Birmingham inaugural Supercross results
The first ever Supercross in Birmingham at the Protective stadium took place yesterday and was not short of excitement. For several days there was the serious threat of rain and it being another mudder. The press day ride was canceled so the track could be mellowed out and covered in plastic to try and preserve it. The rain did come down heavy on Friday afternoon and evening but luckily it only had a few sprinkles on race day. The track was tamed down slight to acomodate the expected conditions. The whoops were removed and replaced with rollers and a rhythm section was downsized also.
Saturday’s weather ended up being fine, just a few sprinkles late in the event. The track was soft but in good shape and ended up being pretty rutty and technical. Everyone seemed excited about the new location and had mostly good things to say about the weekend of racing.
Birmingham 250 Class Results
The 250 East group has been wild and it didn’t get any less this weekend in Alabama. Qualifying went pretty normal with Anstie the fastest followed by Hammaker and just three tenths separated the top six riders is all. In heat one we saw a few riders tangle up on the start, most notable was Hammaker and Deegan’s bike got tangled together and took a bit to get separated apart. A frustrated Deegan shoved Seth’s bike to the ground after getting them separated before riding to a disappointing seventeenth and earning his first trip to an LCQ. Coty Schock earned his first ever heat race win and another milestone for the FXR Mucoff Club MX team. Vialle one the second heat without any significant pressure. We saw both Hammaker and Deegan advance from the LCQ.
In the main event Jeremy Martin from the Club MX team grabbed the holeshot but faded quickly and settled into a fifth place finish. Objectively pretty solid being his second race back from the big get off in Detroit. Deegan was not without some drama again getting pushed off side of track on the start and getting an AMA penalty for loss of two places for gaining an advantage and ended up in ninth after the penalty. We saw Vialle continue his momentum with a second win in a row and only looking like he is just hitting his stride. Cameron also looks solid with a string of second place finishes this season is just in need of a good start to try and grab that overall win. Lastly Seth made a great bounce back from earlier challenges with a third place finish. This is the second week in a row that we had the same podium and the Pro Circuit Kawasaki team had both riders on the podium.
250 Podium
Tom Vialle
Cameron Mcadoo
Seth Hamaker
Birmingham 450 Class Results
The 450 class in Birmingham was less drama filled than the lights class was, just also just seems like Jett is finally hitting his strengths and grabbed his fourth win and second in a row. The evening started out looking good with Tomac grabbing a heat race win that included holding Jett at bat for the last several laps. Chase Sexton won the other heat race and seems to at least visually look like he’s getting more comfortable on the bike and the hand continues to be less of an issue.
In the main we saw Jett eek out the holeshot barely over Webb and go on to lead every lap and take the win. Webb was never too far behind him and tried to mount a late race charge but never got close enough to try a pass. We saw Roczen start in sixth place and work his way up to third place. Eli had a poor start and began in eleventh place and worked his way up but then languished later in the race being passed by number riders and barely able to keep Plessinger at bay.
450 Podium
Jett Lawrence
Cooper Webb
Ken Roczen
All photo credit: Feld Motor Sports