Just one round to go in the 2024 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship and it’s looking very good for Jett Lawrence to wrap up a 450SX title in his rookie season. Yes, we’re here already and it might be something we’re all going to have to get used to.
But first, Denver and all that it brought!
We held our Yamaha LCQ Race again on Friday and thanks to the Feld Motor Sports guys for letting me do it for the third year in a row. Good times! We raised over 130K for the 22 riders and mechanics in the race and I think the format was great. We did one gate drop and 5 minutes, plus a lap followed by a staggered start with last place up front and first at the back for five more minutes. Yup, you win the first race and you start last in the second race! It provided some chaos for sure and in the end, Josh Hill won almost 25K for his 2-10 finishes in the two motos.
Pretty cool deal, especially when Creed’s, “My Sacrifice” began playing over the stadium speakers whilst the riders picked their gates. Might’ve been my request and might’ve been the coolest moment of 2024, to be honest.
We touched on this on the race review show, but I’m not sure what’s been going on with a lot of the tracks this year. I’ve asked if the lack of the over/under bridge hurts the designs, and I was told no. I was told that there isn’t a problem with a lack of dirt. Dirt and bridges are expensive and can be a reason why we see so many tracks with 90-degree turns in them, and then flat turns after whoops, for example.
You can’t pass in flat turns and 90-degree turns. It doesn’t make for good racing. Again, I was told bridges wouldn’t get rid of 90’s in designs, and there’s plenty of dirt. So why in the heck wouldn’t they have a berm built after a whoop section? We have to watch riders jump the nine whoops (reduced to nine this year for safety reasons) and then turn on the inside, and even if the rider on the left is blitzing, there’s zero reward for that because of no berm and no place to carry that speed or pass.
We’re somehow stuck with three and five footers only, triples that were 67 feet in 2000 and still, with the more powerful bikes now, 67 feet. I would ask why we even have triples on the tracks at this point? Why not some four-footers followed by a nine-footer “wedge” jump or a two-footer onto a five-footer? I don’t know, I’m just shooting from the hip here, but we seem to see the exact same lanes each week, with 90-degree turns in them, nine whoops and a triple. Justin Brayton had a good point on the PulpMX Show Monday when he said that maybe they need the 90 degree turns to lengthen the lap times. If you did lanes with 180’s in them, the guys go three in/four/three and are out of the lane too quickly? The tracks are not holding up with these four-strokes as it is so, shorter lap times = more time on the track and more degradation.
Look, this isn’t just me sitting up in the press box and yelling at clouds. This is what I hear from so many riders week in and week out. You can’t take everything you hear from riders as gospel, they’re sometimes incredibly biased to how their night/season is going, but I hear it too much to just ignore it. You can’t build a perfect track, it’s hard, and the guys from SMX track crew are good guys, but things seem to be a bit stale and when you add in the new safety measures of nine whoops built by a loader and no dragon-backs, you’re going to get some crusty riders.
It must’ve been so cool for Darren Lawrence to watch the 450SX main event. His two sons, Hunter leading and Jett in second, against the best riders in the world. Jett, as we all know, would go on to win his eighth race of the year and almost clinch the 450SX title, while Hunter would finish second. His rookie 450SX year has been slowly improving with a heat win, pole position, and in Denver, his second podium of the year.
We had Darren (dad) on the PulpMX Show Monday, and he talked about how cool it was, and also gave us a bit of the backstory of getting to the USA through the MXGP’s in Europe. Selling stuff in Australia to make it to Europe, how Ken Roczen’s dad (?!?) helped them a ton by getting them a camper, and more. I don’t have kids but if my Bassett hounds went 1-2 in one of those Westminster Dog Championship things, I can't imagine the pride I would have. Now take that and ramp it up by a 1000 and I’m sure that’s how Darren and wife, Emma, feel.
As far as Jett, it did look to me like:
A – He was perfectly happy to cruise behind Hunter and let older brother win his first 450SX race.
B – He could only go so fast on the tricky dirt of Denver and was biding his time.
C – He decided that with Jason Anderson closing up, it was time to get past Hunter and get the win and more importantly, three more points on Cooper Webb for the title.
It was probably a little bit of all three I would guess. I could see him getting another win this weekend in SLC VERY easily, which would leave him one win off of Jeremy McGrath's all-time rookie season win total (Jeremy won 10, Jett currently has eight.)
As far as Hunter, he’s checking the boxes here along his rookie season, and led the most laps he has this year. From a DNQ at the opener to a runner-up spot, it’s been a good season for the older brother, who judging by Darren’s talk on Monday night, SX did not come easy for.
I wrote last week that Anderson’s recent resurgence in 450SX has a direct correlation to the tracks getting harder packed and the weather being less inclement lately. The Kawasaki guys agreed with me, and we saw it again this week with #21’s strong ride to get third in the main for his second-straight podium.
Eli Tomac winning Denver SX just one year after losing a sure title in Denver due to a ruptured Achilles tendon would’ve been awesome. And it was on the table—ET had been riding better lately, he’s great on the hardpack, and in front of his home fans, I mean, hey what kind of jerk would I be for not wishing to see this? It would be the ultimate redemption! And when he got into third in the main, it looked like it could be possible, except the best rider in the series was ahead of him. Someone who’s shown to be virtually impossible to just catch and pass. So, yeah, that was tough. And then ET fell. So that was all she wrote there, and I think he fell again later, plus he apparently had hurt his thumb earlier in the day. Not the hometown return Eli wanted, that’s for sure. I still think he could win this weekend though, he’s been unbelievable in SLC over the years.
Well Cooper Webb admitted that he’s been battling a thumb ligament issue for a few weeks and that’s why the wind has been out of his sails a bit. Yes, he and Tomac ended the night with thumb problems but Webb has been dealing with his for a bit, apparently since Birmingham. I noticed his left grip had like a ring on it this weekend. Like a lock-on grip almost? I asked Alex, his mechanic, and he told me it was to keep the grip from stretching out? I don’t know man, weird deal there and maybe Peanut is telling me the truth.
Either way, Webb’s been dealing with this and it’s a shame, really. I suspect the injury will keep him out of some motocross this summer as well, although I’ve heard it doesn’t require surgery.
Levi Kitchen/RJ Hampshire- who you got? In a real boon for the series, Kitchen finished as the runner-up in Denver and in the process, tied Hampshire (who got third) in the points with just the showdown to go this weekend. THIS IS GONNA BE GREAT!
Let’s break down on why each rider “deserves” the title from the point of view of the fans of each guy yeah?
Levi’s got three wins, and without that completely-not-his-fault crash in Nashville, Kitch would have the points lead and he’d be cruising this thing home. He’s the best rider in the series.
RJ’s got three wins and dominated the showdown in Nashville, which was best versus best. He’s the best rider in the series.
Levi appears to be at a new level this year. He’s “next” you know? He seems to be ready to be a guy in 450’s at this point.
RJ’s old AF, he’s been trying to win this title for, checks notes, NINE YEARS. He’s got a kid for Pete’s sake! Levi will win a title at some point. RIGHT NOW IT’S RJ’S TURN!
Mitch Payton at Pro Circuit needs a title badly. He needs this like George Santos needs any kind of good PR at this point.
So, as you can see, both riders can make a legit claim to be champion of this series. Hampshire told me that it sucks he likes Kitchen so much, he wished he hated him, and it would make it easier to perhaps send it into the side of Kitchen’s bike at some point.
As far as my opinion, with a stacked field this weekend, the easy track, hard-packed dirt, I pick whoever gets a better start than the other guy to win the title. Honestly, flip a coin at this point, they’re that close.
Hey, stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Jo Shimoda is completely out of title contention and he’s riding a lot better lately! He podiumed last time he raced and in Denver he holeshot and took the wire-to-wire win! Great work by Shimoda but he’s certainly not helping out his reputation that’s been well-earned. Maybe next year he can win the title!
Some other news and notes:
Justin Barcia’s been much better lately, and I heard he’s got the KYB inserts in his bike like Sexton showed up with at Daytona. Got to be a bit refreshing for Bam Bam that he can still be somewhat competitive when he’s happier with his bike. Motocross sleeper Justin Barcia? Hmmmmmm…
Poor Chase Sexton. He crashed in the first turn this weekend after ALMOST qualifying quickest and then ripped through the pack like the old Sexton. Mayyyybeeee could’ve gotten to third but lost the front end again. It’s been that kind of year for Chase, and it appears that “it” is going to continue to happen for all 17 rounds of SX this year.
Just one more race for Adam Cianciarulo. It’s got to be weird to go to the practice track this week, a place where he’s been going for years, and know that it’s for the last time, right? Adam’s ENTIRE life that he knows has been either A, practicing to get better, B, waiting to heal up to start practicing to get better, or C, actually racing his dirt bike. I can’t imagine the emotions he’s going to have this Saturday night.
I don’t know why Nate Thrasher tried to clean out Hampshire early in the main event. Maybe RJ owes him some money or something, but it was not cool in my eyes and RJ was upset after the race. Weird deal. Hard hit also!
Ryder D is a great kid and I know he’s a rookie so it’s not like I’m freaking out on his results this year, but he’s like that piece of pizza that’s been on your counter for a week. Like, it looks as good as new, seems like it would be tasty but when you eat it, you realize that was a bad idea. Ryder D looks so good on the bike (average qualifying is 7.7) and he’s fast! But the results (average finish is 13) just haven’t been there in his first season, thanks to lots of mistakes and crashes. I think he’ll figure it out, he seems to have all the tools one needs to do well, but I think he should be doing better.
Weege [Jason Weigandt] was in studio this week and as usual, had a brilliant theory when it comes to our guy Phil Nicoletti. Phil’s been racing for 40 years and knows that he doesn’t have the qualifying speed of other riders, but he generally pulls it through in the main event. Yet here we are, every single week, listening to Phil on suicide watch after qualifying. He talks about how he sucks, how his team wasted gas money sending him to the race and then he goes out and gets a solid sixth in the main like this week. Why can’t Phil just understand who he is. He's better in the races than in practice. That is what he does, so he doesn't have to act like he wants to hang himself after practice. Every. Single. Week. I don’t get it.
To this I might add, I’m really gonna miss Phil next year out there. So many jokes that are not going to made at his expense. SAD.
Chiz has not Chizzed for two races in a row and I don’t want to live in a world where Chiz doesn’t Chiz.
Talon Hawkins and Lux Turner on the AEO KTM team both had maybe their best races of the season. Good for them and the team, right? I mean, the west coast guys have not had many great tracks this year due to the weather, so you have to sort of look at their results with that in mind.
Thanks for reading OBS! Email me at matthes@racerxonline.com if you want to chat about this race or whatever else. ONE MORE!
