Monster Energy AMA Supercross in Indianapolis held tons of excitement for the fans. First off, the dirt in Indy always makes for a soft, rutted, and technical track. Secondly, Triple Crown racing always leads to exciting racing, so the two combined was sure to impress. But beyond the excitement up front, there were other talking points on the night in both classes. In the 250SX class Coty Schock raced just days after having surgery on a broken collarbone. And in the 450SX class Cade Clason messed up in a rhythm section and accidentally took out Cooper Webb who was running third in the first race. Let’s take a closer look at both of their nights.
Coty Schock | 5-8-8 | 5th Overall in 250SX
Schock has been dealing with a collarbone injury since Daytona. Then in the last turn in Birmingham when Haiden Deegan ran him off of the track, his hairline fracture turned into a complete fracture, which he explained on his social media the day after Birmingham.
When our Tom Journet spoke with Schock after Indy, commenting on his savage ride going 5-8-8 for fifth overall, he said:
“It's pretty cool. But I don't really see it that way. I just see that I did everything correctly in preparation to be able to be in this position to do this. We just got right to it, right after surgery and stoked that I'm able to be here and its way better than sitting at home on a couch. So, that's cool.”
Racing only five days after surgery may seem crazy, but Schock is not new to collarbone injuries. Technically, the plate and screws hold everything together, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.
“It actually went a little easier than I thought. It kind of sucks to say, but I've done the left and the right before and then I had both plates removed at the same time. So, when I had to put another plate in this one, I kind of knew what to expect and it was kind of nice because then I was able to just get ahead on everything and, yeah, so it's all good.”
While racing after collarbone surgery may seem impossible, it is actually not unheard of in Europe. In fact Tim Gajser raced the MXGP in Sardinia just eight days after breaking his collarbone in 2021. While supercross is definitely different than MXGP, especially a track as challenging as Indy, this just goes to show these riders are a different breed of superhuman.
Cade Clason | 15-17-17 | 17th Overall in 450SX
When watching supercross, all eyes seem to be on the top three riders. It is easy to forget that the other riders on the track are actually racing and going for their personal best result as well. While it might be easy to disregard those getting lapped, remember racing with a full gate is what makes racing so exciting, and navigating lappers is just part of the game. Sometimes you come out on top and other times you get the short end of the stick when it comes to lapper encounters. Cade Clason explained his side of the crash with Webb to Tom Journet after the race.
“Well, I was battling for 14th, right? Which is pretty stellar. I let Jett [Lawrence] and I think somebody else by but then I was still getting blue flagged, and I heard a rev. So, I went up in the berm high and it wasn't a leader, it was Chizz [Kyle Chisholm] who I was battling with. So, I got kind of mad. I was like, ‘Dude, I hate getting past when the leaders are coming.’ You know what I mean?”
As much as Clason wanted to finish well in his fourth main event of the 2024 season, he felt bad for taking out Cooper Webb.
“But anyways, yeah, I was racing pretty hard," Clason said. "We were side by side in the rhythm section and I stepped off the table into the ruts, got cross rutted, came up short on the double and I knew I was gonna case it and I knew there was people behind me. So, I went to look back to see which way I should swerve and, yeah, I mean, Coop was already there, and he landed straight on my, like my arms like twice the size it should be right now. So, it's pretty uncomfortable but, you know, it's not his fault, man. I feel terrible like I hate affecting the leaders like that. I try my best to get out of the way, actually get yelled at quite often for getting out of the way too much. So, yeah, it sucks.”
Webb's brief post-race Instagram recap said the following:
"Indy triple crown P5. The lapper incident in Main 1 set us back early, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes. Regroup and be better for Seattle 👊🏽"
This was not an incident of a rider trying to disrespect the leaders, just someone trying to navigate a treacherous course.
“This track, the hardest part is, it's not just the faces that get rutted, it's also the downsides," he said. "So like if you clip something and it deflects, you get sideways going into the rut so that you have like no hope. So it's almost better to like OJ to the face of the next one. But then you get sucked into the face because it's so spongy. The hardest part about this place is it's so spongy…this doesn't even feel like a supercross track. I feel like a 50 rider just out here trying to survive.”
On a completely different note, just a couple of weeks ago in Daytona, Freddie Noren stopped his race to check on fellow racer Justin Hill, after Hill’s bike malfunctioned and Noren could not avoid landing on him in a rhythm lane. Then in Indy Clason, after discussing his distaste in getting passed when slowing up to let the leaders by, had this to say about Noren:
“It was nice because in the third main, I was in the same situation and Freddie and I both like agreed to just pull to the side and let like six people by.”
Helping downed riders and now making unspoken agreements not to pass while getting out of the way of the leaders. Is Freddie Noren the nicest guy on the track?
