The rains came down in Seattle two weekends ago, and the snow definitely came down in Minneapolis this past weekend. Thankfully, it only mattered to the riders who had to ride their bikes from their semis across the street into the stadium.

Minneapolis was also the location of the final Triple Crown race of the season, and it was just as good as the other three. In six races between the 250 and 450 class, we saw six different riders take the checkered flag. Eli Tomac walked away with the first race win, the 450 overall, and the Triple Crown Championship that nobody knew about, while Jeremy Martin got the 250 win in front of his hometown crowd.

Let’s dive into the lap data to figure out how these races were won and lost with this week’s Sign of the (Lap) Times. First, our traditional lap time charts.

450SX Class — Main Event 1 — Lap Times

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	On Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	1st	49.407	3	50.151	Eli Tomac
2	2nd	49.658	3	50.405	Jason Anderson
t-3	3rd	49.712	4	50.574	Justin Barcia
t-3	6th	49.766	4	50.931	Blake Baggett
5	4th	49.820	4	50.620	Justin Brayton
6	5th	49.874	5	50.689	Weston Peick
7	7th	50.006	9	51.690	Marvin Musquin
8	15th	50.164	5	52.700	Malcolm Stewart
9	8th	50.786	5	51.711	Tyler Bowers
10	14th	50.851	3	52.614	Christian Craig
11	9th	50.919	9	52.271	Dean Wilson
12	13th	51.240	7	52.778	Kyle Cunningham
13	10th	51.272	9	52.372	Benny Bloss
14	12th	51.623	4	52.890	Chad Reed
15	11th	51.626	5	52.881	Vince Friese
16	18th	52.047	5	55.284	Ben LaMay
17	16th	52.317	3 & 4	55.371	Cedric Soubeyras
18	17th	53.639	6	56.086	Henry Miller
19	19th	54.158	4	58.544	Dakota Tedder
20	20th	54.314	3	59.673	Deven Raper
21	21st	56.134	4	1:01.663	Theodore Pauli
22	22nd	DNF	DNF	DNF	Cooper Webb

450SX Class — Main Event 2 — Lap Times

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	On Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	6th	50.450	3	52.010	Jason Anderson
2	5th	50.701	4	52.282	Blake Baggett
3	2nd	50.716	4	51.754	Justin Brayton
4	1st	50.722	14	51.560	Marvin Musquin
5	3rd	50.802	6	51.643	Weston Peick
6	4th	50.819	5	51.665	Eli Tomac
7	10th	51.221	8	53.444	Christian Craig
8	7th	51.249	4	52.415	Justin Barcia
9	9th	51.444	16	52.420	Dean Wilson
10	8th	51.537	6	52.544	Tyler Bowers
11	14th	51.872	7	53.601	Benny Bloss
12	12th	51.904	8	53.639	Malcolm Stewart
13	11th	52.313	7	53.490	Vince Friese
14	13th	52.635	3	53.774	Chad Reed
15	15th	52.753	9	53.840	Kyle Cunningham
16	16th	53.103	6	55.674	Cedric Soubeyras
17	17th	54.541	5	57.163	Ben LaMay
18	19th	55.811	4	58.188	Dakota Tedder
19	18th	55.988	5	57.935	Henry Miller
20	20th	57.169	6	1:00.690	Theodore Pauli
21	21st	57.379	4	1:00.372	Deven Raper
22	22nd	DNS	DNS	DNS	Cooper Webb

450SX Class — Main Event 3 — Lap Times

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	On Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	1st	49.512	6	50.749	Jason Anderson
2	2nd	49.599	10	50.706	Marvin Musquin
3	3rd	49.665	4	51.245	Eli Tomac
4	5th	50.429	4	52.490	Justin Brayton
5	4th	50.510	6	52.094	Justin Barcia
6	6th	50.792	6	52.448	Tyler Bowers
7	11th	50.880	4	52.595	Weston Peick
8	8th	51.197	12	52.685	Benny Bloss
9	7th	51.239	6	52.507	Christian Craig
10	13th	51.503	15	52.705	Dean Wilson
11	12th	51.597	18	52.787	Blake Baggett
12	10th	51.651	12	52.976	Vince Friese
13	9th	51.762	5	52.951	Chad Reed
14	15th	51.848	4	55.894	Malcolm Stewart
15	16th	52.537	8	55.100	Kyle Cunningham
16	14th	53.578	5	55.649	Cedric Soubeyras
17	17th	53.846	4	56.458	Ben LaMay
18	18th	54.892	7	57.382	Henry Miller
19	20th	55.684	4	58.324	Dakota Tedder
20	21st	55.971	3	56.850	Deven Raper
21	19th	56.192	5	59.609	Theodore Pauli
22	22nd	DNS	DNS	DNS	Cooper Webb

250SX Class — Main Event 1 — Lap Times

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	On Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	3rd	48.919	5	50.182	Jeremy Martin
2	1st	49.038	5	50.132	Austin Forkner
3	2nd	49.257	4	50.267	Jordon Smith
4	4th	50.217	6	51.985	Zach Osborne
5	7th	51.080	4	52.418	Michael Mosiman
6	5th	51.442	3	52.432	Sean Cantrell
7	6th	51.704	4	52.660	Anthony Rodriguez
8	9th	51.786	8	53.495	Josh Osby
9	17th	51.805	5	53.549	Jacob Williamson
10	16th	51.834	3	53.117	Brandon Hartranft
11	12th	52.082	5	54.307	Keith Tucker
12	8th	52.209	4	53.766	Thomas Ramette
13	10th	52.597	5	54.117	Luke Renzland
14	19th	53.143	7	55.884	Lorenzo Locurcio
15	11th	53.618	7	54.067	John Short
16	14th	53.754	3	55.542	Josh Cartwright
17	13th	53.830	4	54.957	Cody Vanbuskirk
18	15th	53.882	4	55.445	Vann Martin
19	21st	54.058	3	56.115	Ramyller Alves
20	20th	54.120	3	56.189	Zack Williams
21	18th	54.309	4	55.792	Wilson Fleming
22	22nd	DNF	DNF	DNF	Kyle Peters

250SX Class — Main Event 2 — Lap Times

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	On Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	3rd	50.647	7	51.548	Jeremy Martin
2	1st	51.091	8	51.530	Zach Osborne
3	2nd	51.355	5	51.856	Jordon Smith
4	19th	52.679	6	53.483	Michael Mosiman
5	10th	52.838	9	54.782	Austin Forkner
6	4th	52.971	5	54.384	Sean Cantrell
7	15th	53.064	2	55.679	Thomas Ramette
8	5th	53.319	6	54.709	Brandon Hartranft
9	11th	53.664	6	55.636	Anthony Rodriguez
10	9th	54.008	6	55.588	Ramyller Alves
11	12th	54.102	7	55.994	Cody Vanbuskirk
12	7th	54.158	6	55.379	Jacob Williamson
13	13th	54.374	8	56.151	Lorenzo Locurcio
14	8th	54.599	7	55.598	John Short
15	6th	54.615	3	55.199	Josh Osby
16	14th	55.513	7	56.672	Zack Williams
17	17th	55.842	7	57.887	Josh Cartwright
18	18th	55.713	2	59.065	Keith Tucker
19	16th	56.163	4	57.154	Vann Martin
20	20th	DNS	DNS	DNS	Luke Renzland
21	21st	DNS	DNS	DNS	Wilson Fleming
22	22nd	DNS	DNS	DNS	Kyle Peters

250SX Class — Main Event 3 — Lap Times

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	On Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	2st	49.595	6	51.610	Zach Osborne
2	1nd	49.943	6	51.092	Jeremy Martin
3	19th	51.302	4	52.155	Austin Forkner
4	3rd	51.321	6	52.760	Jordon Smith
5	5th	52.647	6	54.506	Sean Cantrell
6	10th	53.148	13	55.110	Michael Mosiman
7	4th	53.211	6	54.212	Brandon Hartranft
8	6th	53.259	7	54.681	Anthony Rodriguez
9	7th	53.843	12	54.980	Thomas Ramette
10	8th	53.902	8	55.052	John Short
11	9th	53.930	11	55.453	Josh Osby
t-12	12th	54.422	3	56.051	Jacob Williamson
t-12	13th	54.422	8	55.949	Zack Williams
14	15th	54.650	7	56.485	Lorenzo Locurcio
15	14th	55.014	4	56.549	Cody Vanbuskirk
16	16th	55.080	4	56.916	Keith Tucker
17	17th	55.220	6	57.234	Josh Cartwright
18	18th	55.366	5	57.393	Vann Martin
19	11th	53.928	10	55.835	Ramyller Alves
20	20th	DNS	DNS	DNS	Luke Renzland
21	21st	DNS	DNS	DNS	Wilson Fleming
22	22nd	DNS	DNS	DNS	Kyle Peters

Musquin vs. Brayton: race 2

The second 450 race was the best one of the night. Justin Brayton, who has become a crowd favorite pretty much everywhere he goes, got out front early and looked to have a good chance at the race win as he fended off Jason Anderson on lap nine and had a decent gap on the rest of the field. Then Anderson rushed a pass attempt and ended up off the track. But Marvin Musquin was lurking.

After a poor performance in the first race that Musquin attributed to a some bad bike settings, he found his rhythm halfway through the second race and started to make up some big chunks on Brayton, who was uncharacteristically struggling to put together consistent laps. Musquin went from fifth place on lap eight to first place on lap 13. Take a look at how his times compared to Brayton's throughout the race.

Tomac: Moto 3

One potential downside of the Triple Crown format that many have pointed out is that you can run into situations where the riders won't push as hard in the third race because they may already have the overall win locked up. We saw this happen with Tomac in the final race, as he knew that he just needed to get around Brayton for third place and the overall would be his.

Looking at his lap times, you can see he really backed it down on the last three laps, which he confirmed in the post race press conference. "Yeah. I knew when Brayton was in front of me, that wasn’t a position I wanted to be in. Then once I got to third, I was like, it’s good enough. Not until the last two laps, I really went into full conservation mode there. So I was trying to charge behind Marv there, doing what I could. I think we were behind Brayton on the option lane when Marvin got by me. That’s what shuffled me back. We lost touch with Jason and he was gone. Just gave it my all, but that was that."

LCQ Madness

If you weren't tuned into Race Day Live on Saturday afternoon, you missed one hell of a 450SX LCQ. Henry Miller and Kyle Cunningham had uneventful races out front, but the real battle was for the final two transfer spots between Deven Raper, Theodore Pauli, and Alex Ray. If you haven't seen it yet, go to the 4:28:00 mark of the stream below.

The three riders finished just 0.839 seconds apart from each other. Alex Ray put on a pretty epic charge to come back from a crash on lap three to just 0.2 seconds behind Pauli, who took the final transfer spot into the night show. Take a look at how each of their races broke down.

The Weather

Even though it didn't have any effect on the race, the weather was one of the most talked-about things of the weekend. In total, the storm dumped 15.8" of snow on Minneapolis, the 12th most on record, with an average temperature of 26 degrees Fahrenheit and winds up to 33 miles per hour. It's not the craziest snowstorm ever, but it is pretty wild when you consider it all happened in the middle of April.

In the end, a decent number of fans still showed up to watch the race, and only a few rental cars got stuck on their way back to the airport. Hopefully the weather stays away this weekend in Foxborough, where the roofless stadium won't be as kind to the track.

Sign of the (Lap) Times: Minneapolis