2024 Seattle Supercross | Kickstart Recap & Gallery

Benny Bloss had quite the week, as he left Indianapolis with fears of a busted collarbone, flew to California anticipating surgery, and was told during the second opinion that there was no severe damage. The Liqui Moly Beta Factory Racing rider told us during his spin bike warm-up on Saturday morning that his plan was to get a feel for the pain and see what could happen from there, which turned out to be a 12th place finish in the 450 Main Event. “I felt pretty good all day, even though I crashed a few laps in the Timed Qualifying and started dead last in the Main Event,” he told us in the scrum. “I feel like I raced the whole Main Event, which is something I’ve struggled with this year. I couldn’t be happier for how I rode, it felt like the best I’ve been in years.”

The table-on-table-off after the mechanic’s area encouraged riders to drift right, but as the ripped cover of the Tuff Block shows, they could only go so far before running into the dense foam box. We saw plenty of close calls in this spot, but luckily, no major crashes.

Michael Mosiman made his long-rumored, recently confirmed debut with Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha at Seattle. The rider has laid low for the last few months after repeat injuries took a toll, but a multi-year agreement with the powerhouse 250 team and a place in its structured training program could help the 24-year-old get back toward the front.

Factory Filming. We went to the upper bowl of Lumen Field during the final sessions of Timed Qualifying and videoed the A Groups alongside personnel from the various teams, clips you can see on the homepage or our YouTube. The high perspective was great as it gave a chance to follow riders for a full lap and we’re thinking about adding an afternoon raw edit to our weekend’s content. Check the site on Saturday afternoon to see if it happens again in STL.

Hunter Yoder hobbled over to the post-race media scrum with a wrap around his knee, then told us how two jarring incidents strained a muscle on the back of the leg. “The way it was explained to me was that the muscle holds the PCL in place and if it’s ‘popping,’ it’s a good thing, as bad as that sounds,” said the Partzilla/PRMX rider. “If it was torn, it wouldn’t pop. The muscle is good to go, I’ll be in St. Louis.” Yoder finished the night in 16th and is now in a one-point battle with Nate Thrasher for tenth in the championship.

The Jo Shimoda-Jordon Smith Heat Race battle was great until the last lap, when a mistake by the Team Honda HRC rider erased his 1.5 second advantage and allowed Smith the chance to over the top spot for the last few lanes of track. The Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha rider was just over ten seconds ahead of second-place Shimoda at the checkered flag.

22 & 23

f you have some time, find Chase Sexton’s interview from Monday’s PulpMX Show. The Red Bull KTM rider was very forthcoming about the ups and downs he’s faced through the title defense, the switch to the orange bike, maintaining composure in public after things don’t go great on the track, and finding the fun in riding. Seattle was the best that Sexton has looked on the 450 SX-F Factory Edition and we’re eager to see how this carries over into the crucial final stretch of the season.

Attention Mini Parents: take a page from the Lawrence Family’s Technique & Race Craft and encourage your young ripper to stand up more in turns.

The Heat Race win by Hunter Lawrence is going to make Real Rookie of the Year consideration more difficult. You wouldn’t think that the Team Honda HRC rider is still on the mend from a busted scapula by the way he latched onto Chase Sexton, took over the top spot when the early leader stalled, and then outlasted Eli Tomac to get the first AMA checkered flag of his big bike career.

“Six Minutes and a Lap.” The 450 Heat Races in Seattle are a perfect example of how the pace of the riders can change the actual runtime of the short motos, as Heat Race One was a nine-lap trot that lasted for 7:45.184 minutes, while the eight laps of Heat Race Two took 6:58.589 minutes.

Technique Check with Jason Anderson…

Shane McElrath

Cade Clason

Ryan Breece

Devin Simonson

And Colt Nichols.

450 Heat Race Two was one of the night’s great battles. Jett Lawrence and Aaron Plessinger exchanged moves around the rutted track, with both riders showing their speed, skill, and expertise just inches away from each other. There was one close call in the turn by the mechanic’s area, as Plessinger ran it in a little hotter than he anticipated, but a quick dab of the brakes kept them from colliding. Scroll down to the gallery to see more shots of their moto.

0.978 seconds.

It’s wild to see how much different a bowl turn can be within a few feet. Check out the bumps and lines that RJ Hampshire had to choose from entering this berm…

And compare them to the footpeg deep ruts that he and others had to choose from, and accelerate out of, at its exit. Hampshire’s runner-up result was big, as it keeps the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing rider within ten points of red plate holder Kitchen.

Jordon Smith’s night in Seattle was one you’d hope to forget, but probably never will. The Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha rider had a moment in the rhythm section and crashed into the remote camera structure between lanes, got back up, then went down again in a separate incident a few minutes later…

First gate pick, the holeshot (fourth of the year), every lap led (18 for the season’s running total of 20), and a 21.051 margin of victory, all at your home race. Yeah, Levi Kitchen had the sort of day racers dream about in Seattle. The Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki rider tacked a few seconds onto his advantage in the early stint of the Main Event, gave up a few tenths in the middle, then quadrupled the gap over the last five laps after other in the pack made mistakes. Career win number three is also Kitchen’s first heads-up victory, as his past successes have come through the combined overall scores of the Triple Crown format.

Smith’s night ended in the last turn on the last lap, when contact between he and other riders in the battle for position put a few of them on the deck, and he pushed his YZ250F over the transponder scoring loop. Smith trails Kitchen by 21 points and Hampshire by 13 with four races left in the 250 West Region (a Triple Crown in STL, a 15-min Main Event in Denver, Showdowns in Nashville and SLC).

Twenty-two riders totaled 379 laps in the 250 Main Event. This section was not smoothed out ahead of the 450 Main Event, when another 22 racers did 493 more laps through the whoops and over the wall.

Here’s the weekly shoutout to Dirt Wurx for their efforts in Seattle. A wet week had everyone worried for the worst, us included, but a very fast build early in the week, a roller smooth finish that sealed out moisture, and plenty of plastic tarps kept the gravely dirt from being a quagmire.

PC bikes with red plates. Mitch is very, very happy lately.

Round 11 already? Wow. The season is flying by and we’re coming to the end of a hectic six-week, championship defining stretch that hit all parts of the country. We’ll have a recap video covering the big run up Sunday evening.

Six frames that show how riders found their place in the pack going into the first turn.

Ty Masterpool and Ryan Breece are among the 44 riders that have lined up in for a 450 Main Event this year. Masterpool’s rookie season was delayed by lingering issues and injuries, while Breece has split his time between SX and the AMA Arenacross series, which finishes up this weekend in Las Vegas.

Older, wiser, faster? The verdict is still out on if Sexton is as quick as he was last year, but the lack of critical mistakes and open-mindedness about the development of the bike show he's making improvements in other ways.

Moments before impact.

The broadcast’s cut to the crowd after Jett and Cooper made contact was no accident; the reaction by the masses was one of the louder moments of the night and we too looked up at the stands to see what people were doing after the two title contenders had their moment.

Will he keep going? Although we’re nearing the end of their 2024 SX-only deal, Eli Tomac and Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha haven’t let out any sort of indication about the all-timer’s future in the sport. This element will become even bigger after this weekend in St. Louis, the weekend off, and the final five races.

Seahawk spirit.

Scroll down to see a handful of shots from the epic Webb-Sexton battle in the 450 Main Event. Fingers crossed for much more in this weekend’s STL Triple Crown.

RD & CR

As if the whoops weren’t difficult enough, imagine having to navigate these ruts and then clanking that boulder with your front wheel.

See you in St. Louis, the last enclosed stadium of the SX season.