2024 St. Louis Supercross Photo Gallery

2024 St. Louis Supercross Recap

Eli Tomac picked the perfect weekend to raise his season back from the dead.

The two-time Supercross Champion, in the midst of his longest streak without winning, rose from the ashes for Round 12 of the 2024 Monster Energy Supercross season to not only sweep the final Triple Crown event of the year but got his first win of the season along with his 100th career podium on Saturday at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis.

He got a little help, (don't they all?) but - at times this season looking like a shell of himself after rupturing his Achilles in the penultimate race last year that robbed him of the 2023 title - Tomac finally got good starts (for all three Triple Crown races), dominated in two and stayed on the rookie phenom's fender for the other.

(Hey, what is a Triple Crown race? You probably know but Triple Crown races feature three shortened Main Events for both classes. Olympic style scoring determines the round's overall winner. First-place gets one point, second-place 2 points and so on. The rider with the least amount of points gets the victory.) Anyone else hate the Peacock app for smart TVs?

In Race 1 of the 450 class, Mitchel Oldenburg came up short on a jump, went down hard as his dirt bike whiskey throttled out of control giving way to both Oldenburg and his bike creating a rush hour mess and road block of sorts. Reinging Champion Chase Sexton got caught up in the skirmish as did Adam Cianciarulo who got hurt but Hunter Lawrence and Tomac were already out front. Within a few minutes Tomac grabbed the lead from Lawrence, Aaron Plessinger worked his way into second and Ken Roczen third. Roczen would eventually succumb to bike problems dropping him to 18th while Jett Lawrence slipped into second and Plessinger third to finish the race.

In Race 2, Lawrence grabbed the Holeshot, his lead quickly lost as Justin Cooper managed to get out front but his frontrunner status evaporated a few minutes later when Lawrence got back around him, and a minute after that Tomac settled into second. Cooper went down with about three minutes left trying to fend off Sexton, who then passed Jason Anderson for third as time expired and held on for the final two laps. And that's how the Top 3 finished. Or was it?

Five riders jumped on a Red Cross flag - Lawrence, Sexton, Cooper Webb, Plessinger and Anderson - which completely upended the results as all riders endured a two-position penalty except Anderson who jumped twice on the flag and dropped to seventh (though if he got docked four spots and given a finish of seventh that means he finished third so not 100% sure about the final results).

Thus, Tomac got first, Hunter Lawrence moved into second and brother Jett dropped to third. So, a winner take all set-up for Race 3 between the veteran Tomac and rookie and points leader Jett Lawrence never materialized nor did any type of wannabe generational handoff occur because...

Lawrence got bam-bammed by Justin Barcia in an explosive T-bone on a 180-degree corner on the first lap. The brutal hit (bam!) threw Lawrence off his bike onto the berm (bam again!) as others rode around him while he lay on the track. He finally got up, limping and holding his left arm, returned to his bike and rode around the track like a lost lapper. Tomac, who grabbed the Holeshot, had little trouble from Webb who tailed him, grabbed the sweep and his first win of the season to the extreme delightment of many.

"I had so many questions, and honestly, doubt in my mind at this point before this weekend questioning to come back and riding where I was," Tomac said. "To do this here to feel that way to get those rides in all through those Motos, it felt like the old me."

It certainly looked like the old him and though he remains well back of first, perhaps Tomac can make a run for the title that slipped from his grip a year ago. Lawrence (2-3-21) finished eighth overall thanks to that 21st place finish in the third race and his lead over Webb (5-6-2) who finished second overall, shrank eight points to eight points. The finish was Lawrence's worst since ninth in the Round 2 mudder in San Francisco. Sexton (10-5-3) finished fifth overall and moved to within 20 points of the lead and Tomac moved into fourth-place now 29 points back erasing 11 points from Lawrence's lead prior to the round. Hunter Lawrence (8-2-4) finished third overall for his first career 450 class podium.

The 250 West class also featured a sweep as Levi Kitchen who looks simply unstoppable got the Holeshot in Race 3 and quickly got the lead after narrowly missing out on the Holeshot in the first two races but checked out for all three. Kitchen has won three of the last four races and has six podiums in seven rounds this season. He holds a 15 point lead over RJ Hampshire with three races remaining.

"That was insane. I'm pretty speechless right now," Kitchen said who dedicated the race to the injured Austin Forkner, who competes in the East class. "Three good starts. What a day carrying the momentum from Seattle. I'm in a really good spot. I feel really good on the bike."

Don't look now but Jo Shimoda has three straight podiums and finished second overall on a (2-3-3) night after never finishing better than fifth in a Triple Crown race. Jordon Smith who had that nasty crash a week ago while holding down second-place and then crashed two more times trying to resume his race finished third overall (3-2-4). Hampshire raced 4-4-2 for fourth overall missing out on a fourth straight podium.

We are on a break! Riders get a weekend off and the West gets even more time off. Assuming the Great American Eclipse doesn't end the country as we know it, Supercross returns in two weeks for Round 13 on April 13 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA.