(Photo: Feld Entertainment, Inc.)
By Aaron Bearden

INDIANAPOLIS — Ken Roczen looked out to the dirt at the center of Lucas Oil Stadium one last time, job done for the evening after a magnificent ride in the first of three Monster Energy Supercross races in the Hoosier state.

He turned, walked toward the southwestern tunnel to exit the arena and was greeted by a sound both distant and familiar – the cheering of a small, but dedicated group of fans overhead in the grandstands.

It was a final moment of pure joy for all involved, the conclusion of an action-filled night at a location that missed it dearly one year ago.

Indianapolis was the site of Supercross’ schedule pause in 2020, the next location up on the calendar when the COVID-19 pandemic brought all racing to a halt. When competition finally returned in the summer, Supercross’ final slate was held in a single location — Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium — without fans to partake in the festivities.

Indiana was one of many states to go without its traditional date for the series as a result. Other popular events in the state like the Indianapolis 500 and Brickyard 400 (that’s still what we call it, anyway) were held, but had no spectators in attendance.

That left eagerness from all involved for normalcy to return in 2021.

COVID-19 has kept that from being entirely possible, but some semblance of normalcy returned to Supercross fans in the Hoosier state on Saturday night. The stands were only filled to 25% capacity and attendees had to wear masks and socially distance in a pod-style seating layout, but they could all look ahead and see their favorite stars put on a show.

And what a show it was.

Ken Roczen and Eli Tomac delivered another classic battle, with Roczen outlasting the defending champ in a war that came down to the final lap to score his first victory of the 2021 season. It was a moment of redemption for Roczen, who had entered Indianapolis with the red number plate as the Supercross points leader but failed to win in the early stretch of the season.

Roczen was penalized four points for a red flag violation in round two and lost the lead to Cooper Webb on the final laps of round three after being blocked by the lapped bike of Dean Wilson.

He didn’t make it easy on himself in round four, either. He accidentally jumped off-track in the late laps and lost the top spot to to Tomac, but he was quickly able to retake the lead and held the 2017 Indy winner off from there to bring home the win.

”I’m so glad we made it happen,” he said afterward. “I made a mistake on the second double. I jumped off the track and didn’t know what I was supposed to do. I let (Tomac) by. … I felt like it was the right thing to do.

“I put the pass on right away again and had a clear track. But the track was really gnarly and I couldn’t make a mistake. He was pushing right behind me and I couldn’t let go.

“I’m so happy to finally have the 2021 (Honda) CRF450R on the top step here.”

Tomac fell just short of victory after an early mistake himself. He had taken the holeshot at the race’s start and held the early lead, but dropped back to third after sliding down at the exit of the whoops section early in the race.

In doing so Tomac gave the top spot to sophomore sensation Adam Cianciarulo. That set up a brief three-wide battle that saw Roczen and Tomac each pursuing the young star.

They each eventually snuck by him and set about battling each other, while Cianciarulo fell out of contention due to a mistake of his own. He ended up losing third to Webb, who himself was on the comeback trail after getting shoved around and falling to eighth in the opening lap.

Tomac was disappointed to come home second, but showed respect to Roczen and stood smiling on the podium after the race.

“Hell of a race from both of us,” Tomac said. “We both made a mistake, and then (Roczen) just schooled me in that sweeper over there. I wasn’t expecting that at all, to be honest. Early in the race I saw him ho out there on the outside and said ‘Okay, this is the line.’ But I was sleeping on that one.

“That was the race of my career. Just to battle that way, that was really exciting. Congrats to Ken.”

The difficult track conditions in Indianapolis led to numerous tense moments and forced comebacks after mistakes. Fifth-place finisher Zach Osborne had to bounce back from early struggles. Former champion Jason Anderson’s first win of 2021 came in Saturday’s last chance qualifier after a mistake in his heat before he recovered to seventh in the main. Defending Indy winner Marvin Musquin finished a distant 10th because he fell and dropped to last early in the race.

Colt Nichols was flawless in the 250SX race, winning comfortably to take the championship lead outright. But his title rival Christian Craig provided fireworks after colliding with a charging Jett Lawrence at the exit of the penultimate turn of the race in a battle for second.

Craig collided with one of the tuff blocks surrounding the track and flew off his bike. Lawrence, who had already suffered an off in his heat at the hands of Michael Mosiman, missed a shift at the start of the main and crashed on a wall jump, was trapped behind Craig momentarily and only able to salvage fourth.

Mosiman and Jo Shimoda took advantage of the incident to grab second and third, both securing their first podiums. Craig dropped from second to fifth.

“I had a really rough start, neutral off the start, and on the wall jump I stalled and I was an idiot for that,” Lawrence said of his race. “I thought I could get Christian in that last corner, we came together and I wasn’t too phased but we got tangled up and I couldn’t go. I put my heart into these last two rounds and it sucks that it ends up like that.”

The 250SX main’s late chaos transitioned over to an eventful 450SX feature feature that thrilled fans in attendance, eliciting a joyful cacophony from the crowd as Roczen led the field to the checkered flag in a tense final lap.

It was a rare moment of a group elation for all involved amid a time period that’s provided very few opportunities for it.

Thankfully the wait for another chance won’t be long. Supercross will return to Lucas Oil Stadium for two more rounds on Tuesday and Saturday.

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Adam Cianciarulo Christian Craig Eli Tomac Indianapolis Jett Lawrence Ken Roczen Lucas Oil Stadium Monster Energy Supercross