Persistent lightning, diminishing daylight, and a track that was already severely rutted from soft conditions created by heavy rain earlier in the week forced series officials to do something rare in SuperMotocross. The round was called after one moto. However, the overall win was as common as an old pair of house slippers, and Jett Lawrence scored the victory.
Jett elbowed his way to the front of the pack in heavy traffic and won the holeshot. Once in the lead, he amassed a two-second advantage and then moderated his pace to coax his rivals into an uncomfortable speed before cruising to a comfortable win.
Full points were awarded for the round, and the victory allowed Jett to take the lead in the championship points standings by nine over Chase Sexton.
Click here for a recap of zMax Dragway
Instead of being baited, Sexton found the razor’s edge and walked it. As he entered the first turn, he thought he would emerge from the split lane with the holeshot, but the beating and banging dropped Sexton to fourth on Lap 1. He quickly moved into the second position as he, Jett, and Eli Tomac commanded the field. On a difficult track that was, “probably one of the sketchiest tracks I’ve ever ridden, just with the kickers and all these weird things,” Sexton took advantage of a mistake by Tomac to finish second.
Tomac admitted to being a little too impatient in the opening laps. As heavy winds buffeted the riders, he tucked his front wheel on Lap 8 and crashed. Tomac remounted quickly, with Hunter Lawrence on his back tire. With that single misstep behind him, Tomac finished third in the race, which allowed him to close to within one point of Justin Cooper for third in the standings.
With a moto win in the Pro Motocross finale at Budds Creek MX Park and several second-place finishes near the end of the season, Hunter Lawrence arguably had more momentum on his side than any of Jett’s challengers. That did not pay off at the start, and Hunter completed Lap 1 outside the top five. He finished fourth.
RJ Hampshire had an even worse start in eighth. He picked his way through traffic until settling into fifth with three laps remaining. He remained there until the checkers waved.
Cooper lost all of the advantage of his No. 1 seeding on the opening lap. He crashed and fell to 22nd (last), and it took him three laps to catch up to the rear of the field. Once he regained his composure and rhythm, he picked off one or two riders per lap to finish 11th overall. More than any other rider, he suffered from the cancellation of Moto 2, because a strong run in that race would have salvaged a few more points.
Malcolm Stewart was another casualty of the round. He crashed in Friday’s practice, experienced too much pain in Saturday’s first qualification session, and failed to start Moto 1. Earning no points in Concord, he fell from the third-seeding to 12th in the standings, but can make up some ground with double points on the line in St. Louis for Round 2 and Triple points for Round 3 in Las Vegas.
Here are the 450 Motocross results, lap times, and points standings after Round 1 at zMax Dragway in Concord, North Carolina:
Results
Moto 1
Results
Fastest Sector Times
Individual Lap Times
Detailed Lap Times
450 SuperMotocross Points
Manufacturer Points
Here is the finishing order of Round 1 at zMax Dragway (points earners):
1. Jett Lawrence, Honda
2. Chase Sexton, KTM
3. Eli Tomac, Yamaha
4. Hunter Lawrence, Honda
5. RJ Hampshire, Husqvarna
6. Ken Roczen, Suzuki
7. Cooper Webb, Yamaha
8. Dylan Ferrandis, Honda
9. Joey Savatgy, Honda
10. Justin Barcia, GasGas
11. Justin Cooper, Yamaha
12. Benny Bloss, Beta
13. Justin Hill, KTM
14. Valentin Guillod, Yamaha
15. Shane McElrath, Honda
16. Dean Wilson, Honda
17. Mitchell Oldenburg, Beta
18. Coty Schock, Yamaha
19. Harri Kullas, Husqvarna
20. Mitchell Harrison, Kawasaki
21. Jeremy Hand, Honda
22. Romain Pape, Yamaha
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