No matter what he climbs into, Kyle Larson keeps winning and on Wednesday, he added to his list of 2021 accomplishments with the Stoops Pursuit race prelude to Thursday night’s Driven2savelives BC39 at The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
In the Stoops Pursuit race, if a driver was not moving forward, he was moving on.
The Stoops Pursuit is an innovative take on an Australian Chase Race in which cars are knocked out of competition, but instead of trimming cars from the back of the field, drivers are eliminated for simply losing positions on track. Divided into five lap increments, anyone with a net loss of position in each segment was waved off the track, so strategy came into play.
Passing his 15th and final car to take his first lead of the night with two laps remaining, Larson won his second consecutive Stoops Pursuit race. He took the checkers in 2019 after avoiding a flipping car and surviving a last-lap accident in Turn 4. Larson would go on to finish ninth behind Zeb Wise the following night.
“There’s a lot that happens in that race,” Larson said in a release. “It’s hard to keep track of where you’re running and where you need to finish and stuff like that and trying not to be too aggressive in those earlier rounds. (Justin) Grant was really good. I knew that if he just passed people, he was going to eliminate cars in front of us. It kind of worked out, and a couple mistakes in front of me allowed me to get the win.”
By now, the items Larson’s bucket list could fit into a child’s pail. Earlier this year Larson won his second Chili Bowl Nationals, his first Kings Royal and a major dirt late model race, the Prairie Dirt Classic.
Kyle Larson makes passes Taylor Reimer on his way to a second-place finish in Heat 5. (IndyCar / Chris Jones)
Winning the Stoops Pursuit race gives him momentum to win his first Driven2savelives BC39.
Starting 16th, Larson timed his passes to insure he never lost position during a segment.
He was third behind Kyle Cummins, who led 18 laps, and Grant with two laps remaining, but for dirt track racers, the definition of pressure is hearing Larson’s engine closing in from behind. Grant tagged the wall and allowed Larson to slip by. Running hard to keep Larson at bay, Cummins looped into a lazy spin off Turn 4 just as the flagman reached for the white flag.
“It would’ve been tough to get by him with the line that he was running, but I put a couple good corners together there to track him down a little bit,” Larson said. “Then, he just over-rotated there.
“I got lucky, for sure.”
Jeff Gordon waved the green flag over the 25 lap event after making an exhibition run earlier in the night – the first time he climbed into a Midget in 30 years. And he enjoyed the race enough to stay near the flag stand, then climb back up and wave the checkers over Larson.
Jeff Gordon climbed into a Midget for the first time in 30 years to make an exhibition run prior to the Stoops Pursuit race. (IndyCar / Chris Jones)
“This is a challenging racetrack,” Gordon said. “I have a whole different perspective for these drivers right now. That cushion is real.
“That’s not a cushion; that’s a wall. I wasn’t going to leave here if I didn’t put that right rear on the cushion.”
Earlier in the evening Gordon, the 1989 USAC National Midget Series rookie of the year, 1990 USAC National Midget Series champion and 1991 USAC Silver Crown Series champion, was inducted into the USAC Hall of Fame Class of 2021.
Tanner Thorson finished the Stoops Pursuit race second with the 2018 winner of the BC39, Brady Bacon in third.
As the SuperMotocross season heads outdoors, the NBC Power Rankings change significantly with results from the Motocross opener at Fox Raceway in Pala, California. The Power Rankings assign a numeric value to each individual moto (90 points maximum) as well as the overall standings (100 points) and averages that number over the past 45 days. Included in the Power Rankings are results from the final five Supercross rounds, which fit into that 45-day timeframe.Dylan Ferrandis finished on the podium in his first race back after experience a concussion in Supercross Round 4 at Houston. – Align Media
It didn’t take long for Jett Lawrence to rocket to the top of the SuperMotocross rankings – only about 74 minutes in fact. Lawrence dominated his first moto and beat his teammate Chase Sexton, the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross champion, to the line by 10 seconds. He had to fight a little harder for the second moto win as Sexton stalked him throughout the race and ended up less than a second behind.
Beginning this week, we have added the SuperMotocross points’ ranking beside the rider’s name and in one fell swoop, Lawrence went from being unranked in the 450 class to 26th. To qualify for the inaugural SuperMotocross’ guaranteed 20 positions that automatically make the gate for the three-race championship series, Lawrence needs to be inside the top 20 in combined Supercross and Motocross points. The bubble is currently held by Justin Starling and Lawrence needs to make up 44 points to overtake him.
Sexton’s second-place finish in the overall standings at Fox Raceway marked his ninth consecutive top-five finish. After the race, Sexton compared the battle he had with Lawrence to the one he experienced with Eli Tomac in last year’s Pro Motocross championship. These two riders had a significant advantage over the field in Pala, but there is still a lot of racing to be completed.
After missing 13 rounds to a concussion, Dylan Ferrandis told NBC Sports that he was not going to do anything risky in the season opener at Fox Raceway. If he dialed back his effort at all, one would be hard-pressed to notice. He finished third in both motos and was third in the overall standings. Ferrandis began the weekend just outside the top 20 in combined SuperMotocross points and climbed to 19th. In the next few weeks, he will get a little more breathing room over the cutline and then challenge for wins.
Adam Cianciarulo’s three-race streak of top-five finishes ended with a sixth-place overall at Fox Raceway, but that was enough to advance him one position in the NBC SuperMotocross Power Rankings and land him eighth in the combined points standings. His individual motos were moderate, but Cianciarulo is still battling the effects of injury and a nagging loss of strength in his wrist.
Aaron Plessinger returned from injury in the Supercross season finale to finish second at Salt Lake City. He added another top-five to his season total and now has six of those in the 13 rounds he’s made. With Ken Roczen and Eli Tomac not currently racing in Motocross, Plessinger has an opportunity to rise to the third seeding in short order.
A bad start to Moto 1 at Fox Raceway was not enough to deter Hunter Lawrence. Neither was the fact that he was riding with sore ribs after experiencing a practice crash earlier in the week. He was a distant 10th to start the first race and for most of the 30 minutes, it seemed he would finish off the podium. Lawrence did not win the 250 East Supercross championship by giving in to hopelessness or pain, however.
Lawrence picked off one rider and then another until he found the battle for the top five in front of him at the halfway point. Once the field started to lap riders, Lawrence used the opportunity to continue forward through the grid. He passed third-place Jo Shimoda with two laps remaining and challenged Maximus Vohland for second on the final trip around Fox Raceway, but had to settle for the final spot on the podium. Lawrence dominated Moto 2 and claimed the overall victory in Pala.
Justin Cooper made his first start of the season at Fox Raceway and earned enough NBC Power Average points to climb to second. Partly this was due to consistently strong runs in both motos and a 5-4 that gave him the fifth position overall, but he is also not weighed down with moderate Supercross results. It will take a week or two to see where his strength lands him on the grid.
In only his third Pro Motocross National, Haiden Deegan scored a second-place finish in the overall standings. – Align Media
RJ Hampshire may feel he has something to prove after finishing second to Jett Lawrence in the 250 SX West division. He certainly rode like that was the case in Moto 1 and easily outpaced the field on his way to victory lane. In Moto 2, he crashed twice on Lap 1 and dropped back to 39th. It took half of the race to get inside the top 20 and salvage points. By the end of the race, he was 11th and while that was enough to get him on the overall podium, it cost him points in the NBC SuperMotocross Power Rankings.
Haiden Deegan surprised the field in Houston in his 250 Supercross debut by finishing fifth. At the time, he said his strong result was because there were no expectations. He echoed that statement after the Motocross season opener. His second-place finish in the overall standings was enough to project him five positions up the SuperMotocross Rankings. In 11 rounds in the combined series, Deegan has earned seven top-fives and a worst finish of eighth.
Jo Shimoda did not make his first Supercross race of 2023 until late in the season. He finished fourth on the hybrid track of Atlanta, which had some similar elements to Fox Raceway. His fourth-place finish in Moto 1 of the Motocross opener made it seem likely he would score an overall podium, but a sixth in the second race cost him points in the NBC Power Rankings in a field that promises to be extremely tight.
250 Rankings
This
Week
Driver (SMX rank)
Power
Avg.
Last
Week
Diff.
1.
Hunter Lawrence (1)
89.56
2
1
2.
Justin Cooper (42)
84.67
NA
3.
RJ Hampshire (3)
83.67
3
0
3.
Haiden Deegan (4)
83.67
8
5
5.
Jo Shimoda (16)
82.33
7
2
6.
Guillem Farres (46)
79.33
NA
7.
Levi Kitchen (6)
79.11
5
-2
8.
Max Anstie (5)
77.83
12
4
9.
Max Vohland (8)
77.50
14
5
10.
Enzo Lopes (10)
76.00
11
1
11.
Mitchell Oldenburg (13)
74.25
16
5
12.
Carson Mumford (19)
71.22
17
5
13.
Jordon Smith (7)
70.56
9
-4
14.
Ryder DiFrancesco (48)
70.33
NA
15.
Chris Blose (12)
67.00
13
-2
16.
Chance Hymas (27)
66.00
19
3
17.
Tom Vialle (9)
65.78
18
1
18.
Jett Reynolds (55)
63.33
NA
19.
Michael Mosiman (28)
62.33
20
1
20.
Garrett Marchbanks (64)
59.00
NA
* The NBC Power Rankings assign 100 points to a Main event winner in Supercross and overall winner in Motocross. It awards 90 points for each Moto, Heat and Triple Crown win. The points decrement by a percentage equal to the number of riders in the field until the last place rider in each event receives five points. The Power Ranking is the average of these percentage points over the past 45 days.
