Blow by blow recap from Indianapolis AMA Supercross

2023 AMA Supercross Championship

Round Nine – Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis

Hunter Lawrence scored his fourth win of the season and ninth victory of his career at Indianapolis overnight to extend his championship lead to 22-points.

Ken Roczen led all 27 laps of the 450 Main to break through for a win, both his and Suzuki’s fourth 450 victory at Indy. Cooper Webb moves into the championship lead…

250 Heat One

35-year-old Chris Blose scored the holeshot in the opening 250 Heat ahead of Jordon Smith and that pair quickly pulled away from the field.

It took two-minutes for Smith to get past Blose. The Kawasaki man came back at him but Smith pulled away in the final laps to eventually break away for a clear victory.

Haiden Deegan finished third ahead of Cullin Park and Jace Owen.

250 Heat One Results

250 Heat Two

Coty Schock got the holeshot but was quickly overhauled by Max Anstie who took the early lead ahead of Tom Vialle and Hunter Lawrence as Schock was relegated to fourth.

Hunter Lawrence moved up to second place on lap two.  Nate Thrasher had moved through to fourth place after passing Natzke and Schock and then on lap three Nasher also sneaked past Vialle to move up to third.

Lawrence waited for a safe opportunity to pass Anstie and made that move four laps in. Then the red flag came out while Lawrence was leading Anstie while Thrasher was in third.  The flag was out so medical assistance could be provided on track to Larry Reyes.

Riders regrouped in front of the gates before lining up for a re-start single file, one behind each other for the final two-minutes plus one lap.

Hunter Lawrence got away to the lead while Nate Thrasher was quickly past Anstie and then set about chasing down the Australian.  Hunter had his measure though and was never headed from thereon in, taking victory by 1.4-seconds over Thrasher.   Max Anstie took third place ahead of of Tom Vialle and Jeremy Martin.

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The trick lay-out inside Lucas Oil Stadium was really rutted up by this stage of the night.

250 Heat Two Results

250 LCQ Results

250 Main

Hunter Lawrence scored the holeshot and streaked away to a convincing win, his fourth victory of the season and ninth victory of his career to extend his championship lead to 22-points.

Nate Thrasher worked his way up to second place on lap two and that is where he remained. Crossing the line eight-seconds behind Hunter Lawrence, and seven-seconds clear of Jordon Smith who made it two Monster Energy Yamaha machines on the podium.

Jeremy Martin had to work his way forward from mid-pack early on to secure fourth placed ahead of Max Anstie, Chris Blose and Haiden Deegan. On the final lap Deegan fell while in fifth place which saw him shuffled back to that seventh place by the flag. MXGP star Tom Vialle finished eighth.

Hunter Lawrence paid his respects on the podium to young Brayden Erbacher that recently lost his life during the opening round of the Australian ProMX Championship.

250 Main Results

250 East Championship Points

450 Heat One

Cooper Webb got the jump when the gates dropped for the opening 450 Heat ahead of Adam Cianciarulo, Ken Roczen and Justin Barcia.

Roczen got the better of Cianciarulo early on the second lap. Barcia pushed Cianciarulo further back to fourth on that same lap.  Roczen was all over Webb and hit the lead for the first time less than two-minutes into the bout. The battle between Roczen and Webb allowed Barcia to join their party and make it a three-way affair up front.

Barcia got the better of Webb and then immediately started to hound Ken Roczen for the lead. The GASGAS rider took the lead with a minute left on the shot clock after the German made a tiny mistake that opened the door for Bam Bam to get a clean run past him.

Barcia went on to take the victory over Roczen.

Cooper Webb went down late in the race and that mistake allowed Adam Cianciarulo to steal third place.

450 Heat One Results

450 Heat Two

Eli Tomac scored the holeshot in the second Heat race ahead of Jason Anderson, Aaron Plessinger and Chase Sexton.  The Honda man made short work of Anderson and Plessinger on the opening lap and then set about chasing Tomac.

It took Sexton less than two-minutes to take the lead from Tomac and he immediately pulled away from the defending champion.

Tomac was overhauled by Plessinger with two-minutes to run.  Jason Anderson then pushed Tomac further back to fourth before the chequered flag.

450 Heat Two Results

450 LCQ Results

450 Main

Ken Roczen scored the holeshot ahead of Adam Cianciarulo, Cooper Webb and Chase Sexton. Heat victor Justin Barcia was down in seventh place on the opening lap and Eli Tomac was back in 11th.

Sexton and Webb engaged in a battle for second place which allowed Roczen a little breathing space early on.

Sexton eventually managed to break away from Webb to close on Roczen but as we have seen too many times before, the Honda man threw it away five-minutes into the race and was demoted all the way back from second to 12th place.

The demise of #23 left Roczen with a four-second lead over Cooper Webb with 13-minutes left in the 20-minute plus one-lap distance.

Meanwhile Justin Barcia had been working his way forward.  The GASGAS riders moved up to third place before then taking advantage of a mistake by Webb to move up to second place just before the halfway mark of the contest.

Barcia had four-seconds to find in order to get on terms with Roczen as the pair negotiated plenty of lapped traffic but ultimately the German held on for the victory despite Barcia’s superior speed and unrelenting pressure over the final laps.

Ken Roczen led all 27 laps to score both his, and Suzuki’s, fourth 450 victory at Indy. The last time Suzuki won a 450 Main was way back in 2016 in Toronto, and the rider for that victory was also Roczen. Ken’s last victory was at the A1 2022 season opener.

It was an emotional night for the German, he dropped his Suzuki on the ground after taking the chequered flag.  His mechanics ran to him and embraced, plenty of his competitors also took the time out to do the same before even returning to the pits.

The crowd loved it, especially when Roczen waved the kick-starter off his RM-Z450 on the podium as a salute to his 2023 nickname, ‘Kick-Start Kenny’, as the Suzuki is the only bike in the field without the benefit of electric start.

Barcia showed great humour on the podium when he said that he had tried to get his GASGAS crew to take the battery out of his bike so he could take it up onto the podium.

Cooper Webb demonstrated great speed at times but ultimately settled for third place on what he described as a ‘brutal track’. That was good enough to promote the KTM rider into the championship lead by a single point over Eli Tomac. The defending champ crossing the line in eighth place.

Aaron Plessinger finished fourth ahead of Jason Anderson and Adam Cianciarulo while Christian Craig bagged 16-points for his seventh place finish.

AMA Supercross reconvenes next weekend at Detroit’s Ford Field.

450 Main Results

450 Championship Points