Jett Lawrence wins Thunder Valley Pro Motocross to remain undefeated in 2023

Jett Lawrence swept another weekend with holeshots in both motos at Thunder Valley in Lakewood, Colorado during Round 3 of the Pro Motocross season and Round 20 of  the inaugural SuperMotocross World Championship. Neither race was in question as Lawrence managed his gap to second place one more week and led every lap.

Lawrence has now won all six motos since graduating to the 450 class and his undefeated status is allowing him to build a substantial lead in MX points.

“It’s an awesome day here. I got an even better start in that second moto and I couldn’t quite push as hard and go as fast as I did in the first moto.

“The track was a little greasy, especially when the rain started to come. I was back to maintaining again, but it was a fun day. I’m pumped. The Lawrence boys won again.”

Hunter Lawrence kept his streak of overall wins alive in the 250 class.

Jett now has a 34-point advantage over Dylan Ferrandis for the Pro Motocross lead with Cooper Webb four points further back in third. Lawrence climbed to 14th in SuperMotocross points and at his current pace will challenge to be in top 10 as early as next week.

Aaron Plessinger finished second overall to score his fourth consecutive top-five finish. Plessinger’s second-place finish did not come easy, however; he crashed with Dylan Ferrandis while battling for fifth in the first race. Plessinger dropped to 25th after that incident; Ferrandis fell to 33rd and both riders were forced to come through the field.

Plessinger climbed to 10th by the halfway point and with four minutes remaining, he was victorious in an intense four-rider battle for the top five. Plessinger made up one more position before finishing second in Moto 2. It was Plessinger’s first podium of the Motocross season.

“I hated that happened in the first moto,” Plessinger said. “My and Dylan’s lines came together. It was just a racing incident. That one hurt. He hit me pretty hard. It was tough. It was gnarly. I got roosted so bad, took a couple of rocks to the hands, put the handguards on and ripped that second moto.”

RESULTS: How they finished in the 450 Overall at Thunder Valley

Cooper Webb and Ferrandis kept their perfect record of top-fives alive in 2023 with Webb earning his second consecutive podium.

Finishing second in Moto 2. it appeared Webb was on his way to a season-best effort.

“It was definitely a struggle [in Moto 2], but we did the best we could, fought hard and I’m happy to be on the podium,” Webb said. “It’s not easy to be up here, obviously; there are a lot of things happening, but it feels good to be up here. … We’ll try to be better next week.”

Webb earned 38 points in the round and tied Chase Sexton for the No. 1 seed in SuperMotocross points. They hold a lead of 71 over Plessinger.

Adam Cianciarulo scored his best overall finish of the season with a fourth-place result after finishing third and sixth in the two races. This is his fourth top-five in the last five combined SuperMotocross rounds and his 11th consecutive top-10.

Ferrandis rounded out the top five with a 7-3.

Last week at Hangtown, the FMF Privateer Power Award went to Ty Masterpool with a sixth overall (7-7). He was prepared for another solid run with a top-10 qualification effort but was swept into a first-turn crash. Masterpool recovered to crack the top 10 at the 10-minute mark. He was in the top five with two minutes remaining and embroiled in a battle with Plessinger.

Masterpool continued to dig and was credited with sixth overall after scoring a fifth in Moto 1 and fourth in Moto 2. He lost fifth-place overall in the final turn when he washed wide and allowed Ferrandis to get around him in the second race. Ferrandis scored the position on the tiebreaker by finishing ahead of Masterpool in Moto 2.

They will start calling Hunter Lawrence Mr. Moto 2. For the third straight week, he was hindered by a poor start in the first race before coming from the back to stand on the podium.

In that event, a massive crash unfolded with him in the middle but he kept his bike upright and fell to seventh at the end of the first lap. He clawed his way back to finish second in Moto 1. As with Fox Raceway and Hangtown, he dominated Moto 2 and scored the overall win.

That accident also collected RJ Hampshire, Guillem Farres (who injured his arm and was unable to mount for Moto 2), Jett Reynolds, Jo Shimoda and Tom Vialle. Triggering the incident, Chance Hymas and Shimoda got together on the inside and created a domino effect that stretched to the other side of the track. Farres was fitted with a splint and sling during the race.

This incident had major points implications as Farres entered the race seventh in Motocross points, Vialle fourth, Hampshire fifth and Shimoda sixth.

In the second moto, Lawrence’s fiercest challenger was Justin Cooper, who won the first race. Cooper had the better start, but under pressure from Lawrence he did a front wheel stand and could not hang onto his mount.

“That was such a weird crash,” Lawrence told NBC Sports’ Jason Thomas. “He washed the front, but then flipped and fell right in front of me. I didn’t want to run him over, so I just tried to get around.

“I just rode my own race. It definitely made my life easier getting a better start.”

Cooper fell outside of the top 10 in that race and had to regroup. He made slow progress in the early laps, but after making a repair to his throttle in the middle of a long jump, he found the speed needed to surge forward. In the final laps, Cooper climbed to fourth to take the second position overall.

“It was a great day,” Cooper said. “I rode really good all day and was happy with the bike. I bent up my levers a little bit and couldn’t use my front brake for a couple of laps and had to bend that down. After a few laps, I started to get my controls back, found my flow again and made a push to the front.”

Cooper is now 16 points behind Lawrence in the Pro Motocross championship.

Click here for 250 overall results

Levi Kitchen won one of the two motos at Thunder Valley last year, so he came into the race with a lot of confidence. He finished fifth in the first moto and was determined to improve.

“That first moto, I felt like I left a little bit on the table, Didn’t ride the greatest,” Kitchen said. “In the second one I got out to another good start and tried to lock in there with Cooper and Hunter.”

Haiden Deegan led Moto 1 early, but tipped over in a deep rut and fell out of the battle for the lead. He finished fourth in the first race and ninth in Moto 2 for eighth overall.

Chance Hymas finished 11th in the first race, but he got a good start in Moto 2 and scored his first career moto podium.

“I’m just trying to get my feet under me,” Hymas said. “It’s crazy what a start can do in this class and I’ve been struggling with my starts. I just tried to keep going forward and we had a good battle going. It’s been a while since I ran out front and it felt so good.

Hymas was credited with fifth overall.

2023 Motocross Race Recaps

Hangtown: Jett Lawrence goes two-for-two
Fox Raceway: Jett Lawrence wins in first 450 start

2023 Supercross Race Recaps

Salt Lake City: Chase Sexton ends the season with win
Denver: Chase Sexton wins, takes points’ lead with Eli Tomac injury
Nashville: Chase Sexton keeps hope alive; Cooper Webb out
New Jersey: Justin Barcia wins muddy race; first in two years
Atlanta: Chase Sexton is back in the championship picture
Glendale: Eli Tomac wins 51st, breaks tie with James Stewart
Seattle: Eli Tomac wins and ties Webb for first
Detroit: Chase Sexton inherits win after Aaron Plessinger falls
Indianapolis: Ken Roczen gets first win in more than a year
Daytona: Eli Tomac extends Daytona record with seventh win
Arlington: Cooper Webb wins for second time, closes to two of Tomac
Oakland: Eli Tomac ties Ricky Carmichael with 48 wins
Tampa: Cooper Webb gets first 2023 win
Houston: Eli Tomac bounces back from A2 crash to win third race of 2023
Anaheim 2: Triple Crown produces new winners Chase Sexton, Levi Kitchen
San Diego: Eli Tomac, Jett Lawrence double down
Anaheim 1: Eli Tomac wins opener for the first time

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Jett Lawrence wins Thunder Valley Pro Motocross to remain undefeated in 2023 originally appeared on NBCSports.com