ANAHEIM- California: Jett Lawrence set history last year by being the first rookie to score a perfect season in Pro Motocross on a 450. He set a record again by becoming the first rookie to win his first Monster Energy Supercross race in his first attempt.
“The nerves were just through the roof,” Lawrence told NBC Sports’ Will Christien from the top spot of the podium. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. It was going through my mind who was actually here. We’ve kind of made it in some ways just being here. It’s awesome to race these guys.”
Lawrence set the fastest time in practice and was also the quickest qualifier, but he failed to win his heat when Cooper Webb muscled him out of the way on Lap 1 and led flag to-flag.
Lawrence rarely repeats a weakness and did not allow anyone to get close to him in the Main event. After taking the holeshot, he led Jason Anderson for the duration and won by more than seven seconds.
For most of the race, the fiercest battle was for second as Anderson and Webb battled to see who would challenge Lawrence. With time running off the clock, Webb mistimed a jump on an off-camber turn, planted his front wheel and endoed. He remounted but fell to sixth at the finish.
Anderson maintained second with Chase Sexton moving up to the final podium spot.
Aaron Plessinger in fourth and Dylan Ferrandis rounded out the top five.
In the 250 West division, RJ Hampshire rode patiently in the opening laps. He stalked early leaders Julien Beaumer, (making his first 250 Supercross start), and Levi Kitchen.
When those two riders bobbled, Hampshire pounced and grabbed the lead, which he held through the checkered flag to become the first winner of the 2024 season.
Jordon Smith also found his way around the early leaders and finished second ahead of Kitchen, who took the final podium position.
After falling in his heat and getting a slow start in the Main, Jo Shimoda clawed his way through the field to finish fourth on a bike that won last year’s 250 divisional championship.
Maximus Vohland rounded out the top five.
Beaumer spent most of the night in the top three and seemed destined to get a rookie podium, but he jumped off track in the closing laps and fell to sixth.
The theme of the heats was overcoming adversity. While Smith, Maximus Vohland, Ken Roczen and Cooper Webb won the heats, three major riders had to bounce back from early crashes.
Shimoda in 250 West Heat 1, Kitchen in Race 2 and Sexton in 450 Heat 1 had to bounce back from early problems to get into the top nine and advance directly to the main. Hunter Lawrence in Heat 1 was not as lucky and he will need to come through the Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ). Lawrence had a bad start in the 450 LCQ and could only advance to fourth at the checkers. He will have to wait until San Francisco in Round 2 to make his 450 debut.
In 450 Heat 2, Jett also had trouble, but it came late in the race and cost only one position from second to third.
Jett Lawrence takes the early lead and is out to prove his heat race was an anomaly.
Jason Anderson isn’t letting him get away, however, and Lawrence has to hold on for 20 minutes.
On Lap 2, Lawrence begins to extend his lead over Anderson and Cooper Webb in third.
Eli Tomac is on the move and he’s up to eighth after starting outside the top 10.
Lawrence is comfortably in the lead with a 2.4-second advantage over Anderson. Is Lawrence pacing Anderson or is El Hombre riding patiently?
Webb runs third with Chase Sexton and Aaron Plessinger rounding out the top five.
Webb has caught Anderson but he needs to get around quickly if he wants to catch Lawrence with 10 minutes remaining.
The lead has stabilized, but so long as Anderson and Webb battle for second, they cannot catch Lawrence who looks to be the first rookie in history to win his first Supercross start.
With two minutes remaining, Lawrence bobbles for the first time exiting the sand section. He slows briefly, but recovers and maintains his lead.
One lap later, Webb crashes battling for second. Webb mistimed the landing on an off-camber jump, planted the front tire and endoed.
Jett Lawrence does it! He picks up in Supercross where he left off in Motocross: Standing on top of the podium.
Julien Beaumer and Levi Kitchen swap the lead twice in the first few corners with Beaumer coming out on top.
Beaumer leads Lap 1 with RJ Hampshire moving into second. Kitchen falls to third.
On Lap 2, Hampshire takes the lead from Beaumer.
Hampshire has a commanding lead while the battle is for second between Beaumer, Kitchen and Jordon Smith.
Riding sixth at the time, Nate Thrasher crashes with five minutes remaining.
Smith takes second, but the rookie Beaumer is still in a podium position with two and half minutes remaining.
Beaumer falls and loses his grip on the podium. He’s running sixth.
Maximus Vohland moves up to third.
Hampshire wins the first 250 West race by more than five seconds over Smith.
Kitchen holds on to third.
After getting a slow start, Jo Shimoda is just off the podium in fourth with Vohland in fifth.
Hunter Lawrence gets a bad start and that could be critical. There is not a lot of time in the Last Chance Qualifier.
Justin Hill takes the early lead. Lawrence is way back in eighth.
Hill wins over Kyle Chisholm and Fredrik Noren. They will advance to the Main.
Lawrence makes his way to fifth with the white flag waving and a big gap to Cade Clason. He caught up to the final transfer position and swapped some leather in the final turn, but it’s not enough. Lawrence will have to wait for San Fransisco to make his first 450 Main.
Clason takes the final transfer position.
TJ Albright took the early lead, but Max Miller stalked and passed him on Lap 2.
Miller can’t hold on. He crashes on Lap 3 and hands the lead back to Albright. Miller falls out of the top four, the last position to transfer.
Now Julien Benek gets into the fight.
Miller climbs back to fourth with one lap remaining.
Albright takes the win and advances to the Main, with Benek in tow. Lux Turner takes the final podium spot.
Miller gets squirely in the last turn and hands fourth over to Lance Kobusch.
Can Jett Lawrence remain perfect? He has to get through this heat for fans to know.
Lawrence takes the early lead, but Cooper Webb doesn’t care. He elbows Lawrence out of the way and takes the top spot. Jason Anderson is in this heat and he’s not going to be happy to run behind Lawrence.
Dylan Ferrandis and Adam Cianciarulo are holding strong in the top five.
Lawrence caught Webb with two laps remaining and was getting ready to make the pass, but he rode wide and jumped into a Tuff Blox.
He’s down but not for long. Lawrence loses only one spot to Roczen, but Webb will cruise to victory.
Webb wins over Roczen by four seconds. Lawrence finishes third and one question is answered: Lawrence won’t be perfect for the night, but he can still win his first SX race.
Dylan Ferrandis and Justin Barcia round out the top five.
Cianciarulo, Justin Cooper, Jorge Prado and Shane McElrath also advance.
The last time four champions raced in an opening round was 2014 Anaheim 1: Eli Tomac, Cooper Webb, Chase Sexton and Jason Anderson will line up tonight.
There is a big crash in turn 1, including Sexton and Hunter Lawrence. Replay shows Lawrence was the first to fall near the front of the pack.
Ken Roczen survives and takes the lead.
Logan Karnow is slow to get up.
Sexton falls to 17th; Hunter is 18th. Only nine advance.
Two of the most popular riders in the field, Malcolm Stewart and Aaron Plessinger, battle for second. Roczen continues to lead.
Sexton climbs to 10th behind Benny Bloss. He should make the Main directly. Lawrence must have problems with his bike: He’s still 18th and not making up any ground. Lawrence may be favoring his right hand.
Kickstart Kenny wins Heat 1 over Plessinger, and Stewart. Tomac finishes fourth with a strong run for Dean Wilson ending fifth.
Sexton climbed all the way to sixth at the end.
Christian Craig, Vince Friese and Derek Drake also advance.
Lawrence will have to go through the Last Chance Qualifier to make his first 450 Supercross race.
Levi Kitchen gets the holeshot and early lead, but he goes down quickly handing the lead to Julien Beaumer.
Maximus Vohland takes the lead spot quickly, but the rookie is still riding strong in his first 250 Supercross start.
Like Jo Shimoda in Heat 1. Kitchen has ground to make up if he wants to be in the Main. He’s in 10th and should be okay with two minutes remaining.
Vohland wins with a much bigger margin than Smith in Heat 1, about 2.3 seconds over Beaumier.
Garrett Marchbanks, Mitchell Oldenburg and Phil Nicoletti round out the top five.
Kitchen recovered to finish seventh and goes directly into the big show.
Ryder DiFrancesco, Robbie Wageman and Talon Hawkins also advance.
Lux Turner is the first man out after a hard crash. He and the rest of the field will have to go through the LCQ.
Carson Mumford takes the early lead while Jo Shimoda hits the dirt on Lap 1. Shimoda falls to 14th and since only nine advance directly into the Main, he has ground to cover.
Jordon Smith, who was fast in qualification, takes the lead and brings RJ Hampshire with him. Shimoda is up to 12th.
Smith continues to lead, but can’t shake Hampshire. They’re side by side through a bowl turn.
Smith is the Heat 1 winner over Hampshire. Nate Thrasher, Mumford and Cole Thompson round out the top five.
Shimoda, on one of the Honda’s that won last year’s 250 championship, recovers and gets in by the skin of his teeth. He was ninth.
Hunter Yoder, Josh Varize and Anthony Bourdon also advance.
TJ Albright is the first rider on the outside, looking in.
Race Day Live is live on Peacock as qualification gets underway. Tune in.
The gate has dropped for 250 Qualification 2. See it live on Peacock.
450 Qualification 2
Eli Tomac hits the dirt on Lap 1 but gets right back up.
Hunter Lawrence is following Jett Lawrence around the track. He knows his brother is a good rider to study.
The last two champions, Jett Lawrence from the SuperMotocross World Championship and Pro Motocross series and 2023 Supercross titlist Chase Sexton run 1-2 in Qualification 2. Sexton closed the gap in the second session and is only 0.043 seconds back.
Cooper Webb is also within a tenth of a second of Lawrence. Ken Roczen and Justin Cooper round out the top five.
Tomac is just outside that mark in sixth. Hunter Lawrence is eighth.
250 Qualification 2
Levi Kitchen jumps all the way to the top of the board in Qualification 2, which makes him the fastest overall.
RJ Hampshire backs up his second-place run in Q1 with another second in Q2. Jo Shimoda, Max Vohland and Nate Thrasher round out the top five.
450 Qualification 1
Jett Lawrence was fastest in Free Practice. He lines up next to his brother Hunter, who will make his first 450 SX start tonight.
Lawrence topped Qualification 1 over Cooper Webb on his new Yamaha. “It’s business as usual,” Lawrence says on the podium afterward.
Chase Sexton (also on a new ride) is third, Roczen and Jason Anderson round out the top five.
Jorge Prado, who will be making three starts in the beginning of the season, topped Group B.
250 Qualification 1
Rising star Julien Beaumer tops the first session of 250 West Qualification 1. He was in Group B because of his lack of starts in 2024, but he’ll be a rider to watch this year.
In Group A, Dylan Walsh faces a jump and goes down hard. He’ll need to rely on his time in Qualification 2.
Jordon Smith tops the board in Q1 over Hampshire. It took a lap or two for Jo Shimoda to get comfortable on his new Honda, but he climbed to third.
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