Blow by blow reports from 250-450 AMA SX in Nashville

2024 AMA Supercross Championship

Round 14 – Nissan Stadium, Nashville

450 Main

Cooper Webb and Jett Lawrence headed into this 14th round of the championship in Nashville tied on points. Jett had been quickest in Qualifying and also beat Webb to the Heat win, but the Main was what really mattered…

Jett Lawrence launched out of the gates well, but it was Eli Tomac who had the line to take holeshot.  Jett almost lost the front early on, which cost him a little time and allowed Ken Roczen to get on terms with him and the German ran the Australian high on a berm to take that second place. Cooper Webb was fourth at this early juncture.  Heat One winner, Hunter Lawrence, was fifth on the second lap before being taken down by Jason Anderson.

Tomac and Roczen pulled away from Jett over the course of the second and third laps. Chase Sexton was running sixth before going down hard after coming up real short into an up-ramp. The defending champ was out of the race and his third place in the championship was now seriously under threat from race leader, Eli Tomac.

Early on, it looked as though Roczen might have the speed to chase down and challenge Tomac for the win, but Eli had enough to hold the German at bay.  Then, six-minutes in, Roczen’s RM-Z450 started pouring out smoke before pitching him violently over the ‘bars only seconds later. Presumably, a massive shock failure was the cause of that incident and unfortunately it looked as though Roczen had suffered a knee or major lower leg injury in the fall.

Just before half-race distance, Jett Lawrence was onto the back wheel of Eli Tomac and looking for a safe way through. Then the pair came across two downed riders and it was Jett who saw them in enough time to take a much better line and avoid the stricken bikes, sweeping past Tomac to take the lead. At this halfway point, Cooper Webb was still in third place, ten-seconds behind the race leader.

Over the course of the next few laps, Jett pulled away from Tomac. Jett’s buffer was out to more than six-seconds with five-minutes left on the clock. Cooper Webb was 15-seconds behind Jett, eight-seconds behind Tomac, but he had five-seconds over fourth-placed Jason Anderson.

Jett had clear air and was allowed to find his rhythm and just click off the laps. When in this scenario, he is generally unbeatable, and that is how it played out. Jett took the victory by over nine-seconds, his sixth win of the season.

Jett Lawrence – P1

“I hate losing, so that bit of a losing streak really sucked, but really pumped to come out and get it done here, especially with the Slash and Gibson gear, those people are awesome to us, so I have to say a big shout out to them. Felt good out there, hit my marks. I’m bummed for Kenny, I didn’t fully see that because of all the smoke, but it looked like it was pretty bad, so I hope he was okay, or has a speedy recovery from that. This is leading in the good direction, so hopefully we can keep it going.”

Tomac’s second place puts him tied for third place on the all-time podiums list with Ryan Dungey.

Eli Tomac – P2

“I was feeling it in the beginning, I’ll tell you what, and I was just trying different lines and I figured we would have to do something special to get out front. Unfortunately, you know, I didn’t maintain the lead there, I tried my heart out, that’s for sure. Had so much fun being up front for those few laps there. I’ll try to get better and better, you know, in the second-half of the race, and so overall, it’ll be a great night for us. Thank you so much, Nashville.”

Cooper Webb’s third place was still a good points score and he only gives away five-points to Jett in the championship chase.

Cooper Webb – P3

“That was a struggle that main event. I got off to a third-place start and the guys just rode away from me, so I gotta give it to them, when you’re not on, you’re not on, and tonight I definitely struggled, so I’ll take it. To get on the podium’s great, those boys are riding awesome and last year I ended my season here, so you got a little bit of that in the back of your mind, so it’s good to get out of here healthy and still in the points. You know you can’t get them every weekend, just gotta take them when they get there, and we’ll take it.”

AMA Supercross reconvenes in Philadelphia next week for Round 15. The series then heads to Denver on May 4 for the penultimate round, ahead of the grand finale in Salt Lake City on May 11.

450 Main Results

450 Championship Points

250 Main

RJ Hampshire scored the holeshot in the opening East-West showdown for 2024 season, while later on that opening lap, disaster struck for Cam McAdoo, Levi Kitchen, and Nate Thrasher. This put the 250 East and 250 West Championship leaders both on the deck!

Meanwhile, up front, Hampshire led Jo Shimoda and Jordan Smith, as Tom Vialle and Pierce Brown gave chase.

Haiden Deegan was way down in 14th just two laps into the contest, and it was half-race distance before Deegan sneaked inside the top ten.

Hampshire continued to run unchallenged up front.  Shimoda was also having a fairly lonely race in second place, and likewise for Tom Vialle in third.

Jordon Smith took fourth ahead of Jalek Swoll, while Deegan climbed his way up to sixth by the chequered flag.

Levi Kitchen salvaged 14th place after the early crash, but team-mate, Cam McAdoo, had taken much more of a battering in the incident and limped home last. That was seriously costly, as McAdoo went from having a four-point lead in the 250 East Championship, down to third, 16-points behind Vialle. Deegan moved up to second place, 13-points behind Vialle, and there are now only two more point-scoring rounds for the 250 East competitors.

Kitchen had taken a handy 15-point lead over RJ Hampshire into this 250 West round of the competition, but will head to Denver two-points behind new championship leader, Hampshire.

250 East/West Showdown Results

250 West Championship Points

250 East Championship Points

450 Heat One Results

450 Heat Two Results

250 West Heat Results

250 East Heat Results

2024 AMA Supercross and Pro Motocross calendars