Second round of SuperMotocross playoffs set to roll tonight in Chicago
After a successful first outing at zMAX Dragway, the SuperMotocross Playoffs are getting ready to kick off their second round at Chicagoland Speedway tonight.
With each track the builds change and the stakes get higher. Each round of the three-round playoff series sees the points double, So while Chase Sexton sits atop the 450 class with 50 points; 25 points for securing the lead in the SMX combined points this season, and 25 points for his overall in Charlotte, the overall winner tonight will earn 50 points alone.
With all the talk of Jett Lawrence’s perfect outdoor season, it’s only fitting that we mention there’s still a chance for Sexton to have a perfect postseason, securing all six motos before moving on from his Honda ride this offseason.
The Chicagoland track build is big, with a front stretch of 2,400 feet. The combined Dirtwurx and Pro Motocross crews had the chance to stretch out and create a motocross-heavy layout. Last week the build was confined within the fan-packed walls of a ¼ mile dragstrip which favored a build with more supercross features along with the choose lane and split start to provide lap one trickery and variety.
Chicagoland Speedway is in great shape for tonight's action. Photo provided by Dan Beaver.
Chicagoland Speedway has not been held any events since 2019 and while NASCAR seems prepared to come back in the coming seasons, it’s first race back being on dirt is ironic timing as Bristol Motor Speedway announced this week that the dirt will be removed for their spring race.
450 Practice
Jett Lawrence took Seeded Free Practice 2 with the overall best lap time of 1:51.012, while the one they call Bam Bam, Justin Barcia, took Free Practice 1 with a 1:53.032. Lawrence struggled last week at zMAX, finishing seventh in his first moto, losing the chance to make his fate as the riders that performed well early still showed up and out in the final moto and his second-place finish behind his teammate Sexton was not enough to secure him a spot on the podium. Lawrence still sits second in SMX points, 12 behind Sexton.
Justin Barcia is looking for a strong run tonight at Chicagoland Speedway. Photo provided by Dan Beaver.
Barcia finished seventh overall last week and sits eighth in the points, he led one lap in Moto 1 and is looking to add more this week, Barcia who is always strong in the outdoor season, missed the majority of the summer after a crash in the injury-laden Nashville round placed him on the sidelines.
In Nonseeded practice, where the 10 riders competing to make it into the motos via the Last Chance Qualifiers get their laps in, Bryce Shelly secured practice 1 while Phillip Nicoletti was fastest overall in practice 2 with a best lap of 1:54.601. Nicoletti won the 450 LCQ at zMAX and is the safest bet for riders to make it into the motos in all three rounds.
250 Practice
Pierce Brown took practice 1 for seeded riders in the 250 class while Justin Cooper, who moves up to 450s next season, took practice 2. It took the 250 field a moment to lock in on the track as on average the lap times bettered by more than 20 seconds. In comparison, the speed difference between practice 1 and 2 for the 450 riders was around 2-3 seconds.
Joshua Varize was the fastest in both unseeded 250 practices with his fastest laps being more than one second faster than the rest of the field in both sessions. Varize finished seventh in last week’s LCQ; this week he hopes to bring his team, AEO Powersports KTM Racing, into the motos for the first time.
Missing Riders
Austin Forkner who was the star of the unseeded riders last weekend -- topping practices, winning the LCQ, and finishing sixth in the first moto -- was nowhere to be found Friday during practice; it was later reported that he had tweaked his knee and his team is uncomfortable with him putting more pressure on his still healing injury.
Forkner announced through his AF YouTube Channel that he would not compete in either of the final two rounds at Chicago this weekend or next weekend's finale in Los Angeles.
“I tweaked my knee a few weeks ago," Forkner explained in his YouTube video. “The one I tore earlier in the year, I think it was at Ironman and it’s been … not great. it would swell up again and I would get it drained, and it would swell up again.
"It was doing stuff like that, my team and I came to the decision that I should sit out these last couple of rounds and let my knee rest again. They weren’t super considered with these last few rounds, they were like, ‘Hey, get your knee feeling better and we’ll start supercross testing in a month or so’. It’s a bummer, I really wanted to finish out these last two races.”
Another rider missing from the 250 class this week is Max Anstie, who has decided to shift gears and focus on the looming Aus SX season and the remaining shortened WSX season. The rider announced via his Instagram channel. He finished in 16th last weekend.
How To Watch
The final two rounds of the SMX playoffs shift to a late start time to mirror the Supercross season. Racing begins at 8 PM ET/7 pm CT tonight, with qualifying kicking off around 2:30 ET this afternoon. Both segments will air on Peacock. Viewers located outside of the United States can stream the race live on SuperMotocross Video Pass.