Round 2 of Supercross in Dallas saw the 250 West Points lead shift due to a post-race penalty. Current 450 points leader Cooper Webb was once again able to put his KTM on the top step of the podium. For now, the fourth time in the last five rounds. We cover that and more in this recap of Round 11 of Monster Energy Supercross.
250 Class:
Hunter Lawrence
I cannot say I was expecting a podium of Hunter Lawrence, Jalek Swoll, and Kyle Peters at any point. But by all means, I will take it. Starting with the winner Lawrence, he ended up making a very impressive two-for-one pass on the final turn before the finish jump about midway through in the main event and then completely took off. Lawrence gets his first win in just his sixth career start. He has been in America since 2019 after a couple of seasons in MXGP. He missed all but just a handful of supercross rounds in his first two seasons. Now with his first win out of the way, I would say the floodgates are now wide open for the Honda HRC rider.
Jalek Swoll and Kyle Peters
Rockstar Husqvarna’s Jalek Swoll getting on the podium for the first time is another feel-good story. I would imagine it is a gigantic confidence booster for the second-year rider. And how about Undefeated Kicker Arenacross Champion Kyle Peters? He showed up for the first Dallas round and had some issues, but gets his Phoenix Honda team on the box. All in all, I am incredibly happy for all three of these riders, all three are great stories.
Cameron McAdoo
Cameron McAdoo had a rough night, wrecking in the whoop section from just outside of the top five. But then he cut the course once and got situated back on the bike to try and save some time. As a result, the AMA has docked McAdoo 3 positions, and now Hunter Lawrence takes over the points lead as a result. When Hunter found out during a post-race zoom call he simply said “you’re [you can probably fill in the blank here] with me.”
Justin Cooper and Seth Hammaker
Justin Cooper had a very impressive night on his YZ-250, wrecking on the first lap, then proceeded to charge from 19th up to 5th place, saving what could have been a season-ruining night. Then Seth Hammaker, after his dominating performance on Saturday, ended up wrecking as well about midway through the main. He just could not recover afterward. Finally, on the injury front, Rockstar Husqvarna Rookie Stilez Robertson missed Tuesday’s main event after hurting his foot in his heat race.
450 Class:
2 Cooper Webb– Red Bull KTM (1st Place)
Now four of the last five main events have been won by The North Carolina native and this one may have been his best win ever. Earlier on Tuesday, Webb wrecked in the whoops in qualifying, but fortunately was not seriously hurt. Cooper would then go on to win his heat race, then get a holeshot in the main event and that would be what got him his fifth win of the year. Webb for close to the entire race had Eli Tomac breathing down his neck. But Webb never cracked under the pressure. In fact, it was Tomac who cracked. Tomac would make a mistake in the corner leading into the whoops, which made him lose touch with Webb for the rest of the evening.
Being able to hold off the two riders that are trying to chase you for the title and having one of them (Roczen) completely fall off your pace has got to be a gigantic confidence boost at this stage of the season. Now with a 12-point gap to Ken Roczen, Cooper Webb may be getting close to conservation mode with now just six rounds remaining.
94- Ken Roczen– Honda HRC (3rd Place)
The big takeaway for Ken Roczen is that he completely fell off Cooper Webb and Eli Tomac’s pace. After trying to get around Tomac and ultimately being unable to do so, Roczen slowly but surely lost touch with that later two riders. Fortunately, he was far enough ahead at that point that fourth place was a non-factor to him all night. On top of that, he is now 12 points back of Webb with just six rounds remaining in the season.
Seven-Time Supercross Champion Jeremy McGrath was on the Race Day Live program for qualifying. He said that Roczen is going to have to punt Webb to get back into this championship. I 100 percent agree with him. If Roczen cannot get a win or at least make it so Webb has some off nights before the end of the Atlanta Motor Speedway rounds, I do not think he has any shot to win this championship. However, the positive takeaway for Ken is that he got back on the podium for the first time since he completed the sweep at Lucas Oil Stadium. According to him in his postrace interview, “The dream is still alive.” The question is for how much longer though?
51 Justin Barcia– TLD RedBull GasGas Factory Racing (4th Place)
Barcia, after his incident where he was wrecked late at Indianapolis 3, has found more than enough footing. He now has had four top-five finishes in his last five main events. Barcia made a couple of incredibly impressive passes to get from sixth to fourth place in the closing stages of the main event, both in the same spot. He took Aaron Plessinger and Chase Sexton wide on the exit of the second to the last corner. It looked like he never touched either rider doing so. After having a pair of sub-top 10 results in Indianapolis, this recent stretch of races for BamBam has me thinking he will find his back to the top step of the podium before season’s end. If everything goes his way.
23 Chase Sexton– Honda HRC (5th Place)
Since returning from injury at Daytona, Chase Sexton has not missed a beat in terms of results. In his first three Main Events since coming back, he has finishes of eighth, fourth, and fifth now. Chase also had a strong showing in his heat race, getting into a heated battle with the red-hot Aaron Plessinger. While he did not take the win, he kept Plessinger honest and was on his rear wheel for a good while. His title hopes got taken away when he wrecked at Houston 2. But seeing Sexton competing for podiums at this stage of this season should make Honda happy about what they have in their 450 rookie.
21 Jason Anderson– Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing (7th Place)
Anderson in the opening seconds of the main event got tangled up and fell. Causing what would have been a start in about ninth or tenth, to be a start in third to last. Despite this, Anderson showed the same speed he showed on Saturday. He picked the field in front of him apart one by one. However, a course-cutting incident in the middle of the race cost him one position after a post-race review. Jason ended up having a few riders come to a stop in front of him right before the whoops. He then proceeded to ride over a tough block and completely skip the whoops at full speed.
My only thing here is how did The AMA make the call to dock Anderson one spot, but dock Cameron McAdoo three when Anderson’s course cut was far more egregious (at least in my mind)? The AMA has had some highly questionable moments this year and this just adds to the list. Regardless, Anderson still, despite this, got a positive result on a night that should have been an absolute disaster.
10 Justin Brayton– Muc Off Honda (DNS)
Brayton, who had just come back from injury a couple of rounds ago, got hurt again in his heat race on Tuesday night after having his bike lock up on him in midair. Brayton would say in an Instagram post on Wednesday morning, that he received some minor hand injuries as a result of going over his handlebars once he landed. Would guess his status for Saturday is up in the air as of this moment.
With the final round in Dallas just days away, there is a lot of interesting stories to follow at this stage of the season. I did not expect Hunter Lawrence to be in the points lead at any point. Now he has a win and a ton of momentum on his side. McAdoo, Cooper, Marchbanks, Swoll, and Hammaker all are behind him waiting to strike. That with just a handful of races to go in the 250 West Class. On the 450 side of things, Ken Roczen has got to make something happen and quickly, or else Cooper Webb is probably going to take this championship. Now being 36 points out of it, I think Tomac, baring absolute catastrophe happening to Roczen or Webb, is done regarding a back-to-back bid.
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