Smartop | Bullfrog Spas | MotoConcepts | Honda and its three-rider lineup made it out of a chaotic night of racing at the 2022 Detroit Supercross, round ten of the 2022 Monster Energy Supercross Championship, with remarkable results. Justin Brayton and Vince Friese ended the 450 Main Event with their best finishes of the season, while Mitchell Oldenburg earned another top-ten mark in the 250 Main Event.
Mitchell Oldenburg was again among the front runners of the 250 East Region in Michigan. The experienced rider improved his pace between the afternoon practice, clocked a personal best lap of 45.325 in the second Timed Qualifying session, and was ranked seventh overall. Oldenburg had a solid showing in 250 Heat Race Two, as he avoided a jam-up in the first turn, pushed forward during the short sprint, and crossed the finish line in third place. The launch out of the gate in the 250 Main Event wasn’t as stellar, though, and Oldenburg was outside of the top ten on the opening lap. Another hurried rush through the opening half of the race got Oldenburg up to sixth place, and once there, he held the position to the checkered flag. “I rode so good all day and then blew the start in the Main Event. It’s the same old story at this point. I just have to start better,” Oldenburg summarized of the night. “I feel like I’m with the top guys when I start with them, but I’m just not there when it counts. I’m trying not to put too much pressure on myself because there are a lot of positives. I’m riding a level that I haven’t been at in a long time, and if I keep chipping away at it, things will come. I’m putting in solid laps, the fitness feels good, the whoops are coming around, but I have to be better in that first five seconds of the race. This was round ten for me, and I’m starting to feel it a bit, so I’m planning to take it easy and recover.” Oldenburg is ranked ninth in the 250 East Region championship standings.
Justin Brayton started the celebration for his thirty-eighth birthday with a fifth-place finish in the 450 Main Event. Fractions of a second split the field during the afternoon’s practice and Brayton’s best lap, a 44.987 in the final session, put him tenth overall in the Timed Qualifying results. He filed into fourth place on the opening lap of 450 Heat Race One, pursued the lead pack, and crossed the finish line in the same position, a consistent showing that earned him a good gate pick for the feature race. A good start got the rider in with the leading group in the 450 Main Event, and as others rose and fell through the running order, Brayton maintained a place in the top-10, benefitted from incidents in the last half of the race, and ended up in fifth place. “The whole day was pretty good. I was very motivated this morning. To be motivated to get a really good result gets hard the older you get, but today I woke up and was ready,” Brayton detailed of the day. “To get a top-five is incredible, and yeah, it was sort of handed to me, but I’ll take it. I’ve thrown a lot of top-fives away in my day, so I’ll take it how I can get it. It was a good, tough track late in the Main Event. I have had this part of the season circled for a long time, and this next stretch will be a huge effort. I’d love to get a podium, it’d break the record for the oldest rider to podium, and I really want to win a Heat Race. I’m excited to get home and enjoy the week with my family as we celebrate my birthday.” Brayton is now ranked twelfth overall in the 450 Class championship standings.
Vince Friese accomplished another one of his 2022 race season objectives in Detroit, as the split-duty rider finished among the top-10 in a 450 Main Event. The rider figured out the quick layout early in the afternoon, and a 45.715 lap in the first session put him twelfth overall in the Timed Qualifying results. An unusually poor start pushed Friese back to tenth place at the beginning of 450 Heat Race One, but he charged back to sixth place during the ten laps and transferred into the 450 Main Event. Although another subpar launch put Friese in fifteenth place at the start of the 450 Main Event, he managed to put in twenty-seven incident-free laps, plotted his way through the field, picked up a handful of positions late in the race, and finished with a season-best sixth-place result. “Sixth in the 450 Class is something I can’t be bummed about. I didn’t get a good start, one of the few races when I haven’t, and it would have been nice, but it was all crazy,” Friese said of the race. “At one point, I was fighting for a top-ten finish, and three laps later, it was for a top-five because people crashed. And I’m bummed for those guys because I love watching them as a fan. But I got a career-best finish, some bonus money, and was riding great. I had to put in hard laps and pass high-level guys, so I’m very happy about the riding. The bike is working so well. I spent last year developing this CRF with the team and am getting the benefits of it now.” Friese is now ranked eighteenth overall in the 450 Class championship standings.
The Monster Energy Supercross Championship continues with round eleven, the 2022 Indianapolis Supercross, at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday, March 19.