Observations: East Rutherford

There was still entertainment and still good racing out there but me, for SX, I prefer a dry track. It’s MUCH better racing for everyone.

If you polled everyone in the pits and asked, “Hey, it’s gonna pour in NY and turn the track into something made more for personal watercraft than dirt bikes, who’s going to win the mains?” Most would’ve said Max Anstie and Justin Barcia, or Ken Roczen. And yeah, that’s what happened. Anstie led every lap of the main to take a close win over Jett Lawrence, and Barcia passed Roczen for the lead about halfway and bingo, bango, it was over.

The two mud racers got it done, and in style at that. Still lots to talk about when it comes to the race, however. Let’s dive into, it shall we?

Well, we’ve been writing, talking and typing about Justin Barcia for a while now as he’s been surging forward lately. Well, as I said above, Barcia winning his first race since the Houston opener in 2021 was cool to see for him and the team. Barcia’s season is one of two halves, really. He scored a podium at round two, but his finishes were 11-3-8-6-8-6-7 after that. Starting at Daytona he got that fourth but was all over Sexton for third. Then it’s been 2-4-3-3-2-1 since then. Quite a turnaround.

We asked Olly Stone, Barcia’s crew chief, on the PulpMX Show about that turnaround and he didn’t say it was really anything. The team was testing and learning the new bike, Barcia was feeling better on it, and things sort of clicked from there. Confidence is a funny thing, right? I sort of questioned why, with KTM having a year more on this chassis, the GasGas team didn’t hit the ground running with info from the mothership but hey, whatever.

As Eli Tomac was laying on the ground in the second practice session, probably with some tweety birds circling around his head and a massive charley horse in his leg, if you had told him he was going to get second that night and put points on Webb, my guess is he wouldn’t have believed it. But that’s exactly what he did in a gritty ride. Great to see and a let’s get some golf claps for Tomac and his main event. It was exactly what he needed.

I thought Ken Roczen was going to win. He was tripling onto the tabletop in the one rhythm, and he was flowing and feeling it out there in the mud. And then he cased the crap out of the finish. Like, when I say cased, I mean CASED. Roczen said that he felt like the jump jumped him more than he jumped the jump. He’s lucky he stayed upright. That took a lot of momentum from his race, and he also ruined his goggles from the inside, because all the sweat smashed into the back of his lens, so then he had to ditch the goggles, which is bad news in a mud race. Barcia was already creeping up on him, and then it was all she wrote. Ken fell also in the whoops but, and this is very important, he didn’t stall his bike. In case you weren’t aware, the Suzuki has this thing called a kickstarter on it. And in the mud, it sucks to kick start a bike.

The hour-and-a-half wait for the races to start back up again caused some chaos in the tunnel for the 250SX teams. Olly [the TLD crew chief] made mention that yeah, it was basically anarchy down there with everyone having their tanks off, runners going back and forth to the semi for mud stuff, tools flying everywhere, and as Stone said it, “There were no secrets down there.” That would’ve been a wild scene for sure. The riders were mostly chilling, they were laughing or hanging out waiting.

Anstie told us on the show that everyone was coming up to him saying, “You must be so happy,” and, “You’re gonna win this,” to which he admitted felt good, but being good in the mud like he is still doesn’t mean you’re an automatic win. Gotta get the start, gotta stay up, gotta keep the goggles clean, have some good luck with lappers, and all the other stuff. Being fast in the mud is one thing, but actually finishing well in the mud is another. Max Anstie did both and was rewarded for his first ever 250SX win. Congrats to him and the Firepower Honda team, that’s pretty cool. Years from now, when Weege’s kid is scrolling the Racer X Vault for results, no one is gonna remember it was a mudder. They’ll just see Max won a supercross.

[You’d be surprised. My kid actually will remember. – Weege]

Jett Lawrence was, yeah, fast. He didn’t win his heat but wow was he fast in it to get second after a bad start. He was on it and in the main both he and his brother, Hunter, got decent starts and put the laps down. Hunter was being bothered by a small injury I heard (remember, he had a massive feet-off-the-pegs save early in Atlanta, and that left a mark). Both brothers looked good in the mud. Heck when you look at the results in the 450SX class it almost seems like the best riders all year long were the best riders in the slop also, huh? Weird how that works. Anyway, Jett just slowly got better as Anstie slowly got…slower. I’m sure Mad Max was thinking about the win, the bonus check, and all the cool things he was going to do with the money when Jett got right alongside him in the whoops with two turns to go.

Anstie greased that turn perfectly and that was all he needed but Jett almost stole the feel-good story of the night right out from underneath Max!

I’m not sure what RJ Hampshire’s plan was there in the last turn before he hydro-planed across water and flew into Jett. Like, if he had stayed up he was going to send Jett out of the stadium and knock himself down. The speed he came in with was rather aggressive. Thankfully for Jett, the water got Hampshire before he could get to him and down he went. A podium spot washed away as well with the attempted pass.

Hunter finished third and will clinch this weekend in Nashville. Again, sucks that we were robbed of the battle of the Lawrence bothers because of the rain.

The kid Haiden Deegan was fast! He got a crappy start but made up a ton of time on everyone and was sending it. It was possible he would’ve ended up on the podium but he went down late and that was all she wrote for Deegan. Still, he had the fastest lap in the main event which is cool. But remember what I wrote about being good in the mud and then finishing good in the mud—not always the same thing!

Here are some other news and notes from NJ/NY/East Rutherford:

Anything can happen of course. I mean look at the Tomac crash, but Cooper Webb lost a bunch more points here to Tomac and is 11 down with three to go. He got lapped also. Even before the rains came, Webb never looked that threatening on a track that most of us “experts” thought was going to be good for him. He’s got this deserving reputation as a closer, but this year, it’s not coming together for him. At least not yet.

Chase Sexton wasn’t happy with Barcia’s move, or “moves,” out there in the early laps on him and I get it. I wouldn’t be either, but then again, to me it was just racing. Barcia didn’t mean to take his front end out, there was an opening, and he took it. Was it aggressive? Hell yeah but I wouldn’t call it dirty. But if Chase has a chance to take Barcia high, I’d understand that also.

Jordon Smith is an all or nothing type of rider and generally this year it’s been good for him. He’s had a nice comeback season but at this race, whether it was dry or wet, he hit the ground. Like, a lot. I think I counted six crashes. I might be off a bit but that’s what I had. Smith finished 18^th.

The 250LCQ really delivered. Poor Henry Miller, he might still be laying there in the muck of New Jersey.

With the 250SX showdown probably proving to be a tough main event to make, privateers Jeremy Hand and Devin Simonson grabbed some 450’s and both made their first 450SX main events of the year! That’s pretty sweet for those guys, the AMA results had them both listed as being on 250s but they were on 450s. Never change AMA, never change.

Enzo Lopes rode well to get fifth and he’s currently third in the points ICYWW. Great season for PulpMX’s own star from Brazil!

Kevin Moranz, what a night for him. He’s gotten a holeshot this year and now a top-ten finish. Mudders bro, this is what happens. Ask Ricky Ryan.