Cycle News Staff | November 19, 2024
The 40th running of the Paris Supercross took place over the November 16-17 weekend inside La Defense Arena in Paris, France, the same stadium that held the Summer Olympics just a few months ago. In front of a sold-out crowd, Cooper Webb and Tom Vialle earned the crowns of the King and Prince of Paris.
Cooper Webb was the overall winner of the Paris Supercross and was crowned King of Paris.
SX1
Jett Lawrence entered the arena as the defending champion and sported the red number-one plate. The Australian came out swinging on Saturday with the fastest lap in the Superpole qualifier, thanks to a massive quad line in the main rhythm section. He proceeded to dominate the opening race of the night and took the win in main one with ease.
Hunter Lawrence (96) gets the jump on brother Jett (1) going into turn one at the Paris Supercross.
Race two looked like another Lawrence repeat, but the Honda rider tangled with a lapped rider with one minute left on the clock. The fall damaged his bike and forced him out of the race with a DNF. This incident proved crucial, as Cooper Webb passed for the lead and took the win in the second race. The American rider and former AMA Champion had his hands full with fellow American Malcolm Stewart, as the two stayed close for most of the three mains.
Cooper Webb’s 3-1-2 earned him the overall win on night one.
Lawrence later rebounded and won the final main of the night but finished fifth on the night with 1-13-1 scores. Webb’s consistency (3-1-2) saw him tie in points with Stewart (2-2-3), but the tiebreaker went to Webb due to his second-moto win.
France’s own Dylan Ferrandis earned a trio of fourth-place finishes to round out the podium in third.
Night one podium – Webb, Stewart, Ferrandis.
Sunday’s night two was all Lawrence. The defending champ knew he needed to make up ground on Webb and Stewart in the overall rankings and did what he could by sweeping all three gate drops.
Webb leads Lawrence early on night two. Jett went on to sweep the night with 1-1-1 finishes.
Webb didn’t make things easy, as he put up a fight in the opening laps. The Yamaha rider managed his points gap with 2-2-3 finishes, putting two markers between himself and Stewart by the end of the night and earning the title of King of Paris.
Webb’s 2-2-3 finishes on night two beat Stewart’s score by just two points.
Stewart finished off the box in race two, and his 3-4-2 results cost him the crown by just two points. Lawrence took the final spot on the podium for the overall thanks to his sweep of night two.
“Pumped to finally get a win here,” Webb said. “Still have some work to do, but awesome to get back behind the gate against some incredible riders.”
Cooper Webb, Malcolm Stewart and Jett Lawrence made up the overall SX1 podium.
SX2
The SX2 division saw more heavy-hitters take to the track, with reigning champ Jo Shimoda and home country favorite Tom Vialle leading the way. The Honda rider, Shimoda, earned a big win in race one the first night after Vialle flew off the track in the treacherous whoop section. Vialle was unharmed but got stuck in the bowl turn’s safety netting. He recovered but finished 12th in race one.
With troubles for Vialle and Shimoda on night one, Anthony Bourdon led a French podium sweep.
Fired up from his mistake in race one, the KTM rider retaliated with a statement win in race two. Shimoda stayed close and took second, still holding the overall in his grasp going into the third race of the night. Unfortunately for Shimoda, his night ended with a DNF due to a crash in the final main event.
Tom Vialle won the 250cc class and earned the Prince of Paris title.
Vialle ran away with the win, going 12-1-1 for fourth. With mishaps happening to both the main heavyweights, Anthony Bourdon capitalized and took the night-one victory thanks to consistent 3-4-2 finishes. Two other French racers, Calvin Fonvielle and Maxime Desprey rounded out the podium on Saturday.
Anthony Bourdon won the first night of racing in SX2 and went on to finish second overall.
Shimoda came back Sunday with a vengeance and claimed the opening win over rival Vialle in second and Bourdon in third. A mechanical hindered Shimoda’s second race of the night and derailed any hopes he had at defending his crown. Vialle went on to sweep the final two mains of the night and earned the overall win with 2-1-1 finishes. Bourdon strung together three third-place finishes and actually tied Vialle’s score for the weekend. The tiebreaker went the way of Vialle thanks to four wins during the six motos. With 18 points apiece, Vialle earned the Prince of Paris crown over Bourdon and Desprey.CN
Jo Shimoda (1) was a threat on both nights, but a couple of crashes cost him any chance of retaining the 250cc title.
OVERALL
SX1
- Cooper Webb (Yam)
- Malcolm Stewart (Hus)
- Jett Lawrence (Hon)
- Hunter Lawrence (Hon)
- Dylan Ferrandis (Hon)
SX2
- Tom Vialle (KTM)
- Anthony Bourdon (Kaw)
- Maxime Desprey (Yam)
- Calvin Fonvielle (KTM)
- Jo Shimoda (Hon)
