Good morning race fans! Coming to you live from High Point Raceway, AKA the “Country Club of Motocross” as Tim Cotter refers to it, in Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania, as we are set for the 46th High Point National. The High Point National will be the fourth round of the 2023 AMA Pro Motocross Championship, the first on the East Coast.
After rain on Thursday and Friday (the latter canceling the press day riding session and amateur practice as well), we should be set for clear skies for today’s event. A high of about 76 degrees Fahrenheit are not expected to be too challenging today, but the High Point Raceway track characteristics will not make today easy by any means.
In the 250 Class, the big story has been Hunter Lawrence’s strong start to the season. The Honda HRC rider has taken three of the six moto wins to date as the #96 has taken all three overall wins as he sits with a 16-point lead on Justin Cooper. Things are shaping up well for Hunter Lawrence, as he becomes the eighth rider to start a 125/250 Class Pro Motocross season with three straight overall wins. The previous seven times it happened, said rider won the championship.
In the premier class, the big story has also been some great riding by a Lawrence on a Honda HRC, as Jett Lawrence continued his perfect season so far: willing all six motos and leading all 92 laps so far en route to a 3-0 start to the season. Jett has been in control every race so far, almost looking like he is on cruise control out front. Jett Lawrence’s 3-0 start is the 14th time said feat has happened in the premier class—and 11 of the previous 13 times said rider to start 3-0 went on to win the championship. The rest of the field is hoping to stop the Lawrence brother’s respective rolls. We will see what happens when the motos start.
A few things to note: Ken Roczen is making his Pro Motocross season debut today. Roczen said yesterday he asked his son Griffin if he would rather go on the boat or go racing this weekend, and racing won, so the Roczen squad decided to spend their Father’s Day weekend at High Point Raceway. The #94 is prepping for the FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX) that kicks off in July, although he will be back to an AMA starting gate in a few months’ time as he is set to race the SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) playoff rounds.
Phil Nicoletti is making his return to racing following a wrist injury in February. Nicoletti said yesterday his goal was to return to racing at the RedBud National, but he is able to give it a go this weekend. This track is not an easy one to make your return from injury at, but the #69 will benefit from racing today and getting a race in for both himself and the all-new Yamaha YZ450F. Then, a weekend off before the RedBud National will help him as he looks to finish out the Pro Motocross season in full.