2020 Salt Lake City 6 Supercross Photo Gallery

2020 Salt Lake City 6 Supercross Recap

Cooper Webb held off a late race charge from Eli Tomac on Wednesday for Round 16 at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City to push the 2020 Monster Energy Supercross 450 class Championship fight to the final round on Sunday.

Webb, the defending Champion, trailed Zach Osborne for much of the race until he finally made the pass with less than four minutes remaining. Tomac, meanwhile, looking for the win to clinch the 2020 title started mid-pack, made some quick passes early but needed extra time to get around the Top 5 and finally backed in behind Webb with just minutes left and settled for second. Osborne took third.

Webb won his fourth Main Event of the year and third during the Salt Lake City residency taking all Wednesday races held after the restart on May 31 because of the pause in action from the coronavirus outbreak. Tomac, however, takes a 22 point lead and the tiebreaker (seven wins to Webb’s four) into Round 17 and unless something drastic happens needs only to finish 19th with Webb winning the final round to clinch his first career premier class title.

Roczen entered Round 16 in second and 24 points back of Tomac but his Championship hopes came to an end with a fourth-place finish. He can battle for the rights as runner-up to the eventual Champion if he can somehow close the six point gap to Webb, who has eight consecutive podium appearances.

In the 250 East class, defending Champion Chase Sexton brushed aside Shane McElrath after four laps and checked out for his second straight win and take a six point lead over McElrath into Sunday’s East/West Showdown. Colt Nichols took third for his third straight podium. Rookie Jo Shimoda finished fifth to move into fourth-place in the standings, ahead of the idle Jeremy Martin. Shimoda needs to finish 10th on Sunday to move ahead of the injured Garrett Marchbanks to secure third-place for the season. Rookie Jalek Swoll has an outside shot at the Championship podium if he takes a career best third-place on Sunday with Shimoda behind him.

The 250 East also brings in a tight seven point difference for the East Title between defending Champion Dylan Ferrandis and Austin Forkner, winner of two-straight. Unless things go sideways, Justin Cooper has a lock on third-place for the season but remains 17 points behind Ferrandis and 10 behind Forkner.

Gates drop for Salt Lake City 7 and the conclusion of the 2020 Supercross season at 12 p.m. (PST) Sunday at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, UT. The live broadcast begins on NBC Sports Network (and the Gold app) then switches to NBC at 1:30 p.m. (PST).

Until then, check out all the action from Round 16 in Salt Lake City. Photos by Ryne Swanberg.