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Morning Report

After last weekend's race day was cut short due to lightning near zMAX Dragway, we are set for a fresh reset and another day of racing in Missouri. Remember, today's race is double points, so the overall win is 50 total points, second is worth 44 points, third is worth 40 points, and so on. Haiden Deegan leads Jo Shimoda by eight points at the top of the 250SMX Class and Jett Lawrence leads Chase Sexton by nine points in 450SMX. If anyone wants a chance at defeating two-time defending SMX Champions Deegan and Lawrence, today is make or break.

Garrett Marchbanks (250SMX) and Malcolm Stewart (450SMX) will try to ride this weekend after injuries last week in North Carolina. Unfortunately, Julien Beaumer is out after a qualifying crash that resulted in a burst fracture of his L3 vertebra. The Arizona native was released from the hospital earlier this week and is now home recovering. Full injury report for today’s SMX Playoffs 2 round.

Track walk is at 11:30 a.m. local time, then bikes are on track at 12:20 p.m. Watch today's action on Peacock, or if you live outside of the U.S. then check out the SMX Video Pass.

SMX Next World All-Stars Friday

The young riders in the SMX Next World All Stars division got to race yesterday to make up for the race they didn't get to do last weekend in Charlotte. They'll race again today for double points and determine this year's SMX Next World All Stars Champion (SMX Next will not race next weekend in Las Vegas). You can check out the Friday moto below.

If you're rather read than watch, Australian Kayden Minear dominated on Friday, while a good battle behind him brewed with fellow Australian Thomas "Tiger" Wood and (unrelated) Carson Wood. Carson made a late-race pass on Tiger to get to second and make for a Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing 1-2 finish. Diesel Thomas battled with the Woods the whole race for a close fourth ahead of Owen Covell. Pre-race favorite Caden Dudney got into a supercross-style pileup on the first lap when three riders all smashed together on the inside of a bowl turn, and they all went down. Vincent Wey grabbed the holeshot but crashed on the first lap, and Enzo Temmerman was also in the back early and four himself fighting outside the top ten.

Those boys will all be back to race as part of tonight's program.

First Qualifying Session

There are big hitters in 250 Wild Card practice, as Max Anstie and Dax Bennick were rolling on their Yamahas early, Anstie topped the session to set the qualifying bar for the seeded riders to surpass.

Haiden Deegan wasted little time going to the top of the board in 250 seeded practice, but he had fast teammates, with Cole Davies close in second for a spell, and then Nate Trasher blew past everyone to take the top spot. Then Jo Shimoda jumped to second, which is interesting because Shimoda is not normally great in qualifying. Then Shimoda went faster again to take the top spot!

“The track is pretty slippery right now so you almost need to wait for the lines to come in,” said Shimoda.

Jett Lawrence logged the first fast  time in 450 seeded practice but Ken Roczen quickly went to the top of the board. Chase Sexton threw down his first heater but only went to fourth behind Roczen, Lawrence and RJ Hampshire. Roczen is not known as a qualifying specialist these days, but he was on it early! Then the times came down again as Lawrence and Eli Tomac jumped to the top two spots.

Late in the session Malcolm Stewart, already hurting from a big case job on a jump last weekend, went down and got back to his feet slowly. Malcolm is trying to gut this one out for points but he’s going to be in even more pain now. Malcolm did eventually get back up and log one more lap before the session ended. He’s tough.

In the end Lawrence topped the session by just one tenth of a second over Sexton, Tomac, Cooper and Hunter Lawrence rounded out the top five ahead of Roczen, Hampshire, Webb, Savatgy and Barcia.

“Everyone is really close so it’s really all about not making mistakes, the least amount of mistakes you make the better lap you’ll have,” summed up Lawrence.

In 450 Wild Card practice, the Liqui Moly Beta Boys battled, with Mitch Oldenburg leading a lot of the session before teammate Benny Bloss went to the top of the board late. Then Oldenberg fought back to go back to the top again! Dean Wilson jumped ahead of Coty Shock late to get into third. The Wild Card race is full of characters and should be a fun watch this afternoon.  

Injury Updates

Bad news here in St. Louis, as Austin Forkner, who had rallied up to sixth in overall SMX points, dabbed his knee in qualifying and felt enough pain to pull out of tonight's event. He'll have to head in for an evaluation 

Malcolm Stewart was also riding with a bad back after he cased a jump badly in Charlotte practice. He tried to go today but crashed in a corner and got up slowly. He did get up and make another lap, but we now here he's out for tonight.

The good news that Garrett Marchbanks, who went down last week in Charlotte but spent the week in PT trying to rehab his knee, was seventh quickest in the first seeded 250 session. So it looks like, so far, Marchbanks will be able to grind out some points tonight.

Final Qualifyiing

In the final 250 Wild Card session, Dax Bennick jumped to the top, ahead of his teammate Anstie to lead the session. The track is getting faster, too, because Bennick, Anstie and Ty Masterpool were all the top three fastest overall when the session ended.

So it was up to the seeded group to match that pace, but that session got off to a wild beginning with the fake start. A bunch of riders tangled early out of the gate and Max Vohland and Levi Kicthen went down hard. They were both slow to get up, and eventually Vohland hopped into the Alpinestars Medic cart and took a ride back to the pits, holding his arm. Bummer news for Max, who had been consistent all year.

Kitchen was also down for a bit, but when he got back up….he blasted to the top of the lap time board! Kitchen swept the triple crown supercross here in St. Louis last year. He must love this dirt!

Hammaker, Deegan and Vialle were next but the top four were within two tenths of a second. This track is keeping it close, for better or worse.

Last lap and Deegan launched one more heater and got it done! He grabbed the top spot away from Kitchen, 1:12.0 ahead of 1:12.2. How close is it? The top 17 were all within about 1.5 seconds.

in the 450s, the track looked super slick, and guys like Hunter Lawrence and Justin Cooper, who are precise riders, took advantage. Hunter had the top time early, then Cooper took it away. Then it was time for some Jett Lawrence magic, and he showed it by jumping the wall before the sand rollers and making up huge time. Suddenly a track that had kept the pack so close wasn't that case anymore, as Lawrence went well over a second faster than everyone. Then he followed it with another lap that was slightly faster than that, even without jumping the wall!

Late in the session Chase Sexton logged a fast time and might have gone to the top of the board, but at the same moment Jett was going even faster, breaking into the 1:09s. Hunter had one more late fast time and moved to second, making for a Lawrence 1-2. Jett is about six tenths quicker than the field, however, and his second best time is .9 seconds ahead of anyone else's second best.

Wild Card Results

250 Moto 1

In 250 moto 1 Haiden Deegan was able to beat Tom Vialle through the first turn to snag the holeshot. Jo Shimoda quickly got by Vialle to take over second with Seth Hammaker and Ty Masterpool, straight out of the Wild Card race, close behind also getting around Vialle. After about five minutes, Deegan opened up over a five second lead over Jo and riders were starting to spread out except for Masterpool who kept hounding his teammate Hammaker. Further back Nate Thrasher was moving forward around his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Cole Davies and pulled up to the back of Levi Kitchen. Meanwhile up-front Deegan went down with nine minutes to go, though with a nine second lead, he was able to get up still well ahead of Shimoda. Bad news for Tom Vialle when it all started falling apart for him, Kitchen got around him with Thrasher, Davies and Max Anstie following suit. In the end it was Deegan, Shimoda and Hammaker rounding out the podium.

450 Moto 1

In 450 moto 1 Hunter Lawrence pulled the holeshot with Eli Tomac in second, but Ken Roczen who moves quickly on the first lap went around the outside of Eli to make his way into second. Meanwhile points leader Jett Lawrence had a horrible start, only ahead of one other rider coming through the first turn. Jett started making passes quickly but when he got into tenth Justin Barcia raced him as hard as he races anyone. Chase Sexton also had a poor start and ran in seventh at the beginning stages of the race. Sexton eventually inserted himself into a Cooper Webb/Justin Cooper battle, getting around Justin and working on Webb, making the pass for fourth at the halfway point.

Out front Hunter Lawrence had a six second lead over Roczen who kept about a two second lead over Tomac. Further back Jett Lawrence made the same pass around Justin Cooper one lap and then got Webb in the same corner the next lap. He then pulled up right behind Chase Sexton and after following him for a few laps he made the pass in the same turn again where he passed Jcoop and Webb. Once Jett got into fourth, he was still about five seconds behind Tomac, who was closing on Roczen for second. Jett never gave up though and pulled up right behind Tomac on the last lap. It was an intense three-way battle with Roczen getting second, and Tomac just barely beat Jett by half a bike length. With Hunter taking the win, he is sitting in a good position for the over all.

SMX Next World All-Stars

In the SMX World All-Stars race it was Ryder Malinoski with the holeshot with Vincent Wey close behind in second. Kade Johnson made his way around Wey on the first lap with Kayden Minear and Hartz quickly following suit. After a few laps Johnson and Minear pulled right up on the rear tire of Malinoski, but then the two started to battle each other and allowed Malinoski to open it up a 2.5 second lead. Finally, Minear got around Johnson and started to close in on Malinoski even though he did not need to pass to get the championship, as Malinoski crashed off of the start in the first round. In the end it was Malinoski with the end, Minear second, Johnson third, Caden Dudney fourth and Enzo Temmerman in fifth. 

250 Moto 2

In 250 moto 2 it was Tom Vialle with the holeshot, and Jo Shimoda was in second while Haiden Deegan quickly worked his way into third. But then Levi Kitchen tried an inside move on Deegan cutting across multiple ruts and took both him and Deegan out. Deegan remounted but not at the same speed as there seemed to be something wrong with his bike, possibly a broken front brake lever.

Up front Vialle still led with Shimoda, who was so under the weather that he did not do a podium interview when he got second in the first moto, just a couple of seconds behind. Behind Shimoda it was Hammaker, Thrasher and Cole Davies until Davies went down in the sand.

Deegan started to regroup and charged as hard as he could towards the lead pack with a broken bike, but it was proving to be too little too late. Shimoda tried to make a run at Vialle but Tom was running strong upfront. However, with Vialle getting 10^th in the first moto, a 2-2 was good enough for the overall for Shimoda and to take over the SMX points lead. Hammaker’s 3-3 would land him second on the night, and Nate Thrasher in third.

450 Moto 2

In 450 Moto 2 it was Jett Lawrence with the holeshot and Chase Sexton in second with Eli Tomac passing for second in the next turn. On lap two Hunter Lawrence went around Sexton and behind him it was Cooper Webb and Roczen in sixth. Up front Tomac started putting pressure on Jett, keeping the gap under two seconds, but by halfway Jett opened it back up again. Then it was Hunter Lawrence’s turn to put the pressure on Tomac. Further back RJ Hampshire who got seventh in the first moto was moving forward getting around Barcia and Savatgy for seventh. A little excitement near the end, Jett Lawrence got hung up behind lappers and Eli Tomac closed in within a second of Jett, with Hunter right there as well. The three of them were all right there at the end. Meanwhile Chase Sexton who was in fourth the entire moto fell on the last lap and finished tenth. Cooper Webb was able to hold off Roczen for fourth. Hunter's 1-3 was enough for the overall, while Jett keeps the championship lead.