Saturday Night Live: East Rutherford

We had no idea what was in store at the time, but looking back at the end of the night, the conditions we ended up with in the main event would have had the #7 salivating at the mouth.

Then, on the first lap of the first 450SX group A qualifying session, Eli Tomac went down exiting the first rhythm section that entire section was problematic for a bunch of riders throughout the entire day). Tomac went down as the field navigated by, then a replay showed his throttle hand slipped off the bars and he endowed face first.

But the defending champion did not get up right away. Amidst the close championship battle with just the final four rounds left, the stadium held their breath as ET3 lay on the ground hunched over. He turned over onto his butt and eventually got up under his own power. But he did not go for his bike, as he got up limping while his Yamaha YZ450F lay, throttle grip down, running wide open. Tomac went to the tunnel where he was visually in pain, interacting with members of the Alpinestars medical crew and the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing team. The autograph session for the Colorado native was canceled. In such a close championship battle, the two-time 450SX Champion’s status was unknown.

Eventually, it was reported by the Race Day Live broadcast that Tomac had suffered a charley horse. He would line up for the second qualifying session before qualifying seventh overall (with only his laps from that session compared to the rest of the field’s two sessions). Huge breath of relief there for the entire Tomac camp.

But before the second 450SX group A qualifying session even ended, another rider went down. Justin Barcia and Adam Cianciarulo accidentally tangled, coincidentally in the turn where Tomac went down. Barcia appeared to get cross rutted and shot left off the double jump. AC, on the left, had nowhere to go in the air and slammed directly into Barcia before the #9’s bike pulverized down on top of him. He sat there for a minute then got up and was tended to by the medical crew. He would remount and complete the rest of the session, but announced before the night show that he would be out for the rest of the day. He captioned a video explaining the crash: “Had to make the tough call to sit out tonight after that crash in Q2. I’ll be back 💪🏼”

“The bike gotta got me in the head there as I was going down,” he said. “ Got up a little bit dazed, obviously. …I just basically did feel good. And the speed was off. And gonna have to call it a night. …It’s not what I want to do. It’s a really tough call for me to make, but I think it’s the right call.”

AC stated he will enter concussion protocol. Bummer deal for the #9.

Once the night show started, we were immediately treated to some close racing. The 250SX East/West Showdown format brings in one 250SX West Region heat race and one 250SX East Region heat race, essentially mini main events for the respective regions. In the first race, riders shuffled around and at the checkered flag, it was RJ Hampshire who held off a charging Jett Lawrence by just 0.452 seconds.

Come the 250SX East Region heat race, it was Jo Shimoda taking his first heat race win in just his second race of the season. The #30 also held off a Lawrence brother by under half a second, as he claimed the win with a 0.442 second gap over Hunter Lawrence.
The two LCQs provided some wild action as well. Unfortunately, Josh Varize was injured in a wild high side that forced the 250SX LCQ to be red flagged and have a staggered restart. The #42 eventually got to his feet and was helped onto the medical cart. We have not heard an update on Varize at this time.

From the get-go, the night show action was great. Throw in the 250SX Futures race, which ended with a block-pass attempt for the race win in the last turn as Julien Beaumer held off Daxton Bennick by only 0.306 seconds, and the close racing had everyone in the stadium on their toes. The riders lined up in their respective gates for the 250SX showdown main event. We were about to see who the better region was.

Until moments before the sight lap, the stadium announced a weather delay. With expected thunderstorms, the stadium asked fans in the lower bowl of the NFL stadium to find shelter under roofing in the concourse. We went from the 250SX main event gates about to drop to fans being shuffling back under shelter as bikes were taken off the starting line. Everything quickly went up in the air. Would we still be racing the main events? When would we race the main events?

No one really knew what was going on or what the next steps were. The radar showed rain showers coming towards MetLife Stadium. And they came, indeed. It started raining–and raining hard–and did not let up for the remainder of the evening. 

Around 10:10 p.m. local time a message on the press box TVs stated fans could return to their seats starting at 10:15 and we would be racing shortly after. 

In the downtime, the press box became a social hub as we bench raced about the action so far, watched the fans–including one moron who ran onto the track shirtless and posed on the finish line jump for his buddy. Down in the tunnel, the 250SX riders hung out, did Instagram live videos with one another, and did some prep work to their bikes and gear as hard rain continued to fall.

When the racing finally resumed, the main events were shortened by three minutes each (so 12 minutes for the 250SX Class, 17 minutes for the 450SX Class). 

So, at 10:25 p.m. local time (about an hour and half after the originally scheduled 8:55 p.m. start) the 250SX gates dropped and the field blasted down the starting straight. Without a sighting lap, this was the riders first time seeing the muddy, puddled up course. Max Anstie rounded the first turn with his all-white Honda CRF250R in the lead.

Anstie would eventually get out to a nice gap over the field. He started to put it on caution mode as he looked to bring home his first ever AMA Supercross main event win. But by the end, Jett Lawrence almost stole the win at the very end! The #18 was on the throttle, blitzing the whoops as Anstie rolled the section one final time, a slip up exiting the turn cost Jettson some time, which allowed Anstie the breathing room he needed.

“It’s one of those where, I’ve been around the world a few times and I‘ve been in the position before,” Anstie said. “When I got through the first rhythm section I was like “This is going to be good.” Pit board wasn’t working. I saw a KTM [Vohland] behind me, but then I got into lappers. I did start thinking about Yarrive and turning him upside down and shaking my bonus check out of him on Monday morning. But as well, I had to focus on what I needed to do. During the break everyone was saying these conditions would be great for me, but you still have to execute. Then I started getting too careful. I was into lappers, then I was rolling the whoops, rolling the finish line. I didn’t want to land on any other riders. I heard another bike skimming in the whoops and I kinda know the sound so I knew it was a Honda. I was like, ‘Okay, I need to speed up a little on these last two turns.’ You know what? I will take it any way I can get it. I get a trophy I can bring home to my boy at home.

In the final turn, RJ Hampshire who looked to steal a position from Jett Lawrence. The #24 came in hot into the U-turn, sliding into the final turn as if it was a base on a baseball field. His downed Husqvarna FC 250 slid right into the line the #18 was in, taking down the 250SX West Region points leader. The #18 remounted and claimed second.

“It changed pretty quickly, I was right behind Max [Anstie] and I cut down low, the rear end started to get away like that,” Jett Lawrence said. “So I was like, ‘Okay, that’s gone.’ I looked back to see else who was there, and I saw RJ. Then I was in the turn, and I saw a wave just coming at me. I didn’t even know where it come from! I had no time to react or do anything, luckily, I crashed on top of him so Just kinda rode my bike over his. I would have thought I would have been off the podium because of that.”

Navigating the traffic of Hampshire and his downed bike, Max Vohland, who rode a solid ride, went outside of Hampshire and Hunter Lawrence went inside, sneaking up the inside of Vohland to claim the final podium spot! While the race was far from perfect for any of the riders, for the Lawrence brothers it was a strong championship ride. A very chaotic night could have shaken things up, but the Australian duo delivered two solid rides.

“Yeah so Cam [Camera, mechanic] put on there P5, Calm,” Hunter Lawrence said on if he knew where he was. “So I’m like, ‘Okay, we’re going with calm.’ I saw some steam coming out of Vohland’s bike, I saw RJ and Jett getting a little loose. I was like, ‘All right, stay out of that.’ I didn’t really need to do anything, and then to see how that last corner unfolded, wow, that was something else. I was able to capitalize on it somehow.”

Hampshire was forced to push his damaged FC 250 off the track once the rest of the field had gone through the finish line. Since he did so many laps, the #24 was credited with 13th officially. Hampshire gaining only 10 points now opens up the gap between Jett Lawrence and the #24 to now 39 points with just two rounds remaining. 

Hampshire posted the following on Instagram:

Vohland claimed fourth, coming up just short on his first 250SX main event podium finish. 

 "It was a good day overall for me, third in qualifying and third in my heat race – being the Showdown, the Heat is like a mini Main Event, so to get third there was great,” Vohland said in a team press release. “I was thinking we’d get a dry Main Event, and then we had a weather delay where we were waiting for an hour to go out – the track was just getting worse and worse – but yeah, in the position I’m in I had nothing to lose, so I went out there and had fun. I knew I needed a good start, which I got, then was flirting around that podium spot, although the way it turned out I finished in fourth. So I’ll take it, made some good points, feel confident in my riding, and am excited for Colorado."

Enzo Lopes has been needing starts and he got one against the entire field. He rode home a fifth place finish. He said back home in Brazil, he used to ride in conditions, so the muddy conditions here were not horrible for him.

Haiden Deegan, who had a crash similar to Hampshire while making a pass attempt on Hunter Lawrence around halfway through the main event, rode well en route to a sixth-place finish. The supercross rookie was the fastest rider on track early. He posted on Instagram:

Carson Mumford, Cullin Park, Jo Shimoda, and Chris Blose rounded out the top ten. Pierce Brown, who had an early crash, finished 11th. 

 “It wasn't an ideal night in New York,” Brown said. “I did all right in the heat, with a fourth-place finish. We had a couple of hour delay before the main event. It rained hard, so the track was pretty wet when we got out there. I got off to an okay start...midpack. I was trying to go through the pack and collided with a rider about three or four laps into the race and fell. That set me back pretty far. I think I got up in last or second-to-last. After that I put a charge on and did all I could do and ended up 11th.”

Levi Kitchen came through 12th ahead of the aforementioned Hampshire and Tom Vialle (14th).

"We had to wait quite a while tonight before the start of the Main Event, and then off the start, I spun really bad, which meant I started last,” Vialle said. “From there it was tough with lots of water on the track making it hard to pass, which put me in 14th place overall. I didn’t do much after the start – it was about survival after that – so I’m looking forward to Nashville now."

With Hunter finishing third and Deegan finishing sixth, the #238 remains mathematically still alive in the 250SX East Region Championship. Hunter Lawrence will enter next weekend’s Nashville Supercross with a 49-point gap and will more than likely wrap up the title one round early. 

Once the wild, muddy, and wet 250SX main event finished, it was time for the premier class. The 450SX riders were able to watch the 250SX main event from the tunnel, seeing the track develop and watching the lines. 

When the gates dropped, Chase Sexton blasted out front early. Barcia went inside of Sexton in the second turn, which allowed Ken Roczen to go to the inside of him in the next turn and take the race lead. Then the #23 ran into issue in the form of #51, as Barca’s rear wheel made contact with Sexton’s front wheel in turn before the whoops section. That put the #23 on the ground. A second later, Jason Anderson went down in the whoops, which collected Justin Hill as well. Eli Tomac was about fifth off the start, behind the front trio and then Benny Bloss.

Roczen got out to about a three second lead, but Barcia reeled the #94 in. Barcia used the same inside line he used on Sexton to pass Roczen for the race lead (although Roczen stayed up). Barcia ended up pulling away and taking his first win of the season–his first since the 2021 Houston 1 Supercross. 

“Tonight was special, to have my wife, my son, it doesn’t really get much better than that,” Barcia said in the press conference. “Just a lot of emotions going on. I’ve really worked hard on myself this year to be an all around better racer. I’ve been a little too wild at times. I ride with a lot of heart. I want to set an example for him, even though he’s a little too young to remember.

"I don't remember practice,” Barcia stated in a GasGas press release. “I don't remember the heat race. But I remember that main event! I got out there and was battling with the boys, took the lead, rode away, and took the win. It was very special. The team crushed it, mud-prepped quick, and it was an awesome race. I don't really know what else to say because I'm very happy!”

Tomac brought home a second-place finish. A few hours into the day, many were wondering if he would even be able to lineup after his qualifying crash. But he did. And he managed a strong, championship-level ride.

“Yes, it’s okay, just gave myself a big charley horse, nothing twisted,” Tomac said on his knee in the press conference. “It got better as I warmed up and kept moving it. I will say that slower pace around the track probably helped it a little bit. Honestly man, you just can’t get ahead of yourself. It was the first lap of practice and I was just doubling down the lane, and it tried to take me out. Just goes to show that you never know.”

“It was just, I don’t know, I found a good flow, and I actually stopped jumping the finish line for awhile and then went back to jumping it,” said Tomac on finding a groove mid-race. “I think I was making a lot of time there. We just yo-yoed a lot in these conditions.”

Tomac (315 points) leads Webb (304 points) by 11 points and Sexton (294 points) by 21 points with only three rounds remaining.

Roczen came through the checkered flag third after he topped over in the whoops and handed second to Tomac.

“I cased the jump so bad, I think the jump was actually jumping me!” Roczen said. “It thought it was going to blow both of my hands off the bars. Then all of the sweat from the inside of goggles just came to the front of my goggles. I did crash, I buried it in the mud. My throttle was buried in the mud, and I also could barely pull the bike up. Also, when you got to the other riders, it got tough, we only had a few lines. I just tried to close my eyes. I even took my muddy hand and tried to wipe my eye. I couldn’t really see, the grips were so wet, I don’t know, I just didn’t want to case jumps again, I kind of just feel apart a little bit there at the end. Still stoked to be on the podium though.”

“Podiums that’s my goal every time we go, and I know that was a thin streak, but we just kept tinkering with the bike,” Roczen added. “We were just solid tonight, I have to give it up to the team. The bike held strong, and I didn’t even have to adjust my clutch. I did start to ride worse just because I crashed, and my bike was in the mud.”

Sexton charged to an eventual fourth place finish, 42.6 seconds back of Barcia. He was the last rider not to get lapped. Webb finished fifth, one lap down. 

"What a crazy turn of events with the insane weather tonight, making racing conditions extremely tough,” Webb said in a press release. Not the way I’d hoped tonight would go as my goal was to close in on the championship and not lose points. We at least made it out in one piece and given the horrible racing conditions, I guess fifth overall wasn’t too bad. I need to rebound and throw everything at this championship next week in Nashville."

Shane McElrath rode home a season-best sixth, followed by Kevin Moranz, who was absolutely pumped on his new career-best ride. Bloss rode home eighth place, as Justin Hill and Dean Wilson rounded out the top ten. Fredrik Noren, who was sixth until the very late stages of the race, finished 11th. Anderson came through 12th after a few crashes. Colt Nichols finished 16th.