2024 Spring Creek Motocross Photo Gallery

2024 Spring Creek Motocross Recap

On a historic day and one that could have changed the American landscape forever, consider Motocross. Perhaps one of the few calms in America's reigning political storm.

Round 7 of the 2024 Pro Motocross Championship series continued the season's impressive and must-watch racing as win streaks continued and sweeps were the order of the day at Spring Creek MX Park on Saturday in Millville, MN.

In the 450 class, Chase Sexton, well, looks unstoppable at this point. Riding a three Moto win streak and the Red Plate, Sexton shot out the gate in third, with Hunter Lawrence (2-2) grabbing the MotoSport.com Holeshot, and followed Aaron Plessinger for 10 minutes before making the pass into second. Lawrence and Sexton left the field behind with about 10 minutes on the clock before Sexton squirted past Lawrence going uphill on a jump pass with nine minutes left. From there Sexton pulled away and won by about 11 seconds.

In Moto 2, Justin Cooper (5-3) showed some fire as he grabbed the MotoSport.com Holeshot with Lawrence and Jason Anderson (4-4) in tow. Sexton got squeezed out of the Top 5 on the first turn but it didn't matter. He passed Dylan Ferrandis (6-6) for fourth after six minutes then slipped by Anderson around the 20 minute mark for third place.

Up front, Lawrence hunted Cooper and passed him for the lead around the halfway point and a minute later, Sexton was in second. The two points leaders gave fans a show for a few minutes until Sexton took the lead from Lawrence with about 10 and half minutes left on a slick and easy pass just after the MotoSport.com Holeshot sign. Sexton grabbed the checkers in pouring rain and nailed down the sweep for his fifth straight Moto win.

"These last two races I really wanted to capitalize on, and usually (I've) been a little bit sluggish in the middle of the season so I really put a lot of focus on keeping the momentum going," Sexton said. "A pretty good start (in Moto 2), just got pushed wide. Had some work to do had a really good flow going and was able to put down some good laps."

Sexton extends his lead over Lawrence to 13 in a series now without reigning Champion Jett Lawrence who went down two weeks ago in a practice crash with a similar thumb injury that also sidelined Eli Tomac and Cooper Webb after the Supercross season.

In the 250 class, Haiden Deegan has either hit some sort of wall or knows the coast is clear for the title. And somehow, he managed second for the day. But let's not take away from Levi Kitchen's stellar performance that gave him his first career overall and sweep.

In Moto 1, Deegan took the MotoSport.com Holeshot and it looked like that's all she wrote or at least that's all he wrote. But nine minutes in, Deegan crashed in a soft sand turn which handed the lead to Kitchen, Tom Vaille (2-17) into second. Jo Shimoda (4-35) wasn't about to let the opportunity pass either. He rode hard, eventually getting by Deegan and finally Vialle for second. Shimoda continued his march forward, closing in on Kitchen in the late stages of the race when lappers got in his way interrupting his flow. Kitchen put some gaps on Shimoda with less than five minutes remaining and held on until the clock expired. Vialle passed Shimoda for second on the second to last lap and Deegan dropped Shimoda to fourth on the last lap. Kitchen, Vialle and Deegan for the Moto 1 podium.

Lightning caused a weather delay for Moto 2 and the rain almost gave way to the season's first mudder and though hardly the case, the great equalizer showed its face.

Chance Hymas (5-40) grabbed the MotoSport.com Holeshot while a first turn crash in some respects he caused brought down Ty Masterpool, Shimoda, Deegan and others. In the turn, with Deegan on his fender, Hymas put his foot down for stability which swung his leg back and appeared to catch Deegan's front tire resulting in the crash tossing Deegan off his bike. Before the final lap was done however, Hymas would retreat to the pits giving rookie Casey Cochran the lead who would hold on for much of the race, Dax Bennick trailed in second, Vialle in third. Deegan, meanwhile, was waaaaay out as he began his charge to the front. Kitchen outside the Top 5.

OK, after five minutes we've got Cochran leading, Bennick second and Vialle third who then squirrels out in the rollers and hits the deck. Kitchen takes over third, Vialle eventually pulls into the pits. Deegan is 12th at the 12 minute mark. Max Anstie, a mudder whose mudder was a mudder, was in third! Where did he come from? But he wasn't close to Kitchen or Cochran who were pulling away and engaged in their own food fight. Kitchen got the lead ever so briefly before Cochran took it back then with less than 10 minutes Kitchen put a front wheel out front again only for Cochran to retake the lead and finally with about seven minutes remaining Kitchen grabbed the lead fully and held on.

"It's been a real struggle obviously. People quickly forget when you're not up there," Kitchen said. "I've been working really hard and just traying to get back where I belong. I just fought all day, you could play with the track because you had to be patient. Let's carry this momentum to Washougal for the home town and send it there."

Deegan finished second overall on a (3-4) day Cochran got his first career podium in third on a (9-2) day taking the tie-breaker over Anstie (7-3). Hymas and Vialle, second and third in the standings, respectively, entering the round, fell to fourth and third, respectively, thanks to their 15th and seventh overalls, respectively. (Quite possibly the first sentence ever written with respectively used three times!) Hymas suffered an ankle injury from that foot dab at the start of Moto 2 leading to his DNF. Early reports indicate no broken bones.

Thus! Despite his second overall and lackluster day, Deegan increased his lead in the standings to 51 over Kitchen, who moves into second-place in the standings.

All riders move west for the MotoSport.com Washougal National on Saturday. Yes, we are all very excited. Hope to see you there!