Hunter Lawrence earned the holeshot and sprinted away from the field in the opening laps of Moto 1 of Round 2 of the SuperMotocross World Championship playoffs at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
“I got off to a great start,” Hunter told Peacock’s Will Christien. “That made my life like 10 times easier. It was good. I felt good on the bike. I got some good rhythm and put in some sprint laps and got a bit of a gap.”
Ken Roczen had one of his best performances of the season and finished 6.9 seconds behind in second.
“It seems like back in the day, I would start riding again and it would come back [immediately],” Roczen told Jason Thomas. "[Now], Ideally I’d want an entire off-season to get ready for a race, but at the same time racing is the best practice you can get. So, I’m just trying to race myself into shape, and I am beyond stoked with second-place. Hunter was riding amazingly. I had nothing for him. I had pressure from the back for the whole time, and I had to keep on my toes the whole way.”
The battle for third came down to 0.147 seconds between Eli Tomac and Jett Lawrence.
Tomac took the position, but only barely.
“Those last two laps, [Jett] was obviously there, and it was all about holding the inside line for me,” Tomac said. “We got really close on this off-camber and into that last turn, it was hard to decide what to do. That was, like, can I maybe get Kenny on the inside? Do I leave a little room there to try and get three on the jump? So really it was chaos. I’m happy to hold on there.”
Jett got a slow start and was outside the top 20 at the holeshot line. He cracked the top five by Lap 10, but had two strong riders between him and podium consideration. As time ran off the clock, he got around Sexton for fourth on Lap 12. Jett made a determined charge on Tomac and Roczen as those three riders crossed under the checkered flag with six-tenths of a second between them.
“I think I wasted too much time on the first two laps,” Jett said. “I had a little bad luck on the first few laps, and I wanted to get through it clean so I could make some passes. I was a little too tentative. At the start, I was sitting a little too far forward on the dirt, and it just spun on me sadly.”
Sexton rounded out the top five.
Justin Cooper finished just outside the top five in sixth. He was 11th at zMax Dragway last week after a Turn 1 crash.
- Hunter earned the holeshot as Jett and Sexton stumbled.
- Jett was 21st as the holeshot line.
- Jett moved to 12th at the end of Lap 1.
- Sexton moved into sixth on Lap 2; Jett was 11th.
- Jett cracked the top 10 on Lap 4.
- At halfway, Hunter held a 5.8-second lead over Roczen.
- Sexton moved into fourth.
- Jett took fifth from Webb on Lap 9.
- Jett took fourth from Sexton on Lap 12.
- With two minutes on the clock, Hunter lapped up to 14th.
In Race Notes
Hunter got the great jump as Jett and Sexton stumbled out of the gate.
Jett recovered and completed Lap 1 in 12th. Sexton was seventh.
Roczen was second on Lap 2 with Tomac 1.3 seconds behind in third.
Hunter looked comfortable in the lead with a 3.3-second lead on Lap 4.
On Lap 5, Cooper Webb and Justin Cooper battled for fourth. Sexton joined the battle one lap later.
At the halfway mark, Sexton moved into fourth. Jett was knocking on the door of the top five with Webb in his sights.
Jett took the position on Lap 9, but he was 15.2 seconds behind the leader, Hunter.
While Hunter led, Sexton and Jett were involved in an intense battle on Lap 12. Jett took the position in the sand section.
Tomac was 5.6 seconds ahead of Jett. But Jett steadily closed the distance and trimmed 3.4 seconds off the lead on Lap 16. This position could be critical for the overall victory.
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