Other riders to watch include Colt Nichols and Justin Hill, who both had seaso-best finishes last week, finishing fourth and fifth, respectively. Nichols’ contract with Honda HRC doesn’t extend into the summer, so Denver and Salt Lake City are his final two opportunities to show what he can do on the Factory Honda equipment. Hill, who isn’t racing AMA Pro Motocross, has been surging lately too, and told us after Nashville he was finally starting to feel comfortable at race pace.

In 250SX west action we’ll almost certainly see Jett Lawrence crowned champion. RJ Hampshire is the only other in championship contention, and even if he wins it, all Lawrence has to do is put it in the top ten and the championship is his.

The track here in Denver has a few long rhythm lanes, a long whoop section right after a big double, and a long start stretch that runs nearly the entire length of the floor. There's also a very steep wall jump that's just before the finish line. Interestingly enough, there are no supercross triples, although there are a couple big doubles. Last year this was a day race and the weather was pretty warm, which led to a very dry and hardpack track. They’ve been working water into the dirt this morning, and with the race taking place at night, chances are good we won’t see a return of last year’s dust bowl.

Practice will kick off soon, so be sure to check back throughout the day for a look at who’s fast in Denver.

Untimed Practice

Not much to talk about from the untimed sessions, which are actually timed, but the times mean nothing for qualifying. Max Vohland was fast initially in the 250 Class, with Enzo Lopes displacing him about halfway through, only to see Jett Lawrence take control in the last quarter off the session. Several of the riders seemed to be having issues with overjumping the finish line jump but it didn’t result in any crashes.

One of the rhythm lanes is interesting. Most riders are opting to go on-off on a table, then triple, triple, double out. Some, however, experimented with tripling to the backside of the tabletop then going triple, triple, triple, out. It seems faster, both Chase Sexton and Ken Roczen set their fastest times when they did it, but most guys trying it are having a hard time getting through it cleanly. We’ll see how that line develops throughout the day. Sexton ended up fastest in the 450 Class, followed by Roczen and Eli Tomac.

Timed Qualifying – Session One

The water trucks have been busy between sessions in an effort to combat the sun, and so far it seems to be working. As of the first timed qualifying sessions, no dusty sections had developed, although it looks like it’s going to get pretty hard no matter what. The track crew mixed a lot of sand in with the dirt this year in an effort to combat those conditions, so it should be better than last year’s subpar racing surface. 

As far as times, Max Vohland was the first to top the 250SX chart, recording a 48.566, and would lower it to 47.970 a couple laps later. Enzo Lopes was next up top with a 47.842, then Levi Kitchen kicked everyone off the mountain with a blazing 46.958! You knew it was only a matter of time before Jett Lawrence weighed in, however, and he did on his eighth lap with a 46.233. Normally at this point in qualifying that signifies a wrap, but nobody told Lopes, who proceeded to bust out a 45.717. He knew it was a fast lap too, because he immediately looked over at the timing pylon as soon as he sailed over the finish line. Afterward he described his final lap as “one of the best laps of my life.”

When the 450s rolled out Eli Tomac shadowed Chase Sexton for a lap before the two kind of separated. Sexton would go on to top the board right away, but on lap six Adam Cianciarulo threw down a heater, a 45.927, to take over the top spot. Sexton was undeterred, however, and immediately recorded a 45.396.

Lines are starting to develop in the rhythm lanes, and most guys are now opting to quad out of the first lane. Sexton also seems to have figured out the difficult line in the next rhythm lane, tripling in where a lot of guys are going on-off on the initial table, which sets him up for a difficult, but fast, tripe-triple-triple line on the way out. Sometimes he's turning the last triple into a double-single, which doesn't seem to be slower, and allows hi to take the inside in the next turn.. We’ll see what line is prevalent in the final qualifying session after the guys go back and review video.

Timed Qualifying – Session Two

The dirt has started to dry out and harden up a little bit for the final qualifying sessions of the day, with small puffs of dust starting to come up in parts of the track. Even so, the track is a little faster, as most times have lowered. Carson Mumford was fastest initially in the second 250SX qualifier, then RJ Hampshire spent some time on top. Then Jett Lawrence absolutely threw down a lap that was incredibly clean. He hit the rhythms perfectly, including the tricky triple-triple-triple-triple line through one of the long rhythms that is giving most guys a tough time. He didn’t even look like he was pushing that hard, either. The result was a 43.893, which was over an entire second faster than Hampshire’s. Hampshire would respond with a 44.730, but that’s as close as he could get to Lawrence. In fact, Lawrence's time would end up being faster than all the 450 times too! Enzo Lopes, who was fastest in the first qualifier, was third-fastest in this one with a 44.860.

Eli Tomac came out firing in this one, rocketing down the start stretch to get clean air up front, and quickly set a fast time. Adam Cianciarulo shoved Tomac out of the top spot momentarily, but the champ rampaged back with a 44.603. Chase Sexton, meanwhile, looked great and had his rhythms absolutely dialed. Not surprisingly, he jumped to the top. A couple laps later he lowered his own time, posting a 43.968, which stood for the fastest time.

There were some entertaining moments in the tail end of this session when some of the guys started airing out the wall jump. There’s a landing for the wall jump, but another twenty-ish feet down the track is a very small roller right before the finish line where the guys were landing when they'd sky the wall jump. There was a lot of hangtime so it’s unlikely it was faster, but definitely looked cool!

250SX Heat One

Levi Kitchen kicked the night off with a holeshot. RJ Hampshire was hot on his tail, but Kitchen was riding great and pulled out a gap on Hampshire right away, while Hampshire seemed to have a hard time getting through some of the rhythms cleanly. After a few laps Hampshire was able to clean it up and started closing on Kitchen.

Behind them Max Vohland was going after Derek Kelley for third and was able to make the pass fairly quickly. The lead duo of Kitchen and Hampshire were gone at that point though, leaving Vohland to ride in third all by himself.

Up front Hampshire had trouble with a lapper while trying to track down Kitchen, which gave Kitchen a ton of room. Kitchen took the win, with Hampshire, Vohland, Kelley, Robbie Wageman, Cole Thompson, Jerry Robin, Mitchell Harrison, and Dominique Thury finishing in transfer spots.

250SX Heat Two

Mitchell Oldenburg shot out to the lead to kick this one off with Enzo Lopes in hot pursuit. Jett Lawrence got caught up with another rider right out of the first turn and went down, leaving him having to come from behind. Up front the race was intense. Lopes got by Oldenburg but then had to deal with immense pressure from Carson Mumford, who didn’t take long to make a move and slice into the lead. Lopes didn’t yield though and went right back after Mumford. It seemed like Lopes had the edge in speed, but he just wasn’t able to make a move stick on Mumford until Mumford got hung up by a lapper. That allowed Lopes to zip by. Shortly after that Oldenburg went back by Mumford too. Lopes, Oldenburg, Mumford, Lawrence, Dilan Schwartz, Derek Drake, Max Miller, Austin Politelli, and Luke Kalaitzian all transferred out of this heat to the main.

450SX Heat One

Ken Roczen muscled his way to the front at first, but his teammate, Kyle Chisholm, shot by him in the first rhythm lane. A few sections later Roczen went back by and checked out with the lead. Or so it would seem, until Adam Cianciarulo started moving forward. After he went by Chisholm he wasted no time in putting his head down and eating into Roczen’s lead. At one point it looked like we might see a battle materialize between the two, but Roczen responded and stabilized the shrinking gap.

The battle for the final transfer spot was pretty good. First it was Lane Shaw and Mason Kerr going at it, but then Kerr went off the side of a jump and crashed. Logan Karnow was next to go after Shaw, and after several attempts threw a block pass on Shaw that Shaw couldn’t recover from. Roczen won, with Cianciarulo, Justin Hill, Chisholm, Justin Staring, Grant Harlan, Antony Rodriguez, Michael Hicks, and Karnow filling the transfer spots.

450SX Heat Two

The crowd erupted when local hero Eli Tomac exploded out of the gate and took off with the lead. Chase Sexton followed, and it didn’t take long until he was all over Tomac. Initially, Tomac defended the lead, but when Sexton started pushing the issue Tomac relented, handing the lead off to Sexton. Tomac didn’t lay down after that, however, and stayed right on Sexton. The pair soon got into lappers, and Sexton nearly took out Joan Cros as the two battled through traffic. Sexton ended up prevailing, but Tomac showed some surprising urgency in this one. Sexton, Tomac, Nichols, Shane McElrath, Dean Wilson, Josh Hill, Kevin Moranz, Josh Cartwright, and Cade Clason all transferred to the main.

250SX LCQ

Geran Stepleton put his best wheel forward by holeshotting this one ahead of Max Sanford, Brandon Ray, and Blaine Silveira. Hunter Yoder was on the move though, and within a couple laps had come from several spots back all the way up to second. At this point the running order was Stapleton, Yoder, Ray, and Kaeden Amerine. Hunter Schlosser was all over Amerine with about a minute left, but crashed. The battle to watch at this point was for the lead, as Yoder was all over Stapleton. He made the move stick with about a lap let and went on to win. Yoder, Stapleton, Ray, and Amerine took the final 250SX transfer spots of the night.

450SX LCQ

Tristan Lane made moves early and got clean air off the start. Lane Shaw, Devin Simonson, and Fredrik Noren gave chase, but Lane rode incredibly strong, refusing to be caught. Simonson moved up to second place a couple laps into the race, but Shaw had really strong run through the whoops to retake second place. Chase Marquier, meanwhile, who held fifth, was slowly sneaking up on the threesome in front of him. Unfortunately for Marquier, he ran out of time, finishing a heartbreaking .495 seconds back of Noren, who took the final qualifying spot.

250SX Main Event

Max Vohland snagged the lead to kick the first main event of the night off, but he had Levin Kitchen and RJ Hampshire all over him. Jett Lawrence didn’t get a good start, and was circulating in roughly tenth place. Kitchen was able to put a block pass on Vohland in a righthander, and Hampshire quickly followed suit. Kitchen had about two seconds on Hampshire at this point, but Hampshire was very slowly reeling in Kitchen.

Back in third Vohland rode by himself for a few laps but then came under fire from Enzo Lopes. When Lopes went for a block pass on Vohland the two made some contact, leaving Vohland on the ground. It wasn’t a dirty pass, Vohland just seemed to kind of lose his balance after getting bumped. 

At roughly the halfway mark Hampshire had closed to within about a bike length of Kitchen and soon started throwing his front wheel in on Kitchen here and there. Then when Hampshire went to put a move on Kitchen around the outside right  before a double, Kitchen drifted wide and Hampshire had to abort right before launching. Hampshire floated through the air and cased it hard on the landing of the double, but managed to keep from crashing before going off the track. He lost a ton of time, but maintained second place well ahead of Lawrence, who had been slicing his way through the pack. Amazingly, several laps later, Hampshire had closed back up on Kitchen and with just over a minute left in the race Hampshire was all over Kitchen again. He then used superior whoop speed to set up a move and launched past Kitchen on the wall jump right before the finish line jump. Kitchen would make an attempt on the next lap to get him back but Hampshire withstood the heat and went on to take the win. Kitchen took second, while Lawrence rounded out the podium and clinched the 2023 250SX west championship.

450SX Main Event

Shane McElrath holeshot the final race of the night, but before the lap was over Tomac had taken over the lead. With Chase Sexton in fifth place, Tomac was in a perfect position to put some ground on the field and get a win in front of his hometown crowd. Then, shockingly, with about seventeen minutes left in the race, something happened to Tomac in a rhythm lane and he slowed dramatically after mildly casing a jump. He appeared to have injured his leg or foot and left the track, letting the air out of the Denver crowd. We would learn later he’d ruptured his Achilles tendon.

Up front Adam Cianciarulo led, but Chase Sexton didn’t waste time in taking over the lead and setting sail. Amazingly, Roczen, who had crashed in the first turn and started in last place, had already worked his way back into a podium spot, holding third a few seconds back of Cianciarulo. The next battle on the track was for fourth between McElrath and Justin Hill, but when Hill dove in for a pass, McElrath wanted none of it and simply handed the position to Hill.

Up front Sexton continued to dominate, while Roczen had caught and passed Cianciarulo for third. That’s how it would play out too, with Sexton taking the win, points lead, and although it won’t be official until next week, the 2023 450SX championship.