Cooper Webb races at Round 7 of the AMA Supercross Series in Arlington, TX

Motocross

AMA Supercross round 7 recap: 450 points tighten in Texas

Cooper Webb claims dramatic win to move within two of Eli Tomac.

By Chase Stallo

8 min readPublished on 02/27/2023 · 5:59 PM UTC

As AMA Supercross headed to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, for round 7 of the championship, three riders were beginning to separate themselves from the field in the 450-title chase. The move east from the previous round in Oakland also marked the return of the 250SX Eastern Regional series, where Hunter Lawrence looked to continue his unbeaten streak to begin the season.

The return to Texas featured the second Triple Crown race of the season in which both the 250 and 450 class competed in three races instead of the traditional one race main event. Using an Olympic-style scoring system the rider with the lowest finish after three races is determined the winner and awarded regular championship points. The format favors consistency and punishes even the smallest of mistakes, which was par for course on Saturday night, as we witnessed six different winners across six races.

Hunter Lawrence races at Round 7 of the AMA Supercross Series in Arlington
© Garth Milan / Red Bull Content Pool

In the first 250 race of the night, Lawrence picked up right where he left off and led all 14 laps en route to the opening win over title rival Nate Thrasher. Then the mistakes began for the points leader.

Jordon Smith holeshot and led early in race two with Thrasher tailing right behind. After overcoming a poor start, Lawrence moved into third early and began closing on Thrasher. By the halfway mark, Thrasher and Lawrence were engaged in a heated battle for second, until Thrasher got sideways going up the tunnel jump and crossed from one side of the track to the other resulting in Lawrence landing on his back wheel. It ended any chance for Lawrence to grab a second win, as Smith opened up a three second lead following the collision and won. Lawrence regrouped for third behind Thrasher which set up a dead heat in points between the duo going into the last race.

Round 7 of the AMA Supercross Series in Arlington, Texas
© Garth Milan / Red Bull Content Pool

Lawrence’s roller coaster night continued in the third and final race as he washed his front-end right in front of the field and collected Max Anstie. The duo was dead last off the start as Thrasher led the field early in the race. As Lawrence was quickly working his way through the field, Thrasher was pulling away for the win late in the race until he crashed all by himself in the whoops. This allowed Jeremy Martin to sneak through and take the race win. Thrasher hung on third in the race which was good enough for the overall win. Although Thrasher didn’t win a race, his 2-2-3 scores edged out his teammate Smith’s 4-1-5 for the overall. Even more remarkable? Thrasher captured his first win of the season while riding with a torn ACL.

“We’re pretty limited on what we can do just trying to manage it,” Thrasher said of his ACL injury. “It’s been good. We’ve just been putting the laps in and doing the best we can and coming to the race weekend the best recovered. That’s pretty much all we can do. It sucks it happened in Houston and it’s a bummer, but we’ll be good. We’re just going to keep fighting. There’s no excuses. Everybody is dealing with something, so we’ll just keep pushing through it.”

Lawrence pushed hard to come all the way back to sixth in the third race. His 1-3-6 results were good enough for third overall on the night. “It’s really cool when you’re under a bike in the first turn,” he joked. “Getting back up, the bike was good enough to finish the race. The bracket on my clutch broke so I didn’t have any clutch. It was just, don’t stall it was first priority and then obviously don’t push and make a bonehead mistake and be worse off. It was just kind of damage control and bring it home.”

Despite his worst result of the season, Lawrence continues to hold the points lead in the Eastern Regional Championship. Heading into the fourth round of the championship next weekend, Lawrence has an 11-point lead over Anstie.

In the 450 division, through six rounds Eli Tomac, Chase Sexton and Cooper Webb are beginning to distance themselves in the championship. Tomac striked first in Arlington. He roared out of the gate in the first main event and held off a strong charge from Ken Roczen to claim a slim 1.3 second win. Sexton finished third, as Webb struggled to a fifth.

Ken Roczen races at Round 7 of the AMA Supercross Series in Arlington, TX
© Garth Milan / Red Bull Content Pool

The second race opened the door for Webb to put himself in contention for the overall. Webb led early but was eventually passed by Jason Anderson. The Kawasaki rider led 15 of 16 laps en route to the race win. The intrigue was happening behind, though, as Sexton caught Webb midway through the race but was never able to work his way past the two-time champ. Meanwhile, Tomac finished fourth, setting up a near winner-take-all final race to decide the winner.

Tomac again took command early in the third race but had heavy pressure from Sexton. After losing the lead late the last two rounds, Sexton was hoping to force Tomac into a mistake. Instead, he tucked his front end before the wall jump, which would allow Tomac to extend his lead.

As Sexton worked to chip away at Tomac’s three second lead, this time it was Tomac making an unforced error. He was all by himself in the lead, but he crashed the overall away when he high sided after the tunnel jump. This allowed Sexton to retake the lead over Anderson. On a tough track, Anderson nearly crashed in the whoops and Webb took advantage to pass into second. Then, things got interesting.

With just a few laps to go it happened again. As Sexton came through the whoops, lapper Kyle Chisholm crashed right in front of him causing Sexton to come to a near stop and tuck to the inside. Another lapper, Grant Harlan, didn’t notice Sexton as he tried to move aside in the next straightaway which inadvertently blocked Sexton to almost another near stop. This was the opening Webb needed and he pounced in the next corner to take his first lead of the race.

Sexton tried to make a run as time winded down, but it was Webb holding on for the race win. The two tied on eight points each, but Webb claimed the tiebreaker as a result of his better finish in the last race. His 5-2-1 scores were good enough for his second win of the season.

“That one was a tough one for sure,” said Webb. “But it is three of them and I think I learned from the first one that you just have to put yourself in a good position early.”

“Lapped traffic didn’t help but everyone has to deal with the same stuff,” said Sexton. “So, I’ve got to be better with reading those guys and getting around them cleaner.”

Despite a sixth-place finish in the third race, Tomac held on to the final podium spot by one point over Anderson.

With his win, Webb moves to within two points of Tomac for the championship lead as the series heads to Daytona next Saturday. Sexton is just five points behind Tomac.

450SX Class Results

Cooper Webb, Newport, N.C., KTM (5-2-1)
Chase Sexton, Clermont, Fla., Honda (3-3-2)
Eli Tomac, Cortez, Colo., Yamaha (1-4-6)
Jason Anderson, Rio Rancho, N.Mex., Kawasaki (8-1-3)
Ken Roczen, Clermont, Fla., Suzuki (2-6-4)
Aaron Plessinger, Hamilton, Ohio, KTM (6-5-5)
Justin Barcia, Greenville, Fla., GASGAS (4-7-7)
Christian Craig, Clermont, Fla., Husqvarna (7-8-8)
Justin Cooper, Tallahassee, Fla., Yamaha (11-9-9)
Justin Hill, Yoncalla, Ore., KTM (10-11-10)

450SX Class Championship Standings

Eli Tomac, Cortez, Colo., Yamaha (160)
Cooper Webb, Newport, N.C., KTM (158)
Chase Sexton, Clermont, Fla., Honda (155)
Jason Anderson, Rio Rancho, N.Mex., Kawasaki (130)
Ken Roczen, Clermont, Fla., Suzuki (122)
Aaron Plessinger, Hamilton, Ohio, KTM (121)
Justin Barcia, Greenville, Fla., GASGAS (113)
Christian Craig, Clermont, Fla., Husqvarna (90)
Joey Savatgy, Clermont, Fla., Kawasaki (85)
Colt Nichols, Murrieta, Calif., Honda (84)

Eastern Regional 250SX Class Results

Nate Thrasher, Livingston, Tenn., Yamaha (2-2-3)
Jordon Smith, Ochlocknee, Ga., Yamaha (4-1-5)
Hunter Lawrence, Wesley Chapel, Fla., Honda (1-3-6)
Tom Vialle, Murrieta, Calif., KTM (5-9-2)
Max Anstie, Cairo, Ga., Honda (3-4-9)
Jeremy Martin, Rochester, Minn., Yamaha (6-12-1)
Michael Mosiman, Minneaola, Fla., GASGAS (7-6-7)
Haiden Deegan, Tallahassee, Fla., Yamaha (15-5-4)
Chris Blose, Phoenix, Ariz., Kawasaki (8-8-8)
Chance Hymas, Pocatello, Idaho, Honda (9-7-16)

Eastern Regional 250SX Class Championship Standings

Hunter Lawrence, Wesley Chapel, Fla., Honda (73)
Max Anstie, Cairo, Ga., Honda (62)
Nate Thrasher, Livingston, Tenn., Yamaha (57)
Haiden Deegan, Tallahassee, Fla., Yamaha (53)
Jeremy Martin, Rochester, Minn., Yamaha (53)
Jordon Smith, Ochlocknee, Ga., Yamaha (52)
Tom Vialle, Murrieta, Calif., KTM (52)
Michael Mosiman, Minneaola, Fla., GASGAS (49)
Chance Hymas, Pocatello, Idaho, Honda (43)
Chris Blose, Phoenix, Ariz., Kawasaki (37)