Round six was this weekend in the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship, and things are getting good. Glendale is always a sweet spot—it’s a nice stadium, has good dirt, and a great track. We’ve had some memorable races there for sure.
I won’t stop, can’t stop, talking about the poor AMA live timing issues and the 1998-era AMA results page. New problem this week: for years and years some riders who don’t make the main get zero points on the results page. Other riders just get a “-“ there. Why some are listed as zero and some are “-“ is another one of the AMA’s mysteries inside a riddle. But when you were looking for a riders’ results, the “0” didn’t matter because you knew he didn’t make the main and the “0” was just there. It didn’t really matter because who in their right mind would award a rider who made the main event “0” points? That would be silly right?
Well, we’re here now. The powers that be have decided that although making a main event is a massive achievement for a lot of riders, if you’re last in that main event, you get zero points. Yes, I’m serious. You earn your way in, you race for twenty minutes, and if you’re last, you get no credit toward a national number. And wait, it gets even better. To be better aligned with each other (why they have to be “aligned” with each in terms of points awarding is not clear to me), AMA Pro Motocross is now giving 21st place in the outdoors 1 point now. I suppose the next step in the “alignment” of the two series is we have 40-man SX mains or 22-man MX motos? I don’t know man…
[Editor's note: It's likely they want the points awarded for MX motos and SX main events to be the same because they both pay points toward being in the playoffs.]
For years I ranted about supercross paying 26 points for a main event win while outdoor motos paid 25. So now they're finally back to the same, yay, but the bottom of the order is messed up with 21st paying 1 point in an outdoor moto (which is weird) and 22nd paying nothing (which is weird since we have 22 riders in the SX mains).
Anyway, back to the initial problem here and that’s the fact that NOW the random “0’s” on the AMA Points sheet means that a rider MAY have made the main event and gotten last, or maybe not. Maybe it’s just a random “0” in there, who knows? WHAT FUN IT IS!
Again, maybe this comes from the AMA in Ohio, or maybe it comes from the AMA in Daytona Beach, I’m not sure, but the whole system needs to be overhauled, and badly at that. And even though it’s not his fault, like I did a few weeks ago, I blame Mike Pelletier. I just feel better blaming Mike because at least he and I can laugh about it.
Back to the weekend. State Farm Stadium is, as I said, nice and it’s the third Arizona venue we’ve raced SX in since I started on the circuit. My personal ranking of Phoenix, AX/SX stadiums is as follows.
#1 | Chase Field
Generally, I like the baseball fields better with their more imaginative tracks and better sightlines for us media guys. Chase Field was in the heart of downtown, had good dirt, it was a cool stadium with lots of natural light coming in, it had a TGI Friday’s in it, and it’s easy in and out. It’s also closer to airport. Yeah, the pits suck and that’s the reason Feld Motor Sports bailed on it, but what does that matter to me? TGI Friday's potato skins after practice were elite.
# 2 | State Farm Stadium
It’s too far from the airport but the floor is big, so the track is usually pretty good. Pits are better, the press box is tucked away in a corner which isn’t ideal, and the ins and outs are the same as Chase Field, but to me, the dirt isn’t as good as the old Chase Field, the track doesn’t photograph as well, and did I mention it’s too far from the airport?
# 3 | Tempe Stadium
Although it was prominently featured in U2’s Rattle & Hum video (did you hear U2 is playing the Sphere in Vegas?), this place sucked. It was open air, which means it was hot as balls and the dirt was basically concrete. It had aluminum bleachers which reached the temperature of the sun during the day, my rider’s bike threw a chain once, and I had to JB Weld the cases, which sucked. The area around Tempe, if I remember right, was fun for going out after the races, so there is that.
Ok, now that you’ve got my personal Phoenix stadium rankings (whew!), let’s talk about the race, yeah?
I said in the last few columns that Ken Roczen has been the fastest rider with no real results (for him) and well, that streak is over. Roczen won Glendale in a typical Ken Roczen ride where he gets out front early, pulls away, and rides (looking) effortlessly to the end. He now ties Cooper Webb for career 450SX wins and grabs his first victory of the year. Kenny’s been very quick this year and he rode great on what ended up being a slick, kind of basic track.
The only thing that was a bit different for the guys out there (now that the whoops are going to be fairly easy) was the long-ass rhythm where you could go double, then over the tabletop, and then 3-3-3-1 your way out. It was a bit quicker but also easier to screw up than the “easy” line (when I say easy, I mean for these guys. If I were to attempt this, I would die) of on-off-3-3-3.
Jason Anderson was one guy (Jett Lawrence was another) that was able to get this over tabletop-3 line going and from the people I talked to that watched the dartfish, it was just under a second quicker to go that way. But yeah, if you went long, you couldn’t get the next three and then all of the time you gathered doing the faster line was lost. This is what happened to Anderson when he was behind Roczen a few times.
Roczen was on the PulpMX Show Monday and talked about how he just stuck with the on/off because he knew it was easy, he didn’t have to think about it, and it worked to perfection. Roczen is capable of going over the table, but these guys have to think about what they can do for 20 minutes and not mess it up once and lose time—two mistakes in that over-tabletop and you’ve wasted five laps of your gains.
It says something that last year, in what was the coolest win of the year IMO, Roczen’s Indy SX win was celebrated by all. He won on a basically 2018 Suzuki 450! He won on a “private” team! He won after missing half of 2022 SX! He’s waving a kickstarter around on the podium! Great ride for sure and it was cute. Well, we’re now just shrugging our shoulders, like, of COURSE Ken Roczen won a 450SX. Duh. He’s been that good on the Suzuki. He pushed Jett Lawrence at the Chicago SMX, he was the only rider to qualify P1 in 450MX other than Jett, he’s Ken Roczen, and he’s an all-timer. That’s where we’re at. Kenny's back and that’s a good thing.
Also, the Roczen to Ducati rumors are out there. Still. Stay tuned.
Jason Anderson ended up second on the night after qualifying quickest and he looked good all day long. As I said, he was one of only two guys to get that over/tabletop consistently and had he got the start and not Roczen, he could have easily won on the night. Jason is from New Mexico, he’s good on the slick stuff for sure, and was impressive.
So “we” think Anderson gets a win this year, right? Maybe a Triple Crown? And hard to believe that Tomac doesn’t get a win, right? Daytona is coming up. That would make it seven winners this year. We’re approaching the all-time record with that. Maybe we get a weirdo winner in the mud somewhere or near the end of the season when the points leaders are being cautious. That would make it eight.
This season is turning out to be pretty exciting for sure. Although I’m worried about the “start-cross” nature of the series so far (get rid of the grates!), it has been cool to watch. A tight points race and a bit of a changing of the guard keeps it riveting.
Jett Lawrence got a bad start, got pushed around a bit by Cooper Webb (again) and rebounded to get Tomac for third later in the race. He also had a couple of close calls out there which gets me worried for the kid. But it was a smart race, he was four seconds down from Tomac at one point, and catching Tomac late in the race is not easy to do. He got the red plate back too, which is cool for him. He’s a rookie and will make mistakes but then again, he could just rip off three wins in a row as well.
As far as Tomac, well last week was maybe his worst ride on a Yamaha yet and he needed a rebound, which I thought this was. JT [Jason Thomas] did not on our review show. I mean, he did get gapped by the fastest qualifier on the day who is a 2024 multi-heat race winner so there’s that, but Jett catching him late? I mean, Jett’s “next” and is the fastest guy in the series so I just shrug at that. It was still fine. This was a rebound ride!
Where JT and I also differ is Eli’s title chances. I think I’ve seen enough here to say that he’s not going to win this champion. He’s going to win a race (probably) and he’ll stand on the podium as well, but he’s 17 points down and has to jump six riders to win this. And so far, without a doubt in my mind, Jett, Sexton, Plessinger, Webb, Anderson and Roczen have been quicker than him most of the time. This isn’t a guy who’s 17 down but DNF’d one race and has two or three wins. He’s been caught and passed by all these dudes a lot or he’s not gotten the starts he needs. He’s Eli Tomac, he’s awesome, but I don’t think he’s your title guy in 2024.
Speaking of making grand announcements, I’m ready to say that Aaron Plessinger has reached a new level in 2024. AP’s popularity is also at a new level and that’s hard to do. He was already popular! AP won his heat, was running second in the main early on and lost the front end. He would have been on the podium, I think. Oops! That was it for him on the night but oh what could have been!
Hunter Lawrence had his best race of the year. He moved forward and was way more of a factor in Glendale than he had been previously. People close to Honda and Hunter have said that he’s a good learner and he’ll figure out the 450 class. Maybe it’s happening?
Now the award for the “most invisible” rider goes to Dylan Ferrandis, who scored another sixth-place finish, his third time in six races getting sixth. Dylan only finished three 450SX races last year and ten the year before that, so I’m sure his goal is to get to the end of this thing. There haven’t been a lot of “wow” moments from the 14 so far but he’s on a privateer bike (he’s got some factory parts), and in the long line of privateers getting top ten in SX on a privateer bike (Larry Ward, Phil Lawrence, Tim Ferry, Nick Wey), he’s doing pretty well.
Cooper Webb had a terrible Glendale. The less said about it, the better. That was weird, right?
Chase Sexton hurt his hand in a practice crash and was unable to ride Thursday due to the injury. And it showed in Glendale it was bothering him as he was rather pedestrian in going backward in the main. Chase is, from what I know of him, one of those guys who has to ride during the week and has to have a good week under him to roll it into the weekend. So, this had to be tough for him. How uninspiring was his weekend? Thanks to my buddy, Lewis Phillips at Vital MX, for informing me that Glendale was the first race since Atlanta 2022 (or 26 races) where he didn't qualify in the top three. The week off might be a huge break for the champ.
Justin Cooper almost got the holeshot! He was shuffled back badly in the first rhythm when he got out of, well, rhythm, and his long night started from there. He was tenth early and finished eleventh on the night. The highs and lows of SX hit JC32 hard.
Christian Craig qualified inside the top ten...that’s a start! The main, well that didn’t go as planned. Again.
Shoutout to Devin Simonson for his first ever 450SX main event on a 450. Yes, you read that right.
In the 250’s, this thing is boiling down to RJ Hampshire, Jordon Smith, and Levi Kitchen. The west coast is off for six weeks so lots of things could happen, but right now, Kitch’ has the red plate after his runner-up ride in Glendale.
RJ Hampshire was third early on, the two dudes in front of him in the points were in front of him in the main, and maybe the old RJ panics and makes a mistake out there. Not this time. He regrouped and got back into the race, and it was Smith who made two mistakes out there (one of them maybe not his fault totally?) and Hampshire went on to take the win. He rode very well, and this was after practice where he cased the crap out of a double and told me he had to have his jaw adjusted. Yeah, that sounds like Hampshire. Also, he gave his team manager, Nate Ramsey, a lot of credit for a prerace talk they had where Ramsey really wanted to make sure RJ knew that this was his title, he was the best guy, etc. Well, he showed it for sure. Great job to the 24, he pulled 3 points closer to the lead.
Kitchen had an eventful main event. He holeshot and led early, got passed by Smith, retook the lead, and then got passed by Hampshire to finish as the runner-up. The Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasakis look very good out there. Levi seems to be able to put the bike wherever he needs it, and he doesn’t have that wildness that Smith and Hampshire have. He’s really coming into his own and, umm, he’ll be a multiple 250MX winner this summer for sure, right? Championship? I mean, maybe, right?
One thing that’s always held Hampshire and Jordon Smith back are mistakes out on the race track. Hell of nice guys for sure and great riders but staying rubber-side-down has been an issue. In Glendale, like Hampshire in San Diego, Smith had that issue again. Crashing twice in the main (again though, not all his fault when Kitchen bailed out of a triple on a yellow when there was no reason to) hurt him and slipped him back to fourth on the night and he lost the red plate he’d held since round two.
Jo Shimoda made his first podium of the year and needed two Smith crashes to do it. Yet again, he got a so-so start (how are these starts possible on a factory Honda?) and then worked his way to third. I mean, it’s better than another fourth, which would’ve been his fourth fourth on the year, but yeah, still not great. If Jo really wants to complete the “Jo Shimoda” experience, he’ll get hot after the break, win two or three races, finish within ten points of the championship, and have everyone talking about how he’s the favorite in 2025.
A few other notes from the 250SX class in Glendale:
Racer X columnist, Phil Nicoletti, pulled a great start and a little like Justin Cooper, got pushed back in the first rhythm lane quickly. From there though, our guy Phil did not, in the words of his old team manager Jeremy Albrecht, “jump the jumps,” and it hurt him. He did crush the whoops though! #positivity
Carson Mumford had a great heat race and looked good early in the main, but man did he go backward. I don’t know if he was sick, if he had a bike issue or what, but it wasn’t great. His teammate, Freckle [Mitchell Oldenburg], looked spicy all day and rode well in the main event.
Stop me if you heard this before. Garrett Marchbanks was very fast but got a bad start.
Robbie Wageman had his best race of the year. Back on Solitaire Yamaha, he’s been pretty invisible to start the season but in Glendale, he was back and got his first top ten of the year.
Thanks for reading OBS, we’re off this weekend and then back for Dallas, which is always a cool round. It’s the second 250SX east second round as well! Email me at matthes@racerxonline.com if you want to chat about this or anything else.