The 250SX West division is back in action with Christian Craig, Tomac's teammate with Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing, holding a 28 point lead. Michael Mosiman and Hunter Lawrence sit one point apart from each other in second and third. Four races remain in 250SX West.

There is, of course, a threat of rain today in Seattle. We heard it rained while they were building the track earlier this week, which complicates things. So far the track looks dry, as if they expect it to have to absorb some rain later. As usual we have a disagreement on the track design. Steve Matthes says the track looks tamed down and the jumps look a little low, but Jason Thomas says it looks normal. Did they build it lower and less steep expecting it to get soft and rutted? Matthes says yes, JT says no, and the world keeps spinning because they don't agree. 

Free Practice

We’re gonna side with Jason Thomas here and say the track looks pretty normal—not extra tame in anticipation of ruts. Chris Blose actually held the fastest time for most of the first timed session until Christian Craig took it over late. Blose and Craig are whoop monsters and that was the separator in this session, because no one was really charging the jumps and pushing hard for time in the rhythms. Craig and Blose blew through the entry into the whoops with incredible entry speed.

Justin Barcia led Eli Tomac and Marvin Musquin early in this session. The riders have been eyeing up a quad out of the first 180 corner. Everyone eyed it up, then Mitch Oldenburg almost got the quad, then Justin Barcia got it clean. The next move is to get the quad and then 3-3 into the next corner. Two laps later Chase Sexton did it, 4-3-3 to power through the lane. Then Barcia did it. Sexton looks a-m-a-z-i-n-g early in this session and went to the top. Then Tomac greased the section and went to the top, then Malcolm Stewart went to second, pushing Sexton back to third.

First Timed Session

Michael Mosiman went to the top of the board early then Craig took it away over Thrasher and Marchbanks. Again the whoop speed from Craig was next level, and we know you know Craig has next level whoop speed, but even when you know it’s coming it's still shocking. Craig has said even with the points lead he has to keep riding the same way he has all year. In his entire career, he's never lined up for a race before without wanting to win it, so changing now would be too strange a situation to handle.

“This is all new to me with a big points lead, but Eli is my teammate and he’s been there and done that so I soak up whatever I can from him," Craig says. "And that’s just staying on offense. The track is dry and top but soft and rutted underneath.”

Eli Tomac keeps rolling by going to the top of the board early and he did the 4-3-3. But that big line is really not the hot setup anymore, and most of the riders are just threeing onto the table. Somehow, that must actually be faster. There’s also a split line in the turn after the mechanic’s area. The inside seems to be the preferred line even though the tabletop is super steep on the inside to try to slow the riders. It’s still faster than going around the outside.

Tomac is flying and really enjoying this track.

“It’s a really challenging condition right now, it’s torn up but it’s got great character to it, great rhythm lanes ,things you can miss things you can make to make up time. Really enjoying this layout right now,” says the current 450SX points leader.

Looked like a main event off the start of the final practice. Hunter Lawrence “holeshot” the “fake start” but Shimoda, Mosiman and Craig were all up front, and Craig made a banzaii run through the whoops that was even hotter than usual. Then he tried to knife inside in the split lane and nearly took Mosiman out when he cut across. It almost looked like a Mosiman/Craig/Shimoda/Lawrence collision was coming but Craig managed to use that inside in the split to slice into the “lead” in practice. He also went to the top of the charts. That time held for awhile but with a minute to go Michael Mosiman launched a hot lap, really pushing through the rhythms, and went to the top. Craig tried to respond but his time came up short and Mosiman took the top slot.

Tomac and Sexton were the lead dogs off the fake start here, and they battled through the whoops to lead the field around. Tomac emerged with top time early. It started shuffling quickly, with Marvin Musquin taking top time and then Malcolm Stewart. But that was only part of the story. Anderson was on a fast lap and squeezed past Sexton in the split lane—which barely has room for two bikes—Sexton was not happy and squared Anderson up and stopped in front of him a lap later. Anderson tagged his rear wheel and almost went down. Then Sexton caught neutral on a table and endoed HARD. Somehow he got back up and logged a few more laps. This crash was HARD.

Malcolm’s time held on for the tops in the 450 class, for the fourth time this year.

“So far I’m enjoying it, it’s been going great. I’m glad to be back in this stadium, pretty cool opportunity for me.”

Alex Ray said his bruised wrist is so bad he can only ride on race day. But he was still able to top the final 450B group of the day.

UPDATE: Chase Sexton is out for the evening after his practice crash.

250 HEAT 1

Dominique Thury grabbed the holeshot in the first 250SX heat race of the night with Jalek Swoll and Hunter Lawrence right behind. Hunter Lawrence tried to go for the race lead right at the end of the first lap but almost went down in the off-camber corner.

Christian Craig didn’t get off the gate well but was able to make some quick passes to get into the top five. Incredibly, he put a few sections together on the third lap when riders missed the timing sections and Craig closed up into third. When Chris Blose made a run on Thury for the race lead, Craig pounced to go to the inside of both of them after the whoops and take the lead.

A lap later, Lawrence was able to go by Blose to move into second place and the two riders began to pull away from Blose behind them. Carson Brown had moved into the top five and was running in fourth with Thury slipping back to fifth place.

Craig would ease out to a nice lead in the end and lead home Lawrence, Blose, Brown, and Thury inside the top five. Jalek Swoll came home in sixth place ahead of Derek Kelley, Ryan Surratt, and Kaeden Amerine to round out the final transfer spots to the main event.

250 Heat 2

Nate Thrasher led into turn one but Vince Friese got inside to take the lead, then it was Mumford and Marchbanks, until Marchbanks messed up a jump in the split lane and lost time. This allowed Friese to get away, then it was Thrasher and Mumford, and then Shimoda and Mosiman were on a charge together through traffic. Shimoda made a few mistakes but eventually moved up to Mumford and took over third. Up ahead, Thrasher was slowly but surely closing in on Friese, leading to a last lap battle for the win. Friese shut the door brilliantly in the final turn and hung on for the win. Thrasher was next, then Shimoda. Mosiman didn’t have the speed in the heat race as he did in qualifying, as Shimoda got away from him. Garrett Marchbanks came through next, then Mumford, Robbie Wageman, Geran Stapleton and McLellan Hile.

450 HEAT 1

Justin Barcia grabbed the holeshot in the first 450SX heat race with Marvin Musquin and Justin Bogle right behind him. Cooper Webb had a terrible jump off the gate and would come through in 11^th spot on the first lap of the race.

Webb would eventually find his way into sixth spot behind Dean /Wilson within the opening laps of the race. The battle for third place was heating up as Mitchell Oldenburg was closing in on Justin Bogle. The lead duo of Barcia and Musquin continued to pull out the gap out front to over five seconds on Bogle behind them.

The battle for the final transfer spot behind them was a good one as Alex Ray, Fredrik Noren, Cade Clason, and Kevin Moranz were all fighting for just three spots. Moranz went for a pass on Clason for the final transfer spot before the whoops on the final lap taking both of them down. Clason was able to get up alongside Tristan Lane and repass Lane to hold on for the final spot in the end.

Justin Barcia would take the win out front ahead of Marvin Musquin, Justin Bogle, Mitchell Oldenburg, and Dean Wilson.

450 Heat 2

It looked like Jason Anderson and Eli Tomac were ready to battle for the holeshot, but somehow Malcolm Stewart got by both of them and jumped into the lead. Anderson and Tomac were second and third, then Chisholm, Justin Starling, Alex Martin, Austin Politelli, Brandon Hartranft and Ryan Breece. With two minutes to go Malcom started to make mistakes and Anderson closed the gap. Malcom messed up the corner before the finish and then messed up a rhythm, going 4-2 instead of 4-3, allowing Anderson to get inside and make a block pass before the whoops. Anderson held on through the whoops to secure the lead and hold on for the win. While Anderson and Stewart were battling Tomac rolled up from third, then Stewart made another mistake and Tomac got around down the start straight. This left Stewart in third. Chisholm Chized with fourth, then Starling, Hartranft, Breece, Politelli and Cros took the final spots.

250 LAST CHANCE QUALIFIER

Wyatt Lionsmith grabbed the holeshot in the 250SX Last Chance Qualifier. Josh Greco was right behind him early on, but Tre Fierro was able to fight his way through into second place. Greco continued to slip down the order outside of transfer spot while Jesse Flock and Mitchell Harrison pushed forward.

Maxwell Sanford went for a block pass on Chance Blackburn for sixth position and put them both on the ground. Blackburn was none too thrilled and tackled Sanford and gave him a piece of his mind before also kneeing him before he got up. Both riders wouldn’t transfer through.

In the end, Lionsmith would hold on for the win ahead of Fierro, Flock, and Harrison.

450 LCQ

Kevin Moranz nailed the holeshot as expected, then it was Tristin Lane. Logan Karnow crashed off the start and was way back. John Short and Bryson Gardner were third and fourth with Alex Martin trying to catch them. Martin made the move to get to fourth, then he started passing his way forward, getting Lane. On the last lap Moranz, while leading, got sideways in a rhythm and tangled with some tough blocks. Somehow he stayed up but he did lose several positions, leavin John Short in the lead and Martin second. Martin challenged Short to the end but Short held on the 450LCQ win. Martin, Lane and Moranz rounded out the field

250 MAIN EVENT

The holeshot in the main event went to Christian Craig with Michael Mosiman and Jo Shimoda right in tow. Hunter Lawrence quickly worked his way into fourth place as the front four went to work on pulling away from the pack.

Craig and Mosiman right away were able to establish a gap on Shimoda behind them, but Lawrence actually made the move on Shimoda to get into third place early on as well.

Mosiman kept inching up to Craig for the race lead and went for the pass right before the finish line jump on the end of the third lap of the race. He ran Craig to the top of the berm and then a little love tap pushed Craig to the ground as Mosiman took over the lead.

Craig slid back to sixth by the time he remounted as he found himself behind Vince Friese. He quickly made the pass on Friese to get back into fifth and continued to push forward trying to run down his teammate Nate Thrasher in fourth and Jo Shimoda in third.

Hunter Lawrence caught fire as the race closed up on its mid-point and found his way around Mosiman for the race lead when Mosiman missed the inside rut in the off camber. Lawrence then immediately pulled out a small gap allowing himself some breathing room to run his normal racing lines.

Thrasher then made the move on Shimoda to move into third place, but Craig followed him right through as the Kawasaki rider made a mistake in the whoops. Craig then made the pass on his teammate to get into third place less than a lap later as he continued to march back towards the front.

Mosiman continued to make some mistakes and it wasn’t long before Craig was on his rear wheel for second place. When Mosiman again missed the inside rut in the off camber, Craig pounced to leap back into second place.

The race was on from there to see if Craig could close the gap down to Lawrence out front. The duo was gapping Mosiman behind them in a hurry as the time started to wind down. The gap was hovering right around two or three seconds as the laps continued to go by.

Lawrence made a few mistakes out front but was able to withstand the pressure in the end as he brought it home to take his second win of 2022. Craig would cross the line right behind him in second with Michael Mosiman finishing up in third place.

Nate Thrasher crashed in fourth place when he had Jo Shimoda closing the gap down behind him. Thrasher then picked up the bike and went down two sections later in the whoops. Fortunately, he was able to regroup and get going in 11^th place.

“The team saved my ass, we were struggling with the bike, we had to make some big calls where if we got it wrong we could be screwed,” said Lawrence. “I also have a golf tee time on Monday and I wanted to bring some momentum into there.”

“Not gonna lie, I’m sour about how that went,” said Craig. “Michael was a little faster at the beginning and that’s three times now I’ve been cleaned out. I’m sour, but I was able to salvage and get up to second. Just going to take this break and be ready for the East/West shootout.”

“It was going pretty good for me, had some good solutions today after the first qualifying, and I ripped a start in the main,” said Mosiman. “Right there with Christian, fast in the whoops, made an aggressive move going for the championship. I bent my rotor—I guess that’s what happens when you make an aggressive move. Took me a few laps to figure out that was the issue. Tough night, I felt I could have adapted better. It’s bitter sweet. It was lining up there and it went south.”

450 Main Event

Eli Tomac got the holeshot over Justin Barcia Marvin Musquin and Jason Anderson. Musquin’s whoop speed was way down on lap one and Anderson got by him. Malcolm Stewart mad quick moves and tried to get his teammate Dean Wilson, then he almost ran into the back of Musquin in the whoops and had to slow, allowing Wilson to hold him back. At the 16 minutes to go mark, Stewart finally got inside of Wilson in the turn before the finish and made the pass.

Barcia hung with Tomac for a bit but Tomac eventually started to stretch it out. Barcia had pulled away from Anderson, and Musquin’s jump line in the whoops finally started working, and he was able to hold Stewart at bay. There wasn’t much happening until the halfway mark when Barcia crashed in a rhythm lane, getting cross rutted and landing on a tuff block. This allowed Anderson, Musquin and Stewart to get by. Barcia then had to deal with heat from Webb, who had a bad start, most of the way, they battled right down to the end but Barcia held on.

Anderson was all alone in second, Musquin was under pressure from Stewart most of the way but on the last lap Stewart bobbled and lost ground. Musquin actually got a little close to Anderson at the end, but not close enough.

Tomac crossed the line with his fifth win in a row, then it was Anderson and Musquin. Stewart and Barcia were top five, then it was Webb, Wilson, Bogle, Oldenburg and Hartranft in the top ten.

“My main focus was put the hammer down,” said Tomac. “Justin was putting the pressure on and we were on a heater pace. Once he made the mistake I had a big gap. It was tough, once the track broke down. The last few tracks have been very, very gnarly.”

“That track out there was brutal,” said Anderson. “I wasn’t riding the best today but I salvaged it. The AMA didn’t even have to cost me three points or three grand to get around Barcia so it was good.”

“The podium tonight was huge once again,” said Musquin. “Had a really good day, speed was good in practice and starts were good, but I didn’t have the pace in the early laps, I got smoked by the lead guys. Malcolm was behind me the whole race until the last lap. I tried to stay close to Jason. Man that track was super, super tough. Tough conditions but we made it good.”