SALT LAKE CITY, Utah: Ken Roczen took the lead early with Hunter Lawrence on his back tire for the first half of the Supercross finale at Rice-Eccles Stadium, but a crash eliminated Lawrence from competition.
Roczen lost the lead to Chase Sexton in the final minutes and after losing his rhythm, he continued to fall back.
Roczen dropped to fifth in the final laps, but with Hunter Lawrence finishing seventh, he was won the title by two positions over Lawrence.
Roczen gave second over to Justin Cooper and third to Jorge Prado.
Cooper Webb finished fourth.
Lawrence seemed to be content to settle into Roczen’s pace until Jorge Prado caught the top two riders. That pressured Lawrence into an uncomfortable pace that contributed to the accident.
In-Race Notes
What everyone wanted happened: Ken Roczen and Hunter Lawrence began the race first and second.
After struggling all afternoon, Roczen saved his ‘A game’ for the feature. He led Lawrence by one second at the end of Lap 3.
Jorge Prado, Chase Sexton, and Justin Hill rounded out the top five.
Over the next three laps, Lawrence cut into Roczen’s lead slightly, but they mostly matched pace.
Prado joined the fight on Lap and challenged Lawrence’s concentration.
On Lap , Roczen almost jumped off course. Lawrence followed him into the corner and did jump off.
That destroyed Lawrence’s rhythm and he crashed later on that lap. Lawrence dropped to seventh, which put an end to his title hopes.
Prado moved into second with Sexton third.
Roczen had breathing room with Lawrence’s crash and he stretched his lead to three seconds with eight minutes on the clock.
Sexton took second away from Prado with five minutes remaining on the clock.
