Seattle Supercross news and results

The racing was definitely not sleepy in Seattle tonight. The technical muddy track and deep ruts were causing havoc all day and certainly played a part in the evening of racing. Going into the day everyone was debating on how bad of a mudder it would be, in the end it was not terrible mud. But the deep ruts and sticky conditions made for lots of mistakes by riders and kept the racing interesting for most of the night. In the post race press conference the athletes were asked about if they had practiced in any mud conditions since there has been so many so far this season. They each answered no as its too hard to replicate these conditions.

250 Moto 1

Levi kitchen got a great jump out of the gate and grabs the holeshot and is followed closely by Beaumer. The front pack was pretty close together and we saw RJ Hampshire not waste anytime and made a pass on Beaumer part way through the first lap for second place. The track was in decent shape given the rain they got the night before but by the end of the moto it was really starting to rut up in between the jumps like in past mud rounds. By midway through the moto Levi built a 2.5 second leave over RJ who seemed content with second as not being able to run the same pace. By the end of the moto Levi built his lead up to 9 seconds over RJ. Beaumer rode a solid race and finished in third place in these tough conditions for the rookie.

250 Moto 2

In this moto we see Michael Mosiman in his first race with new team Monster Energy Star Yamaha and his teammates Thrasher and Smith. On the start we see Thrasher slip out and down in the first turn while Shimoda grabs the holeshot with Smith right on him in second. This is the start that Jo has needed so badly this season. Mosiman was running in sixth place after the first lap. Most were still skimming the whoops most of the way through the moto even with conditions deteriorating quickly. Smith had several small mistakes throughout the moto but was able to stay close. It was a Yamaha heavy top of the pack with 5 out of the top seven. Marchbanks makes a late race move into third place on the last lap. We also saw Shimoda have a mistake and goes down letting Smith by for the win. Thrasher mentioned that they were already starting to drag footpegs in the rhythm sections.

450 Moto 1

Chase gets the start he needed badly and grabs the holeshot with Hunter right behind him in second. Ken tries to make a move on Eli and goes down. Oldenburg is riding good and makes a pass to get by Hunter early in the race. Chase comes up short on a jump and kills the bike and has a bit of trouble getting it started and is passed by Hunter. Back in the pack a bit we see a good battle between Barcia and Oldenburg for 5th place. Later in the moto we see Eli close in on Chase and make the pass on him in the whoop section. Eli continues to charge forward and nearly gets close enough to Hunter to make and move before time ran out and Hunter gets the win with Eli in second.

450 Moto 2

While waiting on the gate we saw Jett cheering on Hunter during his moto win and then using some smelling salts to get ready for his moto. The holeshot went to Plessinger who was running out front with Vince Friese close and trying to make a move for the lead a turn later. Jett was running around 5th place and quickly makes a move to get past Bloss into fourth place. Shortly after he safely passe Vince in the sand to take over second place. He was about 2.5 seconds behind Plessinger and charging towards the lead. The jump transitions are now very deep and rutted with at least 20 ruts wide up each face making for treacherous conditions if anything didn’t line up just right. Aaron and Jett were out front and Webb was about six second behind them in third place. They were both battling and the crowd was loving it, Jett overtook first pretty quickly while Aaron mounted a couple of comeback attempts that did not succeed before settling into a close second place.

250SX Main Event

The hometown guy grabbed the holeshot again and Beaumer was right behind him with another great start for the KTM rookie. The trio of Star Yamaha bikes were right behind the two of them. With around 12 minutes left we saw Hampshire make the move into fourth place with Shimoda in seventh not getting the start he needed. Beaumer has a boble and Hampshire gets by him for third place, while Shimoda cross ruts and goes down and looses a few positions.

Simoda is on the move and charging and passes Beaumer for sixth place with around 5:30 minutes left in the main event. We also see Marchbanks get past Thrasher for fourth place with an eye on a podium position. Levi has now built his lead to six seconds over Smith around the 4 minutes to go point. Just a bit later we see Smith go down hard and land in center of a rhythm lane and takes almost a full lap to get going again. He seemed a bit off like his head got rocked hard in the crash. Shimoda was putting down the fastest lap and moved up to third place around a minute to go in the main. Levi ended up going wire to wire and wins with a twenty second lead over second place. Smith ended up having three crashes in the main and finished fourteenth putting him 21 points back of Levi in the season points race. Levi is now 8 points ahead of Hampshire in the championship points race.

450SX Main Event

Before the start of the main I’ll mention that Roczen had to go through the 450 LCQ to make the main so would not get a good gate pick. That would not seem to mater as Chase grabs the holeshot and Ken quickly makes a pass to get into second place. Tomac was burried deep back in sixteenth place and Jett was running in eighth. Webb was frisky early and made the pass into third place just a couple of laps into the main. A short bit later Jett was pressuring Webb for second place and was running two second faster lap times. Jett ends up bumping into Webb in the sand attempting a pass and goes down sending him back to sixth place.

Around the halfway point of the main event Jett has worked his way back into third place and Webb was still pursuing Sexton closely for first. Just a short bit later Chase kills the bike in a corner allowing Webb to get by with around six minutes left in the main. Jett was also having some challenges and decides to play it safe and falls back a bit and settles into third place. Chase was able to battle back and pass Webb a lap later only to have Webb regain the lead just a few corners later and keep it for the rest of the main. Chase did keep pursuit and was able to close the gap a couple of times only to come up a half second short on the finish making for a close win for Webb. This is the third win fo the season for Webb and shrinks the points gap down to just 16 behind Jett. On the podium Webb said it was rough out there and his arms pumped up badly and he was just trying to survive late in the race.