Blow by blow reports from 250-450 AMA SX in St. Louis

2024 AMA Supercross Championship

Round 12 – Dome America’s Center, St Louis

450 Main One

Hunter Lawrence and Mitch Oldenburg both got great starts, but Oldenburg went down after coming up short at the end of the first rhythm section; his fall had a domino effect that saw Adam Cianciarulo and Chase Sexton go down and a lot of other riders taking evasive action. Shane McElrath, Jett Lawrence, Cooper Webb, and others, all tripped-up somewhat trying to avoid the incident. Jett Lawrence had to come to a stop and then rider over the top of Cianciarulo’s KX450F to get clear of the fall.

Up front and completely unaware of the chaos behind them, were Hunter Lawrence, Eli Tomac, and Aaron Plessinger, all enjoying a handy buffer over the rest of the field by the end of the opening lap.

On the next lap, though, Hunter Lawrence went down while leading, allowing Tomac to sweep through to the lead. Following him through were Aaron Plessinger, Ken Roczen, Justin Barcia, Jason Anderson, Malcolm Stewart, and Cooper Webb, demoting Hunter Lawrence from the lead all the way back to ninth. It was a costly mistake for Hunter.

Aaron Plessinger then closed in on Tomac, and started to look for a way past, but Tomac was able to respond. With seven-minutes left on the clock, Tomac led Plessinger, Ken Roczen was third, Jett Lawrence fourth, and Justin Barcia fifth. They remained in that order over the next few laps until Roczen made a small mistake which allowed Jett Lawrence through to that fourth place. Roczen’s RM-Z450 looked to be on the boil, with steam coming from what looked like the radiator area on his Suzuki.

With just over two-minutes left on the clock, Jett Lawrence closed in on Aaron Plessinger, then swept past to grab second place. That duo were five-seconds behind Tomac. However, Jett was now lapping 1.5-seconds quicker than Tomac.  The gap was down to under three seconds with a lap-and-a-half to run, but they were now contending with lapped traffic at every turn, so caution was the order of the day.

Eli Tomac was the eventual victor, with Jett Lawrence second, and Aaron Plessinger in third.

Jason Anderson took fourth, while Cooper Webb was fifth after getting the better of Malcolm Stewart and Justin Barcia. Hunter Lawrence snagged eighth, Justin Cooper ninth, and Chase Sexton recovered from that early fall to claim tenth.

450 Main One Results

450 Main Two

Jett Lawrence scored the holeshot, but Justin Cooper had a better line out of the opening turn that allowed him to hammer through to the lead. Eli Tomac was third, and Chase Sexton fourth. Cooper held on to the lead for most of that opening lap before Jett found a way past. A few turns later, Tomac was up to second place.

Cooper Webb was running a hot pace to pick his way through many riders over the course of the opening lap and took fourth place from Sexton early on Lap Two. A lap later, Webb took third place from Justin Cooper, only to then make a mistake, that caused him to slip back to seventh. Cooper then made his own mistake that saw him pushed all the way back to tenth.

Tomac stuck with Jett Lawrence over the next couple of laps, the gap ebbing and flowing through various sections, but the pair looked pretty matched for speed. It looked like it was going to come down to who made the first mistake.

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But, no. Eventually, Jett found the speed to stretch away from Tomac. The gap steadily grew and was out to almost four-seconds with two-minutes left on the clock.

Jett eventually took the flag six-seconds ahead of Tomac. Chase Sexton and Jason Anderson had a great battle over third place.

However that order all changed after the race when officials penalised Jett Lawrence, Chase Sexton, Cooper Webb, and Aaron Plessinger two positions each for jumping on a red-cross flag at the finish-line jump. Jason Anderson was penalised four positions for doing it twice. In all fairness, the flag looked to be on the wrong side of the jump and out of the rider’s vision, unless they’d somehow shifted their gaze upwards to the top of the ramp while exiting the final turn.

Those penalties saw Eli Tomac credited with the win and Hunter Lawrence promoted to second place, while Jett scored third ahead of Justin Barcia.

450 Main Two Results

450 Main Three

Eli Tomac scored a clear holeshot in the final bout of the night ahead of Chase Sexton. Cooper Webb. Shane McElrath, Hunter Lawrence, and Jett Lawrence all started well but disaster then struck Jett.

He was completing a left-hand turn, was already upright and making his exit after turning down, only for Justin Barcia to T-Bone him in sickening fashion. Jett went down hard, and stayed down for quite some time while clutching his arm. He was down for 90-seconds or more before being helped back on his bike. Unbelievably, he continued to circulate, eventually taking the chequered flag in 21st place, limping across the line three laps behind the winner.

Up front and completely unaware of any of that drama, was Eli Tomac. Chase Sexton had chased Eli really hard over the opening laps, but the defending champ eventually lost touch with Tomac and fell back into the clutches of Cooper Webb. Always dangerous in the closing laps, Webb caught and passed Sexton for that second place.

Hunter Lawrence took fourth place ahead of Ken Roczen and Aaron Plessinger.

Eli Tomac completed a clean-sweep for the round win, while Cooper Webb took an important second place off the back of 5-6-2 results, while Hunter Lawrence made the outright podium after carding 8-2-4.

Jett Lawrence was eighth for the round with 2-3-21, which scored him 14-points. But with Webb scoring 22, he heads to Foxborough in two weeks time, and now only eight-points behind Jett.

450 Main Three Results

450 Round – St. Louis

450 Championship Points

250 Main One

Jo Shimoda got a great launch, but then ran a little wide, which allowed Levi Kitchen to swoop through on the inside to take the holeshot.  Julien Beaumier overhauled Kitchen for the lead before the end of the opening lap, but Kitchen came back at him a few turns later to take the lead right back. Jo Shimoda was third at the end of the opening lap, with Nate Thrasher fourth, and Ryder Di Francesco in fifth.

Over the course of the second lap, Kitchen put the hammer down and streaked away from Beaumier, who was now being stalked by Jo Shimoda, and coming along with him was Nate Thrasher.

Shimoda finally made his move with just over three-minutes left on the clock, to take that second place from Beaumier, who then immediately came under further attack from Jordon Smith, Nate Thrasher, and RJ Hampshire. Beaumier went from second all the way back to sixth in a couple of corners.

Kitchen went on to score a dominant victory, taking the flag four-seconds ahead of Shimoda after buttoning right off on the final lap. Jordon Smith claimed the final step on the rostrum ahead of RJ Hampshire.

250 Main One Results

250 Main Two

Once again, Levi Kitchen got a great start and was quickly through to the lead ahead of Ryder DiFrancesco. Taking that second place late on the opening lap was Jordon Smith, who then put his had down to try and chase down Kitchen. Nate Thrasher fourth, Phil Nicoletti fifth, Jo Shimoda sixth, and RJ Hampshire seventh.

Jo Shimoda steadily worked his way forward and was up to third place with a few minutes left in the contest, leaving Nate Trasher and RJ Hampshire to fight over fourth.

Levi Kitchen took another convincing victory, crossing the line 3.6-seconds ahead of Jordon Smith, while Shimoda rounded out the podium.  RJ Hampshire secured fourth.

250 Main Two Results

250 Main Three

Levi Kitchen was again away well, and this time out to an early lead ahead of RJ Hampshire and Jo Shimoda. And that was how it remained all the way to the flag! The three riders all running their own separate races and never really getting on terms with each other.

With a 1-1-1 clean-sweep, Levi Kitchen dominates the final Triple Crown round of the season to extend his 250 West Championship lead over RJ Hampshire out to 15-points.

Jordon Smith third for the round and third in the championship chase, 26 points behind Kitchen and 11 points behind Hampshire.

Three rounds to go for the 250 West competitors who now have a three-week break before the first East-West Showdown in Nashville on April 20.

250 Main Three Results

250 Round St. Louis

250 West Championship Points

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