Herlings Back on the Gas!

MXGP Sardegna

SX Points Tied Going to Arizona

Tomac vs. Webb who can sustain the intensity needed to win this title. The Hurrican demonstrates intensity.

Tomac Wins His 50th

Tomac ties Stewart all-time with 50th win in Seattle

 Post: Aaron Durant

Sexton recovers for fifth after crashing out of lead.

Image: Octopi Media.

The 2023 Monster Energy Supercross visit to Seattle’s Lumen Field proved to be impactful as Eli Tomac drew even with Cooper Webb in the points standings with a historic 50th career victory.

With Tomac’s victory over Webb by a margin of 4.798s, the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing rider also tied James Stewart on the sport’s all-time wins list.

Kevin Moranz, the consistently great-starting privateer, grabbed the holeshot with room to spare and successfully led the race’s first lap. With a charging Chase Sexton (Team Honda HRC) behind, Moranz went over the berm in a bowl turn and got stuck on the tough blocks, falling to the back of the field.

Sexton assumed the race lead with Ken Roczen (Progressive Insurance Ecstar Suzuki) close behind, along with Tomac, Adam Cianciarulo (Monster Energy Kawasaki), and Webb (Red Bull KTM).

A mistake for Cianciarulo and a quick run through the whoops for Tomac promoted the points leader and reigning champion into third, and he then set his sights on Roczen in second. With just over 14 minutes remaining, Tomac rocketed past Roczen, but the two traded positions two additional times after mistakes from the other on the fading track.

With 10 and a half minutes on the clock, Sexton fell victim to the challenging conditions and went over the handlebars, falling to fourth from the lead. Tomac assumed the lead, with Webb just over 2s behind. Justin Barcia (TLD Red Bull GasGas) and Sexton got by Roczen for third and fourth before Roczen fell victim to a surge from Jason Anderson (Monster Energy Kawasaki), dropping from a podium spot to sixth.

A late-race charge toward Tomac was not to be for Webb as the KTM rider settled for second, finishing just under 5s back from Tomac at the checkered flag.

Earning extra reason to celebrate on his birthday, Barcia captured his third podium of 2023 with his fourth top-four result in as many rounds. Sexton ended the night in fifth, failing to back up his Detroit victory and losing more championship ground.

Roczen, Aaron Plessinger (Red Bull KTM), Cianciarulo, Christian Craig (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna), and Justin Hill (Team Tedder Monster Energy Mountain Motorsports) comprised the remainder of the top 10.

One red plate will become two as the series returns to action April 8 in Glendale. Tomac and Webb will both carry red number backgrounds inside State Farm Stadium as they carry 248 points into the season’s 12th round. Sexton’s Seattle fate has him 22 points back heading to Arizona after a weekend off.

Surprise... Seattle Might Be Wet!

MORNING REPORT

Well, it's wet, though it might not end up being much of a mudder tonight. Some rain persisted overnight and the tarps were finally lifted off the track this morning early to reveal some water in the low-lying areas. But that might be the worst it gets as no more rain is expected to fall throughout today and the track should only wear in more as the day goes on. Hopefully we end up with a solid racetrack by the evening.

As for the storylines, Red Bull KTM's Cooper Webb enters tonight with a three point lead in the championship over Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing's Eli Tomac. Honda HRC's Chase Sexton won last week in Detroit but was penalized seven points after jumping on the red cross flag which pushed him down to 17 points back in the championship entering Seattle. Many other riders like Ken Roczen, Aaron Plessinger, Justin Barcia, Jason Anderson, and more have shown race winning speed of late making this 450SX class very interesting as we begin the homestretch of the championship.

The 250SX West class is back in action this weekend after a little over a month off going back to mid-February when they last raced in Oakland. Honda HRC's Jett Lawrence has a commanding lead over Rockstar Energy Husqvarna's RJ Hampshire and Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Cameron McAdoo, but perhaps a tricky track tonight could shake things up.

Practice will begin shortly and then we'll roll right into qualifying where you can watch Race Day Live and eventually the main broadcast this evening. View the full broadcast schedule below. Let's get going in the PNW!

Cooper ready to defend red plate in Seattle

GASGAS wins SuperEnduro Manufacturer's title

Fighting hard right down to the last moto at the final round of the 2023 FIM SuperEnduro World Championship, Taddy Blazusiak was able to help GASGAS clinch the manufacturer's title and secure himself a bronze medal in the overall champiionship standings! The legend of indoor enduro never gave up, always put in 110%, and the results speak for themselves. Nice work Taddy, and the whole GASGAS team.

Herlings Appears Ready!

Jeffrey Herlings rode his first home race since his return from injury at the Dutch Masters of Motocross in Harfsen, the Netherlands. Jeffrey won both moto's and seems ready for the world championship in 2023.

Seely Returns to SX in Seattle

Cole Seely is back! The 2023 Seattle Supercross is here and Cole is making his return to the AMA Supercross series, but only for two rounds. Cole is racing the Seattle and Glendale Supercross rounds and using them as a practice to get ready for the FIM World Supercross series. The MotoConcepts Honda team is a Supercross-only program, with Mitchell Oldenburg and Anthony Rodriguez racing 250SX West Coast Supercross and Cole Seely joining the team, alongside Vince Friese, for WSX. In this interview, Cole talks about coming back to racing, and he tells about his time as a Motocross Action test rider before he signed with the Troy Lee Designs Honda team.

Matthes On SX

Matthes Answers: Midway through SX

In this month’s instalment of Matthes Answers, led by PulpMX’s Steve Matthes, get his take on a variety of different topics, plus some early silly season rumours from the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross Championship as the second half of the series begins. If you want to send him a question, simply get in touch via the @motoonline socials and we’ll pass on the most timely questions each month.

Image: Octopi Media.

Why is Haiden Deegan so polarizing? People either love him or hate him…

They do, right? Well it’s a combination of people loving the family through the wildly successful YouTube videos that don’t have a background in the sport, so they’re just fans of Haiden and the family. Logic about racing be dammed. And then the people that just don’t get it, that they’re upset about the family being ‘internet famous’ without really doing anything. I get all of that, we’re in a polarized world now in 2023, people either love you or hate you. There are plenty of people around the amateur MX scene that aren’t fans of Brian and Haiden, they’ve seen the takeouts and the bit of arrogance from them, sponsors have been burned here or there, and all that typical stuff. And to be honest, to start everything that Haiden’s done has been great. You don’t get to where he is without the hard work behind the scenes and you can see that. Well, now with this heat race and Haiden’s immaturity at the press conference, we’re back to people remembering the amateur moto stuff and then the vlog stuff that’s always been carefully crafted to make the family look like the best, so the fire gets stoked again. Me, I’m a ‘results on the track’ guy and that’s what I go off of. I don’t have to like a rider personally to do my job and praise them. All the other stuff is noise and doesn’t really matter. So far, Haiden is the real deal and hopefully we don’t see more of this heat race/press conference behaviour.

Wildest rumour you’ve heard about the 2023 silly season?

Well, we know Bobby Hewitt is going to run the Triumph SX/MX team and they’re going to be based out of Georgia and use Matt Walker’s facility as their testing grounds. So, with Bobby’s background, I heard that Jason Anderson is already locked into a deal with them, but that doesn’t make sense I say because they’re not going to have a 450 bike until 2025 (or longer) and to that I was told that Jason was going to just sit out of racing and test and develop for them. Yes, that’s wild.

Where do you see PulpMX in five–10 years time?

In 10 years time, I think I see it all over with. I’ll be in late 50s and I don’t want to keep asking 17-year-old kids how their set-up is. I’ll be retired I think, or I hope. But five years, yeah, I think we’ll still be cranking out shows – maybe not as many and maybe the travel won’t be as hectic, but yeah I’ll still be doing something. I hope. All is well with the PulpMX universe of shows and things… maybe I’ll hire someone to keep things going at the races. I don’t know to be honest, but I do think I’ll be done covering the sport in 10 years.

Could Team Honda HRC really be Jett and Hunter Lawrence on 450s in 2024?

I know JT dropped that on the PulpMX Show, but I’m not so sure about that. It’s not what I’m hearing. I’ve had riders tell me that they’ve had talks with Honda about that second spot next to Jett next year, so there’s that. Hunter’s dominant right now, yes, but it’s not like he can’t go and defend his title in 2024 – he’s not a ‘the dude’s go good, he’s bored’ thing. I could see Hunter doing 450MX in 2024, for sure, but 450SX next year? Not so sure.

Can we consider the new generation KTM ‘fixed’ after their documented struggles of last season?

Funny how that works, huh? Even Justin Barcia, who is on the new bike this year, seems to have no issues with it. Maybe it wasn’t the bike? You’ll never know. I’m sure some of the struggles last year was the new bike, heck I had Ian Harrison admit that to me last year, but again, like I say, it’s just a motorcycle, it’s not splitting neutrons here. I’m sure with a full off-season for the Austrian guys to dissect it, look at what makes the bike happy or not, they’ve found improvements, but I’d say it’s also Webb going back to Baker’s Factory, AP being more comfortable on it that makes the bike look better more so than some ‘magic setting’.

What’s going on with Jason Anderson? He hasn’t been the same rider as last season.

Yeah, he really hasn’t. At this point last season, Jason had three wins and two other podiums, so a 50 percent podium rate through 10 races. This year? Just two podiums and no wins, but strangely enough basically the same amount of points – 187 last year to 180 this year – but nowhere close to the top of the points. And it’s a real question as to whether he wins a race this year or not. After his 450SX title, it was a fair criticism of Jason from people around him whether he was ‘all in’, like you need to be to be at the tip of the spear. He went to Kawasaki, changed a lot of things around him and last year was a success, but also, a bit of fools gold in that he swept the races at the end of the year when Webb and Roczen were out and Tomac was nursing that knee injury. Still, it was great and people would logically think he could keep it at the same level for this year. It hasn’t happened and looks like it won’t happen, if I’m being honest. Did he fall into the ‘too comfy’ trap that some said he did in his last years at Husky? His contract is up this year, so one would think he would be motivated as all hell to get things done. Obviously, if you’re a listener you know that Jason and I don’t talk much… or at all! I know people who know him well and, all that I gather, maybe he’s a bit too comfy with everything and doesn’t want to go that little extra. He’s still having a good season, just not a great one.