Saturday Night Live: St. Louis

Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing's Cooper Webb earned second overall with 5-6-2 race finishes, although he too was docked two positions in the second race. Jett Lawrence, Webb, Chase Sexton, and Aaron Plessinger were all docked two positions each while Jason Anderson was docked four positions. Yes, five total riders were docked in the second 450SX race alone, all for the same incident.

According to the AMA Director of Racing (race official) Mike Pelletier, the Triple Crown rule of jumping on a red cross flag is two positions per violation. Note, this is different from a standard format rule, which are penalized in championship points, not positions. Pelletier stated on the broadcast the first four riders docked each only jumped on the red cross flag on one lap, whereas Anderson jumped while the red cross flag was shown on both the white flag lap and the checkered flag lap, hence his docking of four positions.

“It was a crazy night,” Webb said. “The first two didn't go my way—the second one, especially. I was running a good spot, fell over, and just…these Triple Crowns, you never know what can happen, and that's what the team just told me, is, ‘Don't give up. Go in there in this last one and give it your all.’ And it worked out. You know obviously I don't know what happened to anybody yet, but I just know me, and Eli were out front—me, him and Chase— and we were in the clear. Just felt great to ride. I rode really well in that last one. Eli was really clicking his laps and made the pass on Chase, which was great. And I got to second and we started clicking some good laps there at the end but, you know, a second place is good tonight. I'll take it, especially after the first two [Races]. To win this Triple Crown championship’s all new, so it's pretty cool. Hopefully we keep the ball rolling.”

Webb entered the day down 16 points on Jett Lawrence but leaves down single digits, only eight behind.

“It keeps you more hopeful,” Webb said on the points he gained on the #18. “Single digits is huge for me, to be completely honest.”

Read more about Jett Lawrence's night, which included a penalty and an accidental takeout from Justin Barcia off the start of the third race.

Honda HRC's Hunter Lawrence earned his first career 450SX podium with 8-2-4 race finishes. Even with the setback of his injury at the Daytona SX (he’s dealing with a broken shoulder blade), the #96 has put together some strong results lately and is building. Picking up a heat race win last weekend in the PNW, and now his first podium this weekend, the 450SX rookie is improving.

“Man, it's awesome,” said Hunter Lawrence. “We had a little bit of an upgrade, I'd say, from the second moto to the third one with the red cross flag [penalty on other riders]. But hey, I've been on the bad end of that deal many a time, so we'll take it. That was a pretty good feeling. I’m bummed to not have Jett up here with me. We all saw what happened, that sucks, but, yeah, I’m honored to be sharing the podium with Tomac and Webb. You know, I watched these guys racing on this stage when I was still in Australia as a kid, so it's pretty cool. We'll take it, try and build, and we'll try and get a really legitimized one next time we're back [after the break].”

Check out our post-race interviews by Tom Journet. Journet caught up to Landon Gibson, Aaron Plessinger, Julien Beaumer, Garrett Marchbanks, Benny Bloss, Hunter Yoder, and Devin Simonson.

In the West Region 250SX Class, Levi Kitchen dominated the sixth round Seattle SX and followed up his previous round’s success with another win in Missouri. The Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki rider was nearly picture-perfect throughout the night as finished 1-1-1 to sweep the overall win.

“That was insane,” said Kitchen on sweeping the 250SX Triple Crown overall. “I mean, I'm pretty speechless right now. That was for Austin Forkner back home. I hope he's healing up good. I know he's the only other one to do that, so yeah man, that was sick. Three good starts and then going into the last race—those lappers, I actually came together pretty bad with one right before the triple. And I if I would have missed the triple, RJ would have been right on me. So I had to send it—I still made it somehow. All in all though, man, what a day! Carrying the momentum from Seattle and I’m in a really good spot. I feel really good on the bike. Thanks to the whole Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki team, all my friends and family… This is pretty surreal so I'm going to soak this one in.”

Kitchen entered with an eight-point gap on RJ Hampshire and a 21-point gap on Jordon Smith in the championship. But now, Kitchen leaves the seventh round with a 15-point gap on Hampshire and a 26-point gap on Smith. Only three rounds remain in the 250SX West Region Championship: the Nashville SX East/West Showdown, the Denver SX, and the Salt Lake City SX East/West Showdown. Kitchen is inching closer to bringing Mitch Payton his first #1 250SX title since Justin Hill's 2017 #1W plate.

Honda HRC's Jo Shimoda fought his way to a second-place overall result with 2-3-3 race finishes. Shimoda had better starts and no crashes, but said he did not have the speed tonight. Still, he landed second overall after consistent podium finishes.

“Honestly that was the main thing for me,” Shimoda said on getting good start. “It's just, like, I just couldn't do it. And then today—three good starts; still not a holeshot or anything like that, but I think once I can get a start I know I can fight with those guys. The track was gnarly. I had a couple of sketchy moments, I think everybody did, but yeah thanks so much to my [team]. We're getting better each week and so it's a good confidence booster and, yeah, [next up is] Nashville [for the 250 West class].” 

Smith rebounded from a tough weekend in Seattle where he crashed hard while in second and eventually finished 14th. He knocked the wind out of himself pretty bad, and was sore all week leading up to the St. Louis round. Still, the veteran managed to finish 3-2-4 for second overall—even on a track he did not gell with all day long.

“Last weekend was tough, man, that crash was gnarly, and throughout the week I was pretty sore,” Smith said. “So, I’m just glad to be here in front of the fans and riding the tough track again. These tracks have been really, really tough this year, and soft, and man it's kind of survival [mode] out there at times… I'm happy to come away with the third. Congrats to Levi, he rode awesome tonight. Man, it's hard to beat a guy that gets three holeshots, you know?… We're going to go back and do our homework with this couple of weeks off and see if we can't come back a little better for these last three. I’d just like to give it up to the whole team… It takes a tribe to be out here, so thank you guys, and we'll be back next week.”

RJ Hampshire, winner of the 2022 St. Louis Supercross Triple Crown overall, finished fourth overall with 4-4-2 finishes. The Husqvarna rider kept Kitchen honest in the third race, but he was too far back in the first two races to land on the podium, which in turn, cost him a spot on the overall podium.

"My riding was pretty good all day, but not my starts," Hampshire said. "4-4-2 is not going to get it done, so we will have a couple of weeks off and focus on the three rounds left [in the western region]. Get out of the gate better and I feel like I could have won tonight, but I didn't execute when it was time to go, and we will be better at Nashville."

In the third SX Futures race qualifying race, Monster Energy Kawasaki Team Green’s Drew Adams took back-to-back wins after his victory at the Daytona SX Futures round. Adams took the win just one day shy of his 16th birthday. Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Landon Gibson finished in second place as Troy Lee Designs GasGas’ Cole Davies took the final podium spot with a late-race pass for the position on Reven Gordon, who had a great start and was leading early on.

“Yeah, it was definitely a pretty bad start, [that’s] on me,” Drew Adams said. “But I just tried to work through [the pack] really good. And I got the triple on the first lap; that was probably the whole race right there. Then I just got up front and just started riding smooth, you know? I didn't have to really do the big lines but just stay smooth, and [make] no mistakes, and it worked out well.”

"It was such a great experience," Gibson said. "I was tense the first two laps, but after that I got into a groove and I feel like I deserve this, so I'm really happy with the result and to finish on the podium."