Saturday Night Live: Spring Creek

In 450 Moto 2, much of the same was on the menu for the fans as this time it was Sexton who found a way into the early lead around holeshot winner Joey Savatgy. But Eli Tomac went into his familiar “beast mode” territory and did so early on. He reeled in and passed Ken Roczen for second and then did the same to Sexton out front at an alarming pace. Just like with Sexton in the first moto, it appeared Tomac might sprint away, but Sexton was able to regroup and latch onto Tomac as the two pulled a massive lead on the rest of the pack.

The entire moto was Sexton just hawking Tomac only two seconds or less behind the Yamaha rider. He even caught right up to him with three laps to go but Tomac clicked into yet another gear and started to take off again. It was so close for the entire time, but Tomac did everything right as he closed off his seventh straight moto win to also complete his third straight 1-1 day at the race.

“We’ve had four wins now, so four great races and today was once again a gnarly battle both motos,” said Tomac. “I felt like I was a little gifted in Moto 1 there. Chase went by me and had some better lines and had a little more pace. Moto 2 though, I made a couple changes and then I felt like I was the guy that was able to move around and get to the front. So, great work from the team between Moto 1 and 2 there, and yeah it’s just been gnarly.”

Sexton clearly gave it everything he had and just had the one tip-over in Moto 1 to really look back at as a frustration point. Even so, Sexton knew that he just went toe to toe with Eli Tomac in both motos which was actually a big win for him.

After the beatdown Tomac put on the field at Southwick, Spring Creek was a much closer battle between the two. Sexton now slides back to second in the championship for the first time all season at five points down, but it appears we are far from crowning a champion anytime soon in this series.

“I think the first and second moto, it kind of flip-flopped,” said Sexton. “I think the first moto, I had really good pace and I got to the back of Eli, made a pass, and tried to break away. I made just a really small mistake. I missed the rut by a little bit, washed the front end, but my bike kind of flipped over and tagged me in the back. Luckily, I’m tall because that was not a good spot to go down… Second moto, I had a good start. Didn’t have great lines. Eli had better lines than I did. He obviously got around me and then it was just who could go faster the rest of the moto.

A quiet third place on the day, but also a much needed quiet third place, came from Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jason Anderson. Anderson was right in the thick of the title fight just a few rounds ago but ran into a slew of torrid luck as he continued to find the ground in the first turn and was left having to charge back through in several motos.

This time at Spring Creek, Anderson simply put two good starts and two good motos together to go 3-4 on the day for third overall. He held off a hard charging Ryan Dungey for all of the first moto and spent the entire second moto inching up to but never actually catching Christian Craig. All in all, considering his misfortune of late, it was a good day for Anderson.

“As many times as [weird things] have happened to me in the last few races, I think it’s more on me than anything right now,” said Anderson. “It’s been more so my starts. I just haven’t been able to stay off the ground in that first corner. Even when I do have an opportunity, I tend to have a tip over or something like that. I think I just need to figure that out and keep trying my best.”

The aforementioned Craig was fourth on the day after he put 5-3 scores up on the board. It was the best results day Craig had seen since his opening round podium at Fox Raceway in May. Things just seemed to gel for him all day and his third place in the second moto was quietly impressive as well as he passed Ken Roczen early and never let Jason Anderson get close enough to him from behind to make something happen. Craig now leapfrogs Ryan Dungey for fifth in the championship as well and it sounds like things are maybe lining up for him to also represent Team USA at the Motocross of Nations.

Speaking of Ryan Dungey, Spring Creek was a homecoming for the Minnesota native and the fans were loud all day. Dungey went 4-6 for fifth which is starting to become his norm as the season progresses, but he’s so close to making that next step to challenge for podiums. Even so, he’s still sixth in this championship after five years away from the sport and has a smile on his face every weekend. So, life seems pretty good.

Ken Roczen had a tough day at Millville as the Honda HRC man crashed going up Mt. Martin on the second lap of 450 Moto 1 and watched the whole field go by before he could get going again. He would end up 16^th. Then in the second moto, he started in second, but slipped back through the field through much of the first half of the race before eventually crashing spectacularly right after Ryan Dungey passed him for sixth. Roczen put 16-12 scores on the board for 14^th overall and lost third place in the championship for the time being to Jason Anderson.

So, it’s Tomac who takes over the red plates as the second half of the season officially has begun and we settle in for one wild ride down the stretch to see who can wrap up this title.

In the 250 class, the story remained the battle between the brothers Jett and Hunter Lawrence. After Hunter Lawrence had taken the red plate for the first time in his Pro Motocross career going into the Southwick National last weekend, he had his worst race of the season and gave the points lead right back to his brother Jett who had a perfect 1-1 day.

Hunter needed to rebound big time at Spring Creek as his now 15-point deficit was the biggest that the championship had ballooned out to so far this year between the brothers. Neither rider would qualify fastest on the day though as Justin Cooper earned that honor, but the motos created a different story.

The first 250 class moto proved to be maybe the best Lawrence brother battle of the year after Hunter took the early lead, but Jett pounced and got his brother right away. Hunter then surged back to Jett a few laps later and the battle was truly on. In a rare occurrence so far this year, Hunter was able to complete the pass and actually pull away a little bit from Jett through the midpoint of the moto.

Jett was not done though as he wicked it back up late in the moto to re-catch Hunter for the lead as the two-lap board was displayed. Hunter misread where some lapped riders were going to go in front of him and got caught out on the outside which let Jett take over the lead. Despite a valiant last lap charge, Hunter could not make it back to his brother as Jett Lawrence took the first moto win.

In the second moto, it seemed like things might go Hunter’s way as he got out front early, but unfortunately the red flag would fly for Thomas Welch who was down hard. Welch would eventually walk off under his own power, but the race needed a full restart. When the gates dropped again, Hunter was buried, and Jett was right at the front.

After passing Justin Cooper on the second lap of the race, Jett Lawrence would take off from there to cruise to the second moto win and pick up his second straight 1-1 performance on the trot. His championship lead is now opened out to 27 points.

“Starts were really good, they were really consistent today, so I was super happy with that,” said Jett Lawrence. “The motos were definitely a lot better. Still have more improvement. We can always improve and make ourselves better… The first one was definitely a dogfight. I was there the whole way through with Hunter. Second one was a little bit easier. I got that gap and then it was just kind of maintaining from there to see if Jo [Shimoda] would make a push where I had to step it up or I could just maintain.”

Second place on the day would not end up going to Hunter Lawrence but instead it was Jo Shimoda who finally found himself with a good start on the restart of the second moto. He worked his way from outside of the top 10 in the first moto to third and was in third right from the start of the second moto this time.

He spent half the moto battling with Justin Cooper for second place, but once he was able to get by, he had enough pace to inch away and lock down second place in the moto and for the overall as well with his 3-2 scores. This was Shimoda’s third straight podium finish as he has now gone 1-2-2 over the last three weeks.

“Starting 20^th is not helping at all,” said Jo Shimoda. “Every first moto, I just waste too much energy. I don’t have the clean air. If you want to fight for the win or whatever, you have to have consistent starts. That’s what is going to be helpful.”

Third on the day was Hunter Lawrence who ended up fifth in the second moto as the bad start severely hampered him. On a day where it seemed like he maybe had the speed straight up to win, 2-5 scores will definitely sting, and it really stings in the championship picture.

Even being 27 points down in the championship though, Hunter Lawrence didn’t seem too disappointed as he admitted his start sucked in the second moto restart and he felt that there’s only a couple things that went wrong today to keep him from the top step of the podium.

“It was tough [in Moto 1], because it felt like I was leading for a majority of the race,” said Hunter Lawrence. “A bit of an unfortunate deal with the lappers and Jett got through. We were both just giving our everything to try and win. I was just trying to get close to have that window of opportunity to make a pass. So those ones are interesting.”

Some other notable moments from the day included Michael Mosiman, Jalek Swoll, and Stilez Robertson all crashing out to end their days. Swoll and Robertson actually ended up crashing together in the first start of the second 250 moto and neither rider was able to make the restart afterwards. Fortunately, they all seemed to be relatively okay, and it sounds like both Mosiman and Swoll plan on racing next week at Washougal. Robertson however said that he hurt his ankle pretty good in the crash and will check with the doctors this week to see what needs to be done.

Fourth place on the day ended up going to the fastest qualifier Justin Cooper. Cooper crashed while leading off the start of the first 250 class moto and had to do some catching up from there which resulted in a sixth-place finish. The second moto was better with another holeshot resulting in a third-place finish after a lengthy battle with Jo Shimoda for second. The old Justin Cooper is right on the edge of coming back, but it still looks like he’s just taking small steps every weekend to get there.

The final place within the top five went to RJ Hampshire who really just had a solid day. There were no super flashy RJ Hampshire moments to speak of and he rode his way into fifth and fourth place, respectively, in both motos. Perhaps that’s just the steady kind of weekend he needed to springboard back onto the podium in the coming rounds.

The next stop of the series will be the eighth round in Washougal, Washington. It will also be the last round before a lengthy three week break where riders will look the refresh and rejuvenate before the final four round stretch. We’ll see you next week in the Pacific Northwest!