Salt Lake City finale. Another
championship was on the line
for these warriors and the stage
was set during a wild pair of heat
races. The main event however,
belonged to Austin Forkner.
A poor start outside the top five
meant Forkner needed to work
his way through the pack if he
wanted a shot at a race win. He
carried Lawrence along with him,
and the two heavyweights moved
into podium contention together.
Forkner grabbed the lead late in
the race from Pierce Brown and
fended off a pair of passes from
a less-than-satisfied Lawrence.
A short duel left Forkner with the
advantage, and he held tough to
take his first win of 2022.
"It's been like two years since
I won a Supercross, so that felt
really good," Forkner said. "I
knew I'd come back with my goal
of being one of the top guys and
not take any steps back. But it
feels good to get another win
in general, whether I've had the
year I've had or not, since it's
been a few years now. And good
to finish the season strong, or
at least starting to finish strong,
after coming off injuries."
Forkner had a disastrous crash
in the heat race and looked like
he might not line up for the main
event at all. However, he man-
aged to qualify and mentioned
only popping out some ribs in the
process. Clearly, he was okay
enough to race the main event
and grab the win.
Lawrence put down a great
ride that started slow but re-
sulted in his first Supercross
championship. The Honda rider
looked to be playing it safe off
the start and rode behind For-
kner for most of the early laps.
The two came through the pack
together and just when Law-
rence looked to be okay in the
back, the two quickly exchanged
some close block passes. For-
kner maintained the lead, and
Lawrence crossed the line sec-
ond, only 0.5 seconds back. By
THUMBS DOWN
KTM announced earlier this week
that Max Vohland would miss the
remaining rounds of Supercross
due to a broken thumb. This
comes after Vohland has failed to
qualify for the past two rounds of
Supercross.
CULLIN PARK
Phoenix Honda's Cullin Park
grabbed the holeshot in the
250SX East main event and led
the opening lap of the race. The
Florida native cut his teeth in
the Arenacross scene. He later
crossed the line in ninth.
Briefly...
VOLUME 59 ISSUE 17 APRIL 26, 2022 P79
Jett Lawrence clinched
the 250SX East title with a
second-place finish.
