More so than the Moto 1 rout, Sexton looked as good as I've seen him in quite some time in Moto 2 before the red flag. The pass around the outside of Hunter Lawrence with shadows aplenty was one of the more disgusting overtakes I've seen in years, and had things not paused, there was not a single doubt in my mind he was going 1-1.

After weeks worth of bad starts, he finally got that elusive holeshot in Moto 1 to secure a wire-to-wire win, and then let things come to him in Moto 2 with the likes of Jordon Smith having a wild off-track excursion...

Four more total motos are now in the books, and I can tell you with 100% certainty that they happened. Good motos??? That's up to you to decide

As far as Moto 1 goes, there was never a point where I thought he wasn't winning that Moto after the stall, of which he put on himself for being a gear or two too high. There was way too much time left at the point, and he didn't lose much time in the grand scheme to begin with.

Interestingly enough in qualifying, neither points leader, Jett Lawrence nor Haiden Deegan, were able to top the speed charts, seeing teamates of theres in the opposite classes do so instead in the form of Chance Hymas, who's looked great early in Motos so far but not much afterwards, and Justin Cooper, who's historically great at altitude.

There's heat, then there's what was the heat in Northern California. 103-degree heat blistered throughout the Hangtown facility and made things very difficult on these riders. So much so that the AMA shaved five minutes off of both Moto 2s.

Four Motos went down at Fox Raceway on Saturday afternoon; were they particularly good? No, but they happened, and you cannot deny it.

Luckily, we're now only days away from getting a slew of major 450 riders back on the gate. From Eli Tomac, the Lawrence Brothers, Jorge Prado, Jason Anderson, etc, it feels like we're in as good of a place with this class going into the Pala National, as everyone guns to take down defending Champion Chase Sexton of Red Bull KTM. With that in mind, here are some of my thoughts on four of the central title contenders in this rendition of the Great Outdoors.

You could say most of the same things about Jordon Smith that you could for Sexton here. Probably not the fastest, but...

For many reasons, I imagine Saturday night felt good for Jett and his inner circle.

Here's hoping we can get this kind of speed out of Tomac all season.

Even with the speedbump, Sexton broke back away from Ken Roczen in no time and made things a formality over the final 10 minutes.

I can't say Lawrence is anything other than the clear favorite, but that doesn't mean he's an outright lock...let's not rush to crown him.

Meet the new bosses, same as the old bosses.

The way he rallied after that mistake out in front, only to get back out front and shut down a Tomac heater, was unimaginably impressive.

Firstly, I give up. Secondly, I will never listen to Jason Thomas ever again. That's one me, it won't happen again.

The only way I don't see Sexton winning this is because of one or two ill-timed mistakes, but even then, when you're locked in...

It's not that things were in doubt coming into this weekend, but after these last two seasons in the Great Outdoors, does this have to...

Winning in a big spot is one thing, but turning a seven-second lead on lap 10 to an over 21-second win six laps later is one hell of a...

A chance for the brightest young star in the sport to sweep all three Premier Class Championships in his first full year as a 450 rider ends