450SX Main Event
AMA SX 2023
Round 2

Jett Lawrence Wins 250SX West at Oakland Supercross

us RingCentral Coliseum
Jett Lawrence Wins 250SX West at Oakland Supercross

・Chase Sexton third in 450SX after leading early
・Colt Nichols earns ninth place in premier class

Following a rare second-place overall finish at Anaheim 2 and a two-week break in the 250SX West series, Jett Lawrence returned to his winning ways at the Oakland Supercross, which had been postponed five weeks due to rain. The young Australian took his third victory of the season and extended his title-chase advantage to 20 points. In the premier division, Chase Sexton kept his podium streak alive, taking third place.

Lawrence got a great jump out of the gate to start the 250SX West main event, but exited turn 1 in third. He put his CRF250R by Cameron McAdoo in the whoops on lap 3, then took over the lead on lap 5 when RJ Hampshire went down in a corner. Once in front, Lawrence began pulling away, ultimately winning by over 16 seconds.

Sexton took the 450SX main-event holeshot and slowly but steadily grew an advantage to over 7 seconds aboard his CRF450RWE, only to go down with seven laps remaining. The Illinois native remounted in time to retain second, but Cooper Webb made a pass three laps from the end. Colt Nichols was knocked off the track by another rider early on, but recovered to finish ninth.

NOTES

  • On Friday, Chase Sexton and Colt Nichols had an opportunity to check out the Oakland track when they took part in media-day activities.

  • The temperature was 58º Fahrenheit for the 250SX West main, and dropped to 54º for the 450SX main.

  • For the fourth time in a row and the fifth time in six rounds, Sexton was the fastest qualifier in the 450SX class. He was the only rider to dip into the 1’05” range, with a best time that was nearly half a second faster than the next-best rider. Colt Nichols was seventh-fastest.

  • Jett Lawrence was the top-qualifying 250SX West rider, the only rider in that class to post a time in the 1’06” range—nearly three-quarters of a second better than the next-best rider. Also respectable was SmarTop/MotoConcepts Racing’s Mitchell Oldenburg, who rode his CRF250R to the ninth-best time.

  • Despite a relatively poor start, Lawrence handily won the second 250SX West heat race. He quickly moved up to fourth and took one more position on the first lap, then grabbed second on lap 2. After dogging Cameron McAdoo for several laps, he took the lead in the whoops on lap 5 and pulled away to win by 2.5 seconds. Also advancing through the heat were Oldenburg and SmarTop/MotoConcepts’ Anthony Rodriguez. Concrete Plants-sponsored Red Rider Maxwell Sanford made it in through the last-chance qualifier.

  • Sexton started third in the second 450SX heat and took over second at the end of lap 1. He grabbed the lead from Cooper Webb on lap 4, only to immediately lose it to Eli Tomac and finish second. Nichols notched a sixth-place result, whereas Fire Power Honda’s Dean Wilson advanced through the first heat.

  • Moments after winning the 250SX West main event, Lawrence gave his mechanic Christien Ducharme a celebratory high five. Unfortunately, the duo were a bit overly enthusiastic, to the point that Ducharme’s shoulder was dislocated. The Alpinestars Medical crew quickly popped it back in for him, and he rejoined the podium celebration.

  • Continuing a trend this season, the best laps in both main events were tallied by Team Honda HRC riders, with Sexton and Lawrence fastest in 450SX and 250SX West, respectively.

  • Lawrence’s 250SX win was the 10th of his career, and it put him on the list with Eli Tomac and Malcolm Stewart as Honda riders to win the Oakland 250SX West race. Sexton’s 450SX podium was the 16th of his career.

  • Sexton and Lawrence both took part in the post-race press conference at Oakland.

  • Lawrence’s 250SX West title-chase lead is now 20 points, while Sexton is tied for second with Cooper Webb in 450SX, seven behind Tomac. Nichols moved up a position in 450SX, to a three-way tie for ninth.

  • Lawrence’s win also extended Honda’s streak as the only manufacturer to win one of the two classes at every round this season.

  • The next AMA Supercross round is in Arlington, Texas, on February 25. It marks a return to the 250SX East Region, which means Hunter Lawrence will return to action in an effort to extend his undefeated streak to three.

  • With the next 250SX West round over a month away, Jett Lawrence will begin supercross testing on the CRF450RWE, but not with an eye toward racing the premier class at AMA Supercross East Region events. Instead, this will be prep work for the three SuperMotocross rounds, scheduled to take place in September.


Chase Sexton
Chase Sexton 23
Team Honda HRC
My riding and everything has been really good. The first 10 minutes of the main event, I was in my comfort zone; I wasn’t overriding, I was hitting my marks. After I went down, I got a little more timid and was basically in survival mode—got out of my flow, and it was tough trying to get back into it. I still have an opportunity next week to come out and fix the mistakes that I made.

Colt Nichols
Colt Nichols 45
Team Honda HRC
Tonight was a little bit better for me than I’ve had the past few weekends; I felt like I was actually in the race and battling some good guys. I needed to give myself a chance and get some better track position early on. Overall, a lot of steps in the right direction all day. We get to try again next weekend.

Jett Lawrence
Jett Lawrence 18
Team Honda HRC
It was nice to have this race to break up the flow of having almost a second off-season. The first few laps I spent seeing where the lines were at, feeling the other guys out. Once I got into the lead, I just tried to keep my lap times consistent and limit mistakes. I got into my rhythm, where I could just keep clicking off laps and keep the same flow.


250SX West Standings

Pos. Rider Num. Team Constr. Pts
1 Jett Lawrence 18 Team Honda HRC Honda 101
2 Rj Hampshire 24 Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing Husqvarna 81
3 Cameron Mcadoo 48 Monster Energy ProCircuit Kawasaki Kawasaki 80
4 Mitchell Oldenburg 49 Smartop MotoConcepts Racing Honda Honda 69
5 Levi Kitchen 43 Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing Yamaha 63
6 Enzo Lopes 56 Muc-Off FXR ClubMX Yamaha Yamaha 63
14 Anthony Rodriguez 111 Smartop MotoConcepts Racing Honda Honda 35
22 Maxwell Sanford 162 Concrete Plants Inc Honda 12
25 Wilson Todd 102 Firepower Honda Honda 6


Published on