The first of three rounds of Supercross in Dallas was completed on Saturday evening. For the first time since Round Three in Houston, there is a change at the top of the pecking order in the 450 Class, and an upstart rookie took home his first career win in dominating fashion. All of that and more in this roundup.
250 Class:
From the opening 250 Heat Race to the final lap of the main, there wasn’t a single rider who looked better than Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki Rookie Seth Hammaker. He picked up both of his holeshots and led his Heat race and the 250 Main Event from wire to wire with minimal pressure to face for the evening. Hammaker, with his phenomenal result, now puts himself in title contention. He is now only 15 points back of Cam McAdoo, who had a respectable night ending up in third. Honda HRC’s Hunter Lawrence finally put together his breakout performance and got his first career Supercross podium ending up in second place as well.
Justin Cooper of Star Yamaha was able to translate a poor start, along with McAdoo, into a fourth-place result. He had a chance to get McAdoo for third with two corners to go but lost traction trying to go for an aggressive pass and fell. Luckily, he did not lose any additional spots.
Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Jordon Smith would finish last after wrecking on the first jump of a rhythm section on the back half of the track. He looked to have hurt his sternum area. After riding off track, Smith ended up coming back out but ended up finishing three laps down.
A quick shoutout should go to the Rockstar Husky duo of Jalek Swoll and Stilez Robertson. Both had solid nights finishing sixth and seventh respectively. Going into Tuesday, McAdoo will have a six-point cushion over Justin Cooper and a 12-point cushion over Hunter Lawrence in The 250 West Regional.
450 Class:
2 Cooper Webb- Red Bull KTM (1st Place)
Webb now has three wins in his last four Main Events. This win comes where he had his brutal crash where he landed back first on the concrete just a little bit over a year ago. Webb has now turned a two-point deficit to Ken Roczen into a seven-point lead. Webb is not a rider in the vein of Roczen or Tomac where he just beats riders with raw speed and talent. He finds a way to get the job done week after week, and Saturday Night was no different. Webb got out near the point off of the gate drop, then made short work of Dean Wilson and bullied his way past the Rockstar Husqvarna Rider. Once again, for what felt like the tenth round in a row, the start was the difference-maker. Webb had nearly zero pressure from when he passed Wilson on.
Now with the points lead and seemingly all the momentum imaginable, I’m interested to see how Webb rides now in the points lead. When he took the lead from Roczen, ironically in of all places Dallas in 2019, Webb never gave it up the rest of the way. The only difference this time being that Roczen is in better condition health-wise (as far as we know) than he was at that point two years ago. But Webb has had Roczen’s number since Anaheim 2 2019 and has consistently gotten the better of The Honda HRC Alpha.
21- “Untucked” Jason Anderson- Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing (3rd Place)
On Saturday, we were graced by the motorsports phenomenon that is “Untucked” Jason Anderson. The TLDR is that Anderson sometimes will not tuck in his rider jersey, but for whatever reason, he seems to do well when that is the case. Saturday was no different. He was able to pick up his second heat race win of the year and his first main event podium of the year as well.
Anderson would continue to show aggression in his riding that he previously showed in his heat race at the first round in Orlando during Saturday’s Main Event. First, he would make an aggressive move on Malcolm Stewart, who would later try to retaliate and fail spectacularly. Anderson then got into Dylan Ferrandis in the bowl corner before the finish line jump. Anderson would be put under review by The AMA for these passes. Ultimately the AMA didn’t penalize him.
7 Aaron Plessinger- Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha (5th Place)
After a career-best performance last weekend in Daytona, Plessinger would once again be the flagbearer for The Star Yamaha squad. He would get his first career 450 heat race win earlier in the evening over Joey Savatgy, then would translate that with another strong Main Event result for what is now his third top-five result in his last six main events. Don’t look now, but Plessinger is fifth in points and could realistically pass up Justin Barcia for fourth if everything goes his way by season’s end. All in all, the best feel-good story of the 2021 Supercross season rolls on, and Plessinger is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
94 Ken Roczen- Honda HRC (6th Place)
After Webb swept the two Orlando rounds, it felt like a matter of when, not if, Roczen would give up the points lead. Two rounds later, and here we are. Rozen didn’t do himself any favors on Saturday, crashing trying to triple into a rhythm section late in his heat race. The good news was that he was fine, but he ended up in seventh place and got himself a brutal gate selection. His gate for the main event had a rut where the path wasn’t straight and was sort of curved. Despite this gate being inside of both Webb and Eli Tomac, Roczen had a brutal start and was doomed from the beginning.
However, to his credit, he was able to fight his way from the middle of the pack and salvage what could have been an absolute disaster of a main event. Roczen is only down seven points to Webb when it easily could have been much worse. With just seven rounds remaining in the season, Roczen is now out of the points lead and can’t afford to make critical errors as he did in his heat race and needs to get back to his form from the first six rounds of the season ASAP.
1 Eli Tomac- Monster Energy Kawasaki (7th Place)
Yeah, I was worried this was going to happen. After a dominating win in the infield of Daytona International Speedway, Tomac had a disappointing outing. He would lose all the points progress he made up a week prior and then some. Like Roczen, Tomac would proceed to have a brutal start despite a seemingly good gate on the later rider’s end. However, he would get buried deep in the pack and would have to play catch up all night. Only being able to muster a seventh-place result, Tomac now sits 34 points behind Webb, and his title defense hopes are once again at a standing eight count heading into Tuesday Night.
14 Dylan Ferrandis- Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha (22nd Place)
If the rookie Frenchman didn’t hit rock bottom yet, he certainly did on Saturday. In his last four outings, Ferrandis has finishes of 22nd, 11th, 11th, and 22nd. He was taken out by Jason Anderson right before the finish line, then proceeded to have his bike ran over by another rider. This would end Ferrandis’ night and yield a last-place result for the second time in the last four rounds. After being just mere points out of the lead after Houston 2, Dylan is now 10th after ten races. While growing pains can happen to rookies in any sport, this has been a downright brutal stretch for Ferrandis.
25 Marvin Musquin- Red Bull KTM (DNS)
After qualifying first in the afternoon, Musquin would have a scary wreck near the conclusion of his heat race, where he laid still on the dirt for a good bit before he called for trackside help. He would then head to the Alpinestar Medical Unit Hauler. According to NBCSN trackside reporter Will Christien, he would receive stitches in his arm and would later be unable to attempt to race in the 450 LCQ, and thus the Main Event. After a trio of solid finishes before Dallas 1, this is a very unfortunate injury to see Musquin, or anyone, get.
And that will do it for Dallas 1. Short turnaround for the second round on Tuesday night. The closer we get to this upcoming two-week break, the more I am starting to feel that this is now a two-horse race between Webb and Roczen for the championship, and it’s going to be very interesting to see how the latter responds after losing the points lead. Also looking forward to seeing my PulpMX Fantasy Team not crumble before my eyes as well (I hate you @imtravismarx. You are a monster).
Check us out on our socials:
Twitter: @PTSTNews and @TalkPrimeTime
Facebook Page: Prime Time Sports Talk
Join our Facebook Group: Prime Time Sports Talk
Instagram: @ptsportstalk
Follow Jack Gaffney on Twitter @JackGaffneyPTST
Main Image Credit:
