The next news was the weather. As expected, the skies opened this morning at 5:30 am and it absolutely dumped four about four hours. Then the rain stopped and the sun even peeked out. The track had been covered in tarps and packed in hard, so it held up decent considering the incredible amount of rain. The schedule was cut to just one practice session for each class, SX Futures, 250SX and 450SX. Futures hit the track first and it was still pretty sloppy, but it might turn out okay for the main events in a few hours.

Yes, this is a day race, with heats starting at 3 p.m.

The next story is the East/West Showdown, with both 250SX coasts meeting for the first time this year. We've got hype on a battle with points leaders Jett Lawrence and Christian Craig, but they also both hold huge points leads and don't want to blow it. Often we see upset winners in these Showdowns, we shall see.

In the 450 class, Eli Tomac holds his own giant points lead and could even wrap the title as early as next weekend in Foxborough. Wow. To do that he'll need to not lose points to second-ranked Jason Anderson over the next two weekends. There  are still some riders not named Tomac who can win here, including last week's race winner Marvin Musquin, plus Anderson, Malcolm Stewart, Justin Barcia, Chase Sexton and more. Also, defending champion Cooper Webb is back after missing a race last week. Been a tough season on Webb but he would love to get at least one win before the season ends.

Qualifying

The track improved massively from muddy to almost traditional supercross from the first session to the last session.

Qualifying is at a premium here with East and West, because we’re down to one practice to create gate picks for heats, which are split in coasts. That has become a problem for Max Vohland who was in the overflow practice for riders not ranked high enough in points. Vohland didn’t make the main in last week’s Triple Crown, and his time here is not fast enough to make the night show. He's out again.

The track is coming around, the bigger sections are now jumpable. In 250SX East practice Pierce Brown went down early on the over/under, and his bike was laying there on the track getting hit. Because there’s only one practice, he had to get back to the pits and get his bars straight and try to log a time. It wasn’t great, with 17^th, but it was good enough to qualify. Jett Lawrence had the top time, but he battled for the top spot with Forkner, who looked strong in his return. Forkner was second, Mitch Oldenburg was third.

In 250SX West, we have noted Atlanta specialist Nate Thrasher taking the top spot. Remember Thrasher won two of the three Atlanta races last year. He was launching into the sand super far. Hunter Lawrence and Christian Craig took turns on the top of the board until Thrasher’s late lap collected the honors.

When the 450s rolled out, Eli Tomac was the first on track and he was laying down heaters. The two big lines are to jump over the first turn, landing on the berm on the outside, and then quadding over the table in the second rhythm. Tomac was on top for a bit, then Musquin and Stewart took the top time away. Then Sexton took the top spot away with Anderson second. Late in the session Tomac tried to put in a heater but Sexton, who was behind him, actually closed in. Tomac then backed off the gas, and Sexton’s top time from earlier hung in for the number one stop. Anderson, Musquin, Tomac and Stewart were top five.

250SX Futures Main Event

When the gates dropped on the 250SX Futures race, Chance Hymas burst out ahead of the field, entering and exiting the long first turn in the race lead as Austin Kapoukranidis slid out behind him. Hymas led Luke Kalaitzian, Rush Chapman, Ayden Shive, and Rylan Smith early as Kapoukranidis looked to make his way through the field. Kapoukranidis was battling with Jacob Glenn, when Glenn’s front wheel caught the rear wheel of Kapoukranidis and sent Glenn to the ground. Smith lost several positions with a tip over in one of the banked turns as Kapoukranidis and Greye Tate engaged in a battle for fifth. Kapoukranidis made the pass and had gotten into the top four. Remember, the top four from each main event will qualify for the finale with hopes of winning the winner-take-all main event in Salt Lake City, Utah. But unfortunately, Kapoukranidis stalled his Yamaha YZ250F and lost positions late in the race. Out front, Hymas took his 11-second lead over Kalaitzian and opened it up to over 30 seconds on the final lap. Hymas took the main event win, his first of the season and his second podium in two 250SX Futures main events in 2022. Kalaitzian takes second (fourth podium), Chapman finished third (first podium finish), and Shive finished fourth in the final spot to qualify for the Utah finale.

250 East Heat

Austin Forkner is back!

Jett Lawrence got a good jump out of the gate but RJ Hampshire and Derek Drake drag raced past him, then Lawrence was too far inside, hit some mud and fell. Austin Forkner also got held up and got going in next to last. Up ahead Drake fell and Mitch Oldenburg took over the lead and started pulling away, Hampshire and Jace Owen were second and third. Somehow Forkner passed a ton of guys to get into the top five, quickly, and then kept charging after the leaders Oldenburg, Hampshire, Brown and more. He passed Oldenburg and Brown to get into second and then stalked Hampshire on the final lap, blitzing to get next to him in the whoops, and then they scrubbed the wall together with Forkner edging ahead, taking the lead with the checkers in sight. That was the win! It was a vintage Forkner ride, taking the win over Hamphire. Lawrence recovered for fifth after the first-turn crash. Owen, Lopes, Frye and Alves got in, Varize just missed and will head to the LCQ.

“Man I was just putting down laps and feeling really, really smooth and in control out there," said Forkner. "That’s how I worked through the pack, to come from that far back to win, that’s how you have to ride. I hope I get a better start than that in the main.”

250 West Heat

Jo Shimoda got the holeshot over Michael Mosiman, but he wasn’t jumping some stuff, including the jump line over the first turn and onto the berm. This allowed Mosiman and others to blast past him. Christian Craig would roll up into second, but Mosiman held a solid lead until he washed the front in a corner after the whoops. This allowed Craig to take the lead and cruise home. Hunter Lawrence worked to second and Mosiman managed to get by around Nate Thrasher and Shimoda to cling to third. Shimoda held off Thrasher, then came Marchbanks, Friese, Swoll and Mumford taking the final spots into the main.

“Lot of hype this week with me and Jett, but a lot of people don’t know we used to ride together a lot when we were teammates at GEICO Honda,” said Craig. “I respect the kid. Dirt is coming around and I think it’s going to be good.”

450 Heat 1

Jason Anderson got a good start in 450 Heat 1 but Justin Bogle made a slick move on the inside to challenge him. But Bogle lost ground in the whoops and Eli Tomac blasted through to second, and Justin Barcia went to third. Big battle up ahead as Anderson and Tomac hooked it up, and the fight didn’t disappoint. Tomac made the move in the sand, but Anderson fought right back by sliding through the slippery, muddy inside, without a rut, and knifing past Tomac. Then Tomac made two huge mistakes and Anderson got away, grabbing the win. Tomac was second and Barcia third. Then came Bogle, Hartranft, Noren, Clason, Starling and Breece to the main.

 “I’m trying to make it hard on him,” said Anderson. “He’s got a big [points] lead on me right now so I’m hoping to still get some wins. But he’s going to make it tough. We’re still learning and getting better but so is he.”

450 Heat 2

 Alex Martin ripped the start in this one and held strong to lead the first lap. Impressive! Cooper Webb, returning to racing after missing the previous race, was up to second, with Kyle Chisholm third. Martin looked the best he has all year, but he wasn’t going to stop Webb from getting by. The man to watch was Sexton, though, he blew through the field and made easy work of Webb to take the lead and an easy win. Sexton has been hauling here all afternoon. Webb, Stewart, Musquin and Brayton come next, who edged ahead of Martin. Chisholm, Miller and Moranz came through for the final qualifying spots.

"Last weekend helped, feeling good with the bike. This place is special to me because I got my first 450 podium here last year. I love this place, I've probably never had this much fun on a dirt bike, ever. Lots of good guys here but I'm looking forward to it."

250 LCQ

In the 250 LCQ, Derek Drake nailed another great start but this time he kept it upright and held on for an easy win. Behind him Hardy Munoz was second and hanging on. Jordon Smith, Cullen Park and Chris Blose broke through, but then Smith crashed on the last lap near the tunnel jump, and his race was over. Heartbreaker for Smith. Munoz hung on for the final transfer.

450 LCQ 

John Short held tough with the lead the whole way, and took the win. Benny Bloss got a bad start but worked his way to second, then Adam Enticknap was third. Jeremy Hand and Brandon Scharer battled hard for the final transfer, and Hand held on for the final transfer to the main.

250 East West Showdown

It was a wild first lap as Jo Shimoda swept inside of Hunter Lawrence to grab the holeshot, with RJ Hampshire and Jett Lawrence right there. Christian Craig did not get a good start. Hampshire and Hunter Lawrence battled hard for second until RJ went down in a corner, this left Shimoda with a big lead. Hunter then came under pressure from Jett until Jett crashed in the turn in the whoops. Next came Forkner and Craig, Craig made the pass in the whoops and started tracking down Hunter and Shimoda. Hunter then got inside of Shimoda to take the lead, then Craig got Shimoda for second. From there the battle was on, Hunter and Craig in a lap time battle. Craig would close slightly, Lawrence would answer. The gap stayed about the same, 1.5 ish seconds, then Hunter pulled away slightly, then Craig went down in the turn after the sand. With that, Hunter Lawrence was sitting in position to bring it home.

Shimoda was solid in third, Forkner fell when he hit tough blocks. Mosiman also fell, and all of this allowed Jett Lawrence to come back to fourth. Then Jett and Jo got into a huge battle for third, stopping and blocking each other, until Jett finally secured the spot. Up ahead, Hunter hung on in a great ride to win the Showdown, continuing a long-running trend of non-points leaders and/or series’ champs to win the East versus West battle. Although, with the win, Hunter does keep his title hopes going with Denver and Salt Lake still on the west schedule.

It was Lawrence, Craig, Lawrence top three, then Shimoda, Thrasher, Mosiman, Forkner, Hampshire, Oldenburg and Brown.

“So stoked to pull this off, I’ve been working my ass off,” said Hunter, who has now won two 250SX races in a row, and three this year. “Jettson on the box as well which is awesome.”

Craig came from way back to get to second but he couldn’t close the gap enough to try to make a pass.

“When I’m that far back at the beginning I just get zone out,” said Craig. “When I got up to second Hunter had a good gap and I feel like we were yo-yoing a bit, he was riding really good. That tip over ruined my momentum.”

“100 percent, if I’m not winning the guy I want to win is my brother,” said Jett Lawrence. “I was just rushing, again, I got the turn pretty good and the dirt looked good, but it was deceiving and I went down. I rode my butt off to get back up there. It was like old amateur days there. battling with Jo on the last lap. Super pumped.”

450 Main Event

 The big hitters all started together with Barcia holeshotting over Sexton, Tomac, Anderson, Webb, and Marvin Musquin went down on the first lap. Then Tomac got passed by both Anderson and Webb, and by the second lap it appeared there might be something going wrong for the series leader.

Sexton battled past Barcia in the corners after the finish, then Barcia tried to respond by going inside roll double through a rhythm, and that allowed Anderson to pounce on him. Sexton was pulling a solid lead out front and showing the same incredible speed he had in qualifying and his heat. Then he washed the front while leading! This left Anderson in the lead. Then Barcia, in second, crashed, which moved the returning Webb all the way to second. Tomac also recovered from whatever slowed him early, and he started closing on Webb. Barcia got sideways in the whoops and nearly went down again, and Sexton cased a rhythm and also nearly crashed again. This allowed Malcolm Stewart to get to fourth.

Next came Sexton, Barcia, Brayton, Chisholm, Hartranft, and Breece in the top ten. Sexton put on a big charge and started making moves. He actually caught up to the Tomac and Webb battle for second. Tomac made the move for second on Webb by flying over the jumps before the tunnel, then Sexton caught Webb and made a move for third just before the two laps to go sign. 

Up ahead, Anderson rode brilliantly to notch his fourth win of the season.

"Yeah i've been better than I've ever been this year. To struggle and still be getting top fives and podiums has been crazy. But I really wanted to get another win and that one felt awesome."

“I was slow at the beginning, the first lap or two, and I made a couple of mistakes in that middle rhythm. I got cross rutted, it was a tough track. I made a good charge but Jason obviously got away there, second was all I had. [Clinching] next week is on my mind and we’ll keep pushing.”

“Today was probably the best I felt on my bike all year but you know what, sometimes it doesn’t go your way. I know that sunrise is comig. The team has been doing a great job with testing and getting me comfortable after six tough weeks.”  

“It was a crazy race, good battle for the lead, couple crashes. It felt good to just be back in the mix, I’ve been struggling the whole season. Pretty happy, I probably haven’t been going that speed since last year. I have to give it up to the team, we missed the last race, they came down to my place this week and we figured stuff out.”