2020 St. Louis Supercross | GoPro Onboard

2020 ST. LOUIS SUPERCROSS | COMPLETE COVERAGE

Time for more GoPro videos from the 2020 St. Louis Supercross. The revolutionary camera company is back on board as a sponsor to the Monster Energy Supercross Series and key riders in the field, which means we’ll get plenty fo point of view footage through the seventeen-round championship. Along with Ken Roczen’s career-defining win that was uploaded on Sunday, we now get the clips from Adam Cianciarulo and Brandon Hartranft’s HERO 8s. Press play on the videos and see how the races played out.

BRANDON HARTRANFT | 250 MAIN EVENT

Hartranft got an excellent start and entered the first turn in third place, out-dragged only by Austin Forkner and Jett Lawrence, much smaller riders on very powerful bikes. Hartranft’s sequence through the rhythm lane allowed Mitchell Oldenburg to pull even, and Hartranft drifted to the left over the tunnel as a way to block a pass attempt in the hairpin turn after the finish line.

It’s cool to see how Hartranft checked up and used the bump at the inside of the first turn to start his favored combination through the long section, and he kept it going all the way to the end of the race, even when the line got very deep.

Forceful passes by Christian Craig and Justin Cooper shuffled Hartranft down the running order in the opening laps. Craig blocked Hartranft in the tight left turn, much like how Roczen did Osborne in the 450 Main Event, but it was impressive to see how Hartranft hit the throttle and cleared the big double. Justin Cooper’s move was quick and decisive, as he slid up the inside in a hairpin turn and took off with little chance of retaliation.

The last few minutes of the video are a reminder of why racers must push to the end. Hartranft started Lap 13 in fifth place, advanced two spots when Lawrence pull into the work area for repairs to his bent brake pedal and Craig crashed in a rhythm section. Alex Martin was within a second of Hartranft on the final lap, which forced the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/KTM rider to stay on the gas all the way to the checkered flag for the first podium finish of his career.

ADAM CIANCIARULO | 450 MAIN EVENT

Cianciarulo made it happen at the start of the moto, because he was mid-pack going into the first turn and had reached fifth place by the time the pack made it into the second turn. During our post-race interview with Jason Anderson, the Husqvarna rider mentioned that Cianciarulo wasn’t afraid to go for it on the track and this footage is a first-hand look at the blockpass in the bowl turn. We see what he means, but that was nothing out of the ordinary in 2020.

When I re-watched the Main Event on Sunday, I thought I saw Cianciarulo hop over a Tuff Block when he hammered down the start straightaway. Yeah, he did and it’s impressive to see how he maintained control and stayed on the gas through the entire section. 

Barcia has long had the mark of the most aggressive rider on the track, but Cianciarulo and Osborne could be in the mix for that honor now that BamBam has backed it down. Cianciarulo made his pass on Osborne in the same spot that Roczen did a few laps early, but AC’s move was much more cutthroat and left Osborne no chance to clear the following double. It didn’t matter much, because Osborne recovered quickly and countered in the next turn with a move of his own. Osborne’s move was more successful because it allowed Anderson and Justin Brayton the chance to go by, too. 

It seemed like Cianciarulo learned from his earlier exchange with Osborne and when it was time for a second duel, Cianciarulo made the move happen in a wisely-picked place (under the bridge) and blocked the inside line in the next turn.

The last moments of the video is the only footage of Cianciarulo’s last-lap crash that we’ve seen from the weekend, and although it was a simple tip-over in a rutted turn, it cost him multiple spots in the final results.