Saturday Night Live: Anaheim 1

Taking second was Anderson, who did a great job initially of not letting the #18 get completely away. Anderson was never able to close on Jett Lawrence, but he kept him honest for a while. Anderson also had a great battle with Cooper Webb, who started really pushing the issue in the second half of the race. At one point Webb even edged ahead of Anderson, but Anderson had the inside on the next corner and forced Webb into submission. A few laps later Webb made a mistake over a small jump, went down, and that was that. Anderson took second, while Webb dropped down to sixth.

“Yeah, obviously, you know, when you get a new platform, especially for us, you know, if there's something that we don't like or whatever and, and they give us what we want, we really wanna perform on it,” Anderson said. “So, it's a little nerve wracking when you come into the first round with a new bike and everything like that. And especially with just all the work you do in the off-season. You know, the whole weekend itself is just a little bit of pressure on our shoulders. But, it's a positive for me, you know, this weekend to be able to be second, have a good main event. Felt like at times in the main event I had some really good speed. But at the same time, it's one of 17. So, it's a positive but we still got work to do.”

Chase Sexton had a quiet night, but hey, if you’re going to have a quiet night and still end up on the podium, that’s not too bad. The Red Bull KTM rider rode in fourth all by himself for most of the race and took advantage of Webb’s mistake late in the race to score a podium finish at the opener.

“Yeah, it's been a different off-season for me switching bikes and getting to know something that's quite a bit different than what I was on before,” said the #1. “So that takes a lot to get used to. And yes, we had our struggles but the last week or so we've been moving in the right direction and tonight, definitely, I feel like we're going in the right direction. So, that's a positive and I do coming in that I was gonna be maybe a little bit, not where I wanna be. But, you know, I went out there and tried to salvage everything I could and try to get better. I think the last practice today I kinda started to get into a flow and the heat race wasn't great, but the main event that was okay. So, yeah, we wanna keep building and just keep improving because it's a long season, but we definitely gotta get clicking off some wins. And battling up there with these two.”

Ken Roczen, who won his heat race with ease, wasn’t able to keep riding the wave in the main. In fact, he found himself in the mechanics area on the first or second lap, losing a ton of time. As of yet we haven’t found out what happened, but the end result was a tenth for Roczen.

Eli Tomac also had a night he’d likely rather forget, taking ninth. Tomac never looked horrible, but not once during the day did he ever really look like the assassin he is. Don’t expect him to ride around like that all season.

Dean Wilson finished 16th but expect a better finish from him next weekend in San Francisco. Wilson got into it with Vince Friese almost right away on in the 450SX main and both riders ended up on the ground with Wilson giving Friese the middle finger. Or perhaps he was just giving him the big number one? In any case, Friese left his bike on the track and stomped off, while Wilson remounted and got going again.

The biggest heartbreak of the night has to go to Hunter Lawrence. He was caught up in a first turn crash in his heat race, and in the LCQ he got pinched on the start and was forced to rip through the pack. He was closing Cade Clason on the final lap but bobbled in a rhythm lane, which gave Clason a bit of extra breathing room. Hunter Lawrence closed back in and tried to dive inside Clason in the final corner, but Clason held strong and denied the #96 entry to the first 450SX main event of the year, and his career.

In the 250 ranks it was RJ Hampshire lighting the torches to kick things off in 2024, but he had to work for it. In fact, it was rookie Julien Beaumer who jumped out to the early lead, although he probably ended up with some green paint on his orange KTM, courtesy of Levi Kitchen who did everything he could to put his Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki ahead of Beaumer during the opening stages of the race. Beaumer held strong, but Kitchen, it seemed, would not be denied the lead spot. Then, just when it seemed like Kitchen was going to pick Beaumer’s pocket, RJ Hampshire came in hot and crashed the party, stacking them up three wide in a bowl turn, and took second away from Kitchen. One lap later he passed Beaumer in the same spot and that was that. Hampshire checked out and took the third supercross win of his career. Next weekend in San Francisco, Hampshire will have the red plates for the first time in his career.

“So awesome,” Hampshire said on bringing home a win to start the season. “A lot of ups and downs in my career. Just being able to show up to a race and being confident and taking what the night gave me like. Yeah, of course, I felt like I could win, but wasn't gonna pressure it. Had my spots tonight that were really good. Yeah, I just super stoked to have a red plate under the Husky rig. That's huge, for myself and the team. Goes to show, massive pros at the whole Austrian group because we had an awesome bike this year.”

“We'd be here all night if I had to explain it all,” Hampshire said reflecting on his career to this point. “And just ride the waves really. I mean, Smitty [Jordon Smith] knows exactly how it is also like we've been through it. So, it's cool to cool to be up here. Even with him, like me. This sport’s tough. There's a lot of people that, you know, probably wouldn't be in this situation if they'd gone through what we've gone through. A lot of obstacles, a lot of ups and downs. And one thing I've always done is believed in myself and that's kind of why I'm in this position I'm in right now. I always knew I was capable of it. Just stay levelheaded, really. And, like I said, ride the waves and, and enjoy the highs and try to get out lows as fast as possible.”

Jordon Smith was on the gas tonight too, and had he gotten a better start, might have been able to battle for the win with Hampshire. Smith had a nice battle with Kitchen before setting a pass up in the whoops and executing in the ensuing corner and repeated the feat on Beaumer on the very next lap. That put him in second, but by them Hampshire was gone.

“Yeah, I mean, RJ had a pretty big lead by the time I got to second,” Smith said on wishing to fight for the win tonight. “So, there wasn't a whole lot of separator on the track time. It was definitely tough to get that long rhythm, but I was just, mainly wasn't really focused on trying to go for the win or anything like that. It was just focused on putting my laps in, um, just trying to stay focused in, in the whoops. They were not hard tonight, but they, they got tricky and the main that they were pretty tore up.”

Smith, typically a competitor on the East Region, reflected on his previous experience racing on the West Coast.  

“I raced [West Region] one time, in 2016,” he said. “A1, I was in podium position until like five to go and I fell. So, that [tonight] was good. Always, I feel like more nerves coming to A1 than it is even the first round East Coast. Like you're obviously nervous either way, but it's even more here. But it was good. Got good starts and rode good and made some good changes on the bike throughout the day. So really can't complain with how it went.”

Kitchen, meanwhile, lost another spot to Maximus Vohland. Kitchen was sliding backward at this point, which was perplexing because he’d been extremely fast all day in qualifying. He seemed to regroup, however, and benefited when Beaumer went off the track, then caught back up to Vohland and made the pass. He’d end up in third on the night.

“I knew Max would be probably pretty pissed about it, but I've been racing for long enough now once you're past the guy who's on the ground, you’re all good,” Kitchen said on navigating through flags while racing forward. “So, even it was kind of weird, the red cross [flag] was like, not on the first jump either. So, the first time I think I three’ed in and there was no red cross and then it's like they started, it, it was a weird deal. You had people rolling the whole thing saying they had to Max, he just happened to roll too much. So yeah, it was a kind of a greasy move of me, but I mean, it is what it is.”

“I think I got more in me for sure, but I was still positive, you know, qualifying and all that,” Kitchen added. “And then to kind of get it back together after that heat race incident. Early on, I panicked pretty bad in that main and not these guys were riding really good, too. They, they blew by me, so, I had to regroup, which was a positive for me also. But, like RJ said, there's ups and downs and it's a long season. So, to get out of your healthy with a podium, I can’t complain.”

Jo Shimoda got a bad start and was forced to rip his way through the pack. He made a pass on Vohland in a wheels-on-the-ground red cross situation, but it was open for debate on whether or not he’d violated the red cross because he got back on the gas right after the location of the downed rider, but only by about three feet. Everyone else, at least that we saw, was rolling that jump and getting on the gas after it. The AMA told us they were reviewing the footage, and so far, Shimoda has not been penalized. Beaumer came through sixth after an overall solid supercross debut. He qualified third overall—from the B group—and was up front to start both his heat race and the main event.

Nate Thrasher had a good ride going and was battling with Vohland for fifth for a while before crashing and leaving the stadium in an Alpinestars Medical Mule. It didn’t look major, and we’ll update his status when more information becomes available.

Mitchell Oldenburg got stuck in the gate hard on the start and was forced to come from way back. Credit to him for salvaging an eighth.

And finally, in more heartbreak news, Phil Nicoletti was unable to participate in the main event after his bike developed problems on the line. Be sure to send your questions regarding this to Phil@racerxonline.com.