Close but no cigar, Hunter crashes out of lead!

Race leading crash ‘happened so fast’ for Lawrence

Image: Octopi Media.

Hunter Lawrence led 14 laps of the first 450MX moto at RedBud before a crash ended his chance at the moto victory. Fortunately, Lawrence has stated he’s okay from the crash and the whole sequence that put him on the ground caught him by surprise.

After dueling most of the moto with title combatant Chase Sexton, Team Honda HRC’s Hunter Lawrence appeared to have the upper hand in the race coming to two laps to go. As he charged down the hill into the tricky off-camber corner of the RedBud track, Lawrence suddenly swapped big to the left and the resulting fishtail spit Lawrence to the ground.

He landed on his left shoulder and helmet area quite abruptly bouncing off the ground as Sexton rolled by into the lead. It took Lawrence a moment to gather himself, but once he did, he remounted and finished the moto in P2.

Due to a rough second moto causing him to go 2-4 on the day, Lawrence lost the championship lead in the process. But the Australian was simply happy to walk away at the end of the day and remained perplexed about the moment that flipped his day upside down.

“It happened so fast, and it was kind of weird,” said Lawrence. “A lot of things caught me off guard a little bit with hitting a bump or something and then by the time my wheels were on the ground again, the bike was completely not directly underneath me. I was constantly having to react to stuff to fix it and it just kicked.

“I tried to gas out of it and dropped the front wheel into the face of one of the really steep gnarly ones and that just like snapped so fast. Unlike the 250, when the old 450 goes, she bucks pretty hard. Strap yourself in for the ride and do your best to save it. I’m okay, like just kind of gave my head a bit of a knock, which all things considering we’ll take.”

Lawrence now sits seven points behind Sexton in the championship as the series moves into the second half this weekend at Spring Creek.

Strong second for Gajser, strengthens championship lead after Lombok

Team HRC’s Tim Gajser continued his high level of performance, by reeling off a pair of second-place finishes, giving him second overall at the MXGP of Lombok and increasing his lead at the top of the 2024 MXGP World Championship back to 34-points – the same margin as when he arrived on Indonesian shores before the previous round.

After his holeshot in the qualification race yesterday, the Honda CRF450R rider made it three holeshots out of three, with two more excellent starts today, giving him perfect track position for this reversed-circuit layout at the old Mataram airport.

In the first race, he was able to lead the majority of the race, but was never able to pull a convincing gap ahead of second place, and as a result, after a couple of small errors, he had to concede the lead with five laps remaining. It was still a good result as he gained more points in the all-important championship battle.

Like race one, he grabbed the holeshot in race two but this time wasn’t able to hold onto the advantage for too long and instead settled in behind the leader, watching and waiting to make his move. Keeping the gap under three seconds, and even closing right up to under a second, the #243 tried his best to make the pass, but on the tricky terrain, he eventually decided that it was better to come home safely in second than to perform a high-risk manoeuvre. That position was still six-points ahead of his nearest championship rival, moving the gap back to 34-points with eight rounds remaining.

Next up is the MXGP of Czech Republic, held at the historic Loket track which is known for it’s hard-pack surface on hilly terrain. It is a track that Gajser has never won on, but given the way he is performing this year, he will enter into the weekend looking to right that wrong.

Herlings on Top in Lombok

Jeffrey Herlings was the king of MXGP of Lombok with an absolute victory

 

Jeffrey Herlings was the king of MXGP of Lombok with an absolute victory

Jeffrey Herlings was the absolute winner of the MXGP of Lombok, part of the MXGP World Championship. The three-time champion of the premier class won both races on Sunday in Indonesia in clear fashion.

The battle from yesterday’s qualifying race continued in the first race, pitting Herlings (Red Bull KTM) against Tim Gajser (Team HRC). The Slovenian made the holeshot and led for the first 12 laps. However, the Dutchman never gave up, even when he had more than an eight-second deficit.

Gradually, Herlings closed the gap, overtaking Gajser on the 13th lap. From there, he never lost the lead and even pulled away, finishing with a 7.436s advantage. Gajser secured second place without major struggles. Calvin Vlaanderen (Monster Energy Yamaha) fought with Jorge Prado (Red Bull GasGas) until the end, overtaking him on the penultimate lap to take third place. Jeremy Seewer (Kawasaki) was fifth.

In the second race, Gajser repeated the holeshot, but Herlings took the lead shortly after. This time, it was the Dutchman putting the rival in a chasing position, with Vlaanderen in third.

With three laps to go, Herlings had more than an 11-second lead over Gajser, maintaining a very strong pace. However, he slowed down and ended up winning with a 6.087-s gap over Gajser. Vlaanderen secured third place, while Valentin Guillod (Team Ship to Cycle Honda) surprised by finishing fourth ahead of Prado.

In the overall standings for MXGP of Lombok, the calculations are straightforward: Herlings was the winner with the maximum 50 points, Gajser was second with 44 points, and Vlaanderen rounded out the podium with 40 points. Prado was fourth with 34 points, and Guillod (32 points) completed the top five.

What led to Haiden Deegan CRASH at RedBud

“When it bucks, it’s like a 1000-pound bull.”

Hymas Gets His First at Red Bud

First career overall victory for Hymas at RedBud

Another moto win results in breakthrough performance for the Honda rider.

Image: Octopi Media.

Team Honda HRC’s Chance Hymas claimed his second career moto win and first career overall victory with a 4-1 day to win the RedBud National. A chaotic day saw Hymas just hold off his teammate Jo Shimoda to win the second moto and narrowly claim the overall.

Unfortunately, Hymas did have a penalty in the first moto for jumping on a red cross flag and was penalized five points. That didn’t impact the overall score on the day as he kept his P4 finishing position in the first moto, but it did prevent him from gaining in the championship as he scored the exact same amount of points as Haiden Deegan on the day.

The overall fight came down to Hymas versus Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Ty Masterpool. Masterpool won the first moto and was in third place in the second moto, which would have won him the overall, before he faded back to P5. Shimoda then could have won the overall as well if he passed Hymas as he would have gone 5-1 to Masterpool’s 1-5, but he wasn’t quite able to get it down. Masterpool then would go 1-5 for P2 on the day ahead of Shimoda’s 5-2 for P3.

Red Bull KTM’s Tom Vialle would end up fourth place on the day going 3-4. He crashed while leading the first moto and then struggled with a bad start in the second moto. Championship leader Haiden Deegan put his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing machine P5 overall after a 2-6 day that featured a few moments in the second moto. It wasn’t an ideal day for the #38, but thanks to Hymas’ penalty, Deegan still leads the championship by 42 points.

Behind them, it was Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Levi Kitchen in sixth, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Casey Cochran in seventh, Troy Lee Designs Red Bull GasGas’ Ryder DiFrancesco in eighth, Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Max Anstie in ninth, and Muc-Off FXR ClubMX’s Mark Fineis rounded out the top 10.

There have now been three different winners through six rounds of the series, but Deegan continues to be the spearhead as he remains the only rider to win more than one overall. With five rounds left to go, Deegan’s championship lead remains large as the rest of the field starts to focus on collecting race wins.

MXGP of Lombok 2024

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MX Drug Testing Continues

Relentless Drug Tests: Chase Sexton Faces 7th Examination This Season!

 

Chase Sexton dad recently shared an intriguing Instagram post, announcing that Chase’s seventh drug test of the year has come back negative. He humorously suggested it might be time to start testing some other riders, hinting at frustration and calling for fairness in the testing process. This comes in the wake of several athletes, such as James Stewart, who faced a 16-month suspension in 2014 for testing positive for a banned substance, highlighting the ongoing scrutiny in the sport.