In the 450SX Class, Webb's fourth win on Saturday gave him the points lead entering today's 11th round. His KTM 450 SX-F will feature more red than normal as he will race with the red backgrounds today for the first time this season.

Riders and team members have taken to the stadium to preview today's layout. Below are some pit shots from early this morning.

Morning Report

Our Steve Matthes is at the stadium and filed this quick report:

Free Practice

First Timed Practices

Carson Mumford has had a rough debut in Monster Energy Supercross, the rookie has only made one of three mains this year on his FXR/Chaparral Honda. He’s ridden well but has been on the bad end of trouble far too often. Maybe tonight will represent his breakthrough. He led the 250 B group. Also, Enzo Lopes is back in action after hurting himself in practice at the season opener in Houston—because he got hurt in practice, he was eligible to switch to the West Region. He’s finally healed up and ready for action here on his Phoenix Honda.

In the 250 C group , the Stank Dog has made his return to supercross! Gared Steinke, who was injured during his normal run through Kicker Arenacross, was fastest in this group.

In the seeded 250 session, Justin Cooper had early fall, but also the fastest early time. Don't read too much into the tip over because several guys fell down in the same rut. Plus, these guys will take it! The ruts are leading to more options and the dirt seems different than Saturday. No one really liked the Saturday track so change is good here.

Cooper started jumping three on to a table, which became the hot line for the top 250 guys. A few others busted this out but Cooper hung on for the best time. He’s always good in qualifying.

Cooper said he liked the challenge of this track much more than Saturday night’s race. “Whoever got the holeshot on Saturday night was going to have a big advantage,” he said. “This one has more options.”

Cooper’s title rival Cameron McAdoo was three tenths back in second, then it was Hunter Lawrence, Seth Hammaker and Jalek Swoll. Jordon Smith is racing with a slew of bumps and bruises, but he’s here and he was sixth.

Eli Tomac led the 450 A session early until Chase Sexton jumped to the top, soon to be replaced by Cooper Webb. Then Tomac answered right back to take the top spot with a 52.022 over Webb’s 52.080. Benny Bloss went down and had to crawl off the track. The Webb crashed in the whoops! His started to lose traction on the top of a whoop and his bike began to sling sideways, he slid into the dirt with his shoulder, chest and face, but at least he avoided piling hard into the face of a whoop and a sudden stop. He was slow to get up but appeared to be okay. Will this impact…um…impact the points leader tonight?

Meanwhile, Tomac has a nice rebound after a disappointing Saturday night race. He’s the fastest in both sessions so far today. Also, like Justin Cooper, he likes this track much better than Saturday.

“I like the track today it has a good flow, we made an adjustment between the races and so far it’s good,” said Tomac. “I’m enjoying myself and that seems to work out better. I’d say it’s looser than it was on Saturday. More ruts, more lines, more options.”

Veteran Nick Schmidt led the B group over Justin Starling, and Tyler Bowers, who apparently asked to practice in the less-crowded C group, was tops in that session.

Final Practice

As expected, we saw bar banging at the start of the…fake start. In the 250s Stylez Robertson led the way, but the contact included Justin Cooper and Cameron McAdoo having lines come together in the second turn, with McAdoo getting hit by Cooper. So McAdoo ran it in deep on Cooper in the next turn! Cooper backed it down after that and let McAdoo go. Later, Cooper turned up the heat and went to the top of the charts again.

“I felt really good in all the practices, track is good today, a little better tan the last one. But practices don’t mean anything you have to do it in the race. We got a good start there and got to learn where we need to line up on the gate. Really looking forward to tonight.”

Hammaker was next, then Lawrence and McAdoo. McAdoo has admitted he's usually not a good qualifier and he's been working on it because he knows that's a strong point for Cooper. For Cooper, all this speed is meaningless unless he gets a start tonight, which has eluded him at the last two races. On the other end, Hammaker and Lawrence are now brimming with confidence. Could be anyone's race tonight.

Some bumps and bruises in the 450 class, Dylan Ferrandis had a crash and rode back to the pits. Benny Bloss crashed earlier and didn’t come out for this session. Webb crashed hard in the earlier session too, but he was up to speed this time and ran third fastest for awhile. Barcia logged the first fast laps, then Tomac leapfrogged him to the top. Webb, Roczen and Anderson rounded out the early top five. Tomac ended up fastest again, sweeping all three sessions today. He loves this track.

“A little bit smoother lines, they cleaned up the track so we had a faster pace. But whoops are still the same and they’re tough,” said Tomac. “I like the elevated turn right now, and the triple onto the tables, it’s just a little harder to get out of the turns and get these rhythms going. But, so far so good,” said Tomac.

By the way, we must mention Jeremy McGrath’s performance as a guest analyst on the Raceday Live practice show. The King was completely unfiltered in his opinions, including how he doesn’t understand why guys jump whoops, that he doesn’t like inside gate picks, how riders from the 1990s worked harder than they get credit for, and then…how Ken Roczen needs to punt Cooper Webb one time to show everyone he can’t be messed with! The King Speaks! As the session began, Webb and Roczen were side-by-side and Webb pulled ahead. Meanwhile, McGrath kept piling on Roczen. It was wild to hear such an unfiltered opinion.

In the next session, Henry Miller, who is just returning to action, went down hard and seeked out the Alpinestars Medics. Not sure the injury but he was favoring his arm and it did not look good.

In the C session, Scott Champion, now a Texas native, led the charge and Alex Ray led the B group.

Heat Races

Seth Hammaker nailed the holeshot to continue his position momentum from Saturday night. Hunter Lawrence tucked inside of Jalek Swoll to take over second quickly, and then chaos ensued with a big pileup. As we reported on @racerxonline Twitter: Coty Schock, Kyle Peters, Cedric Soubeyras all three went down in that pileup but it held up a ton of riders behind them…Hammaker leads Hunter Lawrence, Jalek Swoll, Chris Blose, Jarrett Frye, and Stilez Robertson, basically the only riders who made it out before that pileup happened.

Enzo Lopes, racing the night show for the first time this year, came back from the pileup to maneuver into ninth, making the pass around Cheyanne Harmon for the final transfer spot. It was a heartbreaker for Jarrett Frye, who needs a good run to get some momentum in his rookie year. He got a decent start but then ran into bike problems and dropped out of the transfer.

Hammaker got the win.

"Yeah getting more comfortable being that position," said Hammaker. "Had a little pressure from Hunter at the end, made a mistake before the triple. But I’m stoked I won my second heat race of the year."

Justin Cooper grabbed the holeshot with his title rival McAdoo right there in Heat 2, and then Cooper bobbled in the whoops and nearly went down. This put McAdoo into the lead with Marchbanks and Mitchell Harrison right there. Cooper reclaimed third and went after Marchbanks, but Marchbanks held him off for a few laps. Finally Cooper made the move and started a charge toward McAdoo. He made up ground quickly, and it was fun to watch them dissect the track in different ways. Cooper was on fire and caught McAdoo, but McAdoo held on for the win.

"Expectations and putting it all together," said McAdoo. "I believe I belong up here, I know I belong up here. I’ve put in the work and I’m excited to see it pay off and continue to pay off."

Aaron Plessinger is just a beast now! He nailed the holeshot in the first 450 heat race over Chase Sexton and then it was Roczen and Barcia. Barcia really went at it with Roczen, as the track offered multiple lines for passing with some inside and outsides leading to different rhythms. Barcia made the move on Roczen, and a clean one, for third. Up ahead, Sexton was pressing Plessinger hard, nearly showing him a wheel in spots. He played nice, though, and decided not to send Plessinger over a berm in a bowl turn near the finish. Then the white flag came out and Plessinger weathered the storm to take the win.

“I’m not a sprinter, I guess that just fires me up. Chase was on me, with about three laps to go he was on me, I didn’t know that. I had to work for it. I picked it up in the whoops. Track is getting hard packed and it’s going to claim some guys tonight.”

Justin Brayton, just returning from injury, exited the race track holding his hand/wrist. Dean Wilson then broke a wheel late in the heat which sent him to the LCQ, and this allowed Joan Cros to make the main with the final transfer spot.

Cooper Webb holeshot this one over Malcolm Stewart, and Kevin Moranz continued his red hot starting from Saturday night, as he was right there with the factory bikes. Eli Tomac, super fast earlier today, quickly raged forward to third, then got into a good battle with Stewart for second. Tomac finally made the pass in the whoops to take second. However, Tomac was not able to close on the leader Webb, who sailed to the win by over three seconds. Further back, Jason Anderson had to come from way back to scratch his way into ninth. On the last lap he railed past Max Anstie to get into eighth.

"Yeah the track is a little tricky right now," said Webb taking the win. "It’s weird, it looks like there’s a lot of moisture but there’s really not. That’s a great win. Eli has been on it all day and putting in some good laps. Feels great to get another win."

LCQs

Masterpool led the field into turn one but went wide, opening the door for Coty Schock. Hardy Munoz jumped into the inside to take the lead, but Schock got him back. Then the German, Dominique Thury, slid past for second. Several spots back came Jarrett Frye, in big trouble on his Monster Energy/Start Racing bike. He then dropped well down the order after apparently making a mistake. Things got rough in the whoops for Munoz, who got passed by Thury, Masterpool and Soubeyras to drop from transfer position. Michael Hicks was up to fifth at one point but went down in the whoops. This locked the final spots in, but, for good measure Thury put on a last-lap charge and got around Schock for the lead and took the win. Solid way for the friendly German to nail his first ticket to a U.S. supercross main event!

In the 450s, Kevin Moranz has become the Mike Alessi/Donnie “Holeshot” Hansen of the supercross pack. He nearly holeshot last Saturday’s main event, he nearly holeshot his heat race (against factory bikes!) and he then holeshot this 450 LCQ. He led most of the way until Dean Wilson, returning after the wheel problem in the heat race, tracked him to down to take the win. Poor Dean has won way too many LCQs this year. Behind him came Moranz and Justin Starling. Then the battle for the final transfer, with Brandon Hartranft clinging to the spot over Cade Clason. Clason made a strong challenge up the inside, and Hartranft bounced off the track, around a jump and back in front of Clason! Hartranft held on for the spot, but he was then penalized two spots for gassing it on the concrete outside the track. This puts Clason into the main.

250 Main Event

A surprise start with Mitchell Harrison grabbing the early lead over Jalek Swoll and Kyle Peters, then Justin Cooper had a big moment, as he tried to swerve to avoid Chris Blose and went down on the first lap. The former series’ leader found himself up in 19^th.

Last week’s winner, Seth Hammaker, went down, too. Up front, Hunter Lawrence was coming for the lead trio of Harrison, Swoll and Peters. McAdoo got a front row seat to Cooper’s crash and knew he had the perfect chance to gain a ton of points. He started moving forward and got to fifth, right behind Lawrence. Lawrence, sensing a possible first win, got aggressive, getting around Peters and then pulling an amazing double block pass to get both Swoll and Harrison at once! Hunter then absolutely took off.

As for the title fight, the plot thickens, as McAdoo crashed in the whoops. When he got up, he skipped parts of the track because it would be tough to get on the track in the center of the whoops. which could lead to a penalty. This was a big swing in the series, as Cooper, coming from 19^th, found himself ahead of McAdoo on the track.

“Dude as soon as I crossed the finish line, I couldn’t stop it!” said Lawrence. “I worked so hard, a year ago. Then at Loretta’s Lynn’s last year (when he dislocated his shoulder) I was like “I’m done, I can’t do it anymore.” I wanted to quit. To get this, we worked our asses off and it feels like a million years coming.”

Swoll’s second was hard-earned too, and a career-first podium.

“I’m just so damned happy right now I can’t even put the words together,” said Swoll. “It was such a long road. I knew my rookie year people started doubting me and didn’t think I could be one of those guys. I’m so damned happy.”

Also so damned happy was Peters, who scored his first podium as part of the Phoenix Racing Honda team. “So happy. I crashed in the heat and had a bad gate and I was able to pull it from the outside. Everyone who has been backing me, I’m so happy.”

Lawrence has been solid to start the year and finds himself up to second in points, right in the thick of it with McAdoo and Cooper. 

Results and standings will be posted once they get published by the AMA.

450 Main Event

Everyone got what they wanted to see early as it was Webb Tomac and Roczen right there off the start. Then it was Bogle, Davalos, Sexton, Friese, Wilson, Plessinger and Stewart. Roczen made a brief run at Tomac, while Tomac kept Webb in check early, and then Sexton moved to fourth. By the halfway point Webb and Tomac began to edge away from Roczen, but Tomac was absolutely keeping Webb honest. With Tomac stalking Webb, it appeared we were set for a nail-biting finish.

The was plenty of action further behind, as Justin Barcia and Jason Anderson got bad starts and had to charge forward. Anderson went down in turn one but benefitted greatly when Aaron Plessinger took Vince Friese down, and that held up Broc Tickle, and then Anderson came onto the scene. Anderson was briefly bumped by Tickle and chose to…hop over a tough block and go completely around the whoops, pinning it on the side of the track! Anderson would come all the way back from his first-turn crash to sixth, but a penalty has to be coming for that.

Plessinger had another good ride going as he made a pass on Davalos, but Barcia was slicing and dicing from even further back and also going faster. Barcia pulled a slick inside move—just short of Bam Bam contact—on Plessinger to grab fifth. Then he kept charging and reeled in fourth-placed Sexton and made a similar pass to get the spot.

Sexton was fifth and we will see if Anderson’s sixth holds up. Plessinger was seventh and then came Ferrandis, who was sporting some injuries after recent crashes, including a bad one in practice. Davalos took ninth after his good start—Marty is starting to get the crashes out of his system—and Wilson rounded out the top ten.

Up ahead, Tomac kept the heat on Webb until he made one mistake. He overcooked it and lost traction coming out of a turn before the whoops. He then lost a few seconds and that was it. Webb was free to sail to his fourth win in five races, and grow his points lead to 12. To do it with Tomac and Roczen behind him the whole time was even better.

“Yeah that was a huge confidence boost. Eli was there the whole time and I had to focus,” said Webb. “I tried to hit my lines and not make any mistakes, and I was able to pick up on some things he was doing behind me. After that crash in practice—it sounds weird but sometimes it’s good to get that fear in your and ride the thing that kicked you off.”