Roczen has won in Glendale once before, Tomac twice. Blake Baggett took his maiden 450SX class victory here last year and might be someone to keep an eye on after he nearly stole the show last week as well. As we move into practice today though, all eyes still remain on rookie Adam Cianciarulo who has been atop the time sheets eight out of the first nine sessions. 

Keep your eyes on this page today, as we’ll be updating you with practice and race reports all day long!

Free Practice

As usual the track here in Glendale features long lanes, thanks to a ton of floor space. There are three long rhythm lanes, a very long whoop section (fifteen whoops), and a ridiculously long start stretch that runs the entire length of the stadium. There’s also a pretty long left-hand sand section that that has an alternate entrance. Riders can either double into the outside or single into the inside of the turn. The dirt itself was pretty wet and soft during track walk, but no more than normal. If it develops as it usually does it’ll get pretty hard.

As far as practice goes, there wasn’t anything spectacular just yet, as riders were still figuring out different options and lines. Christian Craig seemed like he figured it out pretty fast and was fastest initially, recording a fast lap of 1:06.371. When it ended Justin Cooper was fastest though with a 1:05.969. 

In 450SX action, shocker, Adam Cianciarulo was fastest with a 1:04.637, just ahead of Ken Roczen’s 1:05.287. Malcolm Stewart, who is awesome in whoops, took advantage of the long whoop section to post a 1:05.306. It's going to be fun to watch him blast through them.

Qualifying – Session One

Christian Craig was fast initially in this one with a 1:06.504, but it was Justin Cooper who stole most of the attention early when he took a digger in the sand section and broke his visor. It took him a while to get up and rolling again, but he was eventually able to rejoin the session. Dylan Ferrandis, meanwhile, had unseated Craig up top with a 1:04.245, and a few laps later somehow managed to drop his time all the way down to 1:02.869, which would hold up for the remainder of the qualifier.

There were a bunch of crashes in this one, but you couldn’t pinpoint a single spot that was a problem area—the crashes were happening all over the place. Brandon Hartranft, Alex Martin, Cooper, Austin Forkner, Killian Auberson, Ferrandis, Craig, and more all found themselves in the dirt at one point or another.

When the 450s rolled out it was last year's Glendale winner, Blake Baggett, who nabbed the fastest time at first, a 1:05.629. But you knew Cianciarulo was going to throw in a heater sooner or later and he did on lap three, shooting to the top of the board with a 1:02.867. Later he lowered that time even more to a 1:02.530.

About halfway through this one a red flag was triggered when Benny Bloss went down hard. He laid on his back for at least fifteen seconds before moving. He was able to finally sit up but ended up leaving the track in the back of the Alpinestars Medical Mule. We’ll update you on this situation when we learn more. When qualifying resumed Eli Tomac propelled himself into second-fastest, but he was still over a second slower than Cianciarulo. The next rider to take a shot at Cianciarulo was Ken Roczen, who came much closer, but was still about a quarter of a second off AC’s pace.

As the session wore on more riders started quad’ing out of one of the longer rhythm lanes. Roczen, Cianciarulo, Justin Barcia, Baggett, Dean Wilson, and Justin Bogle all pulled the trigger on it. Bogle came up a little short, bounced, and went over the ensuing berm, leaving his bike tangled in the net backing the berm. Bogle went through the bottom of the net and landed on the dirt but popped back up pretty quickly. Stay tuned for the final set of qualifiers coming up to see if anyone can break Cianiciarulo’s hot streak.

Qualifying – Session Two

The final 250SX qualifying session got underway with a bang as the riders thundered into the first turn and into a rhythm lane. There was some bumping and banging and before he knew it, Christian Craig was on the ground. He was able to get up though, and after picking out some dirt from his machine he motored back into action. Up front, meanwhile, was Dylan Ferrandis, who’d turned a 1:02.666, but Justin Cooper knocked him off the top with a 1:02.332 on lap four. Ferrandis struck back one lap later though, logging a 1:02.064, which would hold up for the entirety of the session. Ferrandis and Cooper look great out there, and if Ferrandis is still bothered by what transpired last week he's not showing it.

When it was the 450s' turn Blake Baggett shot out to the lead, both on the track and on the stopwatch, but soon Eli Tomac charged to the top, but only briefly as his teammate, Adam Cianciarulo, almost immediately bested him by about half a second. Ken Roczen, whose bike is adorned with the red plates this week, was next to displace Cianciarulo, but just like he’d done with Tomac, Cianciarulo answered immediately, pushing Roczen out of the top spot. Tomac put in another flyer a moment later but it was about a tenth of a second slower than Cianciarulo’s fastest lap.

Don’t let the long, minute-plus lap times fool you—the guys are absolutely flying out there on this track. It’s just really long, thanks to how much floor space is available in this stadium.

Benny Bloss had a big crash in the first qualifier and didn’t return for the second. Word is he suffered a concussion and won’t be back for the night program. Also, Tomac told us he was feeling a little sick this morning and had a scratchy throat, but that his energy level was good.

Because tonight's program is a Triple Crown format there won't be any heat races and the top eighteen from qualifying advance to tonight's main events. There will however be LCQs, with the top four advancing. Check back soon for results.

250SX LCQ

Killan Auberson got the 250SX LCQ going the right way by shooting out to the immediate lead, and after about a lap he’d already put about three seconds on the pack. Behind him Ludovic Macler, RJ Wageman, Cheyenne Harmon, and Logan Karnow were all going at it for the qualifying spots. Macler every so slightly broke away, but it was an absolute dogfight between Wageman, Harmon, and Karnow, one of which would not be moving on. Karnow was determined he wouldn’t be the one to miss out and battled his way around Wageman and Harmon, leaving them to battle for the final spot. Harmon would edge Wageman. Auberson, Macler, Karnow, and Harmon all transferred to the main.

450SX LCQ

Josh Cartwright snuck up the inside to take the holeshot in this one with Alex Ray, Chad Reed, Kyle Cunningham, Ryan Breece, and Austin Politelli in pursuit. Ray took the lead from Cartwright and it wasn't long before Reed, Cunningham, and Breece all followed suit. Breece then went around Cunningham, but Cunningham wouldn’t let him go and  jumped right back by a lap later, only to bobble in the whoops and let Breece by. Then Cartwright came in and got together with Cunningham, which left Cunningham on the ground and out of qualifying position. Just when it looked like Cartwright would secure the final spot he crashed spectacularly hard in a rhythm lane, handing the final spot to Jerry Robin. Ray took the lead over Reed, with Breece and Robin rounding out the final transfer spots.

250SX Main Event One

Christian Craig snuck up the inside to start off the first 250SX Main Event but Austin Forkner bumped him and he went off the track. He didn’t crash though and rejoined the race in about seventh. About half a lap later Justin Cooper went down and took a long time to get going again. When he did he was in dead last. Up front meanwhile, Austin Forkner had taken the lead from Alex Martin and and was checking out. Behind him was Michael Mosiman, Dylan Ferrandis, Martin, and Christian Craig. Ferrandis was on the move, and with six minutes left he’d worked up into third and was going after Mosiman. Craig, who was also flying, wasn’t too far back of Ferrandis and it looked like there was a chance he might even catch him. Ferrandis slowly started getting away though and with three minutes left he put a pass on the inside of Mosiman to take over second. But Mosiman didn’t roll over and went right back at him a few corners later. The move didn’t stick though and Mosiman wouldn’t find himself close enough to try anything else again. With the race winding down Martin went down in the turn before the whoops and lost a couple spots. Right before the final lap Craig got around Mosiman. To his credit, Mosiman fought back but was unable to hang onto Craig. Forkner won by nearly five seconds, followed by Ferrandis, Craig, Mosiman, Brandon Hartranft, Jacob Hayes, Mitch Oldenburg, Alex Martin, Aaron Tanti, and Derek Drake. Logan Karnow was supposed to be in this one but rode out of the stadium before the gate dropped.

450SX Main Event One

Zach Osborne shot out to the early lead in the first 450SX Main Event, but he had Eli Tomac and Ken Roczen all over him. About a lap into it Osborne went down and ended up pulling off after the entire field went by him. Blake Baggett crashed as a result of Osborne being down but got going again fairly quickly. At this point the running order was Roczen, Tomac, Cianciarulo, Malcolm Stewart, Jason Anderson, Justin Barcia, and Justin Hill. Up front Tomac was close to Roczen but not close enough to make a move. Finally, with about five minutes remaining Tomac had closed the gap and was showing Roczen a wheel in just about every turn. Tomac made a small mistake on a jump and launched front wheel high but recovered quickly and went right back to exerting pressure on Roczen. But try as he might, Tomac simply could not make anything work and Roczen retained the lead as the clock continued to count down. Then Roczen started slowly stretching it out on Tomac and kept it going until the checkers flew. Cianciarulo rode to a lonely third, Stewart took fourth, and Anderson withstood heavy pressure from Barcia on the last lap to hang onto fifth. Cooper Webb didn’t get a good start and wasn’t able to work his way forward very fast. He finished eighth.

250SX Main Event Two

Justin Cooper rebounded from his first main event problems by taking the early lead in this one, followed by Derek Drake, Michael Mosiman and Austin Forkner. Forkner was moving forward but Cooper made it easy on him when he went down a corner. Christian Craig also went down and got trapped under his bike. He eventually got free but didn’t rejoin the race. Up front Drake was riding great, but Forkner was slowly closing on him. Behind the lead duo Michael Mosiman and Dylan Ferrandis were having quite a battle of their own, with Mosiman slamming the door hard several times on Ferrandis. Both Forkner and Ferrandis would eventually win their respective battles and Forkner took off up front while Ferrandis pursued Drake. As the race wound down Ferrandis caught and passed Drake but there wasn’t enough time for him to mount a charge on Forkner, who took the win by three-and-a-half seconds. Ferrandis, Drake, Mosiman, and Jacob Hayes rounded out the top five. Mitch Oldenburg zapped Alex Martin in the last turn for seventh.

450SX Main Event Two

Eli Tomac nearly got pinched on the inside but somehow managed to sneak through and emerged with the lead. Justin Bogle went down hard in the first turn and his bike went flying while Bogle lay motionless in the dirt. The race was immediately red-flagged as the medical crew tended to Bogle, who left the stadium in the back of the Alpinestars Medical Mule.

On the restart it was Ken Roczen up front with Cooper Webb, Aaron Plessinger, Adam Cianciarulo, Eli Tomac, Jason Anderson, and Blake Baggett following. After a lap it became apparent that Roczen was sneaking away while Webb and Cianciarulo battled for second. Tomac lurked behind them, and when Cianciarulo cut inside of Webb right before the finish line, Tomac went after Webb, eventually passing him in the whoops. Then Cianciarulo crashed in the turn right after the whoops and both Tomac and Webb whizzed by. At this point there were six minutes remaining, but Roczen had about six seconds on Tomac and would not be caught. Behind Tomac, Webb was slowly losing spots. First to Jason Anderson, then Blake Baggett. With a minute remaining Cianciarulo had Webb in his sites too. AC nearly made the pass in the whoops but Webb barely held him off in the following turn. With one lap left Webb held it together and refused to give up the spot to Cianciarulo. Roczen won by nearly seven seconds over Eli Tomac, with Anderson, Baggett, and Webb rounding out the top five.

250SX Main Event Three

Justin Cooper moved into the lead in the opening stage of the race with Martin Castelo, Brandon Hartranft, Austin Forkner and Dylan Ferrandis chasing. Castelo started sliding backward, while Ferrandis was quick to light the burners and block pass Forkner right before the finish line jump. Hartranft then coughed up his spot to both Ferrandis and Forkner, and just like that, the top four were pretty spread out. Jacob Hayes, in fifth, was all by himself too.

The rider to watch was Michael Mosiman, who’d gotten a bad start but was putting on a charge through the pack. With a minuted to go he’d ripped all the way up to sixth, but had a decent amount of real estate to make up on Hayes in fifth. He was catching him but ran out of time before the checkers flew.

Up front Cooper held a big lead the whole race to take the win, while Ferrandis and Forkner rounded out the podium. Forkner got gapped by Ferrandis quite a bit in this one but it didn’t matter because after winning the first two races the overall win was his as long as he held third and Cooper held onto the lead, which he did. 

450SX Main Event Three

Martin Davalos kicked off the final race of the night with a holeshot, while Zach Osborne and Chad Reed found themselves down in the first turn. About a lap later Jason Anderson moved into the lead. Eli Tomac and Ken Roczen, meanwhile, had gotten mediocre starts and were racing each other hard in about seventh place. Then a red flag came out due to a crash involving Jerry Robin and Chris Blose in the whoops. Robin got up, but Blose looked incapacitated as he lay in the dirt. It looked pretty serious for a while, but Blose was finally able to stand up under his own power.

On the restart it was Roczen up front while Tomac went down a few turns in and got going way back in the pack. One lap later Osborne and Baggett tangled and struggled to get their bikes apart. They both got going again in dead last. Cooper Webb started well in this one and was running in second but Jason Anderson was slowly catching him. With just over six minutes to go Anderson put a move on Webb, whacked a Tuff Block, and still made the move stick. Tomac had made up a lot of ground, but was still in sixth as he closed on Davalos. After he disposed of Davalos he could see Cianciarulo and Webb about a second ahead of him. As Tomac watched, Cianciarulo made a pass on Webb in the whoops and started riding away. Then, as Tomac and Webb went into the whoops Tomac passed Webb just as Cianciarulo crashed hard in the end of the whoops, going over the bars and smacking his back into the peak of a whoop. Cianciarulo, in obvious pain, did not rejoin the race.

Roczen won comfortably to seal up a perfect night, while Tomac’s third was good enough for second overall. Jason Anderson was second, which earned him third overall. Davalos nearly caught and passed Webb for fourth at the end but Webb held on, earning him fourth overall.

Chris Blose went 17-17-19 and didn't earn fifth, we'll get those results fixed as soon as we can.