FORTH WORTH, Texas - Hunter Lawrence became the third different winner of a SuperMotocross World Championship race with a win in Moto 1 and third in the second race, but in the closing laps Hunter nearly threw it away with an errant jump.
“Super awesome,” Lawrence told Will Christien from the top of the podium. “Had a little super action on the back but that’s SuperMotocross. Happy to get out of here with the red plate.”
Hunter jumped wide on the final lap but did not cut the track as he tried to chase down his brother Jett Lawrence.
Hunter came frustratingly close to winning in the Pro Motocross series this season with six second-place finishes this year. He finished second in the Monster Energy Supercross Series at Salt Lake City, but entering Texas he had not won in his rookie 450 season.
With the win and double points that accompany it, Hunter not only scored his first professional dirt dike win, but also took the points lead heading into the series finale at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway next week. The points’ differential could not be tighter. Hunter leads Chase Sexton by one point and Jett Lawrence by nine, which means with triple points for Round 3 of the SMX Playoffs, any of these three riders will win if they score the overall victory.
Sexton finished second overall with a finish of fourth in Moto 1 and the win in Moto 2 to give him the tiebreaker over Jett.
At the start of the playoffs Sexton said he hoped to reverse a trend from last year when he got progressively worse in three rounds. He finished a distant third to Jett and Eli Tomac last week and improved to second in Texas. If he picks up that one critical spot next week, he will win his second championship of 2024 after taking the outdoor title.
“We actually made a change before Moto 1 and I felt like i rode well in Moto 1, but we just got such a bad start,” Sexton said after the race.
Jett finished third overall with a third-place result in Moto 1 and second-place in Moto 2.
Notably, the podium was filled with the only three riders to win a playoff race. Jett has three wins in five rounds.
“A little bit of lack of fitness on that one,” a visibly frustrated Jett said.
Eli Tomac narrowly missed the podium for a second consecutive week by two points and finished fifth overall.
Cooper Webb rounded out the top five with results of fifth in Moto 1 and fourth in Moto 2.
Click here for overall 450 results
In the 250 division Haiden Deegan swept the motos for a second straight week and heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s SuperMotocross World Championship finale with a huge advantage.
“It’s a lot of hard work and it pays off,” Deegan told Peacock’s Jason Thomas. “Good family around you too that supports you and puts in a lot of hard work as well is a good help as well.”
Despite winning both motos last week in Concord, North Carolina, Deegan knew he had to improve his starts and he scored the holeshot in both races.
Deegan won last year’s SuperMotocross Championship without winning a single overall.
“Two perfect starts today; that was my goal,” Deegan said.
Tom Vialle and Joe Shimoda stood on the podium in both motos and needed the tiebreaking procedure to determine who would get second- and third-place points. With a finish of third in Moto 1 and second in Moto 2, Vialle was scored second overall.
But the gutsiest performance of the week may belong to Shimoda, who returned to action last week at zMax Dragway after breaking his collarbone late in the Pro Motocross Championship. He finished second in Moto 1 and was third in Moto 2.
Shimoda has been riding a limited training schedule since returning and has no intention of changing that between Texas and Nevada.
Levi Kitchen finished fourth with results of seventh in Moto 1 and fourth in the second race.
Julien Beaumer rounded out the top five with a 5-6.
Click here for overall 250 results
In- Race Notes
Round 2 of the SuperMotocross World Championship may be the hottest race of the season with ambient temperature forecasted at 95 degrees. It’s going to feel a lot hotter than that on the track.
Questions were answered last week about Jett Lawrence’s health. It took half of Moto 1 for him to find his rhythm and then he charged quickly through the field. He failed to dominate Tomac, but the remainder of the division was well off their collective pace.
In Friday’s news conference, most of the riders compared this track to Atlanta Motor Speedway, but Tomac thinks this track has some similarities to Daytona International Speedway. If he gets a good start and finds the flow, that will play in his favor.
Jalek Swoll has apparently not cleared concussion protocol and will not ride this weekend.
Attrition continues as there are reports Chance Hymas will not ride today or next week. His playoffs are over.
Features
450 Moto 2
Fresh faces up front as Dylan Ferrandis leads Chase Sexton and Cooper Webb.
In Lap 2, Sexton takes the lead.
Webb rounds out the podium.
The three who ran so well in Moto 1, Hunter Lawrence rides fifth, Jett Lawrence is sixth, and Eli Tomac is eighth.
As they run, Sexton has the overall by one position over Hunter.
One lap later, Tomac moves into seventh.
Hunter, Jett and Tomac get around Ferrandis for fourth through sixth.
On Lap 7, Jett gets around Hunter.
Jett is on the move. He takes second from Webb.
Sexton has a huge lead with 10 seconds.
Hunter takes second from Webb on Lap 10 and that would give him the overall win as they run.
Tomac is up to fifth.
With two minutes on the clock, the top three have stabilized. Sexton leads Jett by 13 seconds and Hunter is third.
Sexton holds on for the win by a wide margin.
Jett takes second, but with Sexton’s Moto 2 win, he’s relegated to third overall.
Click here for complete 450 Moto 2 results
250 Moto 2
Deegan gets his second holeshot of the afternoon.
This is not Ty Masterpool’s day. He crashes in back-to-back motos while riding in the top five.
Deegan stretches his lead over Kitchen to three seconds with 12 minutes on the clock.
RJ Hampshire has the final podium position currently with Vialle and Shimoda rounding out the top five.
Beaumer advances from 12th on the first lap to sixth.
Hampshire goes down hard in the rhythm section after hitting a Tuff Blox. The red cross flag is waving.
Hampshire was battling for second at the time. He gets up under his own power.
Deegan wins over Vialle.
Still recovering from his collarbone injury, Shimoda finishes third.
Fourth-place Kitchen and Pierce Brown round out the top five.
Click here for complete 250 Moto 2 results
450 Moto 1
Hunter grabs the early lead but Jett in on his bike tire.
Webb ends Lap 1 in third.
Chase Sexton gets a horrible start and is eighth on Lap 2.
Sexton gets around Jason Anderson for seventh, but he’s eight seconds off the leader’s pace.
Eli Tomac was in contention for the holeshot until he rode wide and fell back to fifth. He’s been unable to pass fourth-place Ken Roczen.
Tomac finds some speed and passes both Roczen and Webb. His chance to win the overall improves with a Moto 1 podium.
Hunter stalls his bike momentarily in the rhythm section and Jett takes the position.
Sexton has made his way to fourth.
Now Jett stalls the bike and both Hunter and Tomac go by.
This is a three-rider battle for the lead.
Jett harasses Tomac and gives Hunter a little breathing room.
Jett can get alongside Tomac but the veteran shows a lot of composure and holds him off.
Hunter wins over Tomac and Jett.
Fourth-place Sexton still has a shot at the overall but he will need a little help.
Webb rounds out the top five.
“As you could see I got wheel spin,” Hunter said from the top of the podium. “Jett got wheel spin on one. I’m sure Eli got the same thing. All I could hear was that Yamaha and all I could think was that poor bike. He’s on it.”
Click here for complete 450 Moto 1 results
250 Moto 1
After getting poor starts in both motos at zMax Dragway, Deegan takes the early lead in Texas.
Nate Thrasher crashes coming off the tunnel jump on Lap 2.
Shimoda is backing up his strong zMax Dragway run in second.
Masterpool, Vialle, and Jordon Smith round out the top five at the five minute mark.
Masterpool crashes in the same spot at Thrasher. He falls outside the top five.
At the halfway point, Deegan has a greater than six-second lead.
Garrett Marchbanks falls from sixth.
Shimoda has stabilized the gap to Deegan, but is still 5.5 seconds behind.
Vialle and Smith remain third and fourth but Beaumer has moved into the top five.
Deegan wins Moto 1 by 3.8 seconds over Shimoda.
Vialle takes the final spot on the podium.
Smith and Beaumer round out the top five.
Click here for complete 250 Moto 1 results
Last Chance Qualifiers
250s
There was not a lot of drama in the 250 LCQ as only one rider failed to make the show do to attrition among the seeded riders.
Talon Hawkins got the holeshot but gave up the lead to Jett Reynolds.
Matti Jorgenson is the one rider who fails to advance.
Click here for complete 250 LCQ results
450s
Jerry Robin earned the holeshot but he could not hang onto a transfer position as only two riders advance in the 450 division.
Colt Nichols wins with Dean Wilson taking the second transfer.
Click here for complete 450 LCQ results
Qualification
450s
It’s looking like another dominant day for Jett. In the first qualification session, he is nearly seven-tenths of a second faster than the field with a time of 1:16.403.
Hunter makes an appearance at the top of the board with a time of 1:17.084.
Sexton needs to find some speed as he lands third on the board with a lap of 1:17.118.
Webb and Tomac round out the top five.
Click here for complete 450 Qualification 1 results
Qualification 2 ends the same way as the first session with Jett at the top he lowered his speed to 1:13.201 over his brother Hunter (1:13.922).
Tomac is third but more than a second slower than Jett.
Sexton and Justin Cooper round out the top five.
Click here for complete 450 Qualification 2 results
Click here for combined 450 qualification results
250s
Deegan picked up the pace from Friday’s practice. He was fourth in combined speed in Session 2 yesterday and topped the chart in the first seeded qualification with a time of 1:17.416.
Minor changes were made to the course overnight, but there was a lot more speed on Friday and Qualification 2 should be the faster of the two.
Beaumer continues to show that last week’s podium was not a fluke. He is second quickest and 0.129 seconds behind Deegan with a 1:17.545
Masterpool (1:18.142) takes third.
Hampshire and Vialle round out the top five.
Click here for complete results from 250 Qualification 1
As expected, times are faster in Qualification 2. Deegan drops under 1:15 in this session and tops the board.
Shimoda is just above that mark with a lap of 1:15.197.
Masterpool lands third on the chart at 1:15.242.
Smith and Beaumer round out the top five.
Kitchen slotted in seventh and then had a minor tip over at the end of the session.
Click here for complete results from 250 Qualification 2
Click here for combined 250 qualification results
Practice
Sexton in the 450 division and Brown in 250s were fastest in Friday practice.
More SuperMotocross News
While we wait for the featured races to begin, check up on some recent posts you may have missed.
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SuperMotocross Round 2 by the numbers
Jalek Swoll in concussion protocol after zMax crash
450 Results from zMax | 250 Results
Jett Lawrence, Eli Tomac split zMax motos
Jo Shimoda posts fifth-quickest time in zMax practice
2024 SMX playoffs features first-ever Podcast Mashup
Nate Thrasher will race 250 SMX playoff races
Jason Anderson, Jason Montoya and the bonds of trust
