And speaking of Roczen, the now Suzuki rider claimed second overall on the night. Roczen has had his fair share of wins at this venue—his sold win in the 2023 season plus claiming all three of the different main events during the mini stay in 2021—and he was fighting damn hard for another one again tonight. The #94 executed his starts all night long and was in the lead and battling with Jettson. He finished 2-2-3, finishing behind Chase Sexton in the final race.

“One word, survival,” Roczen said on the approach to the track. “Kind of in this track can bite you so quick. So, you kind of have to wait a little bit and I think it was more wet and saturated than it was last year. Last year, I feel like the ruts were a little bit more consistent. So, you have to approach these races… First off, start, we always talk about starts—you have to get the start in these ones. But at the same time, you gotta just really pick your battles.”

Roczen knows he is fourth in the championship, 35 points down from Lawrence. But he is still remaining focused on gaining points on everyone ahead of him. Except for the #18, Roczen did so tonight, gaining two points on Sexton and five on Webb.

“I mean, I'm pretty far down,” Roczen said honestly on the championship outlook. “It's just tough when Jett’s been winning and I've been riding really good, but then not good enough to like even keep it in the same range. But to the other guys, I've at least been making up points. So, I believe I'm fourth in the championship now or so. So, I am getting closer to the other guys, but just not on Jett. So, I don't know, there's plenty of racing left and you just never know. So, I'm just gonna keep chucking along and whether it's a championship or not, I'm just trying to put it on the podium every weekend, hopefully get another win or two. That would be awesome. So, I'm just really wanna try my best ride my butt off.”

Sexton was dealing with his hand injury from prior to the Glendale SX and some bike changes as he continues to learn and tweak his new-to-him KTM 450 SX-F. It has not been easy—or the ideal title defense season the Illinois native was hoping for—but he rode home three strong rides on the tricky conditions.

“Yeah, a little bit of both I think,” Sexton said on feeling better physically and making progress with the bike. “As you guys have seen this season, I haven't been super great but I feel like we're getting better and I'm able to do motos during the week now and kind of get back to how I have normally trained. But yeah, with the bike, it's been a big change. And yeah, we still have some room for improvement for sure, but we're on the right path. And yeah, we're just gonna try and keep inching closer with these final rounds and yeah, just give it my best every weekend.”

Sexton leaves Indiana third in points, 25 points down from Jett Lawrence. The fast but often mistake full rider the first few years in the 450SX Class is becoming more consistent.

Typically known for being extremely soft and breaking down to form rough and rutted courses, how would the dirt hold up in the Triple Crown format? Actually, surprisingly well for the most part. The schedule for the Triple Crown format allows the Dirt Wurx crew to do more frequent track maintenance, although the time the heavy machines are on the track is shorter during those adjustments. The 450SX podium praised the track crew for their efforts all day long.

“Honestly, like all day, even in practice, it was kind of…they fixed the same things on the track,” Sexton said on the adjustments. “So, I was pretty aware of what the track was gonna be like. I actually talked to the Dirt Wurx guy after the race. They did a really good job. I felt like coming to Indy, I would have never guessed to put a Triple Crown in this race because of how gnarly the tracks are and how rutty it gets. But they did and it was really soft this year. So, I feel like they did a really good job and kept it as safe as they possibly could. It wasn't an easy track, but it was raceable. I was a little bit worried in practice that I was gonna be like trail riding out there, just because of how rutted it was. But it was actually a pretty good racetrack, and they did a good job of keeping it raceable.”

Fourth overall on the night was Jason Anderson after 5-6-5 finishes. The Kawasaki rider was up near the front off the starts tonight but seemed to be out paced by his competitors, getting passed and dropped in all three races.

Webb rounded out the top five overall. The winner of the first Triple Crown overall in 2024 had tough luck in the first race when he accidentally landed on lapper rider Cade Clason in the long rhythm section, which resulted in eighth. In the second and third races, he was fifth and fourth, respectively, and just behind the front group. That run in with Clason in the opening race ended up being costly. After the race Clason told our Tom Journet it was all his fault and he felt bad he impacted Webb's race. Plus a worse gate picks for the second race. The riders say if a Triple Crown event goes well, it can go really well, but if things can go wrong, they can spiral downwards quickly. Webb stopped the bleeding, but he did lose eight points to Lawrence in the championship. There are still seven rounds left, and you know the #2 will not go down without a fight.

Eli Tomac’s seventh overall on paper does not look great, and neither do his 4-7-10 moto finishes. Especially after he won the third and final Triple Crown race in the Anaheim 2 SX event. Tomac did not help his cause on the night with poor starts. The series heads to Seattle, Washington, next weekend for the 11th round. ET3 has won in Seattle three times in the premier class, could that Lumen Field be the location of his first win of 2024?

The 250 Supercross East Region class was off to a wild start in 2024, but it appears to finally be settling down after five rounds…although the rider pulling the consistency card the hardest is an unlikely candidate. Cameron McAdoo, once the highlight (and lowlight) reel of the class, is putting it all together. After three-straight second place finishes, he logged his first win of the season with 1-2-3 finishes, and never let the tricky track or Triple Crown format get him. McAdoo won the first race, then Haiden Deegan won race two, leaving them tied for the lead heading to race three. Deegan tagged a Tuff Block and went down off the start, and from there McAdoo managed the race to log the overall.

“I didn’t know what happened, I wasn’t aware of a crash [by Deegan]. I was behind Pierce [Brown] and I had some available pace, I had no clue where Haiden was, but I knew if Haiden got to the board [into the top five] I had to go,” said McAdoo. “I had to stay locked in, I quit hitting the triples in the rhythm lanes, but I was still racing it. In the past that’s maybe what cost me off guard before, not being locked in. I was focused on racing the track, but I also knew what was going on around me.”

McAdoo has talked quite a bit about enjoying his life without stressing too much on results. “I’m getting older, and just in the last few years have I been a front running Lites guy,” he said. “That changed my expectations, very quickly. Last year, I was expecting to try to win and try to battle Jett [Lawrence] for wins. I had races where I was getting passed for second and ended up getting third. I remember being so mad. Then a few weeks later I got hurt and it was all taken away from me. Lots of time on the couch, a lot of reflecting through last summer. There was so much I had to be grateful for and I didn’t take advantage of that. I realized I’m not going to be able to do this forever and this is a great part of my life. It’s just really cool to be here, whether I win tonight or not, it’s special and I don’t want to take any of it for granted.”

Vialle was right behind McAdoo and right in front of Deegan in race one until he crashed in the whoops. That set him back to fourth, which left him out of the overall picture. He did come back to win race three, and 4-3-1 scores delivered second overall.

“I was improving a lot during the winter,” said Vialle about his expectations for the season. “I feel way better this year and I feel like right now I feel pretty good on the bike. I had good starts tonight, I’m a little bit frustrated with the crash in the first moto. I tried to slow down in the whoops and super fast I tipped over. I’m really happy I won the third race. I was kind of a little bit back from those two guys. I was kind of a bit back from those two guys so I really wanted to win the last one. I had a pretty good start, and I was riding good to the end.”

He said he was happy to end the night with a win in the third and final race of the evening.

Deegan went 2-1-6 to at least grab a podium after missing it at Dayton and Birmingham. The crash going into turn one of the third race ended any chance of battling McAdoo for the overall win, but he came back through the pack to manage third overall.

“Yeah, I’ve been behind in general just because of injuries,” Deegan said. “This week I had a good week with the team, just slowly getting back to speed. Put in the motos and it’s slowly coming back. Finding that speed, getting back to where I was before I got hurt. Crash on the start [of race three], couldn’t get the bike started, and then it was just a fight from there. When you’re pushing that hard trying to catch guys like that you make mistakes that cost you some time. You’re just kind of fighting it. I was just grateful to get into a podium position after taking myself on the start.”

McAdoo, for the moment the Mr. Consistency of the class, now has taken the points lead from Vialle by just two. Deegan is 16 points back and Pierce Brown is still third in points despite a bad first race (he finished 12th) and a big crash in the second race. Somehow his 12-4-2 scores left him fourth overall. Other 250 contenders had bad nights, Max Anstie was off the track early in the first race, he ended up a disappointing 13th overall, and title hopes are gone. Seth Hammaker also had crashes and was ninth overall. Now 250 East is taking a break as the 250 West Region Championship resumes for the next two races in Seattle and St. Louis.