It’s all happening! The 2024 Monster Energy SX series has been great so far even though the racing always hasn’t. Does that make sense? The fact that we’re entering four races to go and the 450SX series is tied is awesome. Although I feel for the racers and teams with the weather and dirt conditions we’ve had this year, it’s been exciting to watch most weekends.
I always like a track that’s got something only a few of the elites can do. Foxboro had that in a table over a table (made easier for the night show) and then also a 3-3-1 before the finish that was pretty big. Didn’t see many riders pull that off consistently and that’s always a cool thing in my opinion. In a year where we’ve made track changes to keep riders healthy (not the best move IMO), things like we saw in Foxboro that stand out is fun to watch.
The track, while rutty still, offered up some predictability to the riders in that it was a harder packed dirt, and they knew the rut they picked up the jump face wasn’t going to crumble on them. I liked the layout, we had some sand, a wall, some technical sections, decent whoops where you could blitz or jump and we had a lighthouse on one side of the stadium. What’s not to like?
Thought I’d look at some numbers from the Foxboro SX that interested me and see what they mean. Some of these are from MX Reference on Twitter who’s been working for Pulpmx this SX season and providing some invaluable data for the fans.
53.013
That’s Cooper Webb’s fastest lap time of the 450SX main event and he did it on lap one. Usually guys like Webb, the elites if you will, do not set their best times on lap one. They take a lap or two to find some ruts, lines that they like and then they hammer down. And they’re in such great shape that sometimes their best comes late when they need to push hard for the win. But Webb got the holeshot and then took off right away while Chase Sexton and Jett Lawrence were in traffic and Ken Roczen, always fast early, was right behind him. This sprint speed was surprising from Webb, he’s usually a worker bee but man he brought the heat in Foxborough. Coop was great all day long, he qualified quickest (!) he told me after the race nothing changed but clearly the week off did him wonders. He led every lap of the main (he had led only 13 laps prior to this) and he’s tied in points with Jett for the title. What a day for Webb.
1
Only one man went out on the 450SX parade lap in the chilly New England night without a jacket and that was Webb. The man feels no cold, no pain. This should’ve been the first warning that he meant business.
14th
That’s Jett Lawrence’s position at the white stripe in the first turn in Foxborough. We had Lars Lindstrom from Honda on the PulpMX show, and he told us that looking at the data for Jett’s start, it appears he did everything right but spun on the hard dirt once he got over the gate. That’s all that you have to do in 2024 Startcross to blow your chance at a win. Jettson only passed two riders lap one, followed Tomac around for a while, could’ve probably gotten a little greasier with Jason Anderson in the last turn and got a fifth. That’s three winless races in a row after winning three in a row. Despite his series high 7 main event holeshots, despite his series high five wins, despite almost leading half the laps in the series, he’s tied with Cooper Webb with four races to go. Buckle up, this is going to get good.
15
Number of points Chase Sexton is back of the two leaders. This is smaller than his gap to Tomac at this point last year! Thanks to some guy named Lewis for that info. Anyways, in what Chase told me was his best race of the year, he tracked Webb down slowly all main event and was looking for a mistake from the #2. He got it on the last lap but too bad for Sexton, he immediately also made a mistake. Webb’s crafty and really hugged his lines tight and gave Chase nothing to pass him with. He’s finished so close to Webb this week and in Seattle a few weeks back that he’s got to be frustrated as all hell even with his proper attitudes after the race.
10.02
That’s the margin of victory for Eli Tomac in his heat race. No, it didn’t have Jett, Webb or Sexton in it but it did have Ken Roczen and ten seconds in just six minutes plus a lap is domination. He was on it, pulled out the 3-3-1 a bunch and got a start like no other. SOME people disagree with me but if Tomac gets Webb’s start in the main, I think he wins. He was that good. Unfortunately for ET, he blew the main event start, washed out and could only get a 6th on the night. You know, post-Kawasaki Tomac hasn’t always jumped all the big rhythms and he told me a few times that when he doesn’t, it’s because the risk isn’t worth the reward but in Foxborough, the 3-3-1 was risky (he told me Sunday morning that the second three was scary because of the higher landing) but yet he did it probably the most out of any rider. So, although he didn’t win like St Louis, his qualifying, his heat race and the fact he was doing this section tells me that Tomac is back. Will he win this title? No, but I think he can win one or more of these last four.
49
Number of laps led this season by Ken Roczen which, despite being fifth in the points, is the second most in the class. Roczen ended up third on the night in a ride that was so Ken Roczen-esque, it wasn’t funny. Kenny never looked outstanding all day, he didn’t do much in his heat either but hey, look at that, he got a great start and rose to the occasion to get a third. He held off Sexton for a long time also and still had the leaders in sight at the end. Great riders do great things even when they don’t look great during the day.
18
Number of laps led by 250SX east winner Haiden Deegan in taking his second win in the series and closing the points gap up. If there weren’t two showdowns to go, I’d say his early mistakes in the series might be too much to overcome but not now. In Foxborough, it looked rather effortless. He was picture perfect out there and his heat race worried me when he made a mistake and stalled it. He does seem to have the errors of commission here and there. But no matter, in the main he was great. Also, by the way, not much happened out there in the 250SX main event once McAdoo got into second. Weird race.
9th
Position of Cameron McAdoo at the white stripe in the main event which combined with Tom Vialle and Deegan’s positions, was not good. But Cam settled down, caught and passed Vialle (the guy who is second to him in the points) and all in all, made the most of a bad start. Those old freak out Cam “Wackers” McAdoo mistakes of the past all seem to be gone now. Just solid, steady and fast riding by Cam nowadays.
2
Number of wins for Tom Vialle in this series and although he probably wasn’t happy with his third on the night, he’s come a long way in one season indoors. And hey, he can def still win this thing and then, what, would you say he’s not in the mix of 3-4 riders that can win the outdoor title? Tom Vialle in his second year of USA racing could be a double title winner. (Shrugs) He’s good bro!
1
Stuck throttle for Max Anstie out there in the main event. Mad Max took home a fifth after he fixed the issue, but can you imagine riding out there thinking that at any point, your throttle could stick again? Yeah, not fun. Anyways, Anstie was a force all day in topping both qualifying sessions and easily won his heat. Things looked up for the Brit but then, a so-so start and that issue held him back. Oh, what could have been for the Honda rider. Could we be looking at a return to Star Yamaha for Anstie in 2025?
5-5-5-4-4-4
I mean, I would be a real jerk to sit here and say that Pierce Brown’s season hasn’t been good due to the lack of podiums. Look at that consistency. The one thing that Pierce hasn’t had in his young career is consistency and now he’s got that. Soooooo, yeah I’m not going to be that guy and say “I can’t believe that Tom Vialle, with limited SX experience, is better than PB in his second year” … nope, not going to be that guy. All hail Mr. Consistency!
8.14
Benny Bloss had a bike issue in the heat and had to go to the LCQ where he had, checks notes, LAST pick on the gate. That’s not good. But Benji is a great rider, and he pulled a good start out of that and took off for the win even beating factory Yamaha’s Justin Cooper. That time above is his best time in the segment with the whoops where he went by Devin Simonson, amongst others, like they had an anchor tied to them. [Actually, Devin told me he didn't get passed by Benny in the whoops but he did lose about 10 bike lengths to him in the whoops!] Benny was .5 quicker than Cooper in that whoop segment which, in an 8 second segment, is a lot. Bloss looked like what I would imagine Jesus would look like if he could blitz whoops in the LCQ.
13.84
Shane McElrath’s average start through the first 13 starts of the year.
5.4
Shane McElrath’s average starts the last five races, and he pulled it again in Foxborough. I don’t know what they found, if anything, but Shane’s riding better here late in the series and has reached a new level. He got landed on by Justin Hill in the main and was forced to pull off but should be okay. Shane’s been trying to get inside the top ten (in a non mud race) and I say he does it before the end of the series.
6
The number of positions that Kyle Chisholm outperforms his qualifying position by, the highest amongst the full-time 450SX riders. This shouldn’t be that newsy, Chiz is old AF and needs to get his blood flowing so probably takes him hours to do that. When the lights come on though, the #11 gets it done. Although he’s got an ugly ankle injury that’s been holding him back lately.
1
Number of heat race wins for Chance Hymas in his career now that he got one in Foxborough. He didn’t get the start he needed to in the main event so that didn’t go well but everyone needs building blocks, I assume, and this was one of them as he rode great to get it done. He's had speed here and there but hasn't turned it into a result in the main yet.
Thanks for reading OBS, this weekend in Nashville with the showdown is going to be epic and of course the 450SX class is, well, absolutely nutty. Email me at matthes@racerxonline.com to talk about this race or whatever else.
