Wow, the Nashville Supercross, like last year, provided us with some real talking points, and not all of them good. Like last year, the dirt that rutted up in the a.m. and then kind of stayed that way for the rest of the day, proved to be a challenge for some riders. We had some serious crashes again, so I’m guessing Nissan Stadium is built on some sort of Indian burial ground?
The less said about the track design the better, I think. It wasn’t good, we had singles to nowhere, we had a weirdo bend in the turn before the whoops, we had a flat turn after the whoops and yeah, we all have bad days. The track designers had a bad day in Nashville. Moving on…
Three nutty things happened at the race and here’s my personal ranking of the three, ICYW.
#1 | Mitch Payton’s two red-plate holders crashing into each other and both getting hurt, including one pulling out of the race.
#2 | Ken Roczen answering the question of, “What would happen if I had zero oil in my shock and I tried to hit a set of whoops?”
#3 | Chase Sexton’s bike malfunctioning (not sure I buy the very hurried, “A rock broke the throttle body and it stuck,” explanation but something happened) and him almost looping out onto a single jump and weeding himself.
Hence the burial comment up above. Man, it got nutty, and it sounds like out of the four riders who were hurt above, Ken Roczen broke his tibia plateau, foot, and toe, while Cameron McAdoo goes for an MRI this week to determine the extent of his injury and if it will keep him out of racing. Sexton seems to be okay and you'd think Kitchen will be back for Denver next weekend, but even he had to go to the hospital after the race. Indian burial ground!
Gotta feel for Matt Andruk, the guy who owns Active Ride Suspension and does the suspension for Roczen’s HEP Suzuki team. Kenny's shock had three hours on it, fresh oil for that day, and it appears the bladder reservoir just blew out. I’m sure Showa will be inspecting everything they can to see what happened, but that’s a weird one for sure.
In 1988 I did the same thing on my KX80, but I was also about 6 feet tall and 200 pounds. It was the last time I rode an 80 as well. So yeah, as he posted, Roczen will be out for the rest of SX it appears, which sucks but in saying that he almost got lucky, right? Also, before that happened, Roczen was on it wasn’t he? Good ol’Ken and his early-race sprint-speed. He can certainly let it loose when he has to.
And Sexton, wow that was a hard hit he took. Chase was hoping, after coming off his self-proclaimed best ride of the year in Foxborough, to use the second half of this season to get some momentum back but that didn’t happen. I think he’ll be okay but man that’s no fun. As I said before, watching video of Sexton right before the crash, I’m not sure his throttle stuck (or if it did, it was just for a second before the take-off), but something happened with electronics or throttle cable or… I don’t know.
Well, the Australian Honda kid really showed us what’s up, huh? Breaking a three-race winless drought, Jett Lawrence really put on a clinic in Nashville with calm, steady, and FAST riding. He seemed to have no panic level when Eli Tomac and Roczen sprinted away from him in the opening laps. Nope, around lap four he figured out the sand, soon he figured out tripling before the whoops and bingo, bango, he was all over Tomac for the lead. Some lappers that crashed together helped things out a bit, but Jett squeaked by and was gone. Second half of the race he put eight seconds on Tomac and double digits on Webb for his sixth win of the season, and now he’s five points up on Webb with three races to go. Looking good Jettson, looking good.
Eli Tomac is back. After not telling us that he was dealing with a sprained ankle after Daytona, Tomac was finally back to 100 percent and won St Louis. Then he rode well in Foxboroughugh most of the day except for the main. Now he was back again with the holeshot and leading laps in Nashville. Yes, the kid got him, but this was a still a good race for Tomac, who I hear is doing MX this summer and also is talking about racing in 2025. We all thought Tomac was done but he’s BACK!!!
Also, BTW, Denver and Salt Lake City are two great tracks for ET3, and he should be very fast there.
I think Cooper Webb should be okay with his third place. One week after a great ride in Foxborough, the #2 started strong but fell off the pace of Tomac and Roczen and then of course The Jett . He never tripled before the whoops, and maybe some of the voodoo of Nashville last year was lingering. Also, more likely, the harder packed dirt isn’t his thing. Coop thrives when the track requires quick thinking and is rutty AF. The nastier a track is, the better for Webb. Also, BTW, Denver and Salt Lake City are not going to be great tracks for Webb to try and get the red plate back.
I know the Honda guys weren’t too stoked on Jason Anderson’s pass on Hunter Lawrence in the turn after the whoops, and I can’t blame them, as any pass that ends up with one rider on the ground and one riding away tends to raise emotions. But I watched the video and Hunter jumped the whoops while Jason blitzed. Jason got alongside him, snuck by the inside and then sort of…kept riding. I mean, if you’re Anderson you’re like, “Yeah I couldn’t stop for the turn due to my speed in the whoops, and speaking of whoops, (WH)OOPS, I had to take Hunter wide.” And if you’re Hunter you’re like, “Hey man, the inside of the corner is five feet over there.” I don’t know, didn’t seem like much to be that mad at Jason for. That’s sort of what he does and as Lars Lindstrom said in the Honda PR, Anderson is the “the Picasso of racing incidents.”
On top of that, Anderson was back this week and much better than he’s been, which has to make the Kawasaki guys happy. Anderson is better on the harder stuff so, yeah, see above.
After getting knocked down, Hunter rode very well to get back into the top ten. There’s not a lot on this track that separates the riders, so for Hunter to do what he did after dusting himself off was great.
Justin Barcia had his best race since his podium in the mud in San Diego. I know the team’s been working with him hard to get his bike where he wants it to be. I hear there are still issues with it but hey, a fifth is a fifth, right? Yes, he was helped by the #1 and the #94 crashing out, but Bam and TLD will take it.
Benny Bloss is a Beta man seemingly each week. The dude can ride a dirt bike, I’ll tell you.
Josh Hill’s main event was very good for him but bad for his Yamaha LCQ Challenge points.
250SX East/West Showdowns rule. They’re awesome and we should have more of them. But if I was a rider in the points lead or a team owner with a rider in the points lead, I would hate them. Too many variables and things that could go wrong at Showdowns. But at the end of the day, we’re here to be entertainment for fans. There are too many choices out there in terms of what to watch/be interested in to completely ignore the fact that fans want drama. They want something to talk about and they want to be captivated by whatever is going on with your sport. So, in Nashville, we had our first of two showdowns of the year and wow, that was a bit nutty. We saw two new points leaders and one veteran make a stand.
RJ Hampshire’s day turned on whatever the hell happened after the first qualifying session. He was .5 behind the leader, in fifth place overall in his group after the first session. Second time he went out, Hampshire was almost a second better than anyone else! In his heat he came from sixth after lap one to win the thing, and then in the main, he took off and led every lap in a dominating win.
I don’t know if they put nitro in his airbox or if he sacrificed a chicken to the SX gods or what, but everything changed for Hampshire in that final qualifying session.It was quite a performance for RJ, a rider who seemed to have been passed by the next hot kid (Levi Kitchen). He’s only two points up with two races to go so anything can happen still, but man, talk about a clutch ride.
1-RJ Hampshire 166
2- Levi Kitchen 164
Going to be a banger two races to go here!
Mitch Payton’s Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki team hasn’t won a 250SX title since 2017 when Justin Hill brought home the west title. It’s not for a lack of trying though, and when you ask Mitch about this title-less drought, he’ll talk about injuries to his riders who were near the points lead. Well, he must really be frustrated after this weekend. He came in with a pair of red plates and left with none.
And to make it worse, as I pointed out above, McAdoo drifted over into Levi Kitchen and took them both down. McAdoo pulled out due to a shoulder injury, initially suffered in qualifying, making it impossible to carry on while Kitchen had to come from way back down to salvage some points.
It’s amazingly bad luck for Payton, a man whose entire life and brand is based on winning. Heck, don’t forget Austin Forkner getting injured yet again while leading the points on the east earlier this year. Also, BTW, he lost the rider who doesn’t get hurt (Jo Shimoda) to Honda.
It doesn’t sound like Kitchen will be out for any length of time and after all of the stuff that happened. McAdoo…well that might be another story after he gets his MRI done.
Tom Vialle is probably a bit underrated by the fans and media. We talked about his rapid emergence on the PulpMX Show last week. This is a dude who didn’t have a lot of SX experience and in year two, is winning races and now, thanks to McAdoo’s boo-boo and his great ride to get third, is in the points lead with two races to go. Vialle took control of his off-track training and riding schedule for this year in departing the Aldon Baker program to do things more by himself. Tom wasn’t about the “sharing” aspect of Baker’s program, so while he does still ride there, he does his own thing. I was surprised that KTM let a youngster do this but hey, it’s working. Tom’s going to be one of four or five riders who could win the outdoor title, and he’s got a thirteen-point lead over Haiden Deegan. I could see Tom not winning either of the last two races but he’s so solid, he’ll be on the podium and win the title. You could see with the hard pack dirt of Nashville, he was much more at home right from the start.
Deegan looked to be one of the guys, like Hampshire, who could turn around a big points deficit and make things happen. But just like in Foxborough, he made a mistake in the heat and this time he went down. So that left him with not a great gate pick and from there, because I wasn’t there, I assume he got a terrible start and, on this track, had to really work hard to get up to sixth. They were talking on the broadcast about how his team and people have been working with him to try and limit the mistakes whether it’s in practice, heats, or mains. Most of his issues are the result of aggression and he’ll figure that out but for now, mistakes are costing him. He's 13 points down with two races to go. Vialle better be ready for all sorts of shenanigans out there in practice, or in the races.
Shimoda’s really coming on here late in the series with the championship out of reach. He’ll be a title contender in 2025 for sure! All joking aside, Jo’s been better lately but yeah, the “people” out there who talk about Jo not being able to handle pressure are proving to be right again. Once he's out of contention, he begins to put it together. Seems crazy but Jo’s got only one 250SX win to his name so far.
I don’t get Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing and how they can have that roster of riders. Never mind the money for the salaries, what about the parts budget/availability? They also announced they signed Michael Mosiman to a multi-year deal? Mosiman’s hurt again and won’t be back until MX, but of the riders who were there, Nick Romano missed the main and has really struggled in SX this year. Nate Thrasher again continues to sort of underwhelm, except for the race he won because that’s what Nate Thrasher does. Deegan, Thrasher, Daxton Bennick- they’re all safe. They still have Enzo Lopes on the team as far as I know, and he’s supposed to race next year? They may have Max Anstie signed? Gavin Towers is one of their amateur kids, but most people think he hasn’t done enough to keep that ride.
Jalek Swoll has been having a nice season. I was talking to someone about it and his fifth this weekend is a good showing for sure. But all season long, I’ve felt like he’s been about the same as on his factory Husky which, considering he’s on a brand new dirt bike, is solid.
Shoutout to the two privateers who made the Showdown, Gage Linville and Henry Miller. Great work guys! I don’t know what you want to call the ClubMX guys, I guess they’re privateers also, but they just feel different than Miller and Linville, right?
Thanks for reading OBS, we all appreciate it here! Email me at matthes@racerxonline.com if you want to chat about this race or something else. We’re onto Philly!
