00:00else to watch. You think about the journey that he had to get there and again this guy's an
00:05incredible talent. So no more red plate on the red bike of the Honda HRC progressive rider Hunter
00:13Lawrence but we'll see what he can do tonight and I've mentioned the top three we're going in
00:18reverse order because the man back on top is ET3 Eli Tomac is tonight the night that he's going to
00:25stop people ask talking and asking the question what's wrong with Eli it's been a little mystifying
00:30lately but with that being said he has been on the podium in two of the last three races. Yeah
00:35I
00:36mean he's done great but you consider uh the beginning of this series and how well he was
00:40doing dominant at times and just the last two weeks have been a challenge. Let's go ready for
00:46heat two 450s here in St. Louis the drone shot from above Hunter Lawrence with the hole shot
00:55love that drone shot from behind you can see everything developing right there great start
01:01for Hunter Lawrence and Ken Broxon. Justin Hill is up there Justin leaps his way into second. Oh Kenny
01:09makes a massive mistake in that rhythm lane just look at the gap that Hunter Lawrence is able to pull
01:15on these guys you talk about taking what happened last week to Hunter Lawrence and putting it away for
01:24another weekend boom this is what you have to do this is how you respond and again I talked about
01:30it at the top of the show. Whoa look at that speed from Roxxon. He had speed in the whoops
01:36all day today
01:37in qualifying practice great to see Kenny just absolutely peaking right now. If you if you didn't
01:44hear Will say it earlier Roxxon's fastest qualifier that's the first time that's happened in over a year
01:50good to see Joe Shimoda up not great to see him on crunches but at least he's vertical. See Joey
01:57Sibachi over there too. Oh Roxxon to the lead. This guy has got it going on right now. Yeah he's
02:05absolutely
02:06flowing and that win came at a perfect time. I'll tell you what man if Ken was able to come
02:12back
02:13win this championship it's the only championship other than the SMX world championship that has
02:19eluded him through his career and man this would just be icing on the cake for him.
02:25I was talking to his team manager via text today Larry Brooks and Larry said Kenny is as happy with
02:32the fight now JT and he's as happy with his starts as he's been in a long time. Well it
02:39often looks
02:39awfully like that he is just on rails right now and you know when I watch these guys you know
02:44yes
02:45they're battling for position and gate picking all these things in the heat race but there's a lot of
02:49messages being sent because for Hunter he wants to get back out there win the heat race
02:53and say yeah I crashed so what but it's business as usual but for Kenny he wants to kind of
02:58change
02:58the narrative and say it doesn't matter what you did last week crash or not I'm the fastest guy in
03:03the series now you guys all better be on watch for the points from here on out so it's the
03:09subliminal
03:09stuff that goes on between the minds of these racers that I find so fascinating.
03:14Well I mean again JT you and I talk about it off air it's just how important it is at
03:19this time of the
03:20year and to keep it going and again like I talked about at the top of the show I mean
03:25yeah Hunter was
03:27bummed but at the same time he's so happy with where his riding is that you know he feels confident
03:32that he can get back in the groove and he's gotten a good start here now this is the guy
03:36that
03:37uh it just doesn't seem like he's been the same and he's got to find that mojo and that beast
03:42mode
03:43and activate that thing before Ken Rockson can continue to put in the rides like he did last
03:48year and Hunter Lawrence get back to the form that he was before last week Will.
03:54Speaking to Eli yesterday Ricky he didn't say well go back a couple of weeks he said Birmingham I just
04:00physically wasn't feeling very well he was under the weather then then he said last week he just
04:04described it as being off he also said that himself and the team went to California and tested
04:10for a couple of days last week speaking to crew chiefs and team managers they said that they found
04:16some stuff in the suspension that they wanted him to try and that this was simply about as they as
04:20the
04:21series here sort of continues east just adjusting for that dirt well update during the day update during
04:27the day today as Tomac moves oh attempts on Justin Hill again there through the works update during the
04:33day they said they're not exactly where they were they just had to continue to tweak it and that's
04:37been the story of the day for a lot of riders because this dirt Ricky has caught them out it's
04:42been a lot softer
04:43than anybody predicted well and I think that you know he's been able to put this bike in a lot
04:48of
04:48different track conditions sand hard pack gravel uh and and it's worked pretty well but definitely
04:56it seems like things are a lot different JT than it was the first six rounds and this is a
05:01time where
05:02you really need to be shining yeah and there was a lot of talk this week everybody's just wondering what's
05:07up with Eli Tomac and you know to his credit he says hey I'm not injured but the bigger point
05:14is that the
05:14way he's riding it doesn't matter if he's injured it doesn't matter if they're chasing something on the
05:18motorcycle it's too punitive in the championship to simply perform to this level if he wants to win
05:25and just look at this heat race we're still a minute left and he's 10 seconds down that is
05:30continuing the trend that we've seen over the last few races that simply will not be enough to get this
05:36job done well JT and to add on to what you're saying when I'm watching Eli you know I talked
05:41about
05:41it last week and in Detroit where I just it looked like his bike wasn't flowing in the corners he
05:46was
05:46struggling and then I just don't like the attack position I don't see it it doesn't look like he's
05:52chasing down the rhythm yeah it just looks like everything it's like he's second guessing everything
05:58and that he's not trusting it like he was early in the season look at this guy Malcolm Stewart sits
06:04third at the moment that's where he finished in last week's main event for his first podium on the
06:08season and Malcolm just has this really awesome run of momentum at the moment as he's ahead of
06:14Jorge Prado Malcolm's finished 10th 7th 5th and third in the last four races that is awesome
06:21momentum he said I'm feeling good again now it's a little bit strange to be doing it alone
06:26because his training partners RJ Hampshire and Aaron Plessinger aren't around yeah so he said that's
06:32we have a lot of fun together and he said having to do it by myself isn't great but
06:37getting on the podium sure felt good well absolutely it's getting better every single weekend getting
06:41healthy like you just talked about but also I go back to like practicing by yourself it's great
06:46having practice partners but sometimes when you're by yourself yeah maybe it can be boring
06:51but you can just focus on what you're doing and rather than racing your your practice mates
06:56so uh I think it's twofold there shout out to RJ Hampshire and Aaron Plessinger
07:01hurry back fellas heal up and come on back
07:05final lap for Ken Rockson with a whopping five second lead
07:13great run through the woods he was fast in qualifying practice again
07:16uh when I was down on the track watching it and man this guy is grooving right now
07:21I feel like he's got to have some confidence when he showed he talked about that win
07:25and his first win back from that massive injury uh in 2020
07:31got to feel good coming back well what it was what it was it was answering the critics
07:34of everybody saying oh second half of the season he always fades he's never around
07:39can't keep it together he's like yeah you want me to show you here it is
07:43well we're and we're in the show me state brother he's showing it
07:46yeah Ben Rockson had to fight to get into the lead
07:50and then has gapped Hunter Lawrence successfully
07:54as he works his way through some traffic by the way Mitchell Harrison
07:58is in that final transfer position as Rockson wins the heat here in St. Louis
08:03straight through
08:05it's good scrap between Vince Friese and Mitchell Harrison
08:08oh Friese messed that rhythm lane up
08:12it's going to be fireworks I could guarantee you in that corner if you had he not messed up
08:17but Harrison's going to get it this is towards the end of the lap you got this big double here
08:22and then make a right hander and there's the finish
08:27so Jordan Smith Mitchell Harrison eighth and ninth to go through to the 450 main event
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