Jason Anderson won his second consecutive and fifth overall race of the 2022 Supercross Season in Round 15 in Foxborough, Massachusetts to push the championship battle at least one more week. With two rounds remaining, he trails Eli Tomac by 43 points.
Tomac can wrap up the championship with a result of sixth or better next week if Anderson wins again. Tomac was seventh in Foxborough.
If not for an accident in Detroit, Anderson’s back-to-back wins at Atlanta and Foxborough would have made a much bigger difference in the championship battle. Anderson still has a chance to match Tomac in total win s for the season if he sweeps the final two rounds.
“It’s a bummer for me because I want to be in the position [Tomac] is in, or at least giving him a harder time,” told NBC’s Sports Will Christien. “But I’m going to make him take it another week and help him out and let him do it in his home state of Colorado.
“It’s a good win for me. I’m just trying to get better and better. I have goal in sight and I’m working towards it. It’s nice to see some of the success along the way.”
After a little contact between the two riders early in the race, Tomac rode cautiously. When it was apparent that he would not be able to erase his deficit and catch Anderson, he allowed a couple of riders to pass him in the closing laps and was the last rider on the lead lap.
Chase Sexton had a chance to make himself part of the championship story. He stalked Anderson and closed the gap in traffic. With a three-point differential between first and second, Tomac would have been incentivized to make up a few more positions.
“I feel a lot better on the bike; I’m more comfortable,” Sexton said. “Jason was riding really well. We both had to deal with lappers and he got through them better than I did. It was a gnarly track; one that could bite you and you had to be on your toes. My fitness feels good and we have to keep grinding.”
Musquin rounded out the podium for his fourth such finish in last five races. Musquin is involved in a tight battle for third in the championship with a nine-point gap to Justin Barcia.
Two riders who were part of the championship battle early in the season, Malcolm Stewart finished fourth with Barcia fifth. For Stewart, it was his third top-five in the last four races.
Barcia has been the king of consistency with 11 consecutive results of sixth or better.
Jett Lawrence entered Round 15 with the opportunity to be the first rider to lock up a 2022 Supercross championship. He entered the race 47 points ahead of RJ Hampshire with two rounds remaining in a series that pays 26 points to the winner.
All Lawrence needed was to keep from crashing and finishing deep in the field. He did so much more.
A modest start put Lawrence fifth in the opening laps. If that was more traffic than Lawrence wanted to navigate, one would never know it as he settled in behind Austin Forkner and the two riders who were supposed to challenge for the title rode nose to tail for most of the race.
Forkner cleared the path; Lawrence followed him through and when the checkers waved, Forkner had his 12th career 250 win, which places him fourth on the all-time list.
In second, Lawrence secured the championship.
“I’ve dreamed of this since I was a little kid,” Lawrence told NBC Sports’ Daniel Blair. “All the hard work us and the team put in. All the hard times we’ve gone through. This is one night makes all that disappear. If I knew I was going to get a result like this, I’d do it all over again.”
When the dust settled over the 250 Main, Lawrence had a 53-point advantage on the strength of four wins to Hamsphire’s one.
“My brother back home was such a big part of this,” Lawrence said. “I am so pumped that he was able to help me and I was able to help him. I wouldn’t be here without him. I feel like he should get a Number 1 plate also, because he was such a big part of this.”
Hunter Lawrence was scheduled to ride in the 250 East division, but an off-season injury to Jett forced them to switch positions.
Hunter in embroiled in a battle with Christian Craig in the 250 West division, but trails by 23. He needs to finish ahead of Craig or within two points next week in Denver in order to push the championship to the season finale in Salt Lake City, Utah.
For Forkner, it was redemption after missing much of the season to an injury sustained in the Texas Triple Crown in Arlington after he and Lawrence had a mid-air collision that re-injured a broken collarbone.
“It’s been two years, maybe more since I won a Supercross race,” Forkner told Christien. “I had some injuries the past two years and it sucks. I had to miss some races and I was starting to think I may not have it anymore.
“I came back from this injury with so much momentum and motivation.”
Forkner’s last 250 win was in June, 2020 in Salt Lake City.
Forkner is ninth in the points and could potentially move up two more spots with one round remaining.
Pierce Brown established the lead early in the 250 East Main after winning his heat by four seconds over Lawrence. He withstood a hard charge from Hampshire, before getting overtaken by Forkner in the closing laps. He held on to stand on the podium.
Still trying to keep pressure on Lawrence for the title, or at least push the battle into one more week, Hampshire challenged Brown until he went down with four minutes remaining on the clock. The incident happened as the pair battled for the lead. Hampshire ended the day sixth.
Mitchell Oldenburg in fourth and Kyle Chisholm rounded out the top five.