Practice is about to begin. We'll have reports in a moment.

Free Practice

There should be nearly as much attention on the B group today as the A because of all the new talent in 250SX East. Levi Kitchen was the fastest in B group while making his SX debut. Phil Nicoletti, returning to U.S. Supercross for the first time since 2018, was second. Derek Drake was third then AJ Catanzaro and Henry Miller.

Stilez Robertson was the first rider on  track when 250 East A group hit the track. The key section is a 3-3-3 out of a 180 and it’s a stretch for the 250s. Robertson got it down quickly as did Jett Lawrence and RJ Hampshire. They sat at the top of the board first, then Pierce Brown got it down and moved to the top. Jordon Smith, back to racing now with the Fire Power Honda team, also got it down and tucked right in behind Brown for a fast lap. It took Jeremy Martin a few laps to get the 3-3-3 down but then he got it and moved to fifth. RJ Hampshire took top time away from Brown, but Brown answered and got it back. Make Brown the one to fire first in this 250SX East battle.

Justin Brayton, Chase Sexton and Marvin Musquin turned in the fast laps early in this session. Malcolm Stewart also looked good. Sexton probably looked the best of the bunch, but no one was attacking much. Eli Tomac jumped up to second, then Musquin took it back. The whoops look tougher than expected (they looked tame when photos of the track surfaced on Thursday) because they're bound to get edges and rough, but the section is short. Still, Cooper Webb tried to attack them and nearly went down with a huge swap. If the section was any longer, he would have hit the dirt. 

First Timed Practice

Preston Kilroy had a big crash in this session and was slow to get up. Henry Miller also went down. Miller was able to get back up and ride, Kilroy eventually walked off.

Track is getting really tough now, the ruts are showing teeth and riders have been jumping sideways and going off the track. For example, Jordon Smith was on top of the board early in this session but then also nearly crashed in the whoops, he went off the track and saved it. Pierce Brown also nearly crashed twice. Jeremy Martin went to the top of the board over RJ Hampshire and Mitch Oldenburg. Jett Lawrence took the top time away later in the session. Hampshire ended up second and Forkner’s last lap put him into third. Martin lost top time and got shuffled back to sixth, then came back with another fast lap to go to fourth. Stilez Robertson was fifth.

“My good lap I was just kind of focusing on getting everything clean, the track is quite peaky right now,” said Lawrence. “I was surprised I went to the top, I think I got a bit lucky there. The track is really technical and fun, it’s going to be really rutted, so it will be whoever is the smartest. I already had a sketchy moment there. I thought my night was going to be over pretty quick when I was in the air. I’m excited to race these guys tonight.”

As the 450s rolled out, there’s a new line some riders were trying. There’s an elevated table top in a corner, and then riders can jump off a knuckle on the outside, then quad out. A few riders have done it throughout press day and practice, and more riders tried it this time. They can clear it, but it doesn’t appear to be faster, because the inside in that corner saves so much time.

Sexton continued to roll, getting to the top of the board early, with Ferrandis right behind. Sexton was looking good until Musquin took the top spot away followed by Tomac. Musquin Then Ferrandis answered to leap frog his teammate to go to second. Sexton was working on a quad no one else was doing, racing across the start straight then leaping two singles and a table where everyone else is going single on-off. He jumped it earlier, then put it together on a late fast lap to take the top time back.

“It’s just you have to hit your marks because it’s pretty rutted, it’s pretty technical we’ve been racing on. I’m excited to be on the east coast, overall the vibe is good. It helps a lot. You’re driving so much in California. I’m back in Florida, loving what I’m doing every day. The practice tracks get gnarly every day and I think it helps on these tracks when it gets rutted.”

Vince Friese is back in the 450 class after a good run in 250SX West, including a podium last week. He was on top in both B group sessions today. Alex Ray is back from a wrist injury and has looked smooth (for him) and has been second both times. Late in this session Kevin Moranz and Adam Enticknap jumped ahead of Ray.

Final Practices

Levi Kitchen holeshot the fake start. Henry Miller was behind him but a few laps in he went down and nearly got tagged. Kitchen’s time held on and would actually end up being third overall of all the 250 riders by the end of the day. Phil Nicoletti, Derek Drake and Henry Miller were next in the B group.

In the 250 A group Josh Varize got the holeshot on the fake start with fellow Husqvarna rider Stilez Robertson and Max Vohland right there. Varize is competing with help from Husky, racing on one of last year’s race bikes, transported inside the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna team truck, but Varize doesn’t have Rockstar branding and is not considered an “official” factory rider.

Coty Schock, now on the Phoenix Honda, was second fastest early, the nMitch Oldernburg went to the top. At one point Schock bobbled and ended up side saddle on his machine but saved it. The usual suspects jumped to the top, with Hampshire, Martin and Lawrence 1-2-3. Martin was really feeling it now, blitzing the whoops and hammering out another fast time to jump to the top. It looked like Martin might go P1, but once again Austin Forkner logged a fast lap at the very end and this time it was enough to go to the top of the board overall for the day.

“It’s good, that was a really good lap I put together, I got out of balance in that elevated turn, I didn’t even stick my foot out, I just ripped it, it was pretty sick,” said Forkner. “We were all kind of yo-yo-ing at the top of the board. You’d be up top, fall down the board, then go back to the top. I feel like I can put together some solid laps for tonight.”

The fake start strikes. There was a pileup in the first turn of 450 A practice and it claimed Aaron Plessinger, who got pinched off on the inside, got on the brakes and went down. He took Eli Tomac down with him. Tomac was okay, but Plessinger got up slowlytrying to shake the pain out of his hand. Took awhile to get up, but he eventually started rolling around. Musquin has been on the gas today and took the top spot early. Dylan Ferrandis and Eli Tomac came through next, and the “Sexton quad” from earlier was conquered by a few others, like Malcolm Stewart and Jason Anderson. Also, riders started experimenting with the elevated turn again, jumping off of it and then quadding over. Now that outside and the inside have become about the same speed, it will be interesting to see if that becomes a passing zone in the races.

The times started going crazy with five minutes to go, Sexton took the top spot, then Anderson and Ferrandis got in there too. With all the scrambling, Ferrandis ended up first, then Sexton and Anderson bumping Musquin’s early time back to fourth. Cooper Webb was fifth, an encouraging sign then it was Tomac, Stewart, Roczen, Barcia and Brayton in tenth.

“Track is really rutty, we can really feel that we’re back on the east coast,” said Ferrandis. “The team gave me a great bike, we improved during the day and obviously everything looks good. Now I need to take that speed from practice and turn it into a main event win. That would be good.”

Vince Friese again owned the 450 B group session. Logan Karnow, riding the same 250 he races in 250SX West, ran second for most of the session.

The track was in much better condition for these final practices. Earlier in the day the track was getting super rutted, and there were big chunks and holes all over. That’s what led to so many off-track excursions and close calls, especially where the whoops led to the big triple. Major track maintenance this afternoon has cleaned most of that up. The heat races will be good, but by  the mains the track will be hammered, and produce more of the mistake-prone stuff we saw in the first practices. The one questionable part is the whoops. They turned to jumpers pretty quickly earlier today. By the end of these practices a V-rut had formed right down the middle and the riders were just rolling through, making the whoops super easy. Surely they will try to fix that before tonight, but we’ll see if it holds. Will whoops matter tonight like they have the last few weeks? Good chance that they won’t.

Couple little injury notes here, you've already heard Jett Reynolds is out with a broken wrist from yesterday. Henry Miller had a huge crash today but said he got lucky and he's okay. Preston Kilroy had a big crash, too, but he's still in. Jack Chambers crashed on the same triple as Miller and hurt the  AC joint in his shoulder and he's out.

Heat Races

Stilez Robertson led them into turn one but Kyle Peters and Josh Osby sneaked around to grab the lead. Pierce Brown made quick moves to get to second, then took the lead from Osby. Osby got shuffled back, and then Jett Lawrence and Jeremy Martin were at the back of the train and started moving forward. While Martin was trying to find a way around Max Vohland for fourth, Jett jumped inside and bumped him to sneak attack and take the spot away. A lap later, Lawrence got Vohland as well. This left Brown, Peters and Robertson top three, with Lawrence chasing. Robertson got held up in a rhythm lane by Peters which let Lawrence slip by for second. Brown rode to an uncontested win. Meanwhile the battle for the final transfer raged between about four riders, and Henry Miller and Jeremy Hand were the winners by getting through for ninth and eighth. Devin Simonson just missed, and Osby ended up out of a transfer after leading early.

“It feels good. This coast is going to be the tough one but we’ve been putting in the work, I feel ready and now we’re proving it. It feels super, super good.”

Levi Kitchen holeshot his first ever supercross heat race, with Jordon Smith and RJ Hampshire closed behind. Kitchen cased a rhythm on lap  two and lost the lead to Smith. This held up Hampshire, who wanted to avoid running into Kitchen. Eventually Kitchen made another mistake and Hampshire got through. He kept going to try to catch Smith, and they battled hard on the final lap for the lead. Hampshire got it. Would have been a nice return to supercross after several years of injury for Smith, but he had to settle for second, with Hampshire getting the win.

"That was huge man, been awhile since I’ve been racing,” said Hampshire. “We did some work this off season. This bike, myself, working with Aldon. Didn’t go so good in practice but it’s come together tonight. Man, I love this.”

Further back, Austin Forkner made a mistake and nearly went down, he saved it, but then Phil Nicoletti, in his return to supercross, passed him in the whoops. Forkner then tried to jump past Nicoletti on the inside at the end of a rhythm, but there wasn’t room and he landed right into Phil, sending Phil off the track. Both riders recovered but Nicoletti made it a point to get in Forkner’s face after the race and have some words with him. Welcome back to supercross!

Chase Sexton and Ken Roczen put their Hondas to the lead at the start of this one, but Eli Tomac was positioned on the inside of turn two to get into second. Sexton and Roczen pulled out the quad over the table on the first lap, Tomac started hitting it on lap two. Justin Brayton was fourth and Aaron Plessinger was fifth. Plessinger made the move on Brayton and then Musquin followed him through.

Tomac, Sexton and Roczen exchanged fast laps. At one point Tomac caught Sexton, then Sexton was able to get away and take the heat win. Plessinger, Musquin, Brayton, Chisholm, Bogle and Clason rounded out the top nine. Hometown hero Alex Martin was last early and battled all the way back to tenth. He was catching Clason at the end but ran out of time, he’ll be LCQ bound.

“I just hit my marks, and I didn’t want to let him by me. I want  that good gate pick for the main. The racing has been good this year and I’m excited for tonight,” said Sexton.

“I could hear Eli behind me,” said Sexton. “I was struggling a little bit in the whoops, a different line. I had to switch it up. Made a few adjustments. Track is good, lots of traction. Looking forward to it, really happy to be on the east coast.”

In the second 450 heat,  Vince Friese jumped off to his usual good start—250, 450, it doesn’t matter. Justin Barcia was on his inside and bumped Friese’s leg, Friese held on, and Barcia was left on the outside for the next turn, so he got shuffled back. Malcolm Stewart and Cooper Webb were next in line, Friese then bobbled in the first rhythm lane, slowing Stewart and Webb. Stewart then quadded past Friese to get the lead. Webb eventually moved to second. Barcia bobbled in a corner and that held up Jason Anderson as well. It was chaos as Friese did what he does—made it tough to pass. Ferrandis and Anderson were able to get ahead of him. Up ahead, Stewart held on for the heat race win. He’s rolling.

Jarrett Frye took the early lead and Marshal Weltin knocked down Grant Harlan to take over second. Harlan had made the pass, Weltin got him back. Pheonix Honda teammates Cullin Park and Coty Schock were next, Park bobbled in the whoops and almost took his teammate down with him. They survived. Then they went after Weltin. Schock was able to get by to take second, Weltin held off Park, and the main event lineup was set.

The heartbreaker? Mitch Oldenburg. His bike didn’t fire on the line for his heat race, so he ended up last, giving him the worst gate pick here. He started last on the outside and ran out of time, coming through for sixth. Big bummer.

Max Anstie missed the main by one spot in the heat, he took off with an easy LCQ win here. But the fans were focused on local product Alex Martin. He started sixth and worked his way around Joan Cros to take fourth. Justin Starling was second and Ryan Breece third. Martin stayed close to Breece the whole way but played it safe to take final spot.

250 Main Event

Austin Forkner and Jett Lawrence battled off the start with Hampshire right there, Hampshire got shuffled back in turn two, and McAdoo came up to third. Then came Martin, putting the favorites up front. Jett jumped inside of Forkner on lap two to take the lead.

 The rider making moves was Pierce Brown, he knifed inside of Levi Kitchen and Phil Nicoletti. Then he went after Peters. This made the order Lawrence, Forkner, McAdoo, Hampshire, Martin, Robertson, Peters, Brown, Nicoletti and Smith. Smith then tried to get Phil, and he tagged a track marker on the inside and went flipping, Nicoletti was luck to not get hit by his bike.

Hampshire messed up the rhythm lane at the halfway mark, this allowed Jeremy Martin to sail into fourth. Up ahead, Lawrence continued to pull away from Forkner. Brown caught up to Peters and put an arenacross-style block pass on the arenacross champion, knocking Peters off the track. Martin made a mistake and Hampshire closed back in on him for fourth, then Martin pulled back away and made a late run for the podium against McAdoo. He and Hampshire pushed all the way to the end and almost got to McAdoo, but ran out of time.

No drama for Lawrence, who scored the win over Forkner and McAdoo. Then it was Martin and Hampshire, Brown, Robertson, Lopes, Kitchen and Nicoletti rounded out the top ten.

“I mean, the run up into this, I’ve been freezing my butt off!” said Lawrence. “I have to give it to the people who live here, I’m a wussy in this weather. I was so excited for this main event. Even when the gate dropped I was smiling. I was so, so excited and happy to be back, you don’t get that adrenaline from anything else. The boys rode fantastic, Austin, I was like “he’s keeping up right now!” I had to push to get that safety gap. The track was awesome, so technical, I had some cases and some moments, probably have a bit of mud in the pants right now! It was awesome, I love being back here.”

 “Feels good,” said Forkner. “I’ll take that all season long. Solid ride, didn’t have the pace at the beginning, started matching him in the middle, then it was just tenths. He rode good, I never got close enough to challenge for a pass. It was good, and the start, that’s how I started races in 2019 and 2020. That’s probably what I was most pumped about, because last year that’s what I struggled with the most.”

“Yeah it was definitely starting on the right foot, had some struggles in practice and the heat race, sixth in the heat race is not ideal and I had a bad gate pick,” said McAdoo. “Really had to lock in. I knew we had probably 22 laps and this one rhythm lane was critical to get every time, the track changed every lap. We’re on the podium, we always strive to be better, and there’s parts where I thought I could be better, but I’m happy to start it off on the right foot.”

Webb got the start over Anderson and Sexton, then Sexton was around Anderson to second. On the second lap Dylan Ferrandis got sideways in the whoops and went right into the path of his teammate Eli Tomac, and Tomac crashed, putting him in last. Up front, Sexton started to close on Webb and the battle for the lead was on…until Sexton clipped the quad and allowed Webb to get away. It was Webb, Sexton, Anderson, Stewart, Musquin, Roczen, Plessinger, Barcia, Brayton and Friese.

Sexton caught back up to Webb and made a pass in the turn after the finish. Webb tried to cut under but didn’t have enough drive for the whoops, allowing Sexton to lock down the lead. Anderson tried to follow him and attacked Webb but couldn’t get him. Then Anderson made the move. Webb then didn’t triple and Stewart did to take third. Then Webb fell into the clutches of Musquin in a battle for fourth.

In the final six minutes Webb put it back together using his late-race craft. He pulled away from Musquin and caught Stewart for third. Roczen was alone in sixth and crashed, then came Plessinger and Tomac who had come from the back. Tomac got around Plessinger and then Roczen to get to seventh. Stewart had begun to pull back away and secure third from Webb but then he crashed, and Webb inherited third.

It was over and done with two minutes to go until….SEXTON CRASHED WITH THE WIN WELL IN HAND! Anderson jumped over him (literally) and took the lead, and Webb and Musquin moved to second and third. Stewart was fourth ahead of Barcia, and Tomac salvaged sixth. Plessinger and Roczen were next, then it was Ferrandis and Brayton rounding out the top ten.

“Yeah you know for me I was really struggling all day,” said Anderson. “To be honest when I lined up for that main, the heat race didn’t go as I planned, and in the main I was riding really hard but I wasn’t feeling the groove like normal. I had already bitten the bullet that Chase was going to win the race. Man, it’s a bummer he went down. I feel like I’ve  been on the other side of that a few times  this year, and it’s racing. I’m thankful I was able to get up here and get the win, and I hope he’s okay and he’s able to come back and battle with us next week, because that battle is what the fans need. Sorry that I couldn’t put it up there with him, but we’ll be back next weekend.”

“It’s nice to be back up here and back in the fight, and a chance to be running up front again,” said Webb. “It’s been a rough start to the season and not where I want to be, still. I have to give it up to the team, they found some good stuff this week. I’ve got to up to the crew back in Florida, my practice mechanic Austin and Dazzy for whipping me into shape. Feels good to be back in the fight, still not where I want to be but I got a holeshot and led laps. Got lucky there were a few crashes that put me into second, but I’ll take it. Been a rough start to the season and there’s light at the end of the tunnel. We’ll take it.”

“The last two weekends, Anaheim and Glendale I would have been on the podium but I crashed, today the other ones crashed and I got on the podium,” said Webb. “I will take it, they don’t come easy this year, so I want to enjoy it even though I was a little disappointed because I was right there but I lost some ground at some point. It took me awhile to figure out the whoops, but I was fast everywhere else. I capitalized on Malcolm and Chase to get third. It doesn’t feel like I got third the way  the race went, but this is racing and the competition is tough so third is great.”