Good, Bad, 'n Ugly: Atlanta

Welcome to the Good, Bad 'n Ugly, presented by Pro Taper, from Atlanta! It's the fourteenth round of 2022 and we're here to give you our thoughts on who did good, who did...well, Bad and who had a night to forget forever (the Ugly). Staff member Grant Dawson is sharing his thoughts this weekend.

Do you agree with our picks and opinions, or do you have thoughts that differ? Let us know in the comment section below.

250 Supercross Class

Grant Dawson | The Good: Hunter Lawrence - 1st Place

Jett Lawrence suffering a crash during the Main Event definitely helped Hunter Lawrence along in his journey to the win Saturday night, but you gotta stay upright to win, right? At the end of the day, this is Hunter's second win in a row and his third win in his last four races. He has progressed his Supercross skills at an incredibly impressive rate since migrating over to the U.S., and at this point he should be expected to elevate from a title contender to the title favorite next year. The potential for some entertaining battles between the two Lawrence brothers once we head outdoors is looking excellent, as well. It'd be interesting to see how they'd handle battling each other for a championship, especially if they remained close in the standings for the entirety of the series. 

Grant Dawson | The Bad: Pierce Brown - 10th Place

At this point in Pierce Brown's career, he reminds me of both RJ Hampshire and Jordon Smith during their first few years in the professional ranks. He has all of the speed and potential in the world, but he hasn't quite been able to put it all together yet outside of a couple of third place finishes. He's still young and has time to figure things out, and as we've seen teams will be quite patient when it comes to prospects with as much potential as Brown. With the Troy Lee Designs GasGas 250 program only being a two rider team for now, though, the sooner he starts to come into his own and put together a solid streak of finishes...the better off both him and his team will be. 

Grant Dawson | The Ugly: Max Vohland - DNQ

Max Vohland has dealt with some injuries so far in his career that no doubt have hindered his progression some, but it's never a good look when a factory rider doesn't qualify for the night show. Yes, only 20 from each coast qualified for the night show, and he did get a bit unlucky with having to ride with the 250 Overflow Group during qualifying. However... I think as a factory rider he's still expected to be able to overcome that adversity and at the very least make the top 20 so he could get into the heat race. Anyway, this isn't the end of the world for Max and I think he's ultimately going to turn into a pretty solid rider, but for now I'm just hoping that he's able to make it through the rest of Supercross and all of outdoors without sustaining any more injuries. 

450 Supercross Class

Grant Dawson | The Good: Brandon Hartranft - 9th Place

Brandon Hartranft keeps a rather low profile, but he has been solid this season. He currently sits in 10th place in the standings with four top 10 finishes in his last five races, and there's a pretty good chance he could make his way up to eighth place in the standings if he keeps it up. I will admit I was a bit surprised when he moved to the 450 class after the 2020 season. A lot of folks probably weren't surprised given that his body type is definitely more suited towards the powertrain of a 450. However, he had just wrapped up a rather solid year filling-in for the Troy Lee Designs squad in the 250 class and I figured he'd locked in a chance to spend a few years on a 250 as a factory rider. Whether it be from a lack of opportunities or his own choice, though, he ended up in the 450 class with the HEP Suzuki guys and after an up and down 2021 season he looks to be finding his place in this class. Although I wouldn't predict that he'll end up a factory rider again unless it's on a fill-in basis, I'd say the expectation is for him to be a solid mid-tier rider in the 450 class for many years to come.

Grant Dawson | The Bad: Marvin Musquin - 10th Place

Alright, this wasn't a bad performance by Marvin. He crashed early on in the race and had to claw his way back to 10th place from the very back of the pack. I bet he was still a little disappointed to follow up a win with a 10th place, though, and especially when you consider that it was a more outdoor-like track which fits his skill set very well. The good news for Marvin is that third place in the championship still isn't completely out of reach, but I feel like he will need a little bit of luck to finish ahead of Malcolm Stewart and Justin Barcia at each of the final three rounds. Crazier things have happened, though. 

Grant Dawson | The Ugly: Rocky Mountain ATV/MC-WPS KTM

A team leaving our sport is never good, especially when it was a team that was considered to be of factory quality like Rocky Mountain ATV/MC-WPS KTM. We've all heard the rumors as to why they have seemingly disappeared from the sport, but I'm not gonna get into that side of things. The bottom line here is that some riders and mechanics are out of a job, and it's not like a new near factory-level team is going to pop up out of no where and replace them. We see a lot of smaller programs come and go as they're just not easy to keep afloat financially, but we've come to expect for certain teams to be around every year. When we lose one of those teams, there's no guarantee that they'll get replaced at all. Who knows, maybe the team will magically reappear on the circuit as if nothing happened, but as of now it’s not looking good. If they are definitely gone, though, I just hope that this is our only casualty in the team category this year, and that hopefully KTM spreads some of the support that would have been given to the RMATV/MC squad to their other satellite programs.