Lawrence stays undefeated despite Sexton challenge at Millville
Hunter Lawrence regains 250MX series lead with a solid bounce-back performance.
Image: Octopi Media.
It was a near-perfect day for Team Honda HRC at the seventh round of the Pro Motocross Championship as Jett and Hunter Lawrence won both the 450MX and 250MX classes at Spring Creek.
Despite a concerted challenge from his team-mate Chase Sexton, Team Honda HRC’s series leader Jett Lawrence continued to dominate the 450MX field, finishing the seventh round of the Pro Motocross Championship at Spring Creek with another 1-1 result.
Lawrence has now won 14 motos in a row, and stood atop the round podium flanked by Sexton and Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha’s Dylan Ferrandis.
Lawrence survived a serious challenge from Sexton to win the opening 450MX moto.
Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Adam Cianciarulo scored the holeshot, closely followed by Aaron Plessinger (Red Bull KTM) and Lawrence, but the series leader wasted no time moving into the lead.
A fall on the opening lap saw Sexton drop from third to seventh, but remounted and angrily worked his way back up and closed down the five-second lead that Lawrence had stretched out.
The 2023 450Sx Supercross Champion mounted a challenge for the lead, but got held up by a lapped rider with five minutes remaining and lost valuable time. Sexton then he slid out again on the final lap, allowing Lawrence to cruise to an 11.9-second lead and keep his perfect season intact.
Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jason Anderson put in a great moto to finish third ahead of a Plessinger, while Ferrandis – who also spun out on the last lap – finished fifth.
Garrett Marchbanks (Muc-Off FXR ClubMX Yamaha), Cianciarulo, Ty Masterpool (Kawasaki), Grant Harlan (Manluk Rock River Racing Yamaha) and Fredrik Noren (Twisted Tea HEP Suzuki) completed the top 10.
Lawrence coasted to a easy win in the second moto and kept his perfect season win streak intact for at least another week.
Sexton led a Team Honda HRC 1-2 off the start and scored the holeshot from Lawrence, but a mistake in the third corner handed the lead to Lawrence.
Sexton managed to claw his way back onto Lawrence’s rear wheel, but then lost the front end and went down again, allowing Lawrence to coast to another easy 17-second win and remain undefeated in 2023.
Ferrandis finished the moto in third after a lengthy battle with Plessinger, while Cianciarulo completed the top five positions.
Masterpool, Harlan, Marchbanks, Noren and Jose Butron (Wildcat Race Team) filled positions fifth through 10th.
In the championship standings, Lawrence now sits on 350 points with Ferrandis 81 points behind in second, and Plessinger 104 markers back in third.
Image: Octopi Media.
Team Honda HRC’s Hunter Lawrence bounced back to take the round win and championship lead at the seventh round of the 2023 Pro Motocross Championship at Millville.
Lawrence split moto wins with Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha’s Justin Cooper, who finished the day second overall, with Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki rider Jo Shimoda completing the round podium.
A statement ride in the opening 250MX moto saw Hunter Lawrence pass all of the championship contenders to take the race win.
Shimoda snatched the holeshot from Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha team-mates Haiden Deegan, Justin Cooper and Levi Kitchen.
Shimoda wasted no time building a buffer between himself and a chasing freight-train of contenders, as Lawrence aggressively worked his way forward from an 11th-place starting position.
The Australian quickly picked off the riders in front of him and set off after Shimoda, closing down the six-second gap and finally making the pass for the lead after an intense multi-lap battle.
Lawrence took a 2.2s victory over Shimoda, while an always-hard-charging RJ Hampshire (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna) came from eighth to finish a comfortable third.
Cooper and Deegan finished fourth and fifth, ahead of last week’s round winner, Tom Vialle (Red Bull KTM).
Rounding out the top 10 were Kitchen, Jalek Swoll (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna), the returning Pierce Brown (TLD Red Bull GasGas) and Maximus Vohland (Red Bull KTM).
Justin Cooper capitalized on a late mistake by Lawrence to claim the second 250MX moto and his second race of the season.
The elder Lawrence brother scored the holeshot from Levi Kitchen and rapidly went about building a gap between himself and the championship hopefuls.
With a win looking near-certain, Lawrence crashed trying to get around a lapped rider on the second-to-last lap, allowing Cooper to snatch the lead and finish four seconds ahead of the Honda rider.
Shimoda crossed the line right on Hunter’s rear wheel to take third.
Kitchen and Vialle finished fourth and fifth respectively, ahead of Hampshire, who recovered from another poor start to finish sixth.
Vohland crossed the line in seventh, with former points lead Deegan – who worked his way from a mid-pack start – in eighth.
Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Austin Forkner marked his return to racing with a P9 result, as Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha’s Daxton Bennick placed 10th.
Lawrence’s bounce-back sees him now lead Deegan by 13 points the 250MX championship, with Hampshire third, 20 points behind.
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