Saturday Night Live: Salt Lake City

When the main event gates dropped, it was Twisted Tea/HEP Suzuki’s Justin Bogle who grabbed the holeshot and early lead ahead of Jason Anderson. Chase Sexton quickly moved into third but it wasn’t long before both Anderson and Sexton were around Bogle into the race lead and second, respectively.

That set the tone for the race as both Anderson and Sexton slowly inched away from everyone else and began to focus in on their own battle for the win. Cooper Webb was in third place early, but he was also shuffled back a bit as Justin Barcia, Malcolm Stewart, and eventually Marvin Musquin all found a way around the two-time champ.

The key talking point that will have everyone discussing this race in the coming weeks ultimately came down to a battle for third place in the race between Barcia and Stewart. Barcia had been slowly losing time to Stewart and by the mid-point of the race, Stewart was on him. After a few close tries by Stewart, the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna rider found his way through on Barcia, but Barcia quickly struck back as he went down the inside after the double-single section and the two riders collided. Stewart was sent from his bike while Barcia continued on still in third place.

Stewart remounted in sixth but seemed fired up about the situation and worked around both Webb and Musquin quickly to get back into fourth place. The crowd was electrified after seeing the crash and the whole stadium cheered Stewart around the track as the anticipation built to whether or not he would catch back up to Barcia. He pulled an eight second deficit down to less than two seconds, but ultimately made a small mistake on the last lap that spoiled his opportunity to return the favor on Barcia.

Ultimately, Barcia crossed the line in third place with Stewart finishing fourth which was enough for Stewart to still secure third place in the championship. As soon as Barcia landed from the finish line jump though, the crowd erupted into a chorus of boos as Barcia rode down the side of the track to the podium.

The move of the night that had everyone talking:

“Obviously the fans aren’t happy,” Barcia said on the podium. “We were racing for a championship, you know, third in points. I was doing everything I could. Obviously, it was an aggressive pass, I’ll own that. What am I supposed to say? I’m out there racing for this championship. That’s what I wanted was third. I was going for it. I would like to think that he would have done the same thing, but maybe not. Sorry guys. I’m out here racing for a living, this is what I do. You can bring the boos, but love or hate it, this is me.”

A few hours after the dust settled, the AMA did hand down a penalty for Barcia who was already on probation. The AMA decided to incur a 10-point penalty which allowed Barcia to retain his podium result on the night but did ultimately cost him fourth in the championship as Musquin’s fifth place finish earned him 305 points on the year which was now greater than the 302 Barcia ended with following the penalty.

As for Stewart, he was not thrilled about the contact and let his feelings be known to the now partisan crowd in Salt Lake City that erupted in cheers when Stewart took to the podium for his interview.

“I was just putting a charge in and Justin just straight up t-boned me,” said Stewart. “We’ve been racing clean all year long and that was dirty. I’ll be straight up with him. We’re definitely going to have a talk after this race. But overall, I’m here to have fun and I’m so thankful to get third overall. That’s really what counts and that’s where the money is at.”

As mentioned, Stewart did end up in third in the championship which was his best season result of his career.

The drama that was playing out behind them totally shadowed over the mini battle for the win that was still going on between Anderson and Sexton. Sexton was within a second of Anderson on a couple of occasions, but Anderson always seemed to wick it back up again when things got close. Both riders dealt with a mix of lapped traffic that likely played some role in how the race played out late, but Anderson stretched out a comfortable lead in the end to cruise to his seventh win of 2022.

“It’s surreal to be riding this good,” said Anderson. “To be able to have this many wins after the last couple of years, I’ve been on a dry run, I haven’t had any wins, so to be able to have a year like this and switch teams and everything comes to fruition that I’ve worked for, it’s amazing. I’m thankful, I’m in a good spot right now, and I don’t want to take it for granted.”

Sexton’s second place finish was his eighth podium of the year and his fourth in the last five rounds of the season. After a rough middle-patch of the season, Sexton was able to end 2022 on a high and certainly seems to have figured a few things out that could be huge for him in thinking ahead to 2023.

“For me, it was definitely up and down there for a while for those five races or so,” said Sexton. “I really finished off strong. Eight podiums and a win this year is a big progress from last year. If I can keep building and keep progressing, we’re going to be in a good spot for 2023.”

The end result of this all sees Eli Tomac as your 2022 Monster Energy AMA Supercross champion by nine points. For both Tomac and Anderson, they were clearly the class of the field in 2022 which is huge considering both took a leap of faith in the offseason to head to new teams after both riders spent considerable time with their old programs prior to this year. It seems the 2022 450SX championship will be remembered as the year where team switches reigned supreme.

Also one final goodbye tonight to SmarTop/BullFrog Spas/MotoConcepts Honda's Justin Brayton who says farewell to Monster Energy AMA Supercross with a solid seventh place finish. Brayton certainly had one heck of a career and capped it off tonight by doing what he was always so good at, being solid as a rock.

The 250SX Showdown brought both coasts together for the second time in 2022 for one last race to decide it all. With the 250SX East title already wrapped up by Honda HRC’s Jett Lawrence, only the 250SX West title fight remained between Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Christian Craig and Honda HRC’s Hunter Lawrence as 18 points sat between them. Prior to racing action on Saturday night, Jett Lawrence explained in a press conference on Friday that he would do what he could to help out his brother Hunter to win the championship which certainly raised a few eyebrows.

Unfortunately for Jett, he never got the chance to help Hunter out anyway as the new East Coast Champion had a wild crash in qualifying that resulted in a tweaked ankle. In what was described as just a precautionary move, Jett Lawrence announced he would remain on the sidelines for the finale to not make the injury any worse as he looks to defend his Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship starting in just three weeks.

When the Showdown main event did finally get underway, it was Hunter Lawrence who rocketed out to the holeshot and early lead. Craig sat right behind him in second place which was more than enough to wrap the title up, but things got a little strange.

Craig’s teammate Nate Thrasher passed Craig for second and seemed to catch fire instantly as he ran down Hunter Lawrence for the lead and put a block pass on the Australian to take it over. He also started to open up the lead right away and Lawrence didn’t immediately have a response.

Things got a little dicey for Craig when he tucked his front end after the whoops about five minutes into the main event, but he picked it up in sixth and immediately got around Austin Forkner to move back into fifth. With only a 14^th place needed to secure the title, Craig went into management mode for the rest of the race.

He allowed Jo Shimoda, Forkner, and Michael Mosiman all to slowly catch him and essentially just waved each of them by as he settled into eighth spot. He would remain there for the rest of the race to cross the line and secure the 2022 250SX West Championship.

“I don’t even know where to start,” said Craig. “This feels like a dream right now. It’s the people around me who I surround myself with, from my trainer to my wife, my kids, my whole family is here to celebrate with me. I wrote on a white board in September with my wife a picture of this number one plate and I wrote down what it’s going to take to get this thing and it’s real. I got it and I can’t be prouder of my whole team. I love this feeling and I hope this isn’t a dream.”

Craig was undoubtedly excited as he rolled around after the finish with his Yamaha bouncing off the rev limiter and he eventually rolled up alongside teammate Thrasher who also was celebrating. Despite struggling in the whoops late and allowing Lawrence to close back in, Thrasher never did relinquish the lead again as he crossed the line to take his third career victory and his first of 2022.

“It hasn’t been the best year so far for me and the team, but we put it all together tonight,” said Thrasher of his Showdown victory. “I feel like that’s what we’ve been missing all season and I finally got a good start and just knew I had the speed. We finally put it together and it feels so good. Christian won the championship tonight and it couldn’t be better for the team.”

Lawrence tried to get Thrasher late and put on a great charge to do so as well, but the pace Thrasher put together was just enough to keep Lawrence in second place for the night and the season as well. Lawrence ultimately finishes up 10 points behind Craig in the championship and finished on the podium in nine of the 10 races on the season with four wins as well. It was Lawrence’s best season of supercross to date and it certainly seems like this will be huge for him as he continues to build towards championship success in the future.

“It was a heck of a season,” said Lawrence. “Definitely some ups and downs. We got three [wins] in a row, four race wins [total]. It was a good season. I’ve got to give it up to my whole team. They all worked so hard. So this one is just as much for them as it is for me. I can’t wait until next year. We learnt a lot and I’m just getting better and better. We were second last year and now second this year. It’s a bummer to fall short but there’s progression in it so I can’t complain too much.”

A quiet third place on the night eventually came from Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/GasGas’ Pierce Brown. However, Brown’s full night was anything but quiet. After crashing twice in his heat race, Brown was forced to the LCQ where he was able to holeshot and win convincingly. It’s not ideal to go to the LCQ, but that little bit of extra track time certainly was nice to have once he pulled a good start in the main event from the outside.

And that is that from Salt Lake City. Many congratulations to Eli Tomac, Jett Lawrence, and Christian Craig for claiming the three championships on the line for the 2022 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship. It was certainly a wild season with many ups and downs, but it truly was great to get back to a normal 17-round full capacity stadium schedule. Now with supercross done, attention turns to Lucas Oil Pro Motocross which kicks off at Fox Raceway on May 28^th. We’ll see you there!