PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania: Hunter Lawrence entered Round 15 at Lincoln Financial Field with a one-point advantage over Ken Roczen and he knew from the moment the gate dropped, it would be a hard-fought night
Lawrence took the lead early with Roczen and Cooper Webb hot on his back wheel. Roczen completed the pass for the lead on Lap 2 and never relinquished it, but the top three put on a clinic in the opening laps.
Roczen had to face down a challenge from Lawrence in the first half of the race, but once he survived contact from his closest championship rival, he created a gap that forced Lawrence to ride outside of his comfort zone—if one can find a comfortable place to ride on a muddy track.
Lawrence crashed in the wet conditions midway through the race and handed Roczen the red plate with two rounds remaining.
When Lawrence went down, the allowed Webb to slip through to second, stripping more valuable points from the rider who held the lead for the majority of the season.
Equally important, Webb’s proximity and lapped traffic kept Roczen honest.
Webb trimmed the advantage to a little more than a second on the stopwatch during the last lap, but could not make the pass. Webb’s second-place finish kept him inside the magic margin of less than a one full race deficit.
Lawrence claimed third and trails Roczen by fourth points. Lawrence still controls his fate. If he wins the next two rounds, he could gain six points on Roczen, and there are plenty of other scenarios that would provide Webb with the championship. Fans will have to watch the final two rounds.
Fourth-place Joey Savatgy and Justin Hill rounded out the top five.
In-Race Notes
As with the 250 feature, the 450 main was shortened by three minutes.
Lawrence charged to the lead with his sight set on stretching his points advantage over Roczen.
Webb settled into third on the opening lap.
On Lap 2, Roczen grabbed the lead from Lawrence. That gave him the championship lead as they ran.
Fourth-place Savatgy and Malcolm Stewart rounded out the top five in those opening laps.
Roczen had the lead on Lap 4, but Lawrence continued to provide pressure with less than two seconds separating them.
Lawrence closed the gap in heavy traffic and the two riders made contact. Both riders remained upright.
The contact spurred Roczen. He spurted out to a second gap.
On the next lap, Lawrence crashed and handed the second position to Webb.
Roczen, Webb, and Lawrence were the class of the field before that crash with a margin of a few seconds. The crash dropped Lawrence to minus 18 seconds to Roczen.
Savatgy remained fourth halfway through, with Hill moving into fifth.
In his first race back from injury, Justin Barcia climbed into the top 10. He was eighth on Lap 10 immediately behind teammate Dylan Ferrandis.
Barcia faded to 11th with two minutes remaining on the clark as Roczen lapped his way up to fifth.
As time ran off the clock, Webb closed the gap to the less than four seconds.
On the white flag lap, Webb had Roczen in sight, but free of traffic, the new points leader stretched his advantage.
Lawrence salvaged third.
