Eli Tomac became the third rider to sweep a Triple Crown and he scored his first win of the 2024 Monster Energy Supercross season as Jett Lawrence took a hit in the points after crashing hard in Race 3.
Given his success with Triple Crowns, the sweep was a fitting way for him to rebound from what has been a generally disappointing season to date. Tomac now has 17 individual race wins and eight Triple Crown overall wins. The next closest rider, Jason Anderson has eight individual and one overall win. Cooper Webb has four overall wins with six race triumphs.
Tomac joins Lawrence, who swept the Indianapolis Triple Crown earlier this season and Ken Roczen who swept Glendale in 2020.
Cooper Webb finished second overall after struggling in the first two races with finishes of fifth and sixth. In the topsy-turvey night, a second-place finish in Race 3 elevated him to second overall.
Webb was one of five riders penalized two positions in Race 2 for jumping on a red cross flag, which put his overall position in jeopardy.
Webb scored the most points in the three Triple Crown races to win a championship within the championship.
Webb finished one point ahead of Hunter Lawrence, who was elevated two spots with the rash of Race 2 penalties.
Hunter finished 8-2-4 and rounded out the overall podium. It was the first 450 podium of his career.
But the most dramatic storyline of the night belonged to Jett Lawrence.
After finishing second in Race 1 and then crossing the finish line first in Race 2, he was docked two positions for jumping on a red cross flag at the finish line. Four other riders were also penalized for the same infraction.
But it would get much worse for Lawrence in Race 3.
On Lap 1 of that event, Justin Barcia t-boned Lawrence and knocked him hard to the ground. Lawrence was slow getting up but managed to remount his Honda. The damage was done, however, and Lawrence finished 21st, which dropped him to eighth overall. In the process, he lost eight points to Webb and three to Chase Sexton, who finished fifth overall.
In the post-race news conference, it was announced Jett has extensive bruising on his left side and is still being evaluated for any other injuries.
Lawrence heads into an off-week with an eight-point advantage over Webb. Sexton is 10 points in arrears.
Tomac remains more than one full race behind Lawrence (-29).
Click here for complete 450 overall results
Click here for 450 points standings
In the 250 division, Levi Kitchen put an exclamation point on his 250 West season-to-date by sweeping the three races making up the Triple Crown format in St. Louis. He joins Austin Forkner as the only other 250 rider to sweep the format. Forkner swept in the 2019 Detroit race.
“That was insane,” Kitchen told Peacock’s Jason Thomas from the top of the box. “I’m pretty speechless right now. That was for Austin Forkner back home. I hope he’s healing up good. I know he’s the only other one to do that.
“That was sick. Three good starts and then going into that last race — those lappers — I actually came together pretty bad with one right before the triple. If I would have missed the triple, RJ (Hampshire) would have been right on me.”
Jo Shimoda kept his podium streak alive with results of second, third and third. He finished second overall.
Jordon Smith rebounded from a crash last week in Seattle to finish third overall with a 3-2-4.
RJ Hampshire (4-4-2) was fourth with Nate Thrasher (5-5-6) rounding out the top five.
Click here for complete overall 250 West results
Click here for 250 West points
Click here for 250 combined West/East points
In-Race Notes
Opportunities to catch Jett Lawrence are shrinking with six rounds remaining in the 2024 Monster Energy Supercross season.
Every rider in the field has made their share of mistakes, but Lawrence made the fewest in the middle third of the schedule.
If Webb and Sexton want to battle for the championship, they need to ride flawlessly this week and for the remainder of the season. Meanwhile, Lawrence wants to get the taste of defeat out of his mouth after finishing a distant third in Seattle.
Lawrence will not make it easy on the competition after posting a lap that is more than a half second faster than Sexton and the field. Their second fastest laps are closer, but Lawrence still has a quarter second advantage.
Hampshire is chasing Kitchen in the points, so we will keep a close eye on them.
Jett Lawrence gets docked a position for jumping on the red flag in Race 2 of the 450 class.
Feature Races
450s
Race 3
Tomac gets the holeshot and could be on his way to the overall win.
After being docked a position for jumping on a red cross flag, Lawrence gets a bad start, but it gets much worse when Justin Barcia rides into Lawrence’s side. Lawrence is slow to get up.
Lawrence remounts, but he is a lap off the pace.
Sexton in second and Webb in third are the big winners in Jett’s crash. This is going to shake up the points.
With four minutes on the clock, Webb gets around Sexton. This won’t change the overall results, but it helps emotionally position them in the chase of Lawrence.
Hunter Lawrence is just off the podium in fourth. Ken Roczen is fifth on a backup bike.
Tomac is now the third rider to sweep a Triple Crown.
Webb in second and Sexton in third will make inroads in the points.
Hunter finishes fourth with Roczen in fifth.
Jett finished two laps off the pace in 21st.
Click here for complete results from 450 Race 3
Race 2
Jett gets the holeshot but Justin Cooper gets around and leads Lap 1.
Tomac is chasing Lawrence.
With nine minutes remaining, Lawrence gets around Cooper. Tomac needs to get around quickly before Lawrence runs away.
Eight minutes on the clock and Tomac is in second, one second behind Lawrence.
Tomac is riding a little sketchy but he wants to stay in contact with the leader.
Webb moves up to third with six minutes, 30 seconds on the clock.
Halfway through the race, Lawrence and Tomac are still close.
Anderson moves into third.
Webb goes down and drops to seventh.
Now Cooper crashes while racing Sexton for fourth.
Lawrence starts to build an advantage. He’s up 3.3 seconds with a little more than a minute on the clock.
Time runs off the clock as Sexton passes Anderson for third.
Lawrence finishes ahead of Tomac and the two will enter Race 3 tied in points — if the result holds.
Lawrence jumped on a red cross flag at the finish line. He may not get the win. Overheard after the finish: Lawrence thinks the flag came out late. It was actually out for more than a complete lap.
Anderson crossed under the flag third with Sexton fourth and Webb fifth.
“I knew it was the end of the race and I didn’t even look up,” Lawrence said after the race. “It kind of sucks because Vince (Friese), who they had the flag out for, was off the side of the track between. It sucks. I’m just kind of pissed. I wish they would have warned earlier.”
Lawrence was docked two positions for jumping on the red cross flag.
On review, five riders jumped the flag.
The new top five are: Tomac, Hunter Lawrence in second, Jett in third, Justin Barcia fourth and Sexton fifth.
Click here for complete results from 450 Race 2
Race 1
Hunter Lawrence gets the jump out of the gate.
Sexton crashes on the opening lap. Cianciarulo was also in this crash is limping. (After the race, he says he believes he has a high ankle sprain and does not expect to miss any races.)
Jett Lawrence was behind the incident as well and had to ride over Cianciarulo’s bike.
Hunter crashes from the lead. Tomac takes over.
Cianciarulo will not finish this race.
Jett recovered and is running fourth; meanwhile Webb is eighth and Sexton only 13th with six minutes remaining.
Five minutes to go and the top three are Tomac, Aaron Plessinger and Roczen.
Jett is fourth, Webb is seventh and Sexton 12th.
Something happens to Roczen’s bike and Jett gets into third.
Jett passes Plessinger for second. The gap to Tomac is 5.5 seconds with one minute, 30 seconds on the clock.
Jett is flying as time runs off the clock. He’s under three seconds now.
White flag.
Tomac wins but Jett’s run through the field got him into second. He still controls his fate after a poor start.
Plessinger holds on for a third.
Fourth-place Anderson and Webb round out the top five.
Sexton barely moved into the top 10 with a 10th.
After leading early, Hunter finished eighth.
With his wounded bike, Roczen lost a lap and finished 18th.
Click here for complete results from 450 Race 1
250s
Race 3
Kitchen takes the early lead again.
Hampshire stays with him this time, but he needs Kitchen to fall way back to take the overall.
The cream rises to the top: Shimoda is in third with Smith fourth. These are the top four in points.
The race settles into a sedate rhythm.
Kitchen sweeps all three features.
Hampshire holds onto second with Shimoda standing on the bottom step of the box.
Smith finishes fourth with Garrett Marchbanks fifth.
Click here for complete results from 250 Race 3
Race 2
Kitchen picks up where he left off in Race 1. He has the early lead as his closest competitor in the points, Hampshire is sixth.
Smith in second and Ryder DiFrancesco have the other two podium spots.
This race is much closer. With five minutes on the clock, Smith is 2.5 seconds behind.
Hampshire moves up as time is running off the clock. He passes Nate Thrasher for fourth.
Click here for complete results from 250 Race 2
Race 1
In 250s, Shimoda has been working on his starts and gets a good one in third, but it’s Kitchen who takes the early lead.
Still sporting a three-digit number indicating his newness to the series, rookie Julien Beaumer settles into second.
Hampshire is only sixth halfway through this Feature.
It took a while to get around Beaumer but Shimoda moves into second with two and half minutes on the clock.
Experience counts. Smith moves into third and Beaumer starts to fall back through the field.
Kitchen has checked out, but the next five are racing hard.
With time running off the clock, Hampshire minimizes the damage and moves into fourth.
Kitchen starts the night off strong by winning the first feature over Shimoda and Smith.
Fourth-place Hampshire and Thrasher round out the top five.
Click here for complete results from 250 Race 1
Last Chance Qualifiers
450s
Colt Nichols takes the early lead on his Beta.
Grant Harlan and Hunter Schlosser get tangled up and drop to the back.
Nichols holds on for the win by 4.7 seconds over Cade Clason.
Third-place Jeremy Hand and Vince Friese also advance.
Click here for complete 450 LCQ results
250s
In 250s, Max Sanford is holding down the fort for Host Grindstone Kawasaki and he gets the holeshot.
Sanford takes a fall and drops down the order.
Talon Hawkins takes the lead.
Hawkins holds on for the win with Geran Stapleton in second. It’s Hawkins second LCQ win.
Josh Varize and Matti Jorgenson also advance.
Click here for complete 250 LCQ results
Qualification
Qualification 2
Hunter Lawrence got the holeshot in the mock start for Qualification 2. He needs the confidence booster.
Roczen tops the board early over Sexton.
Jett Lawrence moves to the top halfway through the session. Webb is now second.
The top position keeps moving. Cooper leads with three minutes, 30 seconds remaining.
Jett waited until his final lap to set the fastest times in Qualification 2 and fastest overall.
Cooper ended Q2 second.
Click here for complete times from 450 Group A Q2 times
Click here for complete overall times from 450 qualification
In 250s, Smith was only able to ride once this week after suffering last week’s crash. He topped the Qualification 2 board for a little while until Kitchen overtook him at the halfway mark.
With three minutes to go, Hampshire moves to the top spot.
Hampshire (55.956) ends the session on top and has the fastest speed overall.
Kitchen is second in this session with Carson Mumford third.
Fourth-place Smith and Shimoda round out the top five.
Max Miller landed 18th on the chart with Hawkins (19th) and Stapleton (20th) heading into the LCQ.
Click here for complete 250 West Q1 times
Click here for complete overall times from 250 West qualification
Qualification 1
The Triple Crown format puts an added emphasis on qualification. The top 18 in each division move directly into the Main. The next four slots will be determined by the Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) at 4:30 ET. It will be shown live on Peacock.
In the 450 class, Jett Lawrence immediately heads to the top of the board and stays there. He is a half second faster than Sexton.
Webb is third.
Tomac needs a strong run and he lands fourth on the chart.
Down at the bubble, Fredrik Noren is 17th and Colt Nichols 18th. Vince Friese and Cade Clason are just outside the top 18.
Click here for complete 450 Group A Q1 times
For the moment, Kitchen’s biggest challenger for the red plate in the 250 West division is Hampshire, so we’ll keep a close eye on them.
Hampshire jumps to the top of the board early. Kitchen is fourth halfway through.
Michael Mosiman crashes after posting the sixth fastest time.
Hampshire winds up on top ahead of Smith by .170 seconds. Shimoda is third and Kitchen remains fourth.
Mosiman wound up seventh. Sanford in 17th and Miller in 18th are on the bubble. In 19th, Josh Varize needs to find a little more speed to avoid the LCQ.
Click here for complete 250 Group A Q1 times
More Supercross News
Check up on some recent Supercross coverage as we wait for tonight’s mains.
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