Race Report: Chase Sexton and Levi Kitchen Dominate Spring Creek

The consistency of great racing we have been treated to this season doesn’t stop here for the 2024 AMA Pro Motocross Championship, Round #7, at the FXR Spring Creek National in scenic Millville, Minnesota. It was a hot afternoon and challenging track in Minnesota, but eventually, dark clouds turned into rain, and rain showed up in the later stages, making for an interesting 250MX second moto.

Coming into this weekend, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Chase Sexton took control of the 450MX Championship points lead one week ago at his home track of RedBud in Michigan, going 1-1, knocking Team Honda HRC’s Hunter Lawrence back to second in the standings, seven points back.

In the 250MX division, Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Haiden Deegan comes off his worst season result at RedBud while still up forty-two points over second in points and last weekend’s career first-overall winner, Team Honda HRC’s Chance Hymas.

Let’s break down each moto, along with what the top three riders in each class stated after the day’s racing:

450MX Moto 1

The first gate drop of the day, with the NBC broadcasted schedule, is the 450MX class. Team Honda HRC’s Hunter Lawrence secures his fifth Motosport.com holeshot of the season. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Aaron Plessinger runs second, his teammate and championship points leader, Chase Sexton, in third, with Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jason Anderson fourth—nearly all the top contenders out front early in this moto. Plessinger starts to challenge Lawrence, with Sexton following closely. The top three riders are within two seconds of each other after a few laps. Muc-Off/ClubMx/FXR Yamaha’s Garrett Marchbanks faces an early setback with a wheel malfunction and eventually withdraws from the moto due to feeling unwell.

Sexton begins his charge, overtaking his teammate Plessinger with a late brake maneuver down the hill heading up to Mt. Martin. Lawrence struggles to find a rhythm in the sand rollers, which cost him time throughout this race. Halfway through the moto, Sexton nearly takes the lead around the outside of the sand rollers, but Lawrence manages to hold on, maintaining a one-second lead.

Twenty minutes in, Sexton, after multiple passing attempts, finally passes Lawrence after a slight mistake made at the bottom of the hill heading up Mt. Martin, scrubbing the uphill triple to complete the pass at the top. Within one lap, Sexton extends his lead by four seconds. With three minutes and two laps remaining, Plessinger starts to close in on Lawrence, but then Hunter puts in some better laps, extending that gap back out. Anderson remains close in fourth, and Justin Cooper moves up to fifth, overtaking Ferrandis. Sexton wins his fourth consecutive moto in a row, followed by Hunter in second and Plessinger in third.

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250MX Moto 1

As the 250MX gate drops for their first moto, points leader Haiden Deegan takes the Motosport.com holeshot, followed by Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing's Casey Cochran, Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Levi Kitchen, teammate Ty Masterpool, and Team Honda HRC’s Jo Shimoda rounding out the top 5 early. Kitchen quickly moves past Cochran, entering the sand rollers, while Vialle comes out of nowhere to advance to third. Hymas overtakes Cochran for fifth, and Masterpool falls back to seventh. Despite a shoulder injury from qualifying practice, Shimoda races on.

Ten minutes into the moto, Deegan starts pulling away from the field but crashes before the finish line, granting Kitchen the lead. Vialle is close behind Kitchen, with Deegan quickly recovering to challenge again. Kitchen out front, then tips over in the same corner as Deegan but maintains his lead due to a gap he had built. Shimoda now joins the battle, creating a four-rider fight for the lead.

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On the move, Shimoda passes Deegan and Vialle, closing in on Kitchen with 10 minutes plus two laps remaining. A three-way battle for the lead ensues with 5 minutes plus two laps left. Jo completes the pass, but Vialle strikes back quickly and jumps past Shimoda to repass, heading towards the mechanics' area. In the final moments, Deegan and Shimoda battle back and forth, with Deegan moving into third place on Mt. Martin, but Shimoda cuts off his line at the top of the hill to regain the position. In the exact spot where Vialle passed for second, Deegan repasses Shimoda for third. Kitchen will win his fourth career moto, the first one for him here in this 2024 season, followed by Vialle and Deegan.

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450MX Moto 2

In the final moto of the 450 class, Justin Cooper grabs the holeshot, followed by Hunter Lawrence and Jason Anderson. Chase Sexton had a bad start and was outside the top five. The opening laps saw a tight battle for the lead, with Cooper out front, Lawrence second, and Anderson third. Ferrandis moves up to fourth, while Plessinger falls while attempting to pass Ferrandis and drops back to eighth. After a few moments, Sexton begins to advance, passing Ferrandis with a late brake move before the finish line corner.

Lawrence closes in on Cooper ten minutes into the race and starts applying pressure. Sexton overtakes Anderson for third, trailing the race leader by six seconds. Midway through the race, a three-way battle for the lead unfolds. Around the same time as the battle for the lead is shaping up, Plessinger reclaims fifth from Ferrandis, with Anderson still in fourth. Lawrence overtakes and muscles his way around Cooper in the final corner to take the lead, and here comes Chase Sexton. Soon, passing Cooper for a second around the outside of the sand rollers and sets his eyes on the front runner, Lawrence.

During this go-around, Sexton seizes the lead quickly on the inside of the tabletop before the sand rollers and begins to pull away from the field. While nearly on his back wheel, Cooper gains ground on Lawrence for second place but goes off track, entering the sand rollers and losing his progress. With two laps remaining in this final 450 moto, the rain and lightning start.

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Sexton dominates the day, going 1-1 at Spring Creek. This marks his fifth moto win and second overall win in a row, extending his points lead over Lawrence and now fully in control of this Pro Motocross Championship. Lawrence finishes second overall on the day, and Justin Cooper is back on the podium with a third-place finish in the second moto. Cooper and Plessinger are now tied for 3rd place in the points standings.

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First Place, Chase Sexton: “I felt good on the bike today. Qualifying wasn’t great. I was riding a little bit like an idiot. The first couple of laps in the first moto, I just tried to calm down and kind of get into a flow. Once I find the flow, it makes it a lot easier. The sand rollers were really gnarly today, and they were the main point of the track for me. In the second moto, I had a really good pace after about ten minutes, and I had a lot of fun. The track was difficult and warm today, so it made for more separation.”

Second Place, Hunter Lawrence: “I was buggin'. Chase has been riding unreal all day, so I tried to make it tough on him. I was struggling all day today. We had a bike shoot with media for the new 2025 bike, and that was not the normal regimen. It’s my job to show up and go out there giving it 100%, and that’s what we did. We will keep chipping away.”

Third Place, Justin Cooper: “We’ve been building slowly the whole season. I expect to be on the podium each weekend. That is my goal. I feel I rode really good today. We switched to the paddle tire (in the second moto) to help with the start. I got yanked pretty badly off the start in the first moto. It was night a day better for me around the whole track. I could get around the track with more momentum and could pick up the speed way easier with the paddle (tire). It was a good change for me. The team worked hard with me on suspension today and felt really good in that second moto.”

250MX Moto 2

After the lightning delay and not knowing how the track would be with the rain, off the start, Deegan looked to have the holeshot reaching the first corner but collided with Team Honda HRC’s Chance Hymas, who was on the outside of him, went down, causing a massive first-turn pileup. Jo Shimoda and Ty Masterpool were also tangled up in that first-turn chaos. With that incident in the first turn, Hymas looked to have injured himself and would eventually pull off the track in the first lap, heading to the Alpinestar Mobile Medical Unit for further evaluation. This leaves the rookie, Casey Cochran, to take advantage of the opportunity with the lead with Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Dax Bennick in 2nd with Vialle in 3rd. Kitchen, the first moto winner earlier, strayed away from the carnage in the first turn runs 4th.

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Deegan gets back going after kicking his damaged muffler back into place and starts his ride back up through the field. Vialle would try to make the pass on Bennick but makes a mistake through the second set of sand whoops and goes down, dropping him back to 8th, and Kitchen moves into third. Shimoda would pull into the pits from a bike malfunction, with the team swapping out the front tire due to a bent front brake rotor. Bennick then makes a mistake, and Kitchen takes over 2nd place with another Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Max Anstie to third around Toyota Redlands/BarX Suzuki’s Dilan Schwartz and Troy Lee Designs Red Bull GASGAS’s Ryder DiFrancesco rounding out the top 5 halfway through the moto. Vialle would pull into the mechanic's area with a shifter problem, dropping him even further back in this race and losing valuable championship points.

Kitchen then charged up to the race leader, Cochran, who early in the race had, at one point, an eight-second advantage, put up a strong fight for a couple of laps, holding off the first moto winner earlier in the day. The pressure was too intense to hold off, and Kitchen made his way around for the lead, going up Mt. Martin and up the inside for the lead as they dropped back down into view of the spectators.

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Kitchen would take the moto win and his career-first Pro Motocross overall with an impressive 1-1 on the day. That’s four different overall winners in seven rounds this season in this 250 division. Three of them are first-time overall winners with Masterpool, Hymas, and now Kitchen. Cochran would finish 2nd in the moto to take his career-first overall podium on the day. Anstie would finish out the moto 2 podium in 3rd, but from way back with the first turn crash, Deegan would eventually make it all the way up to 4th and finish 2nd overall on the day. Even with the mistakes and incidents from this weekend and last, he extends his points lead to 51 over second place now in the championship Kitchen, and Vialle is still in third, three points back. Hymas drops back to 4th in the standings.

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First Place, Levi Kitchen: “Really good day. The first moto, I had to fight hard for that one. It was pretty warm. I think everyone can attest to that. Moto 2, I had to let the race come to me. I fell on the first lap and slowly worked my way up. It was fun battling Casey. He rode a great race, and (I) got it done.”

Second Place, Haiden Deegan: “Chance tried to cut down on the start and took me out. My front end knifed pretty hard and sent me flying. I was like, “Oh, here we go.” I got tossed over the bars and just watched guys run over my bike. I had to kick my muffler back into place and get going again. I had to show I got the dog in me and sent it till the end. It’s safe to say Chance has one coming now. I’m just going to be real. Good day, though. I made up a lot of points today. I knew it was muddy and guys would be going slower, and I just picked off guys up to 4th. No matter the points gap, I still want to win each weekend.”

Third Place, Casey Cochran: “I am super stoked. I knew getting out front was going to be important in that second moto, with it being slick in the beginning. I got out front and put down some good laps early while letting the race come to me. I felt like I was back in an amateur race. It was a whole different experience out front—something I’ve never experienced before, but glad to experience it.”

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