In the upset win of the night, Dylan Ferrandis grabbed the Western Regional 250SX Championship with a wire to wire win in the Monster Energy Supercross 250SX East/West Showdown, a combination race of both regional classes into one Main Event. With riders from both coasts fighting over the same points payout, big point swings are common.
Ferrandis entered the event eight points down on Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Adam Cianciarulo but left Las Vegas a double winner, turning his third career victory into his first Monster Energy Supercross title. For most of the race, and with Cianciarulo running in third, the win looked like it would not be enough for Ferrandis to make up the points; but with just over four minutes and one lap remaining Cianciarulo made a mistake and went down in a rhythm section. His bike’s front end and handlebar took the brunt of the impact; the front wheel was knocked out of alignment and the bar so badly bent that Cianciarulo could hardly keep his balance over the jumps or rolling through the whoops. He pulled into the mechanics’ area, but the bar could not be fixed, and he circled the track dropping quickly back and watching his title hopes disappear.
By finishing fourth in that same race, Chase Sexton secured the Eastern Regional 250SX Championship over Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha’s Justin Cooper, who finished in eighth. With the race win, Ferrandis earned the distinction of becoming the 2019 Monster Energy Supercross 250SX East/West Showdown Champion – and giving the West Coast riders bragging rights; the win puts the running tally at 12 wins for the Western Regional riders versus 11 wins for the Eastern Regional riders since the Las Vegas Showdown race format began in 1997. It was an especially good race for the Western Regional riders, taking the top three spots in the race this year.
Ferrandis, the fifth Frenchman to earn a Monster Energy 250SX Class title and the first to win it in the Western Region, was emotional as he was presented with his number one plate.
“It’s going to be hard for me to speak in English right now,” he said. “I just asked my mechanic to tell me [during the race] what AC did and when he showed me the pit board, when I saw P-10 [tenth place], P-20 I was like, ‘No, it’s not possible.’ I just tried to stay focused, but my emotion was difficult to control. Wow.”
Sexton received the Eastern Region 250SX Class Supercross Championship after taking over the points lead the weekend before with his career-first win. When asked after taking possession of his first number one championship plate if this was always the dream since racing as a kid of four years old, he answered, “Yeah, always. It feels so good I can’t even explain it right now. That was probably one of the craziest main events I’ve ever been in… That was the longest Main Event I’ve ever had in my life, and to do it here in Vegas feels so good. I’ve wanted this for so long, and to get it in my second year at only nineteen years old feels so good. It’s awesome.”
people wish they had. Unfortunately, I came up short but I’m going to get one of these things.”