To the Lone Star state and NRG stadium for the 4th race of the 2023 Supercross season. The first look at the 250 East and a bunch of rookies including, Chance Hymas – HRC Honda, Haiden Deegan – Star Yamaha, Talon Hawkins – Rockstar Husqvarna, Caden Braswell – Phoenix Honda, and current MXGP MX2 world Champion Tom Vialle – Red Bull KTM. Here’s how it played out.
Qualifying –Firepower Honda’s Max Anstie, the 2022 Australian SX2 Champion topped the timesheets in both sessions, showing the world the good form he had during his time down under. Deegan and Hymas were 1-2 in the B practice and 7-8 overall. Chase Sexton was in a league of his own in the 450 class almost a full second faster than Dylan Ferrandis and Eli Tomac.
250 heat 1 – Hunter Lawrence with the holeshot and gone, winning from Star Yamaha’s Nate Thrasher and Hymas. Chris Blose had a solid 5th in his first outing for Pro Circuit Kawasaki.
250 heat 2 – Star Yamaha’s veteran recruit Jordan Smith with the holeshot and win from Anstie and Vialle, an impressive start for the Frenchman. Deegan and Hawkins also went straight to the main. Terrible news for 2nd-year pro Preston Kilroy crashing out of his first fill-in ride for Club MX Yamaha, reports are 2 broken wrists, so bad news for whoever is on butt-wiping duties too! Heal quick Preston. Phoenix Honda teammates Coty Schock and Cullin Park made mid-air contact, Schock crashing hard into the bridge, sending him to the LCQ.
450 heat 1 – Some good battles, Cooper Webb with the start with Jason Anderson on his tail, Anderson getting by, leaving Webb to battle with a spicy-looking Aaron Plessinger. El Hombre was the eventual winner from AP and Webb.
450 heat 2 – Sexton dominated after blowing by early leader Tomac in the whoops and gapping him, winning by 7 seconds, Eli 2nd, and Justin Barcia 3rd. I can’t overstate how impressive Sexton was, just a boss, but it was only a heat race. Good news and relief for Shane Macelrath going straight to the main in 9th.
250 LCQ – Kiwi, Josiah Natzke with the holeshot and early lead only to bow out with a bike issue. Jeremy Hand was the winner and a no doubt very sore Coty Schock sneaked into the main in 4th.
450 LCQ –. Josh Cartwright with the holeshot and the win, stayed ahead of the drama. Another main event for the plucky Floridian who works a full-time job.
Last corner carnage! Crowd favourite Kyle Chisolm was pinched off at the start and slowly made his way through the pack to within sight of the 4th and final transfer position. Chiz made a last corner dive at Freddy Noren, taking Noren down but stalling his bike, a Suzuki without an electric start. That kickstart probably cost him a main event. Next in line and looking at a sure main event berth was another crowd favourite Alex Ray, who proceeded to clip Noren’s bars and fly into the tuff blocks, so on-brand for ARay! This left a no-doubt wide-eyed John Short to pass all three and head to the main event. Gotta love a good LCQ.
250 Main Event – Hunter with the holeshot only to have Vialle pass him, Hunter then made a mistake, letting teammate Hymas past. But it wasn’t long and Hunter was back to the lead and on to a comfortable win. Anstie finished in 2nd and despite a fall in the sand section Jordan Smith finished 3rd. Deegan was really impressive in 4th place, Other rookies also impressive were Vialle and Hymas both with costly mistakes but finishing 7th and 8th, and Hawkins in 9th . The future is
bright.
450 Main Event – Eli with the holeshot, AP in second and actually pressuring Eli, Anderson, and Sexton close behind. It was looking like a ripper battle was about to unfold before a red flag was thrown. Dylan Ferrandis down after clipping the back of Ken Roczen’s bike and not looking good. Awesome to have Dylan post a message to his fans very quickly that he was ok but needed to follow concussion protocol. Great news and great communication.
A staggered re-start saw Anderson and Sexton pass AP and Eli start to build a small lead. Chase got by Jason in the whoops and started to close on Eli, it really felt like Chase was going to reel Eli in, as he did in the heat race. But Eli just found some extra late-race grit and pulled back away, the sand section seemingly the separator. Eli with his 3rd win of the season, Chase 2nd, Anderson 3rd. A disappointing result for Cooper Webb and Ken Roczen 6th and 8th respectively not where they would have expected to be, but a good result for 450 Supercross rookie Justin Cooper finishing 7th . Chase now trailing Eli by 7 points in the championship, and Webb is a further 5 back.
Bring on Tampa Bay.
Go Riding.
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