The tenth round of the 2021 Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM World Championship series—round 3 of the 250SX Western Regional Championship—went to Arlington, Texas for the first of three in a row inside AT&T Stadium and the 2021 Arlington 1 SX.

In the 450SX class, Cooper Webb (1st) won his fourth main event of the year and, with that and Ken Roczen—the points leader heading into round 10—finishing 6th, Cooper took the 450SX red plate for the first time since winning the 450SX Championship back in 2019. The final two spots on the 450SX podium were occupied by Justin Barcia (2nd) and Jason Anderson (3rd)—the first podium finish of El Hombre’s 2021 season.

In the third 250SX West main event of 2021, rookie Seth Hammaker (1st) scored the first win of his professional career. With Seth’s round three win, we have now seen three different first-time winners over the first three rounds of the 250SX West with two of those first-time winners being Freshman in the class. Australian Hunter Lawrence (2nd) made it two rookies on the podium with his first-ever SX podium, and the 250SX West points leader, Cameron McAdoo (3rd), hung onto the red plate by remaining the only rider that has finished on the podium in every main event thus far.

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After the racing was over, we gathered quotes from many of the top riders in Arlington. Check out what the riders had to say below.

Cooper Webb: (1st in 450SX) This is an incredible night. I got a bad start in the heat race but I made some passes and ended up third. In the Main Event, I got a great start and made my way into the lead early on and I led every lap. It’s awesome and it feels great to have these Texas fans here. It was a huge night and to get the red plate is great, I’m super grateful.”

Rookie Seth Hammaker felt the heat of those finish line candlers for the first time. Photo by: Octopi

Seth Hammaker: (1st in 250SX)  “Where do I even begin? To be standing up here on the top step of the podium is truly a dream come true. If people only knew what the past two years of my life looked like to get to this point, it is truly unbelievable. My teammates didn’t make it easy on me tonight and really made me earn that heat race and main event win. It truly felt like the longest race of my life. I have so many people in my corner that I want to thank, most importantly my family for being there for me on the good days and the bad days. I want to thank everyone at Kawasaki for always believing in me, Mitch Payton, my mechanic Jacob (Martin), the entire staff at Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki, my trainer Ivan (Tedesco), my friends back home watching and just everyone for always believing in me. This is just the beginning and I can’t wait to lineup on Tuesday!”

 

Justin Barcia: (2nd in 450SX) “It was a good week leading up to this, I did a lot of testing and my team did a great job helping me get comfortable and feeling good again. Tonight was very special for us, our boss from Austria was here, so that’s super awesome to get second and make him proud in front of these Texas fans. The track was super challenging and I pushed hard and closed on Cooper a little but I just couldn’t make it happen, he rode really well. I’m looking forward to the next two rounds here, I’m going to push it hard and try to take another win.”

 

Jason Anderson: (3rd in 450SX)  “I’ve been following those guys all year and I want to be on the podium and want to start doing good, so I’m going for it and that’s all there is to it. We’re going to be firing every time we come out of that gate for the rest of the year. Let’s go!”

 

Hunter Lawrence: (2nd in 250SX) “This is awesome mate! It’s pretty to prove yourself right and you just keep believing and keep believing and you believe in yourself for so long that no-one believes in you more than yourself. You keep telling yourself you can do it, but when you’re not doing it, it’s tough. You mentally keep chipping yourself down. To push through that tough time last year when obviously Jett [Lawrence, brother] was doing well and I was just struggling with my body and the injuries, it was just never ending. It took a big toll on me. We just dug deep and pushed through it. Even two months ago, I wasn’t doing the full SX track due to coming back from may shoulder surgery after the outdoors. The progression rate is pretty steep at the moment and every time I get on the bike I feel better. I feel more comfortable, fitter, stronger, more confident and sure of everything.

Hunter Lawrence is making sure the Lawrence family is putting a Honda on the podium in both the 250SX regions in ’21. Photo by: HRC

Chase Sexton: (4th in 450SX) “The first round here in Arlington was a better night for me than Daytona. Practice didn’t go that great though; I felt good on the bike all day, but wasn’t as fast as I wanted to be. In the heat race I didn’t get a great start, but I made some good passes. In the main event, I got a good start, despite being a little too far outside from not having a great gate pick. I managed to make some really good passes early on and felt good on the bike compared to last weekend, when I first returned from injury. It’s a good race to build from. It obviously wasn’t a win, but for me it’s something really good to go off of and get better from here.”

 

Cameron McAdoo: (3rd in 250SX)  “Man, today was a dog fight. We had our work cut out for ourselves and I didn’t make my life very easy in the main with that mid-pack start. But I am pumped to be back up on the podium again tonight for the third week in a row. I feel really good about where we are at and we just need to be smart and consistent each race in order to keep building on this six-point championship lead. I also want to say congrats to my teammate, Seth, he rode great all day and I am just so pumped for him. I know the feelings and emotions he’s going through as I just experienced them myself last weekend. It was a good night for the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki race team with this double podium.”

 

Aaron Plessinger: (5th in 450SX) “I’m stoked about how the heat race went with the win. Then we went into the main, and there weren’t too many great gates, so I just tried to pick the one that I felt would be best. I got a mid-pack start and just charged. I tried to ride my own race, and I started to click off people one by one, but the track was tricky; it was rough and started to dry out. You had to be patient in the berms otherwise it was easy to go down. We’ve been clicking off the check marks the past few weeks, and I’m ready to get back out here Tuesday and do some work.”

 

Jalek Swoll: (6th in 250SX) “I started off pretty good, led a bunch of laps in the heat race, which were the first led laps for me in Supercross, so that was fun. I got through the Main Event, I slapped my hand pretty hard in practice so it was little bit tough to hang on but it is what it is, no excuses, we’ll gather up and be ready to go for Tuesday.”

Three straight rounds off the podium for Ken Roczen is a reminder that the #94 has consistently struggled throughout his career in the back half of the SX season. Maybe losing the red plate will reignite that fire? Photo by: HRC

Ken Roczen: (6th in 450SX) “My Saturday started off pretty good. We felt good in qualifying practices and went into the night show with a good start. I was on the outside of [Dean] Wilson, and with the 90 degree angle, got pushed wide a bit to fourth. I made a pass into third and tried to get by Dean a couple of times, but made a mistake trying to triple in. I didn’t make it and ended up going down, dropping back to seventh, which unfortunately gave me a bad gate pick for the main event. The rut was really messed up, so that start wasn’t good in the main at all. I wasn’t moving forward at all in the main, struggled to make some passes and only ended up coming in sixth. Start position was key and I really messed that up in the heat race. I went into the main with a clean state of mind, but didn’t get the start that we wanted and on this track in particular it was really difficult to make passes. It wasn’t the night we were looking for but we go back, we regroup and there’s lots of racing to go. One thing that I’ve learned is, you can’t be afraid of failing. We’ll try to go back and do better than we did tonight and get back on the box—that’s the goal. I haven’t been on the box for the last few rounds. It wasn’t the result that we wanted, but we come back on Tuesday; we’ll let go of this race and come back and try again. The good thing is that this wasn’t the final round, by any means. We have a lot of racing left and plenty of time to redeem ourselves. For Tuesday, we want a bit of revenge and to try to start up front so I can ride with the front runners and see what position we can put ourselves in.”

 

Stilez Robertson: (7th in 250SX) “My night was okay, I don’t feel like I was riding like myself but we’ll go back and work harder. I feel like the first eight minutes of the Main Event were not so good but the last eight were okay. I have a lot of little things I can improve on and we’ll try to get back up there on the box.”

 

Eli Tomac: (8th in 450SX) “Well, that was disappointing to say the least. The track did not have many passing spots and truthfully it all came down to who got a start. You had to have a good qualifying position in order to do well on this track tonight solely because of the start. If you look at both classes, both winners got the holeshot and never looked back, but nonetheless we are not going to make excuses for ourselves, we are lucky that we get to lineup again on Tuesday and have another go at it. Only seven races left this season, time to make them all count.”

After dominating the opener, Justin Cooper has gone 4-4 the last two races and now sits 6 points behind Cameron McAdoo in the West Championship. Photo by: Octopi

Justin Cooper: (4th in 250SX) “My night was a bit up and down. It was a good start to the night getting the win in the heat race, but I got a pretty bad start in the main and was kind of just fighting for track position with everyone. I slowly made my way through the pack because it was really hard to pass. I got up to fourth and could see the leaders ahead. They were riding really well. I reeled Cameron (McAdoo) in and was able to make the pass but we went back and forth. I tried for a pass on the last lap and ended up washing out the front in a turn. Those guys are riding really well and I can’t afford to give them that much space at the beginning of the race.”

 

Malcolm Stewart: (14th in 450SX) “All day was great. The Main Event was going good but (Jason) Anderson just got into me. It wasn’t a big deal. I was just going to square him up, but when I went to square him up, my tire hooked up, and I went straight into the guy. That wasn’t my intention at all. It wasn’t the night we were looking for, but I’m just glad I didn’t get hurt when I hit the concrete because I went flying. It’s nice having these three races because we can quickly regroup and come back out for more.”

 

Dylan Ferrandis: (22nd in 450SX) “The day started off well, I had a good start in both my heat and Main Event. Unfortunately, I got kicked out by another rider which made me crash. I hit my leg pretty hard and it was too painful to finish the race.”

 

Nate Thrasher: (10th in 250SX)  “We had a rough practice and heat race. I was off the times since they were close, but that’s something we can work on. For the Main Event, I felt good throughout the whole race. I didn’t have a good gate pick and got a bad start. I tried to push as much as I could but ended up getting a little arm pump at the end and couldn’t push any further. Overall I feel like we have top speed, we just need to get a better start, especially on a track that’s hard to pass. You really had to pick your spots to make them work. We’ll work on getting that better start and hopefully get ourselves up on the podium.”

Justin Barcia sits 4th in the 450SX Championship after scoring his fourth main event podium at round 10.

Jarrett Frye: (21st in 250SX) “It was a really tough night for me. We’re going to regroup and do some more homework and come back swinging on Tuesday.”

 

Jordon Smith:  (22nd in 250SX) “Tonight was definitely another rough one. Coming into this race, I did not get a lot of my riding showed that in qualifying and the heat race. I had a great battle with Seth in the heat race all the way to the finish. In the main event, it was like déjà vu with both of us out front again battling. I knew Seth was fast and that I needed to make a clean pass, but after making a few mistakes, I let Hunter (Lawrence) get by me and then I saw Cameron trying to get by. I was trying to protect the inside line but the track was slippery tonight and I just lost the front end out from underneath me and then the way the bike flipped up it hit me in the chest and it took me a minute to regroup. I am bummed to say the least, but there is no quit in me, so we will rest and be ready to go again on Tuesday.”

Author

Dan Lamb is a 12+ year journalist and the owner of MotoXAddicts.