250SX Main

Even with an empty stadium things were tense as the 250SX gate was about to drop and kick off the main. There was a lot riding on this race, but when the gate dropped it wasn’t either contender up front. Darian Sanayei led early! But it didn’t take long for McElrath to take over the lead, and he had Chase Sexton right behind him, setting the table for an epic battle. Pierce Brown ran third, with Colt Nichols and John Short rounding out the top five. Up front the battle continued to play out, with McElrath maintaining a small lead over Sexton, who didn’t look like he was pushing it too hard. But about four minutes in, Sexton was all done waiting and he quickly closed, then jumped to the inside of McElrath, pushed him wide, and banged into him, standing him up. Sexton sprinted off with the lead, while McElrath took a second to get rolling again. That gave Sexton a cushion to work with and he took full advantage, banging out hot lap after hot lap. Just seven minutes in they were already into lappers. That didn’t seem to hamper Sexton much though, who was steadily getting away from McElrath.

Way behind them a battle for third was starting to shape up between Brown and Nichols. It didn’t last long though, as Nichols had a clear edge and put his superior speed to work in getting by and gapping Brown. Up front Sexton continued to lead, and with just a few minutes left he really started opening it up—with two minutes to go he had nearly six seconds on McElrath. The lead was just too much for McElrath to surmount, and Sexton rode to an uncontested win. He’ll go into the Shootout on Sunday with a six-point advantage over McElrath.

John Short went down in this one while running seventh. Short later went down in the whoops while running twelfth. He looked like he was in some serious pain and ended up pulling out. Jerry Robin also crashed hard early in this one and DNF’d.

450SX LCQ

With Adam Enticknap, Chad Reed, Ryan Breece, Kyle Cunningham, Kyle Chisholm, and Fredrik Noren all in this race things had the potential to get a little crazy. When the gate dropped it was Chisholm darting out into the lead, but Reed was all over him. Noren and Cunningham followed, with Enticknap and Breece in fifth and sixth. With three minutes to go Reed went by Chisholm in the whoops and rode his own race. The battle between Cunningham and Noren, meanwhile, was raging. Cunningham was just a bit faster than Noren but absolutely could not find anywhere to pass him. Finally Cunningham jumped hard into the turn right before the finish line and boxed Noren out to take over third. The situation to watch now was Enticknap, who’d dropped Breece and was inching up on Noren. With a lap to go Enticknap was about half a second behind Noren, but closing fast. Enticknap pulled up next to Noren in the whoops but didn’t have the line in the next turn and had to go outside. That gave Noren just a little bit of breathing room. Enticknap tried to drive it in hard in the final turn but Noren was just out of reach. Had Enticknap been three feet closer, Noren may have found himself in the bleachers. Reed, Chisholm, Cunningham, and Noren transferred to the main.

"I don’t now [if this is it], this doesn't feel like racing to me," Reed said afterward when asked if this was really his final season. "What you envision as a farewell tour, this isn’t the ending I was envisioning. I don’t know the answer. I don't want to do a full 17 rounds but I certainly want to come back and do a real goodbye."

250SX LCQ

Josh Osby nearly nabbed the holeshot but a slight misstep handed it over to Enzo Lopes, who started checking out. But then Lopes went down, handing the lead over to Luke Neese. Fortunately for Lopes he was able to remount quickly and hold second. Josh Osby and Justin Rodbell held the final two qualifying spots, with Lane Shaw and Dustin Winter about three seconds back.  Winter, intent on doing everything he could to get into the main, sliced inside Shaw and chopped his front wheel, sending Shaw to the ground. It didn’t end up mattering though, as Winter wasn’t able to close on Rodbell in time. Up front Lopes had once again assumed the lead, and this time he’d hold onto it. Lopes, Neese, Osby, and Rodbell all transferred to the main.

450SX Heat Two

Ken Roczen got the holeshot but two turns in Jason Anderson put a hard pass on Roczen and Roczen ended up going into a Tuff Block. He didn’t crash, but he restarted in just about dead last. Cooper Webb held second, followed by Justin Hill, Blake Baggett, and Justin Barcia. Roczen meanwhile, had worked his way back into a qualifying spot within a couple laps and continued working forward. With two minutes to go Anderson had about four seconds on Webb, and Webb either wasn’t able to, or had no interest in catching Anderson. The fight for the final qualifying spot was between Vince Friese and Chad Reed. Friese had the spot, but with a lap left Reed was right there. Not quite close enough to throw a wheel in but close enough to capitalize on any small mistake from Friese. The mistake never came, however, and Reed earned himself a trip to the LCQ. Anderson, Webb, Baggett, Barcia, Hill, Benny Bloss, Roczen, Justin Brayton, and Friese all transferred to the main.

“I felt good all day. All in all, we’re here and we’re ready to battle," Anderson said in his TV interview afterward. "I feel like I’ve been playing bride’s maid all season but I’m here and ready to battle. Hopefully I can get my groove back.”

450SX Heat One

Zach Osborne got a great jump but it was Martin Davalos who ended up with the holeshot. Osborne had Aaron Plessinger anad Dean Wilson all over him, with Tomac, who’d started around eight or ninth, coming fast. Up front Davalos made a mistake in the rhythm section and had to come to nearly a complete stop, which handed the lead to Osborne. Not for long, though, as Wilson was riding extremely well and took over the lead right before the whoops. Osborne now had Tomac to contend with, and it wasn’t long before he fell victim to the hard charging Kawasaki rider. With a minute-and-a-half left Tomac set sail for Wilson, who had about three or four seconds on Tomac. That lead was cut in half after one lap, and soon after Tomac was on Wilson like oil an air filter. Wilson absolutely refused to give up though, holding tough despite the immense pressure, and held on for the win. Wilson, Tomac, Plessinger, Davalos, Malcolm Stewart, Osborne, Broc Tickle, Tyler Bowers, and Alex Ray all transferred to the main.

250SX Heat Two

Colt Nichols piloted his Monster Energy/Star Racing Yamaha to the first turn ahead of everyone else to get this one going. Pierce Brown put in a challenge initially but Nichols wasn’t having any of it and simply rode away. In third was Chase Sexton and closing fast on Brown. With two-and-a-half minutes to go Sexton slid to the inside of Brown and closed on Nichols faster than an easy swinging door in a stiff breeze. With just over a minute to go the fight was on, but it ended nearly before it even started. Sexton went inside Nichols in a right-hand bowl turn, and made the pass with virtually no resistance. At that point it looked like Sexton was going to check out, but Nichols kept him somewhat honest, even closing back up a little in a few places. Sexton eventually inched away though and took the win. Sexton, Nichols, Brown, Kyle Peters, John Short, Justin Starling, Chase Marquier, Hunter Sayles, and Kevin Moranz all transferred to the main.

250SX Heat One

McElrath got the holeshot with Jo Shimoda right behind. Jalek Swoll in third, but the lead duo appear to be distancing themselves. The battle of the race at this pointw as Darian Sanayei and Lorenzo Locurcio, who were side-by-side several times, and were close enough for several laps you could have thrown a blanket over both of them. Locurcia eventually got it done with superior whoops speed and gapped Sanayei fairly quickly. McElrath was gone at this point, and the only battle left was between Coty Schock and Wilson Fleming in eighth and ninth. Justin Rodbell in tenth was able to catch them and put a move on Fleming in a left hander that left Fleming in the dirt. Just like that, Rodbell was in and Fleming was out. For the time being, anyway, as Chris Blose, who’d gone down early, was flying and was taking huge chunks out of Rodbell on the final lap. With just a few turns to go Blose knifed to the inside of Rodbell and stole the final transfer spot. Rodbell put in a valiant effort to cut down and retaliate in the final turn but Blose was too strong. McElrath, Shimoda, Swoll, Locurcio, Sanayei, Curren Thurman, Jerry Robin, Schock, and Blose all transferred to the main.

250 B, Qualifier Two

After some track maintenance and time to sit, the track was drier and in much better shape for the second round of qualifiers. The change in conditions was immediately reflected in the times, too. Lorenzo Locurcio was fast again, no surprise there, but Darian Sanayei was noticeably faster in this one than the first. He even held the fastest time for a brief moment, a 47.328 which he later lowered to 47.073, but it wasn’t enough to hold off Locurcio, who was fastest with a 46.993.

250 A, Qualifier Two

Chase Sexton and Colt Nichols came flying out of the gate to kick this one off, and not surprisingly, both were fastest early as Sexton chased Nichols around.  But after a few laps Shane McElrath took over up top, logging a 44.483. Sexton responded with a 43.673, although just like in the first session he kind of looked like he was just cruising out there, and he didn’t even put in very many fast laps. No matter, his 43.673 hung strong to be the fastest 250SX lap of qualifying.

A slew of riders opted to jump through the whoops in this one, and when riders weren’t on fast laps, a lot of them simply rode off the track and skipped them completely. And speaking of the whoops, Jo Shimoda went over the bars and went down hard right after them, packing into the face of a small jump. He immediately crawled off the track and didn’t rejoin the session, although he did end up riding his bike back to the pits.

450 A, Qualfier Two

Cooper Webb blasted to the front immediately in the final 450 A qualifier with a 44.393, but Ken Roczen responded, nailing down a 44.284 in his third lap. Eli Tomac would eventually take over the top spot with a 43.656, but below him guys were swapping spots like baseball cards. Dean Wilson, Jason Anderson, Webb, and Roczen were all going at it, and getting into the 43-second range in the process. By the time the smoke cleared Tomac had lowered his time to a 43.539, but it was Anderson who’d turned the fastest lap.

Anderson’s speed could be due to an option he found in the first rhythm lane, which Wilson also did. Instead of going two-three-two like everyone else, they were using a little bump to boost over the first jump, then  going 3-3. It couldn’t have been easy because nobody else seemed to pick up on it, but they sure made it look like a breeze.

450 B, Qualifier Two

There’s really not much to say about this qualifier other than that it was the Alex Ray show. He absolutely dominated, taking the top spot early and holding it the whole time. He even beat his laps a few times, including on the final lap, in which he threw a nice whip over the finish line to celebrate. His sore knee must be feeling better!

250 B, qualifier One

Luke Neese took charge initially in the first qualifier of the day, but then guys like Lorenzo Locurcio and Justin Rodbell took over and the times started falling steadily as the qualifier progressed. In the end it was Locurcio with a 49.644. There were only ten riders in this session, and there wasn’t a whole lot of action, especially with most of them simply just trying to learn the track. Free practice was cancelled due to the moisture in the track. The one section that did provide some action was the whoops. Multiple riders had crashes in them and plenty more found themselves getting sideways. They’re slick, and from the looks of them, at least from the press box, are somewhat uneven.

250 A, Qualifier One

Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but it was a Monster Energy/Star Racing Yamaha bike, ridden by Colt Nichols, to start busting out some of the triples in the rhythm lane first. Nichols looked good right away in this one and the stopwatch backed up the eye test. Nichols was up top for a huge portion of this qualifier, even lowering his own times, but Chase Sexton put in a heater toward the end, a 47.222, that would end up fastest. Sexton didn’t ever look like he was pushing very hard, but clearly he was moving along just fine. In the morning report we said the rhythm lanes looked pretty straightforward, but the soft dirt has complicated that just a bit. There were a few combos that most of the riders weren’t hitting, namely the triples in the rhythm lanes, as well as a triple to table, and when they did, it wasn’t every lap. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens after some track maintenance smooths out the ruts. The dirt should be a little drier by then too.

450 A, Qualifier One

Other than a scary moment for Ken Roczen in the whoops in which his bike started dancing underneath him, there wasn’t a ton happening in this session. Eli Tomac was fast early with a 46.189, and pretty much held on to the top spot the entire time. Roczen flirted with the fastest time for a moment, but Tomac almost immediately came back and lowered his own time even more, reaching a 45.322. Nobody was able to match that time, although Jason Anderson, who steadily lowered his pace throughout the qualifier, came close and ended up just a bit off Tomac’s pace with a 45.461.

The track has really started to rut up, and there were plenty of times when guys found themselves gingerly picking their way through the rutted parts. It affected the guys in the rhythm lanes too, and there were times whene guys opted not to combo something after failing to get through the ruts cleanly. The track wasn’t covered when the rain came down last night, so all that water went right into the dirt. That’s not a bad thing though. The area didn’t get pounded with rain, and the track is going to continue to dry out. By the time the heats roll around it should be excellent.

450 B, Qualifier One

It was all Adam Enticknap at first in the 450 B qualifier, but as things wore on Alex Ray edged out Enticknap with a 49.109. Noren was up next, just squeaking up front with a 49.104, but almost immediately dropped his own time down to a 48.504. Noren looked pretty good, but seemed to have a little trouble doing everything cleanly lap after lap. Toward the end it looked like Noren would be the king of this one, but then out of nowhere Nick Schmidt busted out a 47.981. Carlen Gardner put in a fast one at the end too to nab the second-fastest spot.

Morning Report

Consequences. Major ones, too. That’s what a handful of riders are facing tonight if things go wrong here in Rice-Eccles Stadium. For Eli Tomac, the chance is there to extinguish the already waning flame that is the championship hope of Cooper Webb and Ken Roczen. With a 24-point lead, all Tomac, who’s been tantalizingly close to this title over and over again, has to do is end up with 26-points over the nearest competitor to lock this thing up a race early. With his superior win count, even an eventual tie in points would hand him the title. Of course, you know he wants to win, and if he does, this thing is over.

In 250SX action, the boys out East are back in action, and for Chase Sexton and Shane McElrath, tonight is massive. Sexton leads McElrath by three points, and if he can pad that lead, it’ll be a massive boost toward securing the title in the Shootout on Saturday. On McElrath’s side, he’s got to do everything he can to cut into Sexton’s lead. It’s not a death sentence if he doesn’t, but if he can tie it back up he’ll control his own destiny heading into the shootout. If he comes in trailing by more than three points even a win won’t guarantee a championship. He won’t necessarily be able to rely on his teammates for help either, as Dylan Ferrandis is in a title fight of his own with Austin Forkner. Buckle up folks, there’s a lot on the line tonight and things could get wild! On a side note, Garrett Marchbanks is out after crashing hard in the last 250SX East race and prompting a red flag. For a detailed list on who’s in and who’s out, check out our Injury Report.

Throwing another variable into what has the potential to be an extremely intense night of racing is the weather. It rained last night here, and while the track looks pretty decent, there’s plenty of mud and even some standing water in the low spots. We’ll see how the softer dirt forms up, and how it might affect tonight’s action. The start stretch on tonight’s track is as long as it could possibly be in this stadium—it runs from one end all the way to the other. The whoop section is long too—twelve, to be exact. As a whole, however, the track doesn’t look very technical and the rhythm sections are pretty straightforward. But, with the moisture in the dirt, you never know how things will play out! Practice is set to begin soon, so check back this afternoon for an update on who’s throwing down heaters.