He also tied James Stewart with his 50^th career 450SX win, moving him into second all-time. Yeah, we’re old folks. I already gave you my all-time SX rider list a few weeks back so go read that.

Cooper Webb hung in there for second. He had a very Cooper Webb-ish night, only he didn’t get the win late. He didn’t show great speed all day, sort of hung around the lead group of Chase Sexton, Tomac, and Ken Roczen, but by the end, he was right there. The move to 20-minute main events really works for Webb and he showed it in Seattle. He was pretty good in the whoops, also although he mostly stuck to that inside line in them. When he tried to blitz them, he was just okay. He’s tied with Tomac now with six races to go, although he trails in wins, 6-2, and laps led, 82-12.

There are plenty of people in the pits who think this is set up perfectly for Webb to do his late-season surge to the title, but remember, he didn’t have an “on point” Tomac to deal with in those two title runs. Tomac didn’t have a “on point” Webb either in his two runs. That’s what makes this year so cool, I just feel like many people are giving this thing to Webb, which is fine, he may win it, but I’m the one in pits pointing to the “6-2” win stat.

Remember up top when I said we just have two title contenders now? Well, yeah, Chase Sexton won last week but lost points after his penalty for jumping on the red cross flag, and early on in the Seattle main, when he was leading, he had closed to within nine points of the series' lead, which is great. Now obviously that was early, and we know Webb was working forward but still, it was there—win the race and close up in the points.

We all saw what happened next. It was another bizarre crash for Sexton on a place on the track where no one else crashed all day long. Over the bars he went as he lost front end traction and then stuck a rut. He got up and rode hard, but it’s also not hard to imagine how bummed he was inside his helmet, yet again. He was SO fast. He had a 2.7 second lead on everyone early, stalled, had everyone on him again, and then promptly pulled out another 2.5 second lead. It’s all so easy for him until it’s not.

He's now 22 points down and has to be questioning everything and anything at this point. He’s been a lot like the guy who used to work with him, James Stewart, as in, The Fastest Man on the Planet, but he’s not getting it done as much as Stewart did.

I’m here to say I’m still a believer, it’s going to come together. At some point. It has to. Right?

Justin Barcia was on the PulpMX Show on Monday night and talked about his third in Seattle, which was his third podium of the season. Barcia seemed to indicate he was signing back up with Troy Lee Designs Red Bull Gas-Gas for 2024 and indicated he wanted to finish his career with them. He rode great in Seattle, and he credited having his buddy, Eric Sorby, around to help him as a new-ish trainer he’s really gelling with. He mentioned in the Yamaha days he was doing everything on his own and was probably overdoing it, which happens for sure as these guys are so driven to do so much work. Now it sounds like he’s getting the proper evaluation to rest when he needs to (hey don’t look now but that wild child is now 31 years old) and seems like it’s working for him.

Well, the JETT won again! He really looked great in qualifying practice, was the first 250 guy to go three-onto the table, looked fast in the sand, was .8 better than any other rider, and then cruised to a main event win. Funny how he was only about three seconds ahead of Cameron McAdoo and RJ Hampshire, and one would think the battle was real, but Jett was just steady while the other two guys behind him looked to be sending it. I have no doubt that Lawrence had more in the tank if he needed it. We’re all just waiting for the Dave Coombs Sr. East/West Showdown, right?

For the third time this season, Hampshire passed McAdoo late in the race for second place. It’s really got to be chapping McAdoo’s ass that this has been happening, and as he told me afterward, it’s a lot of money he’s losing out on (about 45K in those three races ICYWW) when the 24 gets by him.

As far as Hampshire, he told me he thought that pass was on the last lap. So, when he slammed McAdoo (the pass was totally fine IMO), and then got the white flag he was like ‘Shit!’ because he knew Cam was going to take another run at him. Fortunately for Hampshire, he made it stick and hung onto second place.

As far as McAdoo, he seemed a bit regretful about that Lawrence heat race collision after the race (and yeah, mostly his fault for sure but a racing decision) and also mentioned that Justin Brayton had been talking to him about his sour attitude on the podiums lately (hey, losing 45K late in the race would tend to do to a lot of people) and is going to try and be happier when he gets on the podium. 

Something we were talking about on the PulpMX show was the difference in the coasts, and yes, while both Lawrence brothers are impressive, and there can for sure be jumps in performance by a rider from one year to the next, it does seem like, to me anyway, the west is stronger. Here’s how I would rank the riders on both coasts, not including the injured guys:

1-Jett Lawrence
2-Hunter Lawrence
3-RJ Hampshire
4-Cameron McAdoo
5- Levi Kitchen
6- Nate Thrasher
7-Enzo Lopes
8-Jeremy Martin
9-Haiden Deegan
10-Pierce Brown/Jordon Smith

I don’t know, that’s just me. Four of the top 250SX riders are, to me, on the West Coast. 

Some other news and notes from Seattle:

Great to see Carson Mumford make his season debut for the PC Kawi team. Mumfy’s been hurt a bit to start the year, got the fill-in ride, and then got hurt again. He rode five times before this weekend and showed impressive speed but got a bit tired, as is expected. It’s perfect for him to have the week off to get more comfortable on the bike, and he should start getting close to the top five spot.

Enzo Lopes had what he called his best 250SX race ever and his grumpy brother-in-law, Phil Nicoletti, agreed with him. Lopes came around the first turn in 18^th and worked all the way up to fourth. Would he have caught Levi Kitchen without Levi having a rear brake issue? Not sure, but he was catching him a bit, so we don’t know. Fourth or fifth, it’s good to see Lopes doing this and he’s opened some eyes from some factory supported teams from what I gather.

Speaking of Kitchen, it was a hometown race for him, and he won the heat going away! How cool is that? A bad start in the main for him and that rock in the rear brake pedal held him back as well, so at the end of the night, gotta think he wasn’t happy. Weird season for Kitchen—there was that win at A2 (without winning a main) and other times it’s been crashes and bad starts. There is definitely something there with Levi, he’s legit for sure, but he just hasn’t put it all together yet. Look for Levi to head over to Red Bull KTM for next year.

Speaking of heat race wins, Christian Craig got one! Then things looked to go to poop when he crashed on lap two of the main. He was really far back and worked his way up to ninth by the end. Also, I’m taking credit for his heat race win (I’ll even take credit for his main event ride) as I saw him on the rental car bus, and he made mention how cold it is down on the floor. I had some of these hand warmer things I use in press boxes like Anaheim and gave him a pair. After his win, he sent me a photo of them in his hands.