It was never really close. Jett Lawrence fended off a little pressure from Chase Sexton and Dylan Ferrandis to win Moto 1 and rode to a 10-second advantage in Moto 2 to keep his perfect streak victories alive. This sweep was special as it allowed him to clinch the 2023 Pro Motocross championship with two rounds remaining. Lawrence is a rookie in the 450 class.
Lawrence needed a 100-point gap over Ferrandis to put him mathematically out of reach. He ended the day with at +103.
“It’s an unreal opportunity,” Jett told NBC Sports’ Will Christien. “Like Hunter (Lawrence) said with his (Supercross) championship, I haven’t even dreamed of this because we never thought it was possible to be where we are today. And to do it like that, being undefeated so far, it’s very emotional for me.”
Om Moto 1, Chase Sexton snapped a six-race streak of runner-up finishes but kept his perfect record of podium finishes alive with a third. Finishing second in the second moto, he secured the tiebreaker over Dylan Ferrandis, who was second in the first race and third in the second.
Adam Cianciarulo (4-6) and Aaron Plessinger (5-5) rounded out the top five.
With a remarkable debut in Pro Motocross, Estonian Harri Kullas finished just outside the top five in sixth with a sixth-place finish in Race 1 and a fifth in Race 2.
In the 250 class, Hunter Lawrence did not win either moto but his second-place finish in each gave him the overall win. More importantly, he was the big winner in terms of points after Haiden Deegan, his closest competitor entering the round, had a mechanical failure and did not earn any points, handing Lawrence a 25-point advantage to start Race 2.
Deegan would continue to struggle in the second moto and dropped to fourth in the standings, handing second to Justin Cooper (-22) and third to Jo Shimoda (-35).
“Today was good, but it was more about the big man here,” Hunter said and his bumped his brother Jett on the chest with his fist. “I.m so proud, so proud. Words and emotions are coming out because we were never meant to be here. What we went through in Europe; we just had to trust the process.”
Moto 1 winner Levi Kitchen finished fourth in Moto 2 and finished second overall with a one-point deficit.
“I’m glad I finally did it in the first moto today,” Cooper told NBC Sports’ Jason Thomas. “I’ve had a lot of good second moto finishes but have been in the back of the first one. Stoked to get second on the day.”
Cooper finished fifth in Moto 1 and third in the second race to take third overall. Cooper closed the gap on Lawrence and kept himself in title contention.
Shimoda finished third in both motos to land fourth on the overall chart with Maximus Vohland (4-6) rounding out the top five.
