Saturday Night Live: Arlington

“It was a tough day, qualifying wasn’t great, and in the heat race I got a great start and just went backwards,” said Webb, who joins Lawrence as the only two-time winners this season, and now sits just three points behind in the standings. “Just was struggling with the track a little bit, and with myself. It was good to flip the switch and be competitive in the main event, but by no means did I think I would go out and win. I got a good start and put myself in a great position. I rode a solid main behind Jett. Obviously got a bit of a gift there, but we were  trying to catch him there at the end, and we were close. Who knows. Maybe the pressure got to him there, I don’t know, but I’ll take it either way. That section was really tough as the main went on. It was hard to get that rhythm clean every lap.”

That same rhythm wreaked bigger havoc in the 250 class, when Austin Forkner completely launched off the side of the track while leading, and flew onto the concrete. His race was over, and the last report he heard is that he was headed to the hospital with a shoulder injury. It could have been much, much worse. That crash allowed Haiden Deegan to inherit the lead and win, which is actually the first supercross win of his career. He celebrated with a ghost ride, throwing his bike over the jump after the finish, in tribute to his dad, who won the Los Angeles Supercross back in 1997 and ghost rode, legendarily, across the line.

“Getting the dub. I was behind Austin for a while and obviously you hate to see that,” Deegan said. “It's not anything you want to see in this sport and it's a dangerous sport, man. Stuff like that happens often, but obviously, uh yeah, [hope] he heals up. That was not good. But yeah, man, first win, that was exciting and I was like, “I don't know, I've won and I was like, I mean, this is a little jump, why not ghost ride it?” I was honestly a little scared like, if it was a triple, like would I get stuck to the bike and like, fly through the air or something? Weird. So, I mean, it's a little jump. I'm [gonna] Ghost Ride this thing.”

With Forkner crashing out here and so many other riders back in points due to a mammoth first-turn crash at the 250 East opener in Detroit, the points are completely jumbled. Cameron McAdoo came back for second and Tom Vialle was third, making for a podium sweep of riders who were down in turn one at the opener. Firepower Honda’s Max Anstie was sixth after a bad start, but now has the 250 East Region points lead.

And yet all of that stuff—the Lawrence and Forkner crashes, the Webb and Deegan wins—weren’t the whole story. This Arlington race could be remembered just as much for the return of Beast Mode Eli Tomac, who launched a hellacious charge in the second half of the race, giving all the classic Tomac feels. Tomac actually crashed early when he misjudged a triple and crashed in the next corner. He was outside the top ten, but then found good lines and started going crazy, blasting all the way past Aaron Plessinger to get to third, and then taking second when Lawrence went down for the second time. Tomac was routinely a second a lap faster than the leaders down the stretch, and was only 2.9 seconds down on Webb at the finish.

Tomac’s rough performance two races ago in Detroit, where he started third and got lapped, and a low-intensity fourth last week in Glendale, left some wondering if he was diminished from his previous form. He took some of the Detroit performance on his own shoulders.

“Detroit I just had really bad arm pump, and when that happens, your hands are tied,” Tomac said. “It’s just survival. I was struggling in that specific condition, the way that dirt, it was clay, the way it was pulling down my bike. I feel like that was better today. But with that said, I can’t blame it all on that bike. Look how long I’ve been doing this. I should know the situation and what’s going to make me race more comfortable and get me out of the arm pump situation. Tonight was just being comfortable. Riding like I should, I guess.”

As far as the noise about Eli not being the same anymore? Does he hear those thoughts?

“Uh, yeah, they creep in,” he said. “I've kind of just heard it the whole season, and I just know I'm not like there yet…but I don't know, maybe some people are right. I haven't won it overall yet, but one thing for sure is I have improved and I'm getting better. So yeah, I'm ready to put up the fight in this last half and, uh, you know, maybe show some of the young guys that they're still young.”

With Lawrence’s crash, Tomac moves to just 13 points back, fifth in points, and Webb is three behind, second in points. Plessinger was third in the race and is third in the standings. He couldn’t hold Tomac back, but it was another strong ride in a season filled with them.

 “I thought I got off to a good start, and I was like, ‘I’m going to push to the front.’ I knew Jett was up there, I knew Coop was up there, and I knew they were going to take off," said Plessinger. "Hunter [Lawrence] was riding an awesome race and then out of nowhere I see the number 3 come through and I’m like ‘Dang, I gotta latch on or something, because this dude’s going fast.’ And I knew Hunter was right behind me… I just kept on two [wheels] and it was just a really, really good race. My heart rate was through the roof, and I was trying with everything I had to get back by Eli, but he was in ‘beast mode’ as they call it. [laughs] It was a good race, gained some points, and lucky to be back up here on the podium."

Plessinger's good start to the season has him feeling better than ever, which is saying a lot for a man who always seems to enjoy life.

“I don't know, man, I just think the bike's good, my body's feeling good and I'm just having fun,” he said, to no one’s surprise. “I've had the most fun so far this year that I've had in a season and it's just been good. I don't feel like it's work and everything's coming to me. Like tonight I got lucky. Yeah, I was running pretty much off the podium the, the whole night and then, uh, at the end of the race, some things switched around and I got to be on the podium. So it was a good night and I'm still feeling fresh, too.”

Jett Lawrence recovered for fourth, and his brother Hunter was fifth for the second week in a row. Defending Champion Chase Sexton, still battling a hand injury, was a quiet sixth.

The rest of the 450 pack was ravaged with crashes. Tomac was down early, as were Jason Anderson and Justin Barcia, and then last week’s winner, Ken Rocaen, ran into Friese and crashed, taking Malcolm Stewart down with him. Stewart was far better than he has been so far this year, battling Jett Lawrence hard in a heat race, where he finished second, but his main event was spoiled by the crash, as was Roczen’s. Justin Cooper was seventh, then Roczen eighth, and Stewart passed Anderson to take ninth with Anderson rounding out the top ten.

As for the rest of the 250s, McAdoo, who now has a banged-up knee from Detroit to go with a banged up shoulder from the off-season, took second.

“All these guys are just as much of warriors as me,” he said when asked about his "warrior" mentality. “Unfortunately, I've had to show it a little more, but yeah, coming into Detroit, I was pretty behind. I missed pretty much all of December riding and a good portion of January. I had a few weeks back on the bike and having a heat win was nice and then being in involved in that first term pile up, I messed my knee up pretty good there, too. So I kind of had two nagging things and those were a bit frustrating the last few weeks. But luckily we had three weeks off and I rode one day last week. It was just nice to have a pretty solid, consistent day. Like Haiden talked about hitting his marks. That was pretty much the key to this main event because I think that I had maybe three moments that felt fairly significant. What happened to Austin, this track, it was gnarly. So it can reach up and bite you and you just really had to be locked in. So, yeah it was encouraging to have just a solid day after a pretty tough Detroit and I'm just excited to keep building some strength back and, and getting some more time on the bike again.”

As surprising as it was to see that this was Deegan’s first supercross win, it was also surprisingly the first supercross podium ever for Vialle, who also had a big crash in practice.