Blow by blow reports from 250-450 AMA SX in Denver

2024 AMA Supercross Championship

Round 16 – Empower Field at Mile High,Denver

450 Main

Hunter Lawrence and Cooper Webb tussled in Heat Race Two, with Webb scoring the win, while Jett Lawrence had dominated the opening 450 Heat.  A hard landing for Eli Tomac earlier in the day had the local hero a little shaken. Cooper Webb also hurt his hand, which compounded a UCL tear that the Yamaha rider had suffered during a previous Heat race in Birmingham.

Hunter Lawrence scored the holeshot ahead of his brother. Chase Sexton had a great run towards the first turn but then went down, leaving the defending champion plenty of work to do from there.  Justin Cooper was third, Eli Tomac fourth, Jason Anderson fifth, Justin Barcia sixth, and Cooper Webb was down in seventh place early on.

Eli Tomac moved up to third place two laps in and the home crowd were vocal in the support of their man. Tomac though made a mistake on the following lap, going down and losing a number of positions on what was looking quite a tricky surface in regards to traction at both ends of the motorcycle.

Five minutes into the race and Hunter had a handy two-second lead over his brother. Jason Anderson had moved up to third place, two-seconds behind Jett.  Barcia was up to fourth, Webb fifth, Cooper sixth and Tomac seventh. Chase Sexton had come back from dead last on the opening lap to be on the back of Tomac and challenging for that seventh place.

By the ten-minute mark, Jett was on the back of Hunter and shortly thereafter moved through to the lead after his pit-board informed him that Jason Anderson was closing in on the pair from behind. Barcia was still fourth and, at this juncture, had a four-second gap over Cooper Webb, who was not being chased down by Chase Sexton.

Sexton got the better of Webb with just over five-minutes left on the clock only to lose the front moments later which handed that fifth place position back to Cooper Webb. Jett led Hunter by 1.3 seconds at this point, and the pair had managed to prevent Anderson from getting any closer.

Jett Lawrence went on to take the eighth win of his rookie 450 AMA SX season, his third victory on the trot. It was a clear and concise victory by the 20-year-old, set up with some really smart and cautious line choices while staying out of trouble at turn one by being acutely aware of his surroundings.

Hunter Lawrence is also strong and precise. The 24-year-old made it a Honda 1-2, an Aussie 1-2, and a Lawrence family 1-2, the first sibling 1-2 in the category.

Jason Anderson took third, well ahead of Justin Barcia and Cooper Webb. An injury for Webb held him back in this contest on what was a difficult night for the 28-year-old. This is not really how we saw the epic championship battle between Webb and Lawrence to perhaps be decided, but this is a cruel sport.

This victory sees Jett’s championship lead over Webb grow from 12 to a much safer 20-points. 336 points to Webb’s 316.

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Eli Tomac and Chase Sexton are level pegged on 282 points in third place, 54-points behind Jett.

One round to go… The final showdown at Salt Lake City plays out next weekend.

450 Main Results

450 Championship Points

250 Main

Jo Shimoda broke away in the latter half of the 250 Main, leading Levi Kitchen by 2.5-seconds at the halfway mark. The upper two fastenings on Kitchen’s left boot had come undone as the race wore on, a distraction the Kawasaki man certainly didn’t need.

RJ Hampshire and Nate Thrasher had made contact early that proved costly for both of them. At the halfway juncture Hampshire was two-seconds behind Kitchen after finally shaking off the advances of Thrasher.

Jo Shimoda went on to take his second ever Main Event win with a clean and controlled ride after managing to hold off a late charge from Kitchen.

With Kitchen second and Hampshire third, those scores level them at the top of the 250 West Championship points table with only the final 250 East-West showdown to come next weekend in Salt Lake City. Both Kitchen and Hampshire congratulated Shimoda on his win during the cool down lap.

Jordon Smith ran in third place for the opening laps but had been shuffled down to fifth place by the flag.

250 Main Results

250 West Championship Points

450 Heat One Results

450 Heat Two Results

250 Heat One Results

250 Heat Two Results

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