The racetrack itself is highlighted by two full stadium-length rhythm sections with one of them even ending in a unique inside lower-outside raised corner option. Just based on the eye-test, the rhythm section before the finish line jump may present the most options today as the triple out of the corner looks long and it’s from a three-foot to a five-foot single. Both lanes do seem to present a mix of good options though so it will be interesting to see how fast the riders figure out which one works the best.

The 250SX class may be the more interesting of the two as it could be possible only a handful of guys can pop both triple-ins to each rhythm section. The story for 250SX East right now is all Jett Lawrence after the Honda HRC man took his second win in three rounds at Daytona last week. Despite three crashes at the Triple Crown in Arlington, Lawrence has proven the man to beat in the East thus far and he now holds sole possession of the points lead again heading into round four.

There’s also a new face under the Monster Energy/Star Yamaha Racing tent this weekend as veteran Kyle Chisholm will fill-in for injured riders Jeremy Martin and Levi Kitchen. Chisholm looked tight in Press Day yesterday and even left the stadium at one point to make a suspension adjustment on the rear of the bike before returning to test it out. He’s certainly hurrying to get up to speed on this machine and this weekend may just be a test before he’s really dialed in next week in Indianapolis.

We’ll be bringing blow by blow coverage throughout the day here in Detroit with Free Practice beginning in about 45 minutes. You can catch both qualifying sessions and all the racing today via Race Day Live and the night program later tonight. View the broadcast schedule below and rev-up for the gate drops tonight in Detroit!

FREE PRACTICE

The day began with Free Practice sessions for each group starting with the 250 C group. The whoops seemingly were a bit cut down from press day as not too many riders were struggling getting to grips with the track.

Kyle Chisholm would end up in the B group this week in his first week dropping down to the 250SX class and he topped the sheets in that Free Practice session. He did pull off the track during the session again to make a shock adjustment but ultimately put it on top in his first session with Monster Energy/Star Yamaha Racing.

When the A group came out, Pierce Brown led the field around early and would go to the top of the sheets for the first half of the session. Eventually, Jett Lawrence got things rolling and would get into a little lap time war with Cameron McAdoo for the top time. Lawrence would hold on for the top spot though it still seemed like riders were figuring out the track by the end of the session.

In the 450SX class, the A group hit the track first and they were led around by Jason Anderson, Eli Tomac, Justin Barcia, Chase Sexton, and Cooper Webb all charging early on. Tomac looked most comfortable in the whoops from the second the green flag waved, and he would go to the top early.

Chase Sexton fought back and became the first man into the 44’s on the day with a 44.931. Jason Anderson would then put in a late hot lap of his own to drop to a 45.011 but Sexton’s time would hold at the top. It was Sexton from Anderson, Tomac, Dylan Ferrandis, and Cooper Webb. Top nine were all about a second apart.

FIRST QUALIFYING SESSIONS

Free Practice was immediately followed by the first set of qualifying sessions where these times do actually count towards the night show. The rhythm section after the supercross triple was the story of these ones as several riders crashed on the triple after doubling in. The landing of the triple is a bit taller and more peaked out than the takeoff and riders were trying to find that edge of down siding the jump cleanly without clipping it too bad.

Kyle Swanson went down in the B group which brought out the red flag while Brock Papi and Hardy Munoz both each brought out the red flag in the A session for crashing on the same jump. No updates on any of the riders is available at this time.

As for the qualifying part of it, Cameron McAdoo found his way to the top of the board about halfway through the session and would remain there for the rest of the way. Jett Lawrence didn’t put any fast laps down until both red flag situations had been sorted out and only was really able to run two hot laps. In the end, he would end up fourth behind McAdoo, Pierce Brown, and Jordon Smith.

Right before the 450 A group went out, Dirt Wurx went out and shaved down the landing of that triple jump in the middle of the rhythm section. Before the session started, they let the riders go through that section once rolling it in order to feel out how the newly shaped jump looked.

Once qualifying got underway, the times were quickly falling. Eli Tomac went fastest at first as he put it into the 44’s but he would later be eclipsed by Chase Sexton who dropped the top time all the way down to a 44.1. Cooper Webb was the only rider who was able to jump a technical quad in the middle of the rhythm before the finish and he used the line to move to second overall with a 44.2. But it was Sexton who goes P1 after one session in the books here in Detroit.

SECOND QUALIFYING SESSIONS

As the second sessions began, the track work done during the break was showing. Kyle Chisholm was able to hist the quad that Cooper Webb hit as the #11 machine topped B group, but several riders in the A group were able to go out there and hit the quad as well.

Jett Lawrence took advantage of the line to become the first rider of the day to drop all the way down to the 43’s with a 43.856. His blistering lap put him nearly a full second clear of Pierce Brown in second at the time, but Brown would improve his time down to a 44.170 and close to within three tenths of Lawrence.

Brock Papi and Hardy Munoz were both back in action after their crashes had caused two red flags in the first qualifying session. The track was still reaching up and biting a few guys though as Mitchell Oldenburg and Kyle Peters both found the dirt at separate points.

As the checkered flag waved, it was Lawrence how remained on top to qualify P1 for the Detroit Supercross in the 250SX class.

The final 450 A session of the day got underway, and it was Malcolm Stewart who rocketed out to the front from the fake start. Stewart put down the early pace before Chase Sexton was able to eclipse him.

Dylan Ferrandis shot to the top of the board next with a 44.033 then the 43’s started raining down. First it was Sexton who put in a 43.701, then Stewart went fastest at a 43.568, with Eli Tomac not far behind them at a 43.983.

Malcolm Stewart had a little crash at the end of the whoops one lap that shook him up a bit in the final few minutes. In the end, it didn’t matter as Stewart’s time would hold up to go fastest on the day ahead of Sexton, Jason Anderson, Tomac, and Ferrandis.

250 HEAT 1

In the first heat race of the night, it was Joshua Cartwright who got out to the early lead with Enzo Lopes right behind him and Pierce Brown in third. Lopes quickly was able to make his way by and Brown followed through as well pushing Cartwright down to fourth behind Jace Owen.

Jarrett Frye fell at the end of the second lap and took his teammate Jordon Smith down with him pushing them both way back in the pack. Pierce Brown, meanwhile, took the lead out front away from Enzo Lopes and quickly opened up a nice gap.

Enzo Lopes tipped over while running in second place and was having some troubles with his bike as the front end was locked up. That allowed Owen and Stilez Robertson by to battle it out for second which Robertson quickly took over and put a little gap on Owen behind him.

Jordon Smith had been charging forward and nearly found his way into a transfer spot but then he fell again after the finish line jump. He amazingly got all the way back to 10^th again and almost made it into the main event with a last turn pass attempt on Devin Simonson, but Simonson was able to hang on.

In the end, Pierce Brown took the heat race victory from Robertson, Owen, Cullin Park, and Cartwright rounding out the top five.

250 HEAT 2

RJ Hampshire shot out to the early lead in the second 250SX heat race, but Jett Lawrence was able to skirt around him right at the end of the first lap. Kyle Chisholm found himself in third place early with Cameron McAdoo closing up behind him. McAdoo was able to make the pass into third by the end of the second lap.

Hampshire made a big mistake at the end of the whoops on the fourth lap and went up into the Tuff Blocks pushing him back to fifth. Lawrence had now extended his lead out to over four seconds as McAdoo moved through into second place.

Phil Nicoletti was down in the first corner in a crash with Michael Hicks and Luke Neese, but Nicoletti was able to make it into the final transfer spot with two laps to go as the ClubMX Yamaha rider moved around Lane Shaw in the whoops.

Up front Lawrence was able to hold on for the race victory ahead of McAdoo, Oldenburg, Chisholm, and Hampshire.

450 HEAT 1

Chase Sexton came out with the holeshot in the first 450SX heat race with Eli Tomac and Marvin Musquin right in line behind him. Dean Wilson made an early pass on Kevin Moranz to get into fifth place, but the Scotsman promptly dumped his Husqvarna after the supercross triple on the second lap and dropped back to 19^th.

Brandon Hartranft had a fall while running in sixth place and slipped back behind Dean Wilson who had moved up to 11^th. Wilson completed his run back to a transfer spot by moving around Tristan Lane for the final spot with just a few laps left to go.

Sexton and Tomac out front were laying down a blistering pace and working through lapped traffic all the while. Sexton hit some Tuff Blocks right before the triple one lap and Tomac tried to square him off in the next corner for the lead but the #23 machine was able to hold onto the lead.

Then Sexton got the whoops really wrong coming to the while flag and went through the Tuff Blocks on the left side of the track and down. Amazingly, he was able to get right back up still in second, but Tomac had already shot through into the lead.

Eli Tomac then took the heat race victory ahead of Sexton, Musquin, Justin Brayton, and Vince Friese.

450 HEAT 2

Malcolm Stewart grabbed the holeshot in the final heat race of the night and had Cooper Webb and Jason Anderson hot on his heels right from the get-go. Justin Bogle and Alex Martin rounded out the top five early while Dylan Ferrandis and Justin Barcia sat behind them.

Anderson slowly kept working on Cooper Webb for second place through much of the first half of the race and he finally made the pass stick after the whoops with about three minutes left on the clock.

Ferrandis and Barcia had both also made it around Martin and Bogle to get into fourth and fifth, respectively. Then Ferrandis had a crash in the rhythm after the triple with two laps to go and dropped a couple spots to Barcia and Bogle, pushing him back to sixth.

Malcolm Stewart led from wire-to-wire to take the heat race victory ahead of Anderson, Webb, Barcia and Bogle in the end.

250 LAST CHANCE QUALIFIER

Jordon Smith grabbed the holeshot in the 250SX LCQ ahead of Michael Hicks and Lance Kobusch. Kobusch would be passed by Henry Miller right at the end of the second lap but eyes were focused in on Enzo Lopes who was coming up from a bad start and had made it into fifth place by the third lap.

Lopes was able to work up to Kobusch and make the pass for the final transfer spot by about the halfway point. That left Smith out front leading from Hicks, Miller, and Lopes as they all began to slowly open up the gap on Kobusch behind them.

Jordon Smith pulled out to a big lead in the end to win the LCQ ahead of Lopes who moved up to second, Miller got into third in the last turn, and Hicks would settle in for fourth.

450 LAST CHANCE QUALIFIER

Joan Cros grabbed the holeshot in the LCQ ahead of Logan Karnow and Cheyenne Harmon. Brandon Hartranft slowly worked his way into the lead battle and got around Harmon for third as the front three battled it out.

Ryan Breece also worked his way around Harmon to get into the final transfer spot as Hartranft worked around Karnow and then Cros to take the lead. Then Karnow worked on Cros to make a pass for second and the two got together which put Cros on the ground.

Tristan Lane found himself in the final transfer spot but then he crashed in the whoops a lap later. Then Justin Rodbell made his way around Harmon into the final spot, but Harmon fought back. Rodbell made the pass stick and then Harmon missed the finish line jump and allowed Joan Cros back by into fifth.

Cros gave it a last-ditch effort to get to Rodbell ahead of him, but Rodbell held on for the final transfer spot. Hartranft took the win from Breece, Karnow, and Rodbell in the end.

250 MAIN EVENT

Stilez Robertson grabbed the holeshot in the 250SX main event with Kyle Chisholm and Jett Lawrence right there. Lawrence wasted little time to blitz by into the lead around Robertson and the #18 machine would lead the opening lap of the race.

Pierce Brown looked determined to not let Lawrence get away as he put an aggressive move on Robertson to get into second place and they immediately opened up a gap on Robertson back in third place.

Cameron McAdoo was working forward from a fifth place start and got around Phil Nicoletti for fourth before moving up and getting Robertson a lap later. Lawrence had opened up a two second lead on Brown then it was another three second back to McAdoo as they started lap four.

McAdoo was the fastest rider on the track by this stage of the race and was quickly reeling in Brown for second ahead of him as the front three completely broke away from the rest of the field.

Back there in fourth, Robertson was dealing with pressure from Jordon Smith as Phil Nicoletti was pressured by RJ Hampshire behind that. Smith made the move into fourth just before five minutes into the race as Hampshire got around Nicoletti for sixth just a couple turns later.

Hampshire then worked up and around Robertson with Mitchell Oldenburg following suit just a few moments later. The battle out front was starting to heat up as Lawrence got held up by some lapped traffic and Pierce Brown came alive.

Brown showed Lawrence a wheel for the lead and McAdoo was not too far behind as the trio out front began duking it out. McAdoo tried to pounce on Brown’s vulnerability after his failed pass attempt and nearly got second place away, but their battling was causing them to lose touch with Lawrence out front.

Brown finally made a big enough mistake before the whoops to allow McAdoo through into second and the race against the clock was on. Lawrence had pulled out to nearly a four second lead while they battled behind him and McAdoo would have to do some work to close that gap back down again.

McAdoo made a couple more mistakes in the following two laps and Lawrence opened it up over five seconds as he put a big group of lappers between himself and the battle for second. Brown wasn’t done either as the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/GasGas rider stayed right on McAdoo as the laps closed down.

Hampshire worked up too Jordon Smith for fourth and put a late race pass on the #90 machine to get into P4. By that point, they had both fallen to about 10 seconds behind the battle ahead of them for third.

As the flag waved, Jett Lawrence took his third win of 2022 and extended his championship lead out to eight points. Cameron McAdoo ended up in second with Pierce Brown rounding out the podium on the evening.