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.

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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.

Tomac Back at Budds Creek...Maybe

How's Jett's Shoulder?

Lawrence considering an MRI scan on troublesome shoulder

Section: Competition Post: Alex Gobert

Extent of issue yet to be fully determined for 450MX national champion.

Image: Octopi Media.

Defending 450MX champion Jett Lawrence is considering undergoing an MRI scan on his troublesome shoulder that has been affecting him since crashing heavily in the opening moto at Hangtown, still yet to reach 100 percent fitness.

The Team Honda HRC rider has managed to win three-straight overalls at Thunder Valley, High Point, and Southwick, despite any ongoing issues, but is looking to find out the extent of any potential injury.

“We’ve kind of been discussing what it actually is, because at first we just thought it might be bruising or something like that, or maybe pulled the muscle,” Lawrence explained. “For how long and slow it’s taken to heal, we might get a MRI or something, because the muscle could be torn or something like that.

“We’re not really 100 percent on what it is, so we’re gonna use one of these breaks to go and get a MRI, or even after this one… Just because we’re not 100 percent sure what it is, we thought this break might help it, and get it back to 100 percent.

“But each time I’d go train and ride, and use it, it just kind of go back to that same spot that it would heal up and then drop a bit. It’s been a bit annoying in this break because I thought it would go a lot more, but no excuses, we still got an overall win, so definitely make it a lot easier if we’re at 100 percent.”

With elder brother and factory Honda teammate Hunter Lawrence maintaining the Pro Motocross Championship points lead, Jett Lawrence is three points back, currently tied with Chase Sexton

Bike changes Lead Sexton To Win

What Sexton changed that led to second moto victory at Southwick

Post: MotoOnline

The first moto win since Hangtown for Sexton showed more signs of progress.

Chase Sexton’s second moto victory at Southwick was his first moto win since his last to first performance to secure the overall win at Hangtown. The result boosted Sexton to just three points behind championship leader Hunter Lawrence as Sexton continues to look for consistency from moto to moto.

Much like the fourth round at High Point, Sexton didn’t particularly look comfortable in the first moto at Southwick before completely turning it around in moto two. But the win at Southwick came from an impressive surge when Sexton found his groove halfway through the moto to leap from third to first in an instant and take off with the moto victory.

“I mean I was kind of off the pace honestly in both motos,” said Sexton. “I was good at the beginning of the second moto and the first moto, but then I would kind of lose the pace in the middle of the race. I wasn’t riding the track how it was meant to be ridden, and I finally started to get a good flow going towards the end of the second moto. Better late than never. I just kind of started picking different lines and I don’t know, it kind of all came together for me.”

Image: Octopi Media.

The lap times from the second moto show a clear progression that Sexton found another gear. He struggled to a 2:20.079 at the mid-point of the moto before going 2:19, 2:19, 2:18, 2:16 four laps in a row which were all faster than that of race leader Jett Lawrence.

Southwick certainly is a racetrack that can be won or lost based on line selection as the sandy conditions create a massive variance between two lines next to each other. But aside from figuring out better lines, Sexton also made a slight bike change before the moto that could have contributed to his increased comfort late in the race. However, Sexton put the blame solely on himself that he needed to figure it out.

“We made a few bike changes, but I mean honestly I needed a ride the track better and I kind of acknowledged that mid first moto,” said Sexton “I just couldn’t figure it out and this this track has never really like been my absolute favorite for some reason. I kind of had to put that behind me.

“I found some good lines and was able to kind of jump around the track and make it more fun. When you’re having fun, you go faster. So that was kind of the whole thing for me today. I didn’t want to override the track because it is a sand track, but you can have some big get offs out here. I didn’t really want to push it past the limit and was just riding within myself.”

This is becoming a trend for Sexton in that he has been noticeably better in the second motos since Hangtown. He crashed while passing into the lead of the second moto at Thunder Valley, then led a few laps of the second moto at High Point before another crash pushed him back to second.

While the second moto rides are proof that Sexton is on the doorstep of more moto and overall wins, the lack of consistency between the two motos has been hurting him. While Hunter Lawrence has managed to hang onto the championship lead, Jett Lawrence has been surging winning each of the last three overalls and is now tied with Sexton for P2 in the standings.

If Sexton is going to stop the bleeding, he’ll likely have to turn things around in the first motos first.

“It seems that we miss the mark first motos for some reason,” said Sexton. “Whether it’s me or the bike, it’s kind of been both so we have to figure that out. We can’t be giving points away in the first moto, that’s not ideal. Then you kind of come out and you really have your back against the wall second moto, so you have to make it happen. I’m trying to fix that.”

Image: Octopi Media.

With the variance of Sexton, the consistency of Hunter Lawrence, and the consistent winning of Jett Lawrence, the 450MX title fight is as close as can be through five rounds. Three points separate the three riders heading into the true halfway point this weekend at RedBud.

While Jett Lawrence continues to ail from his shoulder injury sustained at Hangtown, Sexton or Hunter Lawrence could take a big step towards the championship by winning in the next few weeks. Though Jett has been winning the overalls, it’s clear there’s room to sneak in there as Sexton just proved at Southwick.

On top of that, RedBud is Sexton’s pseudo-home race for the Illinois native and he’s keen to get back on top in front of his home crowd in five days.

Barcia Will Be Back!

"I'm not done in 2025. No chance."

Paolo Ciabatti talks Ducati in MXGP