Saturday Night Live: Glendale

He holeshot, led every lap, and cruised to the third main event victory. It only was good enough for second on the night though as Hunter Lawrence’s relentless consistency finally paid off. Lawrence had been on the podium at every single race to this point without taking a race victory, but Glendale finally squashed that stat as he put 2-1-2 scores together to earn his first win of 2022. The win felt lost in all the chaos of the Craig-Friese situation, but the relief was certainly not lost on Lawrence in the slightest.

“We work our butts off for nights like this,” said Lawrence. “As good as I feel, in all honesty, I’ve got to give it up to the crowd. The past two years with COVID and everything, it sucked without having everyone. It’s awesome, the crowd was electric, and I’ve got to give it up to them tonight because they made the atmosphere for us.”

For Craig, who ended up second with 1-4-1 scores, if he does indeed win this championship, tonight will be the night everyone looks back on as to why. The class may not be the deepest ever, but he still had to pass a lot of talented riders to go from last to fourth in essentially an 11-minute race. Throughout the second main event, he was making time on Lawrence and Michael Mosiman out front in chunks instead of a few tenths here and there.

When asked afterwards what he thought of the Friese situation, Craig simply said “Vince gonna Vince.” The silver lining on the night is he really only did lose three championship points when it certainly could have been much worse and now he remains eight points clear of Hunter Lawrence as we have officially passed halfway in the championship.

“I think I just believe in my ability to win,” said Craig. “When something gets taken out of you and it’s not in your control with another rider, that one stings. Especially with how I was riding tonight, I felt like a win was within reach. To come up short, it stings, especially when something else happens.”

Third on the night through some roller coaster rides of his own was Jo Shimoda. The Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki rider fell in the first main event while battling with Friese, though that fall was on his own. The Kawasaki man never gave up throughout the night and consistently found himself with good starts and battling for the podium positions in each main event.

The first few rounds of the year have not gone the way Shimoda would have hoped or planned, and he admitted before this weekend that they had really put in a lot of work in the last week to dial in settings and make him feel more consistent comfort with some problem areas. Now he looks like he’s trending upwards, and the podium was the first achievement he needed to knock off again in 2022.

“It’s different kind of racing for sure,” said Shimoda of dealing with the pressure of the Triple Crown. “You have three starts and they aren’t short races either. I’ve been having some tough rounds, a scratch here and there. Overall I’m just super happy to be back on the box and I feel like I can maybe turn this into a breaking point.”

It wasn’t an ideal night for San Diego winner Michael Mosiman. Despite nearly winning the second main event in a close battle with Hunter Lawrence, Mosiman fell in the first main event out of turn one and would end up having to charge from dead last and then some. He wouldn’t remount until the entire pack was almost a half lap ahead of him and he did well to charge up to 10^th by the end of it.

Unfortunately, the third main event would provide yet another issue. While battling for third place, Mosiman got the tunnel jump landing wrong and ended up crashing coming onto the start straight fairly late in the race. The crash seemed to injure his foot as he limped back to his bike, and he was only able to finish up in 15^th. The second place in the second main was just enough to help him salvage ninth overall on the night, but he now falls almost a full race distance down to Craig in the championship.

The 250SX class might be turning into a two-horse race, at least for the title fight, as we head into the second half of the season. Next week provides one final opportunity for the 250SX West guys to make a dent before a lengthy break to allow the East series to start and we won’t see the West riders until the end of March.

Switching gears and talking about the 450SX class, Monster Energy/Star Yamaha Racing’s Eli Tomac was carrying all the momentum into Glendale. The 2020 champ had the points lead, his first win of the season at Anaheim 2, and Glendale was a track that Tomac had enjoyed success on in the past.

All day long, Tomac looked comfortable in Glendale as well. He consistently fought for top time in qualifying, was one of the first riders to bust out the big 4-4 line in the first rhythm section and didn’t really seem to have any problem areas that he was trying to work on. That form carried right into the main events as Tomac launched out to a rare holeshot in the first main.

Starts have been a major talking point at Yamaha since Anaheim 1 and they have slowly gotten better week by week for Tomac. All Tomac was really looking for was consistency out of the hole and it seems that whatever they have been working on is starting to work for Tomac. In both the first and second main events, Tomac went right to the lead and never looked back.

The third main provided a bit more entertainment for Tomac to deal with as his start was just a tick off and he came through in fourth instead of the lead. That early setback, coupled with the fact that Tomac didn’t actually need to win the third main event to win the race, seemed to settle Tomac back into a bit of management mode.

Chase Sexton led but Tomac was able to move into second early. Jason Anderson went around him, and it looked like Malcolm Stewart was going to as well until the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna man had what appeared to be some sort of bike problem. Stewart backed off the challenge, but Tomac’s advantage in points for the night was big enough that he didn’t have to worry much anyway.

In the end, he cruised it home in third place to claim his second straight main event victory and become the first two-time winner in 2022. Suddenly Tomac is really starting to assert himself as the guy to beat again and it seems like there’s no signs of slowing down.

“We just put ourselves in such a good position in those first two,” said Tomac. “Obviously with the first one getting a holeshot, I was like, “Alright, let’s do this again,” and I did it again in moto two. I had a little wheelie in moto three, but it was just such a fun night of riding and racing. I just can’t believe how good my motorcycle was tonight. Just so cool to be in this position for us.”

Behind Tomac, Malcolm Stewart earned a career best finish in 450SX with a second overall. The bike issue in the final main either subsided or was managed well in the end as Stewart put 3-2-4 scores together for a comfortable second overall in Glendale.

It was definitely Stewart’s best riding all year aside from maybe his speed at Anaheim 1, but he looked aggressive and in control all night long. He may be right around the corner from his first career 450SX victory and he’s also planted himself comfortably fourth in the championship so far for 2022.

“This is my first-ever podium for a Triple Crown and I’m beyond stoked,” Stewart said.” I can’t thank the whole team enough. We’ve all been grinding and we’re starting to see things pay off and I think this only builds more momentum for everybody.”

Rounding out the podium was Honda HRC’s Chase Sexton. Sexton’s night could have gone so much better, but the first main event went from good to nightmare quickly. Sexton fell while battling for third and slipped outside of the top 10, and then he fell again while trying to make a few passes through the field. He would ultimately end up 11^th in the first main event.

That 11^th hung with him on an otherwise great night where he steadily rode to third place in the second main event and dominated the third main event. The ride in the third main event was just enough to beat out Jason Anderson by a single point for the final step on the podium.

“If you watched my first race, you’d think I was a beginner,” said Sexton. “I fell twice and ended up getting 11^th. It was kind of a struggle for me all day. Practice, I didn’t feel great. I was off the pace of Eli and those guys that I had to race with. The second race was better for me, and I got a little momentum and third race I got the holeshot and just set sail.”

As mentioned, Anderson came home fourth on the night after following Sexton home in the third main event. Anderson was second in main event one, but like Sexton, had one rough score set the tone for his final result. As he was running in second place again in the second main event, he jumped just a bit too far left on the triple in to the long rhythm section and landed on the Tuff Blocks. After being stuck there for a little while, Anderson would get going 18^th and finish up in 12^th. The 2-12-2 for fourth could have easily been second overall for the Monster Energy Kawasaki rider, but the good news is he’s just 15 points down in the championship through five rounds and is certainly in contention for being the fastest guy out there every week.

A man who has not been the fastest guy out there is reigning champion Cooper Webb. Webb was consistent and did get better throughout the night it seemed, but 8-8-5 for eighth is just not where he wants to be. Now he slips to sixth in the championship standings and 23 points off the lead as he lost another 11 points on the night.

Things need to turn around quick for Webb as they do for Ken Roczen. The Honda HRC rider had a steady night but just never seemed to really get the ball rolling. His 4-6-7 was good enough for fifth overall, but he now falls to 31 points down in the championship and is teetering into the territory of too big of a hole to climb out of.

Similar to the 250SX class, we might be seeing the breakaway unfolding right in front of us as guys like Tomac, Anderson, and Sexton remain on the uptrend and we’re going back to Anaheim next week where all three of those guys swept the podium just seven days ago at Anaheim 2. Glendale is now behind us and it’s back to the regular program next week, but the dust has hardly settled here in Arizona and it likely won’t for many days to come.