Pre-Race Notebook | 2024 Texas 1

The SuperMotocross World Championship has stormed into Texas' Motor Speedway, a small jaunt from Dallas Fort-Worth, for the second playoff. The on-track action commenced with free practice this afternoon – sessions that provide a rare chance to eliminate confusion with bike set-up on a unique track layout.

Chase Sexton rebounded from a subpar appearance at Charlotte Motor Speedway to record the best lap time across the two 450SMX sessions. A 1:14.223 made him 00.148 faster than Jett Lawrence, who has taken control of the runner-up position in the championship standings thanks to that triumph in his return to competition. Sexton, who admitted that flat corners were troublesome for his KTM 450 SX-F last week, went back to work and seems to have taken a step forward. It is worth considering that '4' was the fastest rider in free practice last week too.

"It was not so much the third [that upset me last week] – it was the fact that I was not in the fight," Sexton said in the pre-race press conference. "If I was close to them and battling then it would have been a little bit better. I went back to work this week, tried to test and become more comfortable. It is hard with how these tracks are. You never really know if you are going to run motocross or supercross suspension. It is nice to have two practice sessions today to adapt to the track. I think that this is going to be very different to last week."

The track's different to last week, of course, but comparable to the Monster Energy AMA Supercross races that were held at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2022 and 2023. In fact, this SMX circuit is shorter than what the riders encountered in their last visit to Atlanta (lap times are 10 seconds faster than at that race in the April of last year). The increased pace has left most with a lot to ponder prior to qualification – the hard-pack soil will add to that. Temperatures that have pushed three digits are causing certain spots, like the finish line take-off and entrance to the start straight, to resemble the old Las Vegas events.

The slick surface should render the scoop unusable, although Eli Tomac used it with some success in the first free practice session – he raced to the fastest time in that. "[I will use it] for free practice and see how it goes," Tomac commented before hitting the track. "That is what is cool about Friday – you can try some stuff and not stress about throwing up a time. You will see the scoop on my rear wheel in the first session." It is unclear what tire was attached to his YZ450F in the second session, where he was third, but this is an interesting twist in the narrative.

It is no surprise that Tomac was the fastest rider in sector three – the motocross section that follows the split section – in both sessions. In fact, he was five tenths faster there in the first stint. Jett Lawrence was just as effective in sector eight, the rhythm section, in the second practice session. There were two options there: double, double and triple or double, triple and double. The latter was a popular option for the best riders late in the second session and used by '1' en route to the sector time of note. No star appeared in the top six in all nine of the sectors. Parity is rife.

Most impressive is the fact that Sexton lost six tenths to Lawrence in sector eight, fast lap to fast lap, and still jumped atop the scoreboard. Sexton pulled nine tenths on his foe across sectors six and seven, which helped him counterbalance Lawrence's effectiveness in the supercross-style section. There's a lot to extract from this information, as the pair posted their best times on lap seven of the session and so faced identical conditions. Tomac, in comparison, posted the third-fastest time on the final lap and was nine tenths slower than Lawrence in the rhythm section.

Jason Anderson was solid as expected in his return: the base that he was able to build over seven months of competition would not have been impacted after a week off the KX450. It was his lower back that was hurt in the vicious Charlotte crash – it made it difficult for him to relax but was otherwise not much of a nuisance. Anderson was classified in sixth today, 16 positions ahead of fellow returnee Justin Barcia who is about to race for the first time in 77 days. The addition of these seeded riders means that just two will be extracted from the 450SMX last chance qualifier.

The 250SMX division is not quite as healthy. Casey Cochran of Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing will not race until 2025 – he has withdrawn from the SuperMotocross World Championship after that fall in qualification in Charlotte. Triumph Racing's Jalek Swoll will skip the Texas fixture as well, as he continues to recover from a concussion suffered just six days ago, but he remains hopeful of a return to race in the SMX World Championship Finals. The TF 250-X was on show in the 'Fan Fest' today, pointing to the fact that the manufacturer was hopeful that he would be race ready.

Max Anstie almost joined those who are inactive – he suffered a vicious crash at the start of the first free practice session and was down for some time. The impact from his crash caused his YZ250FM to bounce into another lane, which underlines just how bad the outcome could have been. '37' climbed back to his feet, after some time, and returned to post the seventh time in the second session. Bizarrely, he likened the conditions at the Texas Motor Speedway to the 2013 Grand Prix of Germany. That event was run in intense heat at the Lausitzring road-race facility in the northeast of the nation.

Saturday's playoff will start with qualification at 09:20am EST. The pre-race show, live on Peacock, is set to be broadcast at 02:30pm EST before gates fall on the first 250SMX main event at 03:04pm EST. There will be a same-day broadcast on the USA Network (starting at 06:00pm EST).