Good, Bad and Ugly | 2023 Los Angeles 1

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was alive with the sound of motorcycles on Saturday evening, as the first SuperMotocross World Championship ended in the historic venue. It was a momentous occasion and one that will be remembered for years to come. That does mean that it was all good, however, as a couple of sour moments emerged from the stadium floor. Those are highlighted in this regular Vital MX feature.

GOOD

It was at the first race of the FIM World Supercross Championship that this scribe offered Colt Nichols an apology of sorts, on behalf of the whole industry, as it became apparent that his successful stint with the Honda HRC team had been overlooked somewhat. There were a handful of injuries and health issues that caused his offering to fall underneath the radar – there was top six potential in his rookie term. One could not ask for much more since he did not race at all in the year prior.

Recency bias is prevalent in this sport and so the fact that he was barely active across the summer months caused him to fall into the shadows even more. '45' returned to prominence in Los Angeles via fifth place in the overall classification – the same result was taken in moto two, with competitive lap times. One must chuckle at the fact that his best results came at the first and last events of the year in locations that were thirty miles apart.

The point is that few people will discuss what Nichols accomplished this year and so he may be the most underrated star in current competition. A leap into the unknown awaits now – he'll return to factory status with Beta and become one of two riders to debut the platform in Monster Energy Supercross. Is the bike going to be competitive enough for him to continue to build and shine? There is a question that even he will be wrestling with internally. 103 days until an answer appears.

BAD

It was a shame that Chase Sexton's 'red' stint ended in such a horrid fashion, because he did so much for the manufacturer. Recency bias is, again, overwhelming in the sport. Sexton ended the CRF450R's drought with his 450SX championship and won seven main events in the class – add in the two 250SX titles, plus the wins in that class, and he achieved so much as a Honda athlete. There is no doubt that the period of his career will go down in history and be referenced for years to come.

Will the next stage of his career be even more prolific? Time will tell, but to steal a quote from a previous column: "A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man." There is little doubt that will push '23' to reach another level when the new term begins. The Los Angeles crash would have only fueled that fire. 2023 Monster Energy Supercross cannot come soon enough, and the current champion will certainly be out to prove a point

UGLY

No matter the vibe that a rider projects, survival is a priority at the last round of any championship. It was for that reason that it was particularly disappointing to see so many athletes exit the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with broken bones or in considerable pain. Jason Anderson's finger looks like something out of a horror film – he was lucky not to lose that – and Justin Barcia's sustained some undisclosed injuries that will delay his off-season plans.

There is still no update on Seth Hammaker's condition nor is there any news on why Dylan Ferrandis was unable to finish. The lack of accurate information being shared by these elite teams should be noted as a point of concern too, by the way. The good news is that some stars like Aaron Plessinger and Dean Wilson escaped their crashes unscathed, but there were too many falls on a night where every rider had one eye on reaching the final checkered flag.