Hunter Lawrence won his second Supercross race via a tiebreaker over Eli Tomac in the Indianapolis Triple Crown at Lucas Oil Stadium.
“This one means a lot,” Lawrence told Peacock’s Will Christien. “This is my fifth day in a row riding. ... Testing with the team. Those guys will never give up, nor will I, so this is the ultimate thank you.”
With the overall victory, Lawrence extended his championship lead to four points as the series heads into its only off-weekend of the season.
Tomac struggled in traffic during Race 3 and lost the tow on Lawrence. He finished second in the final race and overall.
“I made one mistake there,” Tomac said. “Hunter pulled out a second or two, and I wasn’t able to bring that back. I got a little sketchy moment in the whoops. I feel like I lost the race, actually, in the whoops. I started jumping, got a little squirrelly. I went back to skimming at the end, and it went better.”
Cooper Webb finished third overall with finishes of fourth in Race 1 and 3, plus a third in the middle feature. Webb is now 25 points behind Lawrence in the championship battle.
“Overall, it was kind of a plateau night for me across the board,” Webb said. “I felt great. Yesterday and all day today. I’m pretty bummed with those results, if I’m honest. I felt like I could come in and compete tonight. Those two ahead of me were on another level.”
Justin Cooper (5-1-5) finished fourth overall after tying Webb in points.
Ken Roczen won the first feature in Indy. He also won the first feature in the previous Triple Crown-format race in Houston before struggling in the next two races. He finished fifth overall in Indy with results of first, 10th, and third. Roczen is more than one full round behind Lawrence with a deficit of 28 points.
In his first race back from a shoulder injury, Prado finished sixth in all three features for sixth overall.
Feature 3
Aaron Plessinger will not line up for the final race of the Indy Triple Crown after crashing in the second feature. (After the race, KTM reported that Plessinger’s arm was simply bruised and sore. Nothing was broken.)
Lawrence earned the holeshot, but Tomac finally got a strong start and followed the No. 96 on Lap 1. The championship lead is on the line.
Jorge Prado slotted into third.
Roczen moved around Cooper for fourth on Lap 3.
One second separated Lawrence and Tomac on Lap 4.
Roczen kept moving forward, passing Prado for third on Lap 5.
Lawrence had a 1.6-second lead over Tomac on Lap 9.
Joey Savatgy crashed with four minutes remaining on the clock.
Lawrence got through traffic better than Tomac. His lead on Lap 12 was 2.9 seconds over Tomac.
Tomac lost the tow on Lawrence, who steadily stretched his advantage as the clock wound down.
Lawrence won the final feature by more than three seconds over Tomac and won the overall via the tiebreaker (best finish in Race 3).
Roczen rode solidly in third.
Feature 2
Tomac got a much better start this time, but it was Cooper who took the early lead.
Feature 1 winner, Roczen, crashed on Lap 1. He collected Plessinger, who favored his left arm. Roczen missed a jump and landed on Plessinger.
Tomac took the lead on Lap 4. Lawrence slotted into third.
Fourth-place Webb and Savatgy rounded out the top five on Lap 5.
Roczen remounted after the crash and was 17th on Lap 6. Plessinger was unable to continue.
Prado (sixth) was just outside the top five on Lap 8.
Tomac lost some momentum, and Cooper pounded on Lap 9. That moved Cooper to P1. Lawrence remained third.
Tomac struggled to get around Vince Friese. He almost crashed and lost a second to the leader.
Lawrence crashed on Lap 12 when he ran into the back of Cole Thompson. Lawrence dropped to fourth.
Thompson was pushed through the netting in the bowl turn during the incident.
Roczen moved up to 10th on Lap 14.
Cooper held on for the victory by 3.5 seconds over Tomac.
“I felt like I stayed close [after being passed by Tomac], and once I got caught up a little bit, I attacked real quick, Cooper said. “He made a slight mistake, and I went for it.”
Tomac held a slim one-point margin over Cooper and Lawrence with one race remaining. Webb was two points off the lead.
Roczen rounded out the overall top five, but he was four points behind Webb.
Feature 2 Results
Overall Results after Feature 2
Feature 1
Prado earned the holeshot, while Tomac was slow out of the gate.
Webb followed Prado closely and took the lead on Lap 2. Roczen followed him through to second.
Tomac settled into eighth in the early laps.
Roczen grabbed the lead with nine minutes on the clock. That moved Webb back to second.
Tomac cracked the top five on Lap 5, which gave him a fighting chance for the overall.
Tomac was up to fourth one lap later after moving around Lawrence.
Tomac passed Prado for third on Lap 8, and he brought Lawrence with him up one position.
On Lap 11, Roczen held a four-second lead over Webb. Tomac was 1.8 seconds further back with Lawrence on his back tire.
Webb bobbled, which allowed Tomac and Lawrence to get around on Lap 13.
Cooper moved up to fifth.
Lawrence made the move around Tomac on Lap 14.
It was Tomac’s turn to bobble on Lap 15. He lost a second to Lawrence.
Ken Roczen scored a 5.4-second victory over Lawrence, with Tomac 3.4 seconds further back in third.
Fourth-place Webb and his teammate Cooper rounded out the top five.
In his first race back, Prado finished sixth.
“Every weekend you show up; it’s a new day,” Roczen said. “You can be really good on a track where you’ve sucked before.”
