Justin Barcia Earns First Supercross Victory in Two Years at East Rutherford

MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ — April 22, 2023

It was a newsworthy week in motocross as Monster Energy signed on as presenting sponsor of the SuperMotocross World Championships Finals and extended its title partnership with Supercross.

Monster Energy’s long-term partnership with Supercross began in 2007 and has had significant success and growth across the 17-round season in premier sporting venues around the country. The new relationship keeps Monster Energy as the title sponsor of Supercross through the 2025 season.

RJ Hampshire Extends Contract

In addition, it was announced yesterday that Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing and RJ Hampshire will continue together for the next two seasons of the SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX), inclusive of the 2024 and 2025 AMA Supercross and Pro Motocross series.

Hampshire has signed to remain onboard the Husqvarna FC 250 for the duration of this latest contract extension. The 27-year-old first joined Rockstar Energy Husqvarna in 2020, impressing to date within the program to score three Pro Motocross 250MX overall wins, a 250SX Main Event victory, and multiple podium finishes across both championships.

Supporting St Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Round 14 in East Rutherford, NJ, will act as this year’s Love Moto Stop Cancer race, a race dedicated entirely to the kids of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Athletes and race teams will deck out their bike graphics and racing gear in patient-inspired artwork to celebrate the occasion, those items will be entered into the annual St. Jude auction. The auction will run online at supercrosslive.com/stjude from May 1 – May 15, with 100% of the proceeds going directly to St. Jude and its mission of Finding Cures. Saving Children.

East Rutherford

East Rutherford hosted Supercross races from 1987-1991 in Giants Stadium at The Meadowlands. Giants Stadium was demolished in 2010, and MetLife Stadium was built in its place. The series returned to the city in 2014 at MetLife Stadium and remained on the schedule through 2017 and again in 2019. East Rutherford’s 2023 Supercross will be their 11th in history and sixth in MetLife Stadium.

Tonight’s feature race in the 250CC class is an East/West showdown. We finally get to see the Lawrence brothers, Jett and Hunter, face off against each other for the first time this year.

With his win last week at Atlanta, Chase Sexton stepped back into position to make a run for the 450CC championship if Eli Tomac and Cooper Webb falter down the final weeks of the Supercross season.

250SX West Heat

RJ Hampshire(24) earned the holeshot, and surprisingly, Jett Lawrence(18) ran seventh on lap one. Max Vohland(34) sat in the second spot, and Pierce Brown(33) was in the third position. Lawrence moved to fourth and dispatched of Brown in the final minute of the timed portion of the moto.

With two laps to go, Hampshire held a comfortable lead while Lawrence worked his way around Vohland. Jett closed the gap but could not catch the leader before time ran out.

250SX East Heat

One rider not in the East lineup tonight is Nate Thrasher. After his crash in Atlanta, he is out of competition for the remainder of the Supercross season.

Joe Shimoda(30) fired off quickly and took the early lead. Haiden Deegan(238) and Hunter Lawrence(96) battled for second. Deegan shut down Lawrence initially. However, Hunter soon worked his way around, then set out to run down Shimoda, who held almost a full second lead as the time expired.

Lawrence tried to put some pressure on over the final two laps, but it was Shimoda grabbing his first Supercross event win.

450SX Heats

Points leader Eli Tomac suffered a crash in qualifying and limped away from this bike. He returned in the second qualifying session and showed no ill effects, saying he had just bruised his knee.

Ken Roczen(94) and Cooper Webb(2) were in a dead heat out of the starting gate. They swapped positions on the first lap before Roczen pulled away to a slight lead in Heat One. Justin Hill(46) ran safely in third but well behind the leaders. The interval between Roczen and Webb fluctuated around two seconds. But Ken would not give an inch, taking the Heat win.

In Heat Two, Chase Sexton(23), Justin Barcia(51), and Jason Anderson(21) were the early leaders, while Eli Tomac was laboring back in 11th after getting squeezed out in the first turn. Sexton pulled out to a big lead, Barcia went down trying to keep pace, and Anderson moved into second. Tomac worked through traffic to get up to fourth, and that is how they finished.

Before the main events of the evening could get on the track, racing was delayed due to lightning in the area of the stadium. It took an hour and a half for lightning to move out of the area and racing could safely resume.

250SX East/West Showdown

With rain still falling and standing water all around the track the 250SX riders began the process of selecting their starting gates based on their finishing position in the Heats. The Lawrence brothers, with the third and fourth gate selections, were positioned left center separated by RJ Hampshire and Joe Shimoda

The gate drop produced huge rooster tails behind each bike and the field tip-toed around the first turn. It was Max Anstie(63) and Max Vohland who found the best traction and took the early lead. Jett Lawrence was fifth across the line followed by Hunter Lawrence in seventh place.

At the end of the first lap RJ Hampshire held down the third spot with Jett and Hunter fourth and fifth. Being the leader in a mud race is a huge advantage. Avoiding the spray of other riders preserves vision, comfort, and engine performance

At the halfway point, Anstie built a six second lead over Vohland. Jett had passed Hampshire while Hunter remained in fifth.

Vohland began to fade as Jett Lawrence and Hampshire moved around. Jett trailed the leader by almost 10 seconds. The interval dropped to two seconds with two laps to go, but Jett was having vision problems which stalled his run to make a pass. On the last lap Anstie pulled away for the win. Hampshire rode hard into the second to last corner, which was flooded with water, and slid under Jett who lost control and fell ontop of RJ.

Hunter passed to take second and Jett recovered for third. Hampshire’s bike was soo deep in the mud he could not pull it free. He finished 13th, the last rider on the lead lap.

250SX East/West Showdown Results

Combined 250SX East/West Standings

450SX Main Event

Ken Roczen, Justin Barcia, and Chase Sexton fought through the first corner for the first position. Eli Tomac came out of the first turn in fifth. Sexton ran into the rear wheel of Barcia and went down allowing Tomac to move up into the third spot

Tomac’s championship challengers were behind with Cooper Webb in fifth and Sexton running sixth.

Five minutes in, Roczen began lapping riders. Unable to move through cleanly, Barcia made a pass for the lead.

Just past the halfway point, only five riders remained on the lead lap. Barcia led Roczen by almost 10 seconds. Tomac was 18 seconds back in third. Sexton trailed by 36 seconds and Webb was indanger of being lapped running 50 seconds behind the leader.

The only real race for position amoung the leaders was Tomac closing on Roczen. In the badly rutted whoops section of the track, Roczen got crossed up allowing Tomac to make the pass for second place.

With large intervals between each rider the finish was assured, as long as everyone stayed upright. Webb did go a lap down as the top four crawled their way across the finish line. Tomac stretched his points lead to 11 over Webb and 21 over Sexton. Only three events remain on the schedule, time is running out for anyone to dethrone the defending champion.

450SX Main Event Results

450SX Points Standings