The 250SX West class is nuts. Wide open crazy wild nuts. We've witnessed four winners in the first four rounds and the last three race winners have been first-time winners. Three different riders have held the points lead, also, with Justin Cooper taking the opener, Cameron McAdoo grabbing the red plate after Daytona, and now Hunter Lawrence moving to the top after winning here on Tuesday. Will tonight be the night when someone establishes some stability in this class?

Our Jason Thomas is at the stadium and filed this report:

You can get JT's full track breakdown in Staging Area.

Free Practice

Timed Qualifying

Garrett Marchbanks led the 250 seeded group one early until Cameron McAdoo took the top spot away and then was followed by his teammate Jordon Smith. McAdoo started experimenting with some big rhythms on a track that offers them, but at the same time while he was trying the bigger leaps, Justin Cooper was railing with his patented fast lap. Cooper moved to the top of the chart to keep his perfect season going as far as fast qualifying times .

McAdoo was second then Smith, Lawrence and Marchbanks

"Yeah we saw that on track walk and we’re trying to figure out what to do," said Cooper of the big jumps. "It feels like a real supercross track today so I’ve got to get it dialed in and do it tonight."

Chase Sexton led the 450s around on the first lap but Jason Anderson jumped to the front. Anderson was fastest earlier today so he is on a rail. Then it was Sexton and then Roczen moving to the top spots, and while Martin Davalos sat third, he then went down hard.

The big rhythm options started to come into play here, as Roczen and Tomac attempted a HUGE table over single over table. That’s a….five!

“It’s really technical out there and there are some rhythm sections where you can do really big rhythms,” said Roczen. "By big rhythms, I mean three quads in two lanes and one is actually a five. I spent the time in the first practice really trying to get this down. I’m looking forward to it, the track is really open and racy and I like it.”

Injury Updates

Good to see Red Bull KTM's Marvin Musquin has cleared concussion protocol and is racing tonight. Marvin went down really hard here last Saturday and did not race on Tuesday.

In the 250 class, Stilez Robertson hurt his leg on Tuesday and will not line up tonight, and Alex Martin is also out with a wrist injury.

Final Timed Session

A few weeks ago Cameron McAdoo said he’s really making a focus on better qualifying because it’s normally not his strength, but title rival Justin Cooper is always strong in qualifying and McAdoo wants to measure up. In both timed sessions today McAdoo stood at the top of the 250 board nearly the whole way, only for Cooper to throw down late and take it back. Cooper’s incredible qualifying run continues, he’s been fastest in every single session this year, and we’re now five rounds deep.

“Tried to make the most of that practice, got in a lot of laps and I think I found some lines that I can use tonight,” said Cooper. “I just wasn’t really worried about the lap times in that one and I was trying to get a race pace going so I could get comfortable for tonight.”

Breaking News: We have received word that Rocky Mountain ATV/MC WPS KTM's Justin Bogle went down hard in the first practice session this morning and we hear he is out for the evening with a bruised lung.

Ken Roczen is on the gas. He holeshot the 450 practice start and immediately put a time at the top of the board with a 49.0. Webb answered with a 48.7 and then Tomac logged a crazy 48.2. Roczen and Webb both stepped up but couldn’t match the Tomac 48.2, until Sexton threw down a 48.1 late in the session!

“Yeah I feel super comfortable, been having fun since the first lap this morning,” said Sexton. “Did a bit of testing on Thursday and to me the bike is better in the corners. Better in the corners means I can hit these rhythms tonight.”

The rhythms these 450 guys are hitting consistently are straight crazy. They’re quinting (five jumps?) over two tables with a single in between, and the long rhythm before it is crazy as well. The riders love having places to play like this and they seem stoked on this track.

250 Heat Races

Jarrett Frye, avenging not making the main event on Tuesday, holeshot but Cameron McAdoo soon blasted past in the whoops.There was huge carnage off the start when Mitchel Harrison Coty Shock and Jordon Smith all tangled while trying to negotiate jumps out of turn one. Schock stayed up, but Smith got the worst of stand had to take a ride on the Alpinestar’s Medic Mule. Ouch, Jordon has had a rough go of it this season. Garrett Marchbanks also went down when he washed the front in a corner, he got tagged by his bike and got up limping.

Nate Thrasher had a good run going and got around Carson Mumford to take over fourth. Up ahead it was McAdoo, Frye and Shock, who continues to be the Schock of the season.

McAdoo pulled away for an easy win. Dominique Thury made his second-straight main, then Cheyanne Harmon, Derek Kelley and Calvin Fonvielle rounded out the transfer spots.

"I let myself be mad at myself that night, then Wednesday morning we woke up and focused forward," said McAdoo after his crash on Tuesday. "Happy with the way this day is going, felt good in practice, happy to get the heat race win. We’re happy the way things are going."

In 250 heat 2, Justin Cooper put his streak of bad starts behind him with a gigantic holeshot and then he busted out a big rhythm immediately to open a huge lead immediately. Seth Hammaker, Hunter Lawrence and Jalek Swoll battled behind him but Cooper got away.

After some rough starts lately, Cooper’s holeshot was big, but he’s focused on more than that.

“The starts are important but I’m just trying to have a good race,” said Cooper. That was definitely a few race and some clean air was nice.

450 Heats

When you get a race track like this, that offers big rhythm combinations, you hope  to see that last into the night show. Well, it has. Justin Barcia nailed a big holeshot on his GasGas and Malcolm Stewart was right behind him. But Eli Tomac was looking good in this one as he got around Malcolm and then began to close on Barcia. Then the Tomac/Barcia battle raged, with both riders using different rhythms, big ones, until Tomac finally found the line he wanted and made the pass. It was fun to watch! Tomac took the win.

“The nice thing tonight is that we have some nice options in the rhythm lanes,” said Tomac. “I knew I was making up time on him there but i was losing time in the other section, I knew I had to get close to him there, and that’s how I was able to make that outside square up move.”

This was a big one.

Cooper Webb’s starts are on fire, he holeshot this heat from the outside and began pulling away quickly. Chase Sexton and Max Anstie were next, but Ken Roczen made quick moves to get to second, and then he started running Webb down! Again, the multiple rhythm options played the factor, as Roczen had the big line out of turn one down and he was able to catch Webb at will there, he was also much faster in the whoops. He just needed to find an opening and he finally found it with that big rhythm off the start, going outside and tripling in, then getting next to Webb and running the block pass for the lead. Then his teammate Sexton started stalking Webb too. Sexton, like Roczen, was faster in the whoops than Webb. he used the second rhythm lane to make his move, and then dove up the inside of Webb to take over second—and he left Webb on the ground for good measure. Score a big heat race for the Honda HRC crew.

“Super important to set up the night, I haven’t had the best heat races lately, that has really hurt me for gate pick,” said Roczen. “It was good to watch him [Webb] and learn a little more and get the win. I like the track it’s racy the rhythms are big, it’s more like a normal supercross track.”

LCQs

Ty Masterpool and Ryan Surratt led the 250 LCQ early but Michael Hicks blew by in the whoops. Hicks crashed out of fifth last week in the LCQ so he has revenge on the mind. Now the battle was on between Surratt, Munoz and Marchbanks. Marchbanks rolled through to get the lead, Hicks rode a masterful race to make the main, then it was Munoz and then…the typical all hell breaking loose. Mitchell Harrison snaked his way to fourth, but then blew the sand section which allowed Cedric Soubeyras to pass him, and then Harrison hit a tough block and went down.

Justin Starling grabbed the holeshot and pulled away immediately with a big rhythm. Then it was Brandon HartranftJoan Cros and Kevin Moranz, but Cade Clason, becoming an LCQ master, made his was through Moranz and Cros. Then it was Bowers on the move and he got around Moranz to take the final qualifying spot. That was just the beginning. Alex Ray started closing and then Clason and Bowers started battling for third. This allowed Ray to close the gap. Now, Ray and Clason are old friends but last week Clason knocked Ray down. In the next-to-last corner Ray punted Clason over a berm to steal the final transfer. That’s classic LCQ warfare!

Justin Cooper’s start slump is solved. He grabbed the holeshot in this one and said see you in Atlanta in a few weeks. Coty Schock was right up front too, along with Cameron McAdoo and Hunter Lawrence. Shock unfortunately got tangled with Seth Hammaker and went down, putting him in last after s great start. Lawrence took on pressure from Marchanks, Marchbanks got him but Lawrence went back bye in the whoops. Then Marchbanks crashed. He got up in 10th.

Justin Cooper really needed just a solid ride to set his season back on track, and that’s what he got. McAdoo couldn’t run him down, and then some drama unfolded when Hunter Lawrence, in third, went for a wild ride in a rhythm lane and went flying into the Steve Matthes Memorial Net on the side of the track. He was lucky it was’t worse, and Lawrence lost just two positions, to Hammaker and Swoll, and dropped to fifth.

Cooper hung on to win over McAdoo, with Hammaker back on the podium. Swoll, Lawrence, Marchbanks, Blose, Peters, Thrasher and Frye rounded out the top ten.

“It’s been a tough road, been down on the ground and coming from 22nd,” said Cooper. “Same game plan, just executed two good starts. Believed in myself, never lost sight of that, just did what I do in my practice laps at home. Tough to go on a streak like that and bounce back, but it’s good to do it with a two or three week break coming up. I couldn’t continue to spiral downhill like that. That’s what championships are made of, you’ve got to bounce back.”

“We gotta win, every point counts, I can’t let him be a me like that,” said McAdoo. “There’s some positives I can take into the two week break and we’re going to come out fighting in Atlanta.”

Hammaker survived that error early that put Schock on the ground. When Lawrence crashed, he ended up third.

“It was a hectic first few laps, I got quirky on the step on step off there, and I think it dented my header pipe,” said Hammaker. “Track was tough and I just tried to flow.”

450 Main

Wow. Just wow.

Cooper Webb was on the ropes this time, they had him covered in practice and in the heat race and it sure seemed like his unstoppable momentum was about to actually get stopped. So when Ken Roczen nailed the holeshot in the main event it looked like the series could go into the break with a little bit different tune than expected.

Webb wasn’t having it. Roczen blitzed the first few laps while Webb was left to deal with pressure from Eli Tomac, who had slipped by Justin Barcia for third. Webb had Tomac all over him, but also found himself not that far behind Roczen. Roczen had some sprint laps to get away, but he didn’t pull far enough ahead, and soon both Webb and Tomac could see him. Then Ken started having trouble in the sand doubles, and Webb and Tomac closed even more. Now it was on—and that edge that Roczen had on Webb earlier in the day was starting to grow more and more precarious.

The sand kept giving Roczen fits. He might have been faster than Webb around other parts of the track but he lost huge time in the sand doubles each time, not able to get across them cleanly. Webb kept closing, and then Tomac, who looked ready to make a pass on Webb at any moment, landed wide on the finish line and hit a tough block. Now it was down to Webb versus Roczen one on one, and sure enough Webb got there. Roczen played some defense in turn one, Webb rode it out, then they went side by side through two rhythm lanes before hitting the whoops. Webb edged ahead, even though the whoops had been a major weak point of his earlier in the day. By the end of the whoops, he was in the lead. He had turned a terrible night into a race win—as he is known to do.

“Man that was a crazy race that’s for sure,” said Webb. “Kenny was laying it down those first few, I was just trying to stay in tow, and Eli was all over me. I knew he would be good tonight.  Both those guys were really on it today. I just focused on being consistent. I had to turn it around fro that heat race I didn’t like being put on the ground, and it fired me up. Man, to ride with Kenny the whole race and make a late charge is awesome. Just incredible, to get three here in Dallas is unheard of for me.”

“It was tough out there, I was leading and they were behind me and I felt like I was hitting my marks,” said Roczen, trying to find a positive. “I’m still working my way back up, everything is open, I was happy with my starts and my riding. I’m giving it every thing I have out there and that’s all I can do. We’re healthy and we’ll come back to Atlanta and try it again.”

The only rider able to keep the heavy pace of Webb/Roczen/Tomac in sight was Barcia, and when Tomac bobbled on the finish line and hit the tough blocks Barcia got around him. This led to a classic Tomac/Barcia scrap, and this time Tomac got him. Eli even closed back up on Webb and Roczen late, but the mistake was too costly, and he ran out of time.

“We were all three right there and one little wide line at the finish…I was lucky to stay up,” said Tomac. “Had to fight hard to get back around Justin. Bummed on that.”

Barcia rode well but finished just off the podium in fourth. Anderson came from way back to a distant fifth. Then it was Stewart, Ferrandis, Savatgy, Plessinger and Wilson. Marvin Musquin crashed out of the race early as did Chase Sexton.