Honda Riders Shine at Motocross of Nations with win and 3rd overall
RedBudChase Sexton helps Team USA to overall victory, whilst Jett Lawrence wins Open class to help all-Honda Team Australia secure a podium finish
Team Honda HRC riders Chase Sexton, Jett Lawrence and Hunter Lawrence all enjoyed solid showings during the Motocross of Nations at Michigan’s RedBud MX, helping their respective national teams to strong results. Just three weeks after finishing a close second in the AMA Pro Motocross 450 Championship, Chase Sexton turned in steady 2-3 finishes in challenging conditions during his debut entry in the international event. Those results by the CRF450R rider, combined with strong showings from fellow countrymen Eli Tomac and Justin Cooper, were enough to give Team USA its first MXoN victory in over a decade.
Team HRC’s Mitch Evans put in a great performance for a fifth place in race one of the 2022 Motocross of Nations, to help Team Australia get only their second ever podium in this historic event.
After a Saturday performance that gave them third gate-pick on a dry RedBud circuit, Sunday morning brought a deluge of rain which completely changed the nature of the terrain and meant that it was almost a total reset for all the teams.
While Team Honda HRC members were the star Red Riders at the Motocross of Nations, a number of other CRF racers also performed well. Team Australia’s Mitch Evans posted a solid fifth place in Race 1, Team Spain’s Ruben Fernandez did likewise in Race 2 and Team Canada’s Dylan Wright was 10th in Race 3. Strong Red Rider performances in the B final included Team New Zealand’s Josiah Natzke, Team Venezuela’s Anthony Rodriguez and Team Japan’s Yuki Okura, finishing in seventh-through-ninth places, respectively.
“Unbelievable! This whole weekend has really been a dream come true, with it being my birthday, and it all worked out. First one, first win—you can’t take that for granted, because they don’t come very often. I’m just so happy. That last race, it was key to get out there off the start. It was a nerve-wracking race, and I just wanted to get to the finish. I’m stoked on the day, stoked on the crowd. I’m at a loss for words right now.”
“It was really good. That second one I felt not too bad—not the greatest start, and had a little trouble with my goggles near the end, which was a bit of a bummer as my pace would’ve been faster. I’m happy to be on the box for my first year and happy I got the overall win in Open. I can’t wait for next year; I feel like we [Team Australia] have a really good team, and you’ll be seeing a lot of us in the next few years. Hopefully we do better and better each year.”
“It’s awesome—everyone rode awesome! We left it all out on the track, and no one gave up regardless of what happened. We’ve got some good years to come, and this is a great year to kick off the first time we’re on the team together. I’m looking forward to it; it’s going to be a good few years ahead of us.”
It is great to get on the podium with Team Australia. It hasn’t happened much in our history, so to be part of a team that’s done it is a massive honour. The first moto went well, just rode a nice consistent race and kept a good pace throughout. I knew it was important to get us off to a good start and together with Hunter we did that in race one. Jett and Hunter then did a great race two to give us a solid shot at the podium, and that’s what happened in race three. I would have liked to have done a bit better but its motocross and anything can happen, but thankfully we still did well enough to land on the podium. A big thank you to all of the team for the job they did in what ended up being really tough conditions, and I can’t wait to be part of this event again, where we will try to do even better.
