Good, Bad, 'n Ugly: Foxborough 2

Welcome to the Good, Bad 'n Ugly from Foxborough! It's the fifteenth round of the 2022 Supercross season 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: Austin Forkner - 1st Place

The other winner of the weekend was obviously Jett Lawrence as he wrapped up his first Supercross title. He was truly dominate this season and I expect for him to do similar things outdoors, but I’ve mentioned how impressive he has been multiple times this season, so I’m gonna focus on Austin Forkner here…

This was already a big win for Austin Forkner considering he hadn't won a Main Event in a long time, but the fact that he took such a vicious hit earlier on in the night and was still able to claim the win was truly impressive. My initial reaction to the crash he had during his heat race was that once again we were going to witness him sustain an injury due to a crash that wasn't really his fault. And while he did get a little banged up in the crash, it seems like he’ll be just fine going forward assuming he can avoid any more situations like that. The last thing we need is for Austin to get injured again right before the outdoor season. The biggest thing I’m curious about right now is what his future holds for the 2023 season. I haven’t read a ton of silly season rumors yet, but I do remember reading before Supercross started that he was eyeing a 450 ride for 2023. I don’t blame him for wanting to go ahead and move up given how rough his 250 career has been, but I can also see an argument for him staying down one more year to see if he can finally make it through a whole season healthy. At the end of the day, though, I think either route he decides to go could have some major benefits for him. 

Grant Dawson | The Bad: Pierce Brown - 3rd Place

This was actually a nice bounce back performance from Pierce Brown after a couple of disappointing rounds, so to label him as “The Bad” is a bit of a mistruth. However, this was a fantastic opportunity for him to take the first win of his career and he almost made it happen. The unfortunate side of things is that he had two aliens in Jett Lawrence and Austin Forkner chasing him down. It’s one of those situations where even though he landed on the podium and he should be happy with getting things back on track, I guarantee he felt like he let a win slip out of his fingers. Hopefully, he can keep this train rolling through the final round and then carry it on into outdoors. 

Grant Dawson | The Ugly: RJ Hampshire - 6th Place

RJ was back to his crashing ways in Foxborough, which seems to be a subject we have to revisit every couple of rounds and I’ll admit it’s a bit of a dead horse at this point. Somehow it still surprises me that we haven’t seen him make much progress in this area and really at this point there’s no reason to believe his performance outdoors will not be similar. It’s one of those situations where you start to wonder if a switch to the 450 class would be beneficial for him. 

450 Supercross Class

Grant Dawson | The Good: Jason Anderson - 1st Place

This has been one heck of a turnaround season for Jason Anderson, and I don’t think many of us could say that we expected this from him before the season started. Yes, he is a previous champion, but we haven’t seen him perform at that level in a few years now and to see him switch to a new bike and instantly become a threat again has been refreshing. He has been a true title contender, and although the standings don’t quite show it, he did truly test Tomac for much of the season. It’ll be interesting to see how he does outdoors considering Supercross is generally his strength, and you also have to assume that he’ll be even better when he lines up for Supercross again in 2023 for his second year with the team. 

Grant Dawson | The Bad: Eli Tomac - 7th Place

Eli Tomac looked strong in the beginning of the race, but once he stalled his bike while getting passed I don’t think any of us expected for him to slice back through the pack and take the win. He has the title in the bag as long as he stays healthy and out of serious trouble, so there’s really no need to risk anything right now. He can cruise around these final couple of rounds and still win the title with plenty of points to spare, and the most likely outcome is that he’ll clinch the title this coming weekend in his home state. So, similar to Pierce Brown, he isn’t a true “The Bad”. 

Grant Dawson | The Ugly: Cooper Webb - 6th Place

Cooper Webb primarily lands in this spot because he did get a great start in Foxborough but still ended up finishing in sixth place. However, I still think that it’s impressive that he’s even out there riding with how many hits his body has taken this year. He’s doing what he can and right now that’s a sixth place. I would venture to say that both Webb and his team would consider this season a disaster, as the results weren’t quite there even before the injuries started to pile up and really messed up any chance he had at the title. Defending a title is tough, as Eli Tomac found out last year and Cooper Webb has now found out twice in his career. One does have to wonder what Webb’s future looks like with KTM, and if that relationship will come to an end this year or if they’ll continue on. You’d have to imagine they’d be in a better spot at the start of next year with more time to play around with bike settings, but sometimes after a year like this the rider just needs a change of scenery. I wouldn’t be surprised if he remains on orange in 2023, or if he finds his way to a different team.