The Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship returning to Cleveland for the first time in over 30 years brought with it some different vibes. With a lot of the teams expecting the worst with the weather, it actually turned out not too bad. At times, a steady rain, some misty rain, and then some bouts of sunshine as well made for a weird day in Ohio.
Ken Roczen did it again. He came into the final race tied with Justin Cooper for the OA, but there was to be no doubt who was winning it. After a subpar start in race two, Roczen got the holeshot (it was alarming when known poor starter Dean Wilson out-jumped him!) and absolutely dominated the race to win the OA. When the conditions were getting worse, somehow Roczen was getting better. He was even airing out some of the triples when everyone else had stopped. He's on a roll, folks, and it's f***ing cool to see.
Three wins in the last four races for the #94 Suzuki rider, and don't get me started on the bike thing again. Read OBS from two weeks ago for my theory on leaving a dirt bike alone and letting the rider get to know it inside and out.
Well, Hunter Lawrence saw his points lead that he grew last week with a great ride shrink back down after his sixth overall. A tale of three races for HL: great, bad, and worse than bad. The first one saw him take off with the holeshot and then sprint away from Roczen. It was peak Hunter Lawrence and showed he was the guy to beat yet again. Then he didn't get the starts in the next two, looked to me to ride tentatively out there, and made mistakes. The third race was a disaster with two falls, one of them pretty good in the whoops.
The grates were a bit wet for race two, and we wondered if, because Hunter and the Honda HRC Progressive guys have the starts SO dialed, if the wet weather threw their settings a bit out of whack. But then again, you're not going to go to the line with different RPM settings, body positioning, etc., without having done a bunch of starts. So maybe it's better to stick with what you know? But then the tire spins or whatever on the wet grate, and you're not as dialed as usual. Hunter seemed to hint at this in his post-race audio, and we had Lars Lindstrom on the PulpMX Show briefly, and he sort of agreed that having a "wet grate" setup dialed would be something they're going to look at when it comes to this weekend, as we might have weather again.
Yeah, we're one point apart with three to go!
The case for Kenny to win this:
A- He's got momentum right now.
B- Maybe it's a bit preordained that he wins this, veteran guy, one last chance, team manager fighting cancer and away from the team?
C- YELLOW MAGIC!
The case for Hunter to win this:
A- He's been so damn consistent all year long.
B-His starts are better than Kenny's; Hunter's two spots better per average at the white stripe.
C- He's one point up; that IS a lead after all.
Justin Cooper's getting hot at the right time. Some clutch and suspension improvements have helped J-Coop get much better lately. He won his second "race" in Cleveland and made a nice comeback from an early incident in race three to get onto the podium overall. Cooper's contract is up; he's shopping himself hard to some other teams, and to me, Ducati and Triumph are the front runners to get him. I think Yamaha would like to keep him also, but he won't make the kind of money there as he would with the other guys, so I would bet on him being in different colors for 2027.
Also without a contract is his buddy Cooper Webb. Webb rode really well in Cleveland; he was spicy right from the start of the day. A new dad (again), he used that new baby energy to get himself second overall in qualifying. And with better starts, he might've won the thing. He passed three riders in the first race, four in the second, and one in the third to go 5-4-2 on the day and get another podium. And with you know whose DNS, he moved into third in the points as well.
| Position | Rider | Hometown | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Hunter Lawrence | Landsborough, Australia  | 286 |
| 2 |  Ken Roczen | Mattstedt, Germany  | 285 |
| 3 |  Cooper Webb | Newport, NC  | 264 |
| 4 |  Eli Tomac | Cortez, CO | 255 |
| 5 |  Justin Cooper | Cold Spring Harbor, NY | 233 |
There was some sort of transfer of power between Hunter Lawrence and Chase Sexton after the first race. Sexton looked a little ho-hum all day, and in the first race, he got a start like I was on the bike. I don't know how his starts have been so bad, by the way. Anyway, he ho-hummed himself to a seventh in race one, and there we go. More of the same, right? Well, no—races two and three, he was better! He was third overall until late when J-Coop made some passes. Sexton looked like Nashville Sexton for two of the three races, which is the calm, steady, fast Chase Sexton.
But don't be fooled; at no point has he looked like the OLD Chase Sexton out there. Well, maybe San Diego SX, I suppose, which was round two. I talked to a couple of people in the orbit of Sexton, and for most of this year, I know it's not been good for Kawasaki and Sexton; I still had faith they'd all figure it out. Well, after this weekend, after a few things I heard, I am, for the first time, not convinced he makes it through the rest of his three-year contract with Kawasaki. It would be amazing for Chase to bail early, as well as not good for Kawasaki to have a rider get out of a three-year contract after year one (Prado last year, duh) for a second time, but that's where we might be here. MIGHT is the key word; I'm just saying that I'm closer to that line of thinking than ever before.
There's a cowboy out there in the pits who owns a Yamaha team and is not scared to go get what he wants. So, stay tuned...
We had Christian Craig on the PulpMX Show Monday night talking about his season so far. Yes, he admitted that he's bummed that he's not been better. He mentioned that his starts have been okay, but his first laps aren't. Riders are just ripping by him, and he's left wondering what the heck happened. In Cleveland, he was all around his teammates, going forward and backward, it seemed. He didn't finish where he would like; he's got just two top tens this season, but he has made all the rounds after not racing much the last two years due to injuries.
Remember CC's rides in WSX? Yeah, those were a while ago now, but man, some of "us" thought he was going to bring more heat this season than he has.
As far as the 250s, again, there's not a lot to get into with this coast. Cole Davies can clinch this weekend, and he rode conservatively to get on the box.
Nate Thrasher did it again! Death, taxes, and Nate Thrasher winning a 250SX, it's all going to happen. For the sixth year in a row, Nate got on top of the box with some good rides, although he was a bit too casual in the last race, I thought. Nate's been better lately as he's been riding less during the week due to a shoulder injury.
Thrasher's career is pretty remarkable. I had heard that Star told him he's not getting re-signed next year, but when I asked about that to someone there, they said, "Man, it's Star—if he wins, he could be easily signed to a three-year deal," and yup, here we are.
Seth Hammaker is really, really trying hard out there, but he's back to being the "old" version of Seth, where he ends up on the ground a lot. He's had some big ones two weeks in a row; there's no quit in the #10, that's for sure, but right now, he's like a boxer going to lose a decision late in the rounds.
Landon Gordon, in just his second 250SX ever, got second overall! The kid rode great; he was good last week also but crashed on the first lap of the main. I know hindsight is 20/20, but Star maybe should've put him in the east to start? He looks very much the part of another great Star Yamaha 250 rider, although, yes, it's early.
Also, Gordon was a Team Green kid for a long time before getting the call to go to Star. Mitch Payton's squad isn't exactly killing it (Drew Adams broke bones this weekend after getting landed on in his second race back from another injury), and one has to wonder if they're looking at Gordon, thinking they maybe should have done more? I'm not an amateur moto expert, but someone I know is, and they reported back that this ride from Gordon is pretty unexpected and that they didn't think anyone at Team Green was worried Gordon was going to haunt them.
Either way, great work to him and the team for this ride.
Speaking of Star, they brought five riders to Cleveland, and all five made the podium. Pretty remarkable job by those guys, and despite Wil Hahn being there, they excelled.
Some more news and notes:
-As you all saw, Eli Tomac crashed out in qualifying, and after a poor Nashville, his run to a 2026 450SX title is over. He's a tough dude, so you know that his hip was in bad shape for him to not even try to get a fast lap in the second session. He put on social that nothing was broken, just bruised, and so not sure when we'll see him next. Years from now, scholars will still study his month-long drop-off after being the fastest man in the series for the first half.
-Shane McElrath, as we've seen, is a bit of a mudder. This wasn't that, but props to Shane for getting a fifth in the final race of the day. Pretty good finish for him!
-Malcolm Stewart had an okay day, but afterwards, people around him were not stoked with Jorge Prado's riding. As in, swerving around to keep him behind the 26 KTM rider.
-Prado had a bad day. I don't know what was up, but he went straight backwards in race one while looking to me like he was wiping his goggles. The other two weren't very good. Weird, because you would think with the way he's been riding, he would do well in these conditions.
-One week after Justin Hill led laps and almost got on the box in Nashville and then told us on the PulpMX Show it's because the track was dry and he could move around, he went out and got third in the final race because, of course, he did. Was it dry? No. Was it rutty? Yes. Did it matter? No, because he's Justin Hill.
-Tristan Lane most certainly DID NOT like Grant Harlan's pass on him in the one main event because, man, did he ever tee up Harlan in the next turn. So much so, it got him a fine and points deduction from the AMA. Lane is like the nicest dude in the pits, so IDK if Grant owed him money or what.
Thanks for reading OBS. We're onto Philly, where it will be a normal format at the normal time. One point, two riders, three rounds to go! Catch the fever! Email me at matthes@racerxonline.com to chat about this or anything else.
