MECHANICSVILLE, Maryland: Jett Lawrence had nothing but pride on the line at the start of Moto 1 of the Budds Creek National after wrapping up the championship last week in Unadilla. He iced his cake with a Moto 1 win and sent a message to the field that he is not going to let up on the pressure whatsoever.
“My one goal was to try and get a holeshot, so I was pretty happy to get that holeshot,” Jett told Peacock’s Haley Shanley. “Obviously J. Coop was riding well for the first few laps and I had to try and defend that. I like this track; it’s a nice layout to race on, so I tried to hit my lap times.”
The battle for second intensified as time ran off the clock. The No. 1 seed for the SuperMotocross World Championship playoffs spent most of the moto in second, but as he ran his pace, RJ Hampshire and Hunter Lawrence closed the distance.
As Hampshire caught Cooper, Hampshire’s focus changed to taking that position and gave the spot over to Hunter.
Cooper held onto second.
“I feel good,” Cooper told Jason Thomas. “It feels funky from the get-go, and sometimes you wake up ready to go.”
Hunter moved into the final podium position in the closing laps with Hampshire relegated to fourth.
“I didn’t have fun on the start. I didn’t get the best start; its just so thick and heavy there and it pulled the bike down a lot,” Hunter said. “It was something different; kept me on my toes the whole race.”
Eli Tomac raced to a respectable fifth-place finish, but he was nearly 30 seconds behind the top four and practically gave up any chance of winning the overall.
- Jett earned the holeshot over Cooper.
- Malcolm Stewart moved to seventh on Lap 8.
- On Lap 13, Jett stretched his advantage to eight seconds.
- The battle for second heated up as time ran off the clock.
- Cooper, Hampshire, and Hunter fought for the second position.
In Race Notes
Jett earned the holeshot but Justin Cooper is not allowing him to get away.
Jorge Prado was 43rd in qualification, but since he is in the top 10 in points, he started the race with a provisional and 41st gate pick. Prado used the far outside to get a good start.
Tomac slotted into third early before losing the position to Hampshire.
Hunter was fifth on Lap 2 on Timing and Scoring, but Prado was not showing up on feed. He was inside the top five early. Timing found Prado by Lap 4 and he was fifth.
On Lap 5, the top five were Jett, Cooper, Hampshire, Hunter, and Tomac. Prado fell to sixth.
Budds Creek is a difficult track on which to pass, so the top five have settled into a rhythm.
Dylan Ferrandis (sixth), Stewart (seventh), and Justin Barcia (eighth), moved up in the second half of the race.
Coty Schock was ninth and needed to gain eight points on Valentin Guillod during the weekend to move into 20th in SuperMotocross seeding. Guillod was running 13th on Lap 12.
Jett beat Cooper by four seconds.
Prado faded to 11th at the checkers.
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