Detroit SX was the, get ready for this, tenth round of Monster Energy AMA Supercross. Like, where did the time go? The weather was cold outside, but Ford Field is a good venue for supercross—the crowd is passionate and the stadium is nice. But it’s hard to not look back at the old Pontiac Silverdome days and go into a “remember when...” mode because that building and those races seemed pretty special for sure.
I didn’t go to Detroit due to outrageous airline ticket prices (seriously, what’s going on with these things these days?) but I do have some Observations from watching it on TV, which you probably already knew.
This weekend a rider grabbed the lead right away, put down some blistering laps and pulled away. He HAD it. The win was there, a lap and a half to go, and he threw it away with a big crash. No, this was NOT Chase Sexton folks, this was Aaron Plessinger. This time Sexton was the rider who benefited from and grabbed the win!
Truthfully, it was about time for Sexton. He’s been the fastest guy many weekends but yeah, we’ve talked enough about that. This weekend in Detroit he went from seventh to second and was cutting into AP’s lead. It’s got to feel pretty good for Sexton to get the win but as with all things Chase Sexton, it came with a price.
He jumped while the red cross flag was out while in second and lost seven points (obviously he kept the win). He definitely jumped on it, the lights were on and the riders behind him rolled the jump. He was in the wrong for sure and I think the punishment was appropriate. The AMA redid this rule a few years back and made it more cut-and-dried depending on whether you gained a spot or not jumping. Basically, if you don't gain a position, then you get penalized the points equivalent of two positions plus two additional points.
We had Lars Lindstrom on the PulpMX Show Monday, and he admitted that yes, Chase should be penalized for his infraction but why should the number of points lost be dependent on the position you’re in? Like, it’s a three-point gap from first to second then two points down to fifth. So, Sexton was seven points per the rule (two positions AND another two-point deduction) as the gap to third (two positions) was five points and then the extra deduction but if Freddie Noren does the same thing to Kyle Chisholm in 13th, he’s docked four points (two positions from fifth on back is one point and then the extra two point deduction). Both riders committed the same infraction, and we want to stop that, so why does the rule hurt Sexton more? Why does the same infraction incur a larger penalty if you're further toward the front of the pack, where the points gaps between positions are larger?
I do like that the AMA has a hard and fast rule in the books for this, it was too vague before. We just need to adjust it to make it a universal five or four points or whatever.
I still think this is a positive for Aaron Plessinger folks. I know, it was the story of the night that he crashed with one-and-a-half laps to go and threw away the win. He was riding SO well! It was awesome, everyone loves AP. Seriously, I’ve never heard a team, sponsor, media member, or anyone say a bad word about Plessinger. He’s a good dude. We all wanted this. It would’ve been a great story and then, yeah, we saw what happened.
We had Plessinger on the PulpMX Show Monday and incredibly, he said he was fine from the crash. That was a big one for sure! He also took the positive from it in that he ran away from the series’ best racers for 19 minutes. It’s like Dodgeball: “If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.” Plessinger did this once, he can do it again.
His attitude was pretty upbeat (it’s AP, what did you expect?) and he mentioned he was pretty much over the disappointment once he got back to the truck. Hey, it happens. Here’s the thing though, my buddy Timmy Ferry once had a nice lead at Pontiac with 2.5 laps to go and threw it away. It sucked for sure, but we all thought, well he’ll win another one at some point. But he never did. So, the lesson is, you never, ever know, you know?
(Speaking of the great Tim Ferry, please read my 15 Reasons story on Timmy, which we posted on Saturday to mark his birthday. Great read if I say so myself!)
Cooper Webb rode well to get second on the night and he did what Webb does. He never looked great in the whoops, but he just slowly worked his way up and put himself in a good spot. He also widened his points lead which is always a good thing right? Eli Tomac was second at one point, Justin Barcia was looking good for second as well but in the end, it was Webb. That’s SO Cooper Webb, right? And yes, I get it that he was actually third because of the AP crash. We get it.
Tomac was…okay? Coming off Indy, his worst 450SX race maybe since 2021 when he was on the Kawasaki, ET said he had a neck issue last week and was better this week but not yet 100 percent. He got into second and then, got passed? Barcia and Webb went by the champ pretty easily, maybe a little too easily for my liking. We were waiting for a rebound from Tomac and I’m not sure we got a full rebound from him. Maybe a half a rebound? But again, he wasn’t 100 percent according to him so let’s push this convo another week, okay?
Hunter Lawrence was great again. He’s led every lap for the last three races and has this title thing on lock. Well, ask Austin Forkner about titles on lock I suppose as in, you never know. But he looks great, the bikes look really good, and something I mentioned to Lindstrom on the PulpMX show was the improvement on the bikes from the GEICO Honda days to when HRC took over the program. Lindstrom was pretty diplomatic about the obvious improvement but mentioned that having just two riders instead of the seven or whatever GEICO had, is a big reason.
Last week I thought if Nate Thrasher or maybe Jordon Smith had gotten the start on the treacherous track then they could’ve won. But this week, no. Hunter was the best 250SX rider in Detroit. Thrasher rode well but he was just the runner up on this night.
What was that heat race about between Jordon Smith and Haiden Deegan? Yeah, we’ve all broken that down a bunch but that was weird. Smith doesn’t know what the deal was there, but it definitely seemed like Haiden had it out for him. It’s a heat race! Slowing down, slamming your teammate in a turn and all that is cheeseball dash for cash AX stuff seems weird in a supercross heat race. Jordon isn’t innocent either, but I mean, it’s a heat race! Wow. Alex Martin was on the PulpMX Show and said, in his opinion, it’s “Lord of the Flies” over there at Star Yamaha and he didn’t think anyone would pull Haiden aside to chide him for that kind of riding. I don’t know, it was WAY too far in my opinion for a heat race with a teammate.
And you’d think for someone who grew up with a camera in his face Haiden would be a bit better at handling the question about the heat race in the press conference but yeah, that wasn’t great. I mean, he’s 17 years old and we’ve all done dumb stuff at that age, so we’ll move on, but his antics in the heat and in the press conference took away from another great ride by him. Because in the main, he was rock solid again and got another podium.
The good news for Jeremy Martin is he won the heat race that Smith and Deegan threw away. The bad news for Martin is that he was in third for a while in the main and then Deegan hunted him down for that spot. Again. If you’re counting, that’s three times Haiden has got by Martin late in the race, versus one for Martin. Still though, Martin seems to be getting a little better here lately as he’s been off SX for so long. I’m sure that doesn’t make him happy but with Jerma, he’s just got to stay healthy for outdoors.
Justin Barcia was great again this weekend until about three-quarters into the main event when he lost a bit of flow and all the guys, he’d passed got him back. Looked to have a podium finish on lock especially when you thought about the way he’s been riding lately. Still, a good race for the 51 again.
Adam Cianciarulo led a lap! Good for AC and the gang green and yeah, he definitely seemed to get a bit pushed around until he settled into his spot. Then he crashed on same section that eventually bit Aaron Plessinger and that was all she wrote. Still, like last week I think this is a positive for Cianciarulo and when do “we” think that he’s just going to get his raw speed back that we’ve seen before? A nagging wrist injury and the desire to not crash have hurt him a bit in this regard.
His teammate, Jason Anderson, looked to be set up for a good night with a heat race win but yeah, a bad start and a crash later and there you go. Can’t do that against these guys. Just one guy, and his name is Chase Sexton, can rip through the pack these days.
Some other news and notes:
I stated early on that Josh Cartwright is the winner of the most improved 450SX rider of the year and I stand by that, but Grant Harlan is making a strong claim here lately. Harlan’s been moving forward in the heats and he’s a regular in the mains as well. Solid islander for sure. Hawaii must be proud!
Jeremy Hand might be the award winner in the 250SX east class. Michael Hicks has set three straight career-best finishes so maybe he’s the guy but to me, Hicks was always in the mains, but Hand was sort of 50/50 to make it until this year.
Another good week for the Hill brothers, who I wrote about last week. We learned from the SX folks that this is the first set of brothers to be top ten in the 450SX class since, like, 1974 or something. Pretty remarkable story here for both of them, can’t deny that.
Zombie [Chris Blose] is getting better here, just in time for the series to take a break which kind of sucks for him. Sucks for him that when he got this chance of a lifetime with a Monster Energy Pro Circuit bike, he was literally coming off the couch. But he’s getting there.
Props to the Phoenix Honda guys. Coty Schock, Cullin Park, Jace Owen, and Caden Braswell have been really doing well with just getting into the top ten or better. Braswell has been improving a lot lately and was running tenth for a long time this week. Also, the team’s AX rider, Kyle Peters, won his fourth AX title in a row last weekend.
I’ve talked and written about Shane McElrath getting better here as he gets more time on the Suzuki and tests a bit and that’s all true, but this week, whether it was qualifying or the main, he wasn’t his usual self. We’re onto Seattle…
Thanks for reading OBS, I’m back at the races this week in Seattle so hopefully we’ll see some of you there! Email me matthes@racerxonline.com if you want to chat about this race or whatever else.