San Francisco 2024: Highlights, Results & Quotes

Heavy rains abbreviated daytime qualifying, shortened Main Events, and instigated track changes. Still, many riders left Oracle Park with a DNF rather than championship points at Round 2 of the 17-round series.

450SX:

Red Bull KTM’s Chase Sexton put in a near flawless ride under some of the most brutal race conditions ever seen at a Monster Energy AMA Supercross race. The win moves Sexton into the points lead. Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Eli Tomac navigated the deteriorating track to earn second place inside Oracle Park; he jumped from ninth to being tied for third place in the point standings. Progressive Insurance ECSTAR Suzuki’s Ken Roczen recovered from an early mistake to pass his way up to third place.

CHASE SEXTON | 1ST

“Leading the race in a mud situation, it’s obviously where you want to be because you’re not getting roosted, but it also seems like it lasts forever. The first couple laps when I was by myself and I wasn’t dealing with lapped traffic it felt, not easy, but I had a good flow and was able to hit my lines. Then once we got into lapped traffic, that’s when the race kinda starts and being able to pick around those guys is key… It’s tough not to make a mistake out there but I was fairly consistent every lap and was pretty happy with how consistent I was.”

ELI TOMAC | 2ND

“It was tough. It was like, it started out really thick, and then it stayed thick enough even with all that water. A lot of times when it’s just pure rain the whole time it’s not too bad because the ruts don’t get super deep and you’re kinda just spraying it around. But this one… I went in [an inside rut] one time and got stuck for like a second or two. It was one of those tracks where it was just heavy dirt, super deep ruts. And then there was another time in the second rhythm section I almost looped out because I grabbed a handful of throttle and hung off the back. But this was one of the tougher ones.”

KEN ROCZEN | 3RD

“My mindset was [focused on] getting going. As soon as I got going I’m like, ‘Okay, this is 15 minutes, this is enough time, with people struggling going left and right… we can still make something happen.’ So I really just put my head down and charged forward. I was kinda blown away and really happy at the same time that I caught up to the field quick and was able to just pick people off left and right… I just wanted to go and go and kinda try to have fun with it.”

250SX WEST COAST – ROUND 2

The Western Regional 250SX Class held its second round and Jordon Smith took over the red plate and a five point lead in the 10-round championship. Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Levi Kitchen landed on the podium again, this time moving up one spot to earn second place. Muc-Off FXR ClubMX Yamaha’s Garrett Marchbanks had to work hard for his third place finish after rounding the first lap in seventh place.

JORDON SMITH | 1ST

“I’ve been pretty bad in mud races in my pro career, especially lately. At the mudder in New Jersey last year I did terrible, I think I got 18th. At High Point [motocross] in the mud I did not do good there, either. And we got here today and Bobby [Regan, the team owner] was like, “Jordon, I’ve seen you ride in the mud, you just need to try to survive today and get as many points as you can’. And I was like, ‘All right Bobby, I’m going to try to prove you wrong, but you’re kinda right.’ I do feel like I’ve gotten better in the mud… I think riding outdoors last year helped me.”

LEVI KITCHEN | 2ND

“The bike felt pretty good. That was the first time it’s ever really seen any rain at all or water. I did really well. After practice I just basically stiffened my fork as much as it would go, dropped it in the clamps, just kinda made the front end light so I could kinda ride around that way and yeah, it felt really good.”

GARRETT MARCHBANKS | 3RD

“I honestly didn’t know what position I was in the whole race. The first lap I fell over and was basically dead last. I was just covered and mud and didn’t know what was going on so I just basically pushed the whole way through and saw Phil [Nicoletti, a teammate] and didn’t know what position we were in, so I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll just try to get another guy and keep myself in the points hunt for a title…’ I was pretty happy for the third and yeah, it was exciting.”