AMA SX Houston race reports, results, points and images

2023 AMA Supercross Championship

Round Four – NRG Stadium, Houston

250 Heat One

Hunter Lawrence started where he aimed to finish by leading the field out of turn one as the 250 East Championship got underway on Saturday night at NRG Stadium in Houston.

Chris Blose was second in the opening laps but Nate Thrasher then got the better of him. A mistake by Blose then cost him another position as Chance Hymas took advantage. A few laps later Michael Mosiman pushed Blose further back to fifth.

Hunter Lawrence victorious over Nate Thrasher by 2.3-seconds while Chance Hymas took third place a further 8-seconds down.

250 Heat One Results

250 Heat Two

22-year-old MXGP star Tom Vialle made his debut with a great start but Jordon Smith quickly pushed the Frenchman back to second, then Brit Max Anstie pushed Vialle further back to third, and this all happened on the first lap.

A little further back 17-year-old Haiden Deegan chased down Jeremy Martin and made short work of him before then setting his sights on Vialle.

Deegan was all over the back of Vialle but the two-time MX2 World Champ managed to hold the youngster at bay and then stretched away from him over the final couple of laps to take that third place.

Jordon Smith had looked untouchable up front but a mistake allowed Max Anstie to get on terms with him two laps from the flag, but Smith recovered well enough to secure the victory.

Coty Shock had a nasty crash after getting caught up with his team-mate while running sixth and had to head to the LCQ as a result.

250 Heat Two Results

250 LCQ Results

250 Main

Hunter Lawrence, Chance Hymas and Tom Vialle were all on close terms up front as the first 250 East Main of the season got underway. Vialle got to the front quickly while Hunter briefly headed off track after playing it safe and giving Vialle plenty of room, but kept it together well enough to rejoin in third place.

Vialle went on to lead the opening couple of laps while Hunter Lawrence was nipping at his heels and looking for a safe place to pass.

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Hunter took the lead three-minutes in and streaked away from Vialle, who then started to come under attack from Max Anstie.

Jordon Smith then moved up to fourth while Jeremy Martin then relegated Hymas back to sixth just ahead of Deegan and Thrasher.  That pair then pushed Hymas further back to eighth.

By half-race distance Hunter Lawrence had more than three-seconds over what was shaping up as a hectic battle for second place. At this halfway juncture it was still Vialle holding down second placed ahead of Anstie and a fast looking Jordon Smith.

Moments later Anstie managed to sneak past Vialle for second place and it looked as though Jordon Smith was going to follow him, but a mistake saw Smith go down briefly in the sand, by the time he was back up and running Jeremy Martin had moved past him into fourth and Haiden Deegan into fifth.  Smith got fifth place back from Deegan with six-minutes to run and set about reclaiming fourth from Martin.

With five-minutes left on the shot clock Hunter Lawrence had 5.6-seconds over Anstie and Vialle was a further two-seconds back in third.

Just when Vialle looked relatively safe in third place the Frenchman made a mistake which saw him shuffled back to seventh place and out of podium contention.

With two laps to run Hunter Lawrence had 7.4-seconds on Anstie, who in turn had three-seconds on Smith.

Jeremy Martin went down on the final lap which allowed Haiden Deegan to claim fourth place in his first senior Supercross event.

Australian Hunter Lawrence took the chequered flag 7.4-seconds ahead of Briton Max Anstie who was racing for the Australian Firepower Honda squad. Jordon Smith rounded out the podium ahead of Deegan.

Jeremy Martin claimed fifth place ahead of Michael Mosiman, Tom Vialle and Chance Hymas.

250 Main Results

250 East Championship Points

250 Qualifying Results

450 Heat One

Cooper Webb took the holeshot ahead of Jason Anderson and Cooper Webb in the opening 450 Heat of the night.

Little separated Anderson, Webb and Plessinger over the opening laps and their tussling allowed Ferrandis to catch on to the tail of that group and throw his hat in the ring for the win.

Jason Anderson eventually managed to find his groove and went on to stretch away from Aaron Plessinger while Cooper Webb secured the final step on the podium ahead of Dylan Ferrandis.

Ken Roczen was outside the top ten over the opening couple of laps but worked his way up to fifth by the flag.

450 Heat One Results

450 Heat Two

Eli Tomac scored the holeshot ahead of Colt Nichols in the second 450 Heat, but not for long as Chase Sexton made short work of Nichols and set about chasing down the defending champion. It didn’t take long for Sexton to do exactly that, the Honda man swept through to the lead a couple of minutes into the race and immediately pulled away from Tomac.

Further back Adam Cianciarulo and Justin Barcia were chasing Colt Nichols hard and eventually both managed to overcome him, with Barcia scoring third place.

Sexton took a dominant victory by almost eight-seconds over Tomac.

450 Heat Two Results

450 LCQ Results

450 Main

Eli Tomac scored the holeshot ahead of Aaron Plessinger with that pair immediately pulling away from the field.

Jason Anderson was third early on ahead of Justin Barcia and Adam Cianciarulo. Chase Sexton then quickly worked his way past both Barcia and Cianciarulo to move up to fourth place behind Anderson. Cooper Webb then pushed both Barcia and Cianciarulo back further as he moved up to fifth.

Plessinger continued to run with Tomac and that pair were getting reeled in by Anderson and Sexton but then a red flag came out to put a halt to proceedings after Dylan Ferrandis went down and required medical attention.

As more than three laps had been done there was a staggered start with the riders lined up behind each other in the order they had been running when the red flag came out.

Tomac got away well from the re-start while Jason Anderson pounced on Plessinger to move up to second place, Sexton fourth, Webb fifth, Barcia sixth, Cianciarulo seventh, Roczen eighth. The tussle for second place between Anderson, Plessinger and Sexton allowed Tomac to sneak away up front and run his own lines and race.

Sexton made a couple of mistake which stunted his progress over the opening couple of laps before finding his groove but continued to struggle through the sand section. Once Sexton got wound up he left Anderson in his dust and started to reel Tomac in.

It took Sexton plenty of laps to close within striking distance of Tomac but he was on terms with the defending champion with seven-minutes left on the shot clock and the pair were having to deal with plenty of lapped traffic.

Tomac though responded and over the next few minutes managed to stretch away from Sexton once again. The defending champ went on to take a convincing win by 3.2-seconds.

Jason Anderson rounded out the podium a further nine-seconds back ahead of Aaron Plessinger, Cooper Webb and Justin Barcia.

Justin Cooper got the better of Ken Roczen on the final lap to secure seventh.  Joey Savatgy ninth while Adam Cianciarulo rounded out the top ten ahead of Christian Craig, Dean Wilson and Colt Nichols.

450 Main Results

450 Championship Points

450 Qualifying Results