Supercross

Eli Tomac rules AMA Supercross round two as Jett Lawrence takes Maiden win in the 250 Class

Posted:

Wednesday, January 20th, 2021

2:14 PM

Eli Tomac rules AMA Supercross round two as Jett Lawrence takes Maiden win in the 250 Class

Eli Tomac rebounded from a bad start to the season to take victory at round two in the 450 class.

Round two of the 2021 Monster Energy AMA Supercross has been run and won at NRG Stadium in Houston Texas with defending champ Eli Tomac taking the 450 honors while Aussie young gun Jett Lawrence took his first career win in the 250 West Coast class.

With COVID-19 still a huge factor tonights second round of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross in Texas only saw a limited amount of fans in the stands to witness some exciting racing as Eli Tomac got his season back on track after faltering at the first round. Australian rookie Jett Lawrence brought plenty of personality to the show with the 17-year-old taking his first heat win and then going on to claim a maiden 250 class win.

When the 450SX class blasted dow the straight it was 450 class rookie Chase Sexton who crossed the white line in front of the field with the Adam Cianciarulo and Eli Tomac in hot pursuit. Justin Brayton, Marvin Musquin, Zach Osborne and Dean Wilson made up the top seven through the first turn. Ken Roczen was back in 14th while last weeks winner Justin Barcia was in 12th.

Cianciarulo's chances of a maiden victory took a hit when he went down in the sand section early on dropping him eight places. Tomac took up the running in second but Sexton was still five-seconds up the track. Brayton in another impressive ride was holding down third.

After a second place 450SX rookie Dylan Ferrandis now heads into the third round of the championship second in the standings, just one point behind the leader.

With only five minutes down though the race took a dramatic turn when leader Sexton crashed hard and was out of the race. The Honda rider swapped out in the sand and was launched into the face of a small jump minus his bike and took a heavy landing on his back. Joey Savatgy was another to have a heavy crash at the same time as he limped off the tack. After the moments of carnage Tomac took the lead and held a five second gap over Osborne and Brayton. Meanwhile another 450 rookie, Dylan Ferrandis was making moves with some wild riding, moving into fourth ahead of team-mate Malcom Stewart. Ken Roczen was putting in the hard yards and had worked his way up to fifth.

The race settled with ten minutes left to go. Ferrandis got past Brayton for third while Roczen, Cooper Webb and Stewart where all locked in a battle for 5th, 6th and 7th. With three minutes to go Osborne was closing the gap to Tomac for the lead but could not get it under two seconds and Tomac held on for his 35th career win.

A small mistake by Osborne in the closing laps saw the 2020 motocross champion drop to eight as Ferrandis moved to second for his first 450 class podium while Brayton held on for third, his first podium in three years. Cooper Webb finished just behind in fourth.

"Saturday was pretty scary there for the points chase," Tomac said referring to his effort at round one. "So tonight there was no choice but to rebound and stay in this fight and that's exactly what we did. The start there was huge for us, i moved outside that time and it paid off."

Ferrandis was understandably stoked with his first 450 podium. "I can't believe i'm here, i'm not supposed to be here, i never expected this. It's crazy," the jubilant Frenchman said from the podium. "It looks like the work paid off, i never stop working, to be here on the box, it's like wow!"

"Man this is awesome, these are so hard to come by. I'm 36, almost 37 that there proves that age is just a number. It's so cool to do this for Yarrive (MucOff Honda Team Owner) It's so cool. We worked super super hard and put in a lot of extra effort and i think it shows, tonight and will for the rest of the year."

NOTE: At the conclusion of the night Ken Roczen, Martin Davalos , Jason Anderson and Vince Friese all copping a four point penalty each which held up offical results for some time. The penalties leave round one winner Justin Barica with the points lead (See Below)

250 West Class

Aussie Jett Lawrence greets the chequered flag in an AMA Supercross race for the first time as number one.

The 250 main gate drop saw Aussie Jett Lawrence take a blistering holeshot ahead of R.J Hampshire and Austin Forkner, Forkner with a much better start than his heat race where he crashed in turn one and had to ride through the pack back to fourth to qualify. Forkner's luck didn't last long though with a mistake in the whoops in the opening lap dropping him back behind Mitchel Oldenburg and Colt Nichols. All the time giving Lawrence a nice break. Round one winner Christian Craig was back in 6th and had work to do.

Things settled for the next five minutes of the fifteen minute main with the main on track battle being Oldenburg and Mosiman battling for fifth until Oldenburg made a small mistake and dropped back to 7th. Lawrence held a comfortable 3 second lead over Hampshire and Forkner while Nichols and Craig battled over 5th place.

At the ten minute to go mark Forkner ran into Hampshire while trying to make a pass for second which took them both down with benefactor Craig assuming the second place position. Forkner resumed in 6th while Hampshire dropped out of the top twenty.

Colt Nichols started to find his groove and passed his teammate in the final laps to finish second.

With five minute left to run it was Lawrences race to lose after amassing a massive 12 second lead over Craig and 14 seconds over third place Nichols. Mosiman. Joe Shimoda and Forkner filled out the remaining top six places a further 22 seconds back. Positions remain the same as the five minute remaining would down as the 17-year-old became a first time winner with a handy ten second margin while Colt Nichols managed to get by his team-mate for second.

"I got a brilliant start and the track was very technical which really went in my favour." Lawrence said from the podium. "It just felt really good to be out there, i put in many laps so it was just so good to be out here and finally get a win under my belt so that i'm not on the start gate going OK, you need to get a win today, i'm speechless almost, i don't know what to say."

Craig‰Ûªs third-place finish helped secure the red plate heading into Round three of the championship on Saturday night, January 23, at the NRG Stadium in Houston.

Runner up Colt Nichols had to come up through the field for his second place and admitted the start of the race was not good. "I kinda fell apart at the beginning i was just making a lot of really dumb mistakes and wasn't really attacking the track and actually went backwards a little bit but i got handed a gift with Austin and RJ crashing and that put me in a decent position. From there i just put my head down but i gotta execute a little better. No excuses, i just need to be better."

Round one winner and championship leader Christian Craig didn't have the best start but was satisfied with third. "I didn't get the greatest of starts," Craig said. "I think i was mid pack and then started making my way through an and started to put in some good laps. I need to pick it up in the later stages. Colt got me towards the end and those are valuable points i shouldn't give up. We still have the points lead going into Saturday and i am in it for the long haul."

450 Main Event - Round Two - Huston, Texas
1. Eli Tomac - Kawasaki
2. Dylan Ferrandis - Yamaha
3. Justin Brayton - Honda
4. Cooper Webb - KTM
5. Ken Roczen - Honda
6. Marvin Musquin - KTM
7. Malcolm Stewart - Yamaha
8. Jason Anderson - Husqvarna
9. Justin Barcia - GasGas
10. Zach Osborne - Husqvarna
11. Dean Wilson - Husqvarna
12. Adam Cianciarulo - Kawasaki
13. Broc Tickle - Honda
14. Kyle Chisholm - Yamaha
15. Vince Friese - Honda
16. Aaron Plessinger - Yamaha
17. Brandon Hartranft - Suzuki
18. Alex Ray - Kawasaki
19. Benny Bloss - Honda
20. Martin Davalos - KTM
21. Joey Savatgy - KTM
22. Chase Sexton - Honda

450SX Class Championship Standings after two rounds:
1. Justin Barcia 40 Points
2. Dylan Ferrandis 39 Points
3. Justin Brayton 38 Points
4. Marvin Musquin 38 Points
5. Ken Roczen 37 Points
6. Eli Tomac 36 Points
7. Malcolm Stewart 34 Points
8. Cooper Webb 33 Points
9. Adam Cianciarulo 30 Points
10. Zach Osborne 26 Points
11. Dean Wilson 23 Points
12. Aaron Plessinger 22 Points
13. Jason Anderson 19 Points
14. Broc Tickle 16 Points
15. Joey Savatgy 14 Points
16. Kyle Chisholm 13 Points
17. Vince Friese 11 Points
18. Chase Sexton 10 Points
19. Brandon Hartranft 8 Points
20. Alex Ray 6 Points

250 Main Event - Round Two - Huston, Texas
1. Jett Lawrence - Honda
2. Colt Nichols - Yamaha
3. Christian Craig - Yamaha
4. Michael Mosiman - GasGas
5. Jo Shimoda - Kawasaki
6. Austin Forkner - Kawasaki
7. Mitchell Oldenburg - Honda
8. Max Vohland - KTM
9. Josh Osby - Honda
10. John Short - Suzuki
11. Thomas Do - KTM
12. Jeremy Hand - Honda
13. Hunter Sayles - KTM
14. Luke Neese - Kawasaki
15. Grant Harlan - Honda
16. Joshua Varize - KTM
17. RJ Hampshire - Husqvarna
18. Logan Karnow - Kawasaki
19. Dylan Woodcock - Kawasaki
20. Devin Simonson - Kawasaki
21. Curren Thurman - KTM
22. TJ Albright - Kawasaki

250 East Class Championship Standings after two rounds:
1. Christian Craig 47 Points
2. Colt Nichols 44 Points
3. Jett Lawrence 43 Points
4. Austin Forkner 40 Points
5. Jo Shimoda 37 Points
6. Michael Mosiman 35 Points
7. Mitchell Oldenburg 31 Points
8. Max Vohland 29 Points
9. Josh Osby 27 Points
10. John Short 25 Points
11. RJ Hampshire 24 Points
12. Thomas Do 19 Points
13. Joshua Varize 18 Points
14. Hunter Sayles 18 Points
15. Grant Harlan 17 Points
16. Jeremy Hand 13 Points
17. Logan Karnow 11 Points
18. Kevin Moranz 10 Points
19. Luke Neese 9 Points
20. Max Miller 5 Points