and do my best.”
Cameron McAdoo made it two Kawasaki’s on the overall podium with his third place finish. Thanks to his consistency on the night, McAdoo took 3-3-4 scores and trailed his teammate Kitchen in each main event. A holeshot in race two was a highlight for the Iowa native and the final race of the night saw the closest battle between the two Kawasaki teammates. This marks McAdoo’s second podium of the season and the 25th podium of his career. This moves him into fourth all-time, only five behind Nathan Ramsey for the all-time record.
“It was frustrating last weekend to lose the podium the way I did towards the end,” McAdoo said. “I love these Triple Crowns. I love the pressure of three [races] and was able to execute every time. It was a fun night and awesome to put a couple Pro Circuit bikes on the podium.”
Max Vohland ran up front and finished fourth overall thanks to 5-6-4 scores. He was later docked three championship points for failing the sound check after the race.
“Steady progress over the last few weeks,” Vohland said. “Stoked on my starts all night, started up front and got to lead some laps which I haven’t done in a while. Felt comfortable with being up front, just made some mistakes in the rhythms that cost me positions all night but that’s a part of learning and getting better.”
Ryder DiFrancesco rounded out the top five overall with 6-5-5 finishes.
“The track was tough tonight,” DiFrancesco said “It was super-technical and fast, and you needed to concentrate a lot on hitting your marks every lap. There weren’t a lot of passing opportunities, so where you started made it tough to move forward. We need to clean a couple of things up, be a little more consistent with my laps.”
Max Anstie finished second in the final race but took sixth overall. He beat out Hunter Yoder, Michael Mosiman, Parker Ross, and Carson Mumford for the top 10.
250SMX OVERALL RESULTS (Top 10)
| 1. | Haiden Deegan | (Yam) | 1-1-1 |
| 2. | Levi Kitchen | (Kaw) | 2-2-3 |
| 3. | Cameron McAdoo | (Kaw) | 3-3-4 |
| 4. | Max Vohland | (Yam) | 5-4-6 |
| 5. | Ryder DiFrancesco | (Hus) | 6-5-5 |
| 6. | Max Anstie | (Yam) | 10-6-2 |
| 7. | Hunter Yoder | (Yam) | 8-7-7 |
| 8. | Michael Mosiman | (Yam) | 4-14-8 |
| 9. | Parker Ross | (Yam) | 9-8-9 |
| 10. | Carson Mumford | (KTM) | 7-9-15 |
QUALIFYING
Eli Tomac is back on top here in Texas as the points leader once again set the fastest lap in qualifying. Tomac and his KTM seem to be a match made in heaven as his time was quicker than second place by nearly half a second. Last week’s winner Chase Sexton qualified second just one-tenth clear of Hunter Lawrence in third. To put it in perspective, second through 14th place were all on the 47-second mark. That’s close.
450SMX OVERALL QUALIFYING RESULTS (Top 10)
| 1. | Eli Tomac | (KTM) | 46.684 |
| 2. | Chase Sexton | (Kaw) | 47.097 |
| 3. | Hunter Lawrence | (Hon) | 47.176 |
| 4. | Ken Roczen | (Suz) | 47.211 |
| 5. | Justin Cooper | (Yam) | 47.245 |
| 6. | Jorge Prado | (KTM) | 47.292 |
| 7. | Cooper Webb | (Yam) | 47.364 |
| 8. | Jason Anderson | (Suz) | 47.522 |
| 9. | Dylan Ferrandis | (Duc) | 47.705 |
| 10. | Malcolm Stewart | (Hus) | 47.734 |
250 QUALIFYING
Points leader Haiden Deegan set the pace here in Houston with the fastest time of any 250 rider. He was just two-tenths faster than Levi Kitchen who returns today after DNF’ing last weekend’s round three. Ryder DiFrancesco rounded out the top three and is looking good after another podium one week ago. Where was Chance Hymas? The Honda HRC rider suffered an injury to his shoulder during the first turn at A2 and is out for the rest of the Supercross season.
250SMX OVERALL QUALIFYING RESULTS (Top 10)
| 1. | Haiden Deegan | (Yam) | 47.554 |
| 2. | Levi Kitchen | (Kaw) | 47.745 |
| 3. | Ryder Difrancesco | (Hus) | 47.790 |
| 4. | Max Anstie | (Yam) | 48.072 |
| 5. | Michael Mosiman | (Yam) | 48.337 |
| 6. | Cameron McAdoo | (Kaw) | 48.568 |
| 7. | Hunter Yoder | (Yam) | 48.995 |
| 8. | Carson Mumford | (KTM) | 49.081 |
| 9. | Max Vohland | (Yam) | 49.095 |
| 10. | Dilan Schwartz | (Yam) | 49.129 |
