Jett Lawrence Stretches Points Lead With Birmingham SX Win

・Australian becomes first back-to-back winner of the year
・Chance Hymas finishes 10th in 250SX East but makes positive steps
・Hunter Lawrence misses Birmingham round with fractured scapula

The AMA Supercross Championship visited Birmingham, Alabama’s Protective Stadium for the first time, and for the second week in a row, riders faced treacherous track conditions due to inclement weather leading up to the race. The soft and rutted track didn’t stop Team Honda HRC rider Jett Lawrence from becoming the season’s first four-time winner and first back-to-back winner in the 450SX division. Meanwhile, Chance Hymas battled through an eventful 250SX East main event to come home in 10^th. Unfortunately, Hunter Lawrence missed round 9 due to a shoulder injury that he sustained in Daytona the previous weekend.

In the 450SX main-event start, Lawrence snuck up the inside of turn 1 to grab a narrow holeshot aboard his CRF450RWE. From there, the 20-year-old rode a near-perfect race, maintaining a gap of 4 to 5 seconds for the entirety of the main event. Despite several charges from title-rival Cooper Webb, Lawrence maintained his composure and crossed the checkers with a 2.445-second advantage. The win added another three points to his championship lead, now 13 up on Webb.

Hymas rocketed his CRF250R to the front of the pack down the 250SX main-event start straight, but he ran wide in the first turn. The Idaho native was still inside the top five in the early stages of the race, then slipped back to sixth position, where he stayed for most of the main event before getting knocked down by another rider during a block pass with three laps to go. Hymas remounted in 10th place, which is where he would finish the race.

NOTES

・With heavy rain coming down on Friday, the DirtWurx crew managed to save the track by covering it with tarps during the worst of the rain. The riders and teams were pleasantly surprised at how well the track fared, but by the time the main events started, it was showing signs of wear, with deep ruts in the rhythm sections and corners, presenting challenges for the riders.
・With the track covered, organizers canceled Friday’s planned media-day activities, so several members of the Team Honda HRC crew headed to the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum for a visit. The museum staff arranged a collection of historic Honda motocross bikes together (one highlight being a works CR250R with a Ribi quadrilateral linkage front-suspension system), and the visitors were treated to a personal tour of the facility.
・Extreme Powersports Opelika, a Honda dealership in Opelika, Alabama, staffed a pop-up activation stand in the Team Honda HRC pits at Birmingham. They displayed a CRF250R and a CRF50F, and they raffled off an EU2200 generator.
・Team Honda HRC was missing Hunter Lawrence at the Birmingham round, as the Australian had suffered a small fracture to his left scapula in a main-event crash at Daytona. No surgery is required, and Hunter and his doctors will monitor the injury on a week-by-week basis in order to return as quickly as possible.
・To minimize damage to the damp track, organizers canceled Saturday’s free-practice sessions, so the daytime action comprised only two qualifiers for each class. Jett Lawrence topped both 450SX sessions, giving him the first gate pick for his heat race. Chance Hymas was ninth-best in the combined 250SX East times, which were topped by Fire Power Honda’s Max Anstie.
・Jett Lawrence was slotted in the second 450SX heat race, and he started in second before quickly being passed by Cooper Webb. Jett passed Webb back on the penultimate lap, and he nearly caught winner Eli Tomac in the end. Although he finished second, Jett’s final lap was the fastest of the heat race. Phoenix Racing Honda’s Dylan Ferrandis had taken fifth place in the first heat.
・In the 250SX East class, Chance Hymas rode a solid second heat race to finish third, one spot ahead of Fire Power Honda’s Max Anstie. TiLube Honda riders Henry Miller and Ryder Floyd made it through heat 1 with fifth- and eighth-place finishes, respectively.
・Once again, Jett notched the fastest lap time in the 450SX main event.
・So far this season, Jett Lawrence has led an impressive 104 laps out of a total of 166, or 62.7%.
・With his Birmingham win, Jett grew his lead in the 450SX title chase by three, stretching it to 13 points over Cooper Webb.
・Next up, AMA Supercross heads to Indianapolis, where round 10 will take place this Saturday.