Spokane, Wash. (March 30, 2022) - Smartop | Bullfrog Spas | MotoConcepts | Honda had an excellent showing at the 2022 Seattle Supercross, as riders Vince Friese and Mitchell Oldenburg posted respectable results and achieved goals at the twelfth round of the Monster Energy Supercross Championship. A career-first Heat Race victory followed by a fifth-place finish in the 250 Main Event for Friese, followed by a personal-best ninth-place result in the 450 Main Event for Oldenburg, were moments the MCR team was thrilled to have happened at its home round.
The 250 West Region returned to action following a six-week break from competition, but for Vince Friese, Seattle was just another race weekend in the seventeen-race schedule. The rider found the pace of the small-bore class during the afternoon practice sessions, clicked off a 49.432 lap, and was ranked seventh overall in the Timed Qualifying results. A well-executed launch and good line through the first turn put Friese into the lead of Heat Race Two, a nine-lap dash against Nate Thrasher that ended with Friese crossing the finish line 00.155-seconds ahead, an advantage that earned him the first Heat Race win of his career. A bump by another rider at the start of the 250 Main Event jostled Friese from front of the field to the thick of the pack, and he was scored in seventh on the opening lap. Confident that he had the pace to catch the lead group, the rider put in a series of fast laps, passed his way up the running order, and ended the race in fifth place. “I got the start in the Heat Race. The whoops were gnarly, so I was holding on through them every time. I looked at the countdown clock with three laps to go and saw Mike Genova hanging out of the team manager’s tower cheering me on, so I knew I couldn’t give that one up. Nate was putting on the pressure, but when I saw that and remembered it was the hometown race for the team, I knew I had to dig deep. Nate is a good rider, especially in the whoops, and I could hear the bike behind me. I was glad to hang on to that one because there have been a bunch of Heat Races over the years where I’ve lost the lead with a lap or two to go. I wasn’t going to blow that one,” Friese recalled of the Heat Race. “In the Main Event, I got bumped on the start, and it took me from what could have been a top-three start to around eighth or ninth. I tried to empty the tank to catch up to the lead guys, but I just didn’t have the energy to push. Maybe I used it in the Heat Race. I just felt popped, and that was a bummer because I felt I could have been on the podium tonight if I’d have gotten the start.” Friese maintained his fourth place overall rank in the 250 West Region championship standings.
Mitchell Oldenburg was back in the 450 Class at Seattle, one of his last races on the CRF450R this season; four of the remaining rounds in the schedule, aside from Denver, include the 250 East Region. The move back to the big bike didn’t bother Oldenburg, as his 49.236 lap in the afternoon practice session put him an impressive eighth in the Timed Qualifying results. He maintained the speed through the night’s races, evident in his start-to-finish run in fourth place during Heat Race One. Although a poor start put Oldenburg in eighteenth place at the end of 450 Main Event’s opening lap, he made up for it with a flurry of passes, including four moves on lap two and a one-a-lap cadence that got him into eighth place. Oldenburg’s efforts were dinged by a minor incident while jumping through a rhythm section late in the race, but the ninth-place finish is still the best of his career. “It was brutal but fun. I’d never raced Seattle as a dry race before, so I didn’t know what to expect. I hovered around eighth place all day long, from the afternoon practice sessions to the fourth-place finish in my Heat Race. I held the position for almost all of the Main Event but then got a little off-balance going through a rhythm lane, landed in the Tuff Blocks, and that was that. I got up and came back to ninth, so overall, it was a good day,” Oldenburg explained of the weekend. “During the first six rounds in the 450 Class, there were so many good riders that it made going for ninth in the Heat Race stressful. But today, I got to relax a bit and felt like I fit in where I ran all day long, just got to have fun. I had some goals that I wanted to achieve, got a career-best finish, and even if that doesn’t seem amazing, I’m happy with it.” Oldenburg is currently ranked twenty-third in the 450 Class championship standings.
Justin Brayton did not race the Seattle Supercross, a precautionary move following his crash the week prior in Indianapolis. Still, the rider remained a central figure of the weekend with participation in team engagements. Brayton is expected to return to action when the series resumes at the St. Louis Supercross.