Image: Octopi Media.

Current 250MX points-leader Jett Lawrence found himself caught up in the chaos of an unusually erratic day at Unadilla, hitting the ground twice in the first moto and ultimately missing the podium for just his second time in 2022.

Heading to New York as the winner of every overall but one through eight Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship rounds, Lawrence was fifth to complete the first racing lap of the day at Unadilla.

A low-speed tip-over while battling for second set Lawrence back still with plenty of time left in the opening moto. However, a more vicious dismount five laps from the checkered flag would prove more challenging from which to recover.

Lawrence remounted his Honda CRF250R in 10th and moved forward to seventh, turning in his worst moto finish since an engine failure cost him the overall at Redbud.

“If you want an example of when it’s not your day, it was not my day today,” the 19-year-old said. “The riding side of things was great — I felt really good — but I think in the first moto I was just pushing too much.

“I was riding the track faster than it was supposed to be ridden at that point in time; I was washing a lot everywhere and over-leaning. I had two crashes, but thankfully I was okay apart from some road rash on my back. The second moto, I got a really good start but again pushed too hard and went down again — not an ideal day.”

Despite the day not going the way of Jett, his older brother Hunter managed to maintain the streak of at least one Lawrence brother landing on the podium at every round in 2022, dating back to the season-opening Monster Energy Supercross round in Anaheim.

Jett’s tough first moto opened the door for Jo Shimoda to earn his second overall victory of the season, while Hunter made up one point by going 2-5 for third overall. Jett leads Hunter by 26 points and Shimoda by 40 as the series heads to Budds Creek in Maryland.