The near-exact midpoint Boston and Providence, Foxborough, Massachusetts' Gillette Stadium, was host to Round 13 of the Monster Energy Supercross Championship. As it's been for most of the year, subpar conditions were once again a factor, but more in the Seattle kind of way, with most of the rain coming before race day, as opposed to, say, San Francisco, where it was a monsoon all the way through the night show.
Speaking of Seattle, that night's 450 winner, Cooper Webb, has real Championship aspirations again as this season winds down after a disastrous St. Louis weekend for Jett Lawrence. The current points leader looked good during the day program but didn't outpace Webb on the speed charts, nor did Lawrence outpace the St Louis winner, Eli Tomac. With his points lead standing at eight coming into the weekend, would the No. 18 get things back into a double-digit cushion, or would he be in deep trouble going to Nashville?
Never mind that we have a real 250 East battle coming down to the wire with Cameron McAdoo and Tom Vialle to boot.
Daytime Program/Injury Notes:
- Casey Cochran was making his pro debut with Rockstar Husky.
- Dylan Ferrandis is likely shut down until MX.
-- Coty Schock signed a multi-year extension with ClubMX.
- Aaron Plessinger suffered a minor injury during qualifying and was out for the weekend.
- 250 Fastest Qualifier: No. 37 Max Anstie (53.094)
- 450 Fastest Qualifier: No. 2 Cooper Webb (51.708)
Heat Racing Roundup
250 Class
Everyone was chasing Honda HRC's Chance Hymas to kick off Saturday night, with all three of Cameron McAdoo, Seth Hammaker, and Haiden Deegan all passing the baton off in second place. Deegan ended up nearly going over coming out of the sand straight on the open endzone side and dropped to fifth because of a stall. Outside of that, this was pretty uneventful outside of Wackers, making things close at the very end.
Max Anstie parlayed his fast qualifying pace into a pretty big lead early into this one, with Coty Schock and Casey Cochran right behind for the first few moments. It is definitely good to see the rookie show some fight off the start, but he faded back to around fifth and 10 seconds back in short order. I was also impressed with how Tom Vialle made some meaningful passes up and into the top three in this one. He looked really good in the whoops, all things considered.
450 Class
I don't know what Eli Tomac did before taking this Heat 1 gate drop, but he should only do that from now on. He was about two bikes clear of anyone else going into turn one, and if he had not for a bobble in the first rhythm, he would've been long gone 20 seconds in. His teammate Justin Cooper wasn't as lucky, as he took a wild ride in that same section a few laps in and was a DNF. He appeared ok, but that sent him from a sure second to the LCQ. Behind a very popular Tomac win, Ken Roczen did an excellent job slicing and dicing his way up to a top-five finish after a bad start.
We didn't have to wait long for Webb v. Lawrence, which lived up to the billing. Webb felt faster in just about every section but the whoops, and that's what ultimately cost him after Lawrence was able to cut down in some corners perfectly late in the game. Those two plus Sexton, to a lesser extent, were throwing down some barnburner lap times and gapped everyone else in short order.
250 East Class Recap
1st - No. 38 Haiden Deegan (Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha)
This was precisely what Deegan needed, regardless of whether Deegan would come back in this title fight or not. Show up, perform how you expect to, no childish stuff, and come out of the weekend with some momentum. Perfect, I couldn't have scripted this better myself. It was a very uneventful, eventful Main Event, but that speaks to how good Haiden was on a pretty rough track. 13 points back of the lead with three rounds left, he's not entirely out of this yet.
2nd - No. 63 Cameron McAdoo (Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki)
I wouldn't say wins don't matter at this point for Wackers, but his top priority is to beat Tom Vialle, and he's doing just that. Three weeks away from that first title, can he pull it off?
15th - No. 166 Casey Cochran (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing)
Of all the tracks on which to make your pro debut, this would've been very low on the list. The good news is that Cochran was able to get that experience on a brutal track against the best of the best and get in all the laps he could. How he runs next week in a showdown round will be most interesting. Cochran isn't a sure thing to qualify for that Main Event next weekend in Nashville.
250 East Class Foxborough Top 10
1st No. 38 Haiden Deegan
2nd No. 63 Cameron McAdoo
3rd No. 16 Tom Vialle
4th No. 39 Pierce Brown
5th No. 37 Max Anstie
6th No. 69 Coty Schock
7th No. 59 Daxton Bennick
8th No. 33 Jalek Swoll
9th No. 75 Marshal Weltin
10th No. 65 Henry Miller
250 East Class Points After Foxborough
1st No. 63 Cameron McAdoo (120 Points)
2nd No. 16 Tom Vialle (116 Points)
3rd No. 38 Haiden Deegan (107 Points)
4th No. 39 Pierce Brown (105 Points)
5th No. 69 Coty Schock (95 Points)
6th No. 59 Daxton Bennick (86 Points)
7th No. 37 Max Anstie (79 Points)
8th No. 48 Seth Hammaker (72 Points)
9th No. 33 Jalek Swoll (72 Points)
10th No. 48 Chance Hymas (70 Points)
450 Class Recap
1st - No. 2 Cooper Webb (Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha)
Every time Cooper Webb has been tasked with answering the bell since 2019, he's done so with excellent results, with last night being no different. I don't think he was even the second-fastest guy in Foxborough, but his start was spectacular, and he could maintain a relatively small gap. Well...in comparison to his 250 teammate that is.
It's also unprecendented what has happened in these last three rounds. Webb was down a whopping 21 points after Jett Lawrence swept the Indianapolis Triple Crown, and we are now tied at the top of the ladder with just four rounds to go. The only points tied this late into a Supercross season I can remember was Salt Lake City in 2017, where Eli Tomac charged through the field to beat Ryan Dungey and then lost the Championship in all but name a week later in East Rutherford.
After Saturday, Webb has put himself in a position that few riders have ever been in. Points comebacks like this haven't been all that common historically in Supercross, and with the momentum he has and the string of East Coast rounds coming up, I would not feel good betting against him.
2nd - No. 1 Chase Sexton (Red Bull KTM)
It's not an exact copy of what happened in Seattle for Sexton, but it's the same result: A lost Main Event that he probably should've won, as his hopes of going back-to-back continue to get bleaker and bleaker. Getting held up by Roczen for a large portion of that race didn't help, but I imagine getting caught in that rut after taking the white flag, which will eat away at him for a bit. For whatever it's worth, though, he's closing out another strong Supercross whole, and I think a really good outdoor season is on deck. On a final note, that save he had on the final rhythm lane was as gnarly as any I've ever seen. Can't imagine the crosswinds up there helped out any.
5th - No. 18 Jett Lawrence (Honda HRC)
I don't want to sound like this is a choke job by Lawrence because that completely ignores the biggest reason why he's now tied after being up 21 in points (that, of course, being St. Louis), but he's unequivocally left points on the table at both Seattle and Foxborough, lots of them.
That start Lawrence had last night simply cannot happen at this stage of the game, simply cannot. Lawrence was only able to crack the top 10 by lap five, and that was the telltale sign he was either going to ditch the red plate for a purple one again or barely escape with it. It turns out it would be the latter, and to be frank, I don't think his chances of winning this thing are high. It wouldn't entirely be on him because St. Louis was entirely out of his control, but you know the situation now, and the guy proverbially lined up on the other side of the ball has been in this situation multiple times. Time to see how well the Jett can hang in the truly deep waters now.
450 Class Foxborough Top 10
1st No. 2 Cooper Webb
2nd No. 1 Chase Sexton
3rd No. 94 Ken Roczen
4th No. 21 Jason Anderson
5th No. 18 Jett Lawrence
6th No. 3 Eli Tomac
7th No. 96 Hunter Lawrence
8th No. 32 Justin Cooper
9th No. 46 Justin Hill
10th No. 27 Malcolm Stewart
450 Class Point Standings after Foxborough
1st No. 18 Jett Lawrence (261 Points) (Would have tiebreaker if the season ends right now on wins)
2nd No. 2 Cooper Webb (261 Points)
3rd No. 1 Chase Sexton (246 Points)
4th No. 3 Eli Tomac (231 Points)
5th No. 94 Ken Roczen (222 Points)
6th No. 21 Jason Anderson (206 Points)
7th No. 7 Aaron Plessinger (198 Points)
8th No. 32 Justin Cooper (161 Points)
9th No. 51 Justin Barcia (149 Points)
10th No. 96 Hunter Lawrence (148 Points)
Next Up: Nissan Stadium (Nashville, Tennessee) (7:00 EST gate drop exclusively live on Peacock)
Main Image via Yamaha Motorsports