Saturday Night Live: Hangtown

So, who holds the lead now? That would be Chase Sexton, who turned in a perfect, 1-1 performance on the day. But it wasn’t just any 1-1; Sexton had to do it the hard way. Actually, he did it the excruciatingly arduous way. After taking a while to find his speed in the first moto, Sexton had to come through Jason Anderson, then Hunter Lawrence, which, considering how far ahead Lawrence was, was impressive on its own. But in the second moto, the Red Bull KTM pilot wasn’t just next level, he was on another planet. He went down just a few turns into the second moto and remounted in last. As in, dead last. All of a sudden his brilliant day had taken on a salvage title. Or had it?

As the race wore on it became obvious Sexton was operating on a miraculous level, and when he got up to sixth with a little more than half the race remaining, he could have cruised in and rightfully felt good about his effort and progress. After all, Anderson was quite a ways ahead in fifth, and there was no way Sexton was going to catch him, right? Wrong. Sexton caught and passed Anderson, then Jett Lawrence (who was fading), then, on lap thirteen of seventeen, he zapped Hunter Lawrence. That was good enough to give Sexton the overall, but Sexton kept charging, picking off Justin Cooper next. With just two laps remaining the only rider ahead of Sexton was Aaron Plessinger, who’d led every single lap and had a good six seconds on Sexton. As great as Sexton was riding, erasing that gap, and making the pass just didn’t seem possible. At all. But it was! Sexton put in the charge of his life, and with three turns remaining in the moto, snuck by Plessinger and brought it in for the win. It was one of the greatest performances of Sexton’s entire career, and afterward, he knew he’d done something special, although he was quick to point out he felt like an idiot after crashing early in the second moto.

“It was the dumbest thing I could have done,” Sexton said of his crash. “I slid out all by myself, which made it even worse. But it was one of the best races I’ve ever had. I knew I had to send it to get back to where I needed to be. I had a few hairy moments down the hills, probably like two, so those get you back into the realization of what’s going on. I was just really comfortable with my bike today, even though my starts are still pretty bad. We got the bike working really well and I was able to really push to my limit. I haven’t really gotten that in the last year, and I was happy about that. I was bummed to see Jett go down, that’s not how you want to beat somebody. This track was really gnarly, he’ll be back.”

As brilliant as Sexton was, Hunter Lawrence and Aaron Plessinger deserve a ton of credit for the rides they put in today. In just his second Pro Motocross race on a 450, Lawrence led 14 laps and went 2-4 for second overall. That’s incredible, although he didn't hesitate to point out where he was having a hard time in the postrace press conference.

“Ultimately, just not being as fast as Chase [Sexton], that’s where it got away from me,” Lawrence said in the postrace press conference. “It was a tough day. Normally downhills have been a strength over my whole career, but we kind of sucked on them today, to be honest. But what can you do other than go back and keep working? All I can do is come in and give the best Hunter Lawrence I can for thirty minutes. If it’s sixth, then it’s sixth. If it’s first then it’s first. You always keep working. Chase went 1-1 today, and I’m sure he’s going to keep working during the week.”

Lawrence also commented on what it’s like seeing his brother [Jett] go down hard right in front of you.

“I had about five seconds to get all the vocabulary out of my system that I needed to. It obviously sucks, that’s my blood out there, and seeing him go down like that, then lay on the ground, it’s shitty man. That’s my little brother. I’m big brother first, and it sucks. It just sucks.”

Plessinger was great too, leading every single lap of the second moto, except for the last, and most important one. Later Plessinger said he didn’t even know Sexton was catching him as quickly as he was until the two-lap board came out.

“Two laps to go I still had, I think, like six seconds on him,” Plessinger said. “The last lap, I knew he was getting close. I tried to do everything I could to hold him off, but he rode really, really good. I rode really good too, but he was just riding that much better.”

In the 250 ranks, it was a bit of a weird day for Haiden Deegan. The Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha rider won the first moto, in which he didn’t get a good start and had to overcome a 13-second (ish) gap to pass Levi Kitchen and Chance Hymas, but then took second to Tom Vialle in the second moto after getting the holeshot and leading most of the race! Deegan, in his words, was “sending it and hit a kicker,” which resulted in an ejection that sent Deegan spinning through the air like a helicopter rotor. Somehow he didn’t get hurt and was able to remount and bring it in for second via 2-1 finishes for his second straight overall win of the day.

“I grew up on trampolines, so when I get in the air I kind of know where I’m at,” Deegan said afterward in reference to his scary crash. “I came out of it safe, and all I could think about was getting back to the bike. I knew we had a bit of a gap on Levi [Kitchen], but I knew he was coming and I knew I had to get back to my bike to preserve the overall.”

Deegan also commented on the tremendous charge he put in to win the first moto.

“Coming from the back, everyone is pretty frisky in this class. It’s hard to get through the pack, but I found some good lines where I could make passes each lap and stuck to them and slowly picked them off.”

Even though Deegan crashed away the lead in the second moto, there’s a very strong chance Vialle would have made the pass anyway. The Red Bull KTM rider was on fire in the second moto and was catching Deegan fast after finishing fourth in the first moto. Afterward Vialle credited a change with the shock with his improved performance in the second moto.

“I was pretty pissed off after the first moto, to be honest,” Vialle admitted in the post-race press conference. “I was struggling with the bike. There was something with the shock. I couldn’t keep my rhythm, and we made some changes for the second moto and I was pretty happy. I’m excited for the next race, the bike is pretty good. We have many races left, and we’re going to move to the east coast, where the tracks will be different. I’m really happy with the shock, we had a great second moto, and I’m looking forward to the next races.”

Rounding out the podium was Levi Kitchen, who went 3-3 on the day. The Monster Energy Pro Circuit rider was good at Hangtown, but he wasn’t quite as good as he could have been, and you could tell he wasn’t quite performing at 100 percent. Afterward he cited a lack of comfort as the reason he wasn’t able to fight for moto wins at Hangtown.

“I started off really slow in qualifying, but I felt like I found a better flow in the motos,” said Kitchen, who qualified 13^th-fastest. “I was happy with my starts, you just have to be up there. Overall I was a bit off the pace, but as far as points go, it wasn’t a bad day for me. The bike was fairly good. We made some changes between practice and the motos, and went more in that direction for the second moto. I need to get a little better at hanging it out. The tracks have been really fast. I need to open it up a little bit more and use more of those outsides. I’ll probably work more on that this week.”

Elsewhere in the 250 Class, Casey Cochran was extremely fast in practice and got some attention by qualifying fastest. He went 12-12 for tenth overall. Jordon Smith and Joey Savatgy both had good rides going in the first moto, but both DNF’d due to mechanical problems. Smith went 32-6 for 13^th overall, and Savatgy went 35-7 for 14^th overall. Big shoutout to Chance Hymas, who was absolutely brilliant in the first moto, leading 14 laps before surrendering to Deegan’s onslaught. Hymas went 2-4, tying for third place with Kitchen, but took home fourth because Kitchen had the superior, tie-breaking second moto.