2023 Atlanta Supercross Photo Gallery

2023 Atlanta Supercross Recap

Hold on! This Championship includes a third rider. Again.

Round 13 of the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross season ran under a warm sun on Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway perhaps affecting some riders but certainly not others.

Chase Sexton quickly got around Ken Roczen, who grabbed the Holeshot, on the first lap and pinned away for a big win that keeps his season alive for the 450 class Championship. Sexton didn't crash as he has so many times while leading this season and took on the Motocross like track as if he owned it. Because he did and vaulted back into the contention as Eli Tomac and Cooper Webb both failed to podium.

"To lead one start to finish feels really good. I haven't done that since San Deigo last year," Sexton said. "The track was really gnarly so I had to be on my toes. It was a good test for the progress we made mentally and with the bike. I've always liked this place. Trying to click some more of these off and see how close we can get."

Tomac who leads in Championship points started eighth and worked his way to fifth but never mounted much of a charge to the front partly because he was unable to catch Webb who held his own to grab fourth and shave a point off Tomac's lead in the standings. But it was Sexton who got the most out of the win moving to within 11 of Webb in second and 17 of Tomac with four rounds left.

Elsewhere, Justin Barcia continues his well-raced season getting by Roczen for second with less than seven minutes remaining but Sexton was too far gone for Barcia to fight for the checkers. Roczen easily took third. Barcia's third straight podium puts him in fourth in the Championship standings just a point ahead of Roczen. Jason Anderson hung around in third for a while but he welcomed a baby into his world the day before and an overnight flight to make the race probably contributed to him dropping like a rock before calling it quits after nine laps.

2023 450 Class Supercross Season Standings

Eli Tomac (292)
Cooper Webb (286)
Chase Sexton (275)
Justin Barcia (239)
Ken Roczen (238)

250SX East Class

In the 250 East class, Hunter Lawrence had little trouble picking up his fourth straight win and sixth of the season once he settled down. Lawrence quickly got by Haiden Deegan who grabbed the Holeshot but a minute later Lawrence got out of rhythm and nearly got tossed off the bike. He held on, rode off the track, regrouped in second-place a few minutes later slipped by Deegan and cruised to the win.

Lawrence leds Deegan by 45 points in the 250 East class standings and by all accounts appears well on his way to the title. Jordon Smith took second and Deegan settled for third likely a result of exhausting himself trying to stay up with Lawrence.

Elsewhere, Joe Shimoda raced for the first time this season and looks fully healed from a pre-season broken collarbone finishing fourth .Nate Thasher, racing with a torn ACL went down hard in the whoops and was removed via stretcher. He dislocated his hip and broke his collarbone. Safe to say his season is done.