Good morning race fans! After a weekend off from racing just two rounds into this 2021 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross championship, we are back at the races today for the High Point National. The third round of this championship will also be the first round without a few defending series champions lining up as Jeremy Martin and Zach Osborne are both out following crashes at Thunder Valley. Martin had been dealing with a scaphoid injury that flared up in the crash during the second 250 class moto at Thunder Valley, but matters were made worse when he crashed trying to ride earlier this week and couldn’t hold onto the bars, falling and breaking some fingers. He’s expected to be out for the foreseeable future.

As for Osborne, the back injury he carried from supercross into this Pro Motocross championship was made worse by his crash in 450 moto two last week. As such, he has withdrawn from the remainder of the Pro Motocross season as he eyes getting healthy for Monster Energy Supercross in 2022. So now with a couple of favorites in both classes already falling by the wayside, who will step up and win these titles?

The 250 class looks like it might be a battle of the Lawrence brothers with Justin Cooper and a sprinkling of a few others if the first two rounds are any indication. Jett Lawrence has won two of the four motos and holds a 10-point lead on Justin Cooper coming into today. As for the 450 class, it’s still very much a toss-up, but two-time series champion Ken Roczen is trying to prove it may not be. As some other notable names have faltered in the opening two rounds, Roczen has gone 6-1-1-1 and has a one-point lead over round one winner Dylan Ferrandis.

But with a week off already, High Point could be a turning point for many riders to turn things around. It’s the first east coast race, and there’s the potential for some weather to come into play today to really throw a wrench into the plans. While rain has remained away from the track so far, there’s still as high as a 70% chance we see rain before or during the motos today. Stay tuned!

FIRST QUALIFYING SESSIONS

As the riders hit the track for the first time this morning, the 250 class was greeted with smooth, rich Pennsylvania soil. The track began weathering in nicely early on as the threat of rain last night had left the water trucks mostly grounded until this morning. RJ Hampshire laid down an early time to go fastest right at the beginning of the session, and he held onto it for a little while. Justin Cooper then became the first rider to go into the 2:01’s on the day as he set his best time towards the later stages of the session.

In the 450 class, Ken Roczen and Adam Cianciarulo exchanged times atop the scoring sheet as Roczen jumped to the top first before Cianciarulo snagged it away from him. Ultimately, Roczen would become the first rider to drop into the 1:59’s so far today as he was hitting a new level with the track late in the session. Roczen’s first session time was good enough to put him over 1.5 seconds clear of everyone as he continues to show strong form in Pro Motocross on the heels of his runner up championship finish in supercross.

SECOND QUALIFYING SESSIONS

The track was still dry as the second sessions began but the rain seemed almost inevitable as the storm cell kept moving in from the west. Hunter Lawrence jumped up to the top of the board early in the second 250A session, but his time was not enough to beat Justin Cooper’s time from the first session. His brother Jett tipped him momentarily before Hunter once again put in a better time late in the session to remain on top. Still, neither time was enough to pip Justin Cooper’s time from the first session as the Monster Energy/Star Racing Yamaha rider qualifies fastest for the High Point National.

Adam Cianciarulo was once again the fastest rider early in the second 450 class session as he laid down a 2:00.506 right after the green flag waved. Cianciarulo went on to slightly improve his time a few laps after that first one, but still was just a bit off the time Roczen had laid down in the first session. Bummer for privateer Henry Miller who crashed in the second session and appeared to injure his knee. No word at this time on his condition. Cianciarulo’s time would hold up through the second session to remain on top, but he would still end up just under a second down on Roczen’s from the first session which meant Ken Roczen would qualify first for the High Point National.

250 MOTO 1

The first holeshot of the day went to Hunter Lawrence as he led the way early from Jalek Swoll and Justin Cooper. Lawrence crashed from the lead before the first lap was over and Swoll took over the lead. Lawrence was trying to push hard to the outside to keep Swoll behind him and blew through the corner at the bottom of the off camber.

RJ Hampshire was pushing in the early running and got around Cooper for second to get on the back wheel of his teammate Swoll for the lead before the end of the next lap. For the second lap in a row, Hampshire used the same line in the off camber to pass Swoll for the lead and work on taking off at the front. Cooper then fell and slipped back to fifth just moments after that which promoted Colt Nichols and Jett Lawrence to third and fourth, respectively.

Cooper began to pick up the pace after his fall and quickly picked off Lawrence for fourth as he tried to work back up to the lead group. Hunter Lawrence had moved up to 14^th coming from outside of the top 30 by the halfway point of the moto. Suddenly, Cooper ran into more problems as Jett quickly caught and passed him in the last third of the moto as Jo Shimoda was also creeping into the picture.

Shimoda then made the move around Cooper as Cooper continued to wave his hand or touch his goggles. He may have run out of tear offs as he kept swiping his goggles, but he appeared to settle into a pace behind Shimoda as he worked on mounting a late charge in the moto.

Out of nowhere late into the moto, RJ Hampshire pulled off the track from the lead. It appeared like he had no chain on his bike as the mechanics pushed it away. That promoted Swoll into the lead as he was looking for his first career moto win. Hampshire’s DNF promoted Nichols into second ahead of Jett Lawrence, Shimoda, and Cooper inside of the top five.

Jalek Swoll claimed his first career moto victory as he crossed the line to win 250 moto one at High Point. He was fired up as he crossed the line and revved the bike with a huge fist pump. Hugs all around from the team as Swoll was all smiles. Nichols and Lawrence rounded out the podium behind him in moto one.

450 MOTO 1

Adam Cianciarulo ripped the holeshot in 450 moto one as Chase Sexton settled in behind him in second. Roczen moved into third behind Sexton before the end of the first lap as the positions began to set into a normal group in the early few laps.

Dylan Ferrandis had a mid-pack start but made some quick passes to get up into fourth by the end of lap three. The Frenchman was the fastest rider on the track in the early stages as he tried to reel in the Cianciarulo, Sexton, Roczen trio out front. Behind him, Cooper Webb and Eli Tomac were both having strong runs after a dismal start to their 2021 season as they battled each other for fifth.

Aaron Plessinger also started a little further back but had made the move around Joey Savatgy and Tomac into sixth by the halfway point of the moto. The lead trio closed up a bit, but Roczen suddenly lost the front end with about 14 minutes to go and Ferrandis scooted by for third. Behind them, Webb, Plessinger, and Tomac were in a frantic battle for fifth as Plessinger got around Webb. They were only about 10 second behind the lead at this point with the top nine just separated by about 15 seconds total.

The field began to expand into the second half of the race after Roczen’s fall as essentially the entire top 10 each ended up a few seconds apart from each other. Sexton tried to mount a late charge, but Cianciarulo responded immediately to Sexton’s push to lower his pace again and pull the gap back out to over five seconds with just a few laps remaining.

Suddenly, Sexton crashed while running second and would take a bit to remount as both Ferrandis and Roczen were able to get by for second and third, respectively. The rest of the top 10 remained unchanged for the remaining few laps.

Adam Cianciarulo nearly had it torn away from him at the flag as he got into a lapper who crashed right in front of him before the finish line jump. Still, Cianciarulo held on for his first moto win of the year ahead of Ferrandis and Roczen.

250 MOTO 2

Colt Nichols ripped the holeshot in the second 250 moto, but his teammate Justin Cooper wasted little time to jump to the front. Hunter Lawrence was right near the front again but a small tip over cost him dearly as he fell to outside of the top 30 on the first lap of the race.

Cooper began pulling away quickly out front while the first moto winner Jalek Swoll moved into second place just ahead of Jett Lawrence in third. Lawrence was quick to put an attack on Swoll trying to get into second place as the duo was losing ground to Cooper out front while they battled each other. Lawrence finally got around Swoll with a sneaky pre-jump line after the quad to move into second place as Cooper continued to stretch his lead to over five seconds out front.

Garrett Marchbanks was the rider on the move through the mid-point of the race as he charged up into fourth place by around halfway. Aside from Cooper, Marchbanks was the fastest rider on the track for several laps as he tried to catch Swoll. Swoll meanwhile, was trying to hold on for at least fourth in the moto as that would earn him his first career overall victory.

Carson Mumford was finally showing strong form in this race as well as the FXR/Chaparral Honda rider ran in sixth for nearly the entire moto as he held Austin Forkner and Max Vohland behind him. Hunter Lawrence’s charge would not work as well as his first moto as he settled in outside of the top 10 down the stretch.

Marchbanks continued to close up on Swill as the two-lap board came out, and like Swoll, Marchbanks was working on a career best finish on the day. The battle for third was the one to watch late as Swill began to push harder in an effort to keep Marchbanks behind him as they weaved through the lapped traffic.

Justin Cooper held on to win the second moto at High Point, but the day belonged to Jalek Swoll who picked up his first career overall victory with 1-3 scores on the day. Jett Lawrence held on for second overall in the second moto to claim second on the day s well with Cooper rounding out the podium in third.

450 MOTO 2

Aaron Plessinger and Justin Barcia came across the holeshot line side by side in 450 moto two, but Plessinger quickly took the lead. Barcia was officially credited with the holeshot, but he slipped back to fourth behind Cianciarulo and Tomac out of the second corner. Cianciarulo then wasted no time in making the move into the lead around Aaron Plessinger halfway through the first lap.

The battles were frantic through much of the first 10 minutes of the race as Tomac initially went around Plessinger for second, then Ferrandis, Roczen, and Sexton all battled each other while passing Aaron Plessinger in the process. Roczen and Ferrandis had a titanic battle for second with Roczen passing Ferrandis and then Ferrandis immediately fighting back and getting back by just a few turns later.

Out front, Eli Tomac caught and passed Adam Cianciarulo for the lead out of nowhere. Cianciarulo fought back but then made a small mistake and Tomac was able to get back by. Suddenly, Tomac stretched his lead out by a few seconds to put himself in clear air with minimal pressure from behind.

Ferrandis and Roczen slowly but surely caught up to Cianciarulo ahead of them and the trio engaged in an epic battle for second. As Ferrandis tried to make his way around Cianciarulo, Roczen snuck right up into the picture and almost passed both of them at once. Eventually, Ferrandis made the pass stick on Cianciarulo and Roczen followed through at the exact same spot to move into third.

Tomac slipped into cruise control a bit out front and Ferrandis cut the gap in half in just two laps with the two-lap board being displayed. The pressure Roczen was applying to Ferrandis seemed to push them both towards Tomac at one point, but Tomac then responded and kept the game nearly the same down the stretch as the white flag came out.

In the end, Eli Tomac was able to hold on for the victory in the final moto of the day, but Dylan Ferrandis claimed the overall victory with 2-2 scores over Adam Cianciarulo who went 1-4 and Eli Tomac who claimed 6-1 scores for third. Ken Roczen finished third in the moto and tied Eli Tomac on points for the day but ultimately would finish fourth overall.