Image: Octopi Media.

Defending 450MX champion Jett Lawrence managed to avoid any major injuries in his scary crash at the beginning of Hangtown’s opening moto, which spelt the end of the Team Honda HRC rider’s previous 24-0 winning streak.

Lawrence suffered his first premier class defeat outdoors at the hands of Chase Sexton (Red Bull KTM) following his error at the Prairie City facility on Saturday, but managed to remount and salvage 24-6 results for 14th overall.

While he did largely escape injury, a cut on his right leg from the footpeg upon impact required medical attention in between motos, and did affect him on his way to sixth in the final race of the weekend. He’s now dropped to sixth in the standings, 24 points outside of new red plate-holder Sexton, who went 1-1 in Northern California.

“I just used all my upper-body in the first part and I was feeling okay, and then once they got tired I tried using my leg, and my leg just wouldn’t work,” Lawrence commented post-race.

“I ended up landing part on the footpeg and got a chunk taken out, so that doesn’t… a little lesser muscle, I guess you could say, almost. It sucks, but I’m going to go back and recover, but you know, it’s just going to make it a better story in the long run. We’ll try to get back, get healthy and come back even stronger.”

Team Honda HRC manager Lars Lindstrom reiterated the extent of Lawrence’s injury and told MotoOnline that the 20-year-old was confident he’d still be able to make the triple despite changes being made – and added track time through the section – prior to the opening moto.

“Basically when he went off the side of the bike there, the footpeg dug into his right leg,” Lindstrom explained. “And it’s got like a perfect shape of the footpeg into his leg, pretty deep. I don’t think deep enough to need stitches, but definitely butterfly bandages and things like that, that Doc G [Dr. Rey Gubernick] was able to do between motos.

“And really, the impact is what kind of jacked him up. The contusion or whatever you want to call it wasn’t that bad of an injury for him, but just the fact that his leg wouldn’t work for a little while was the problem, and then he obviously got a huge impact on his whole body. So, it kind of beat him up pretty good.

“They changed that takeoff between from practice to the moto. I mean, he did the parade lap… We talked about it also and so he knew, but I think that he just got it just right to where he felt like he could still jump it.

“[Jett] had a lot of confidence and just wasn’t able to make it and landed right in those breaking bumps and it kind of exploded himself. I mean, luckily we’re just walking out of here on two legs and able to come back and race again next week and salvage some points in the second moto.”