Saturday Night Live: Fox Raceway 1

The second moto saw Sexton actually grab the holeshot, but it was Roczen this time who ascended to the front and actually opened up a bit of a gap. Around halfway though, Sexton caught fire once more and reeled his veteran teammate back in to steal the lead and the overall victory at the opening round.

“Man, it was a dream day for me,” said Sexton. “All during supercross, I wanted to be fastest qualifier, win the heat, and win the main, but I never did it. I think outdoors is even harder to go 1-1. Two starts, two full motos, it’s tough. I felt perfect out there today. Kenny and I were on another level, and it was awesome. The Honda team has put a lot of hard work in this offseason and this whole year to get us comfortable and I feel like we’re in a good point right now.”

It was a remarkable day overall for Honda HRC in both classes, but specifically in the 450 class, Ken Roczen put 2-2 scores on the board behind his teammate as the Honda men were simply the class of the field. After unveiling their 2023 Honda CRF450R on Friday night prior to the race, the whole team ran 50^th anniversary graphics to commemorate Honda’s success in motocross over the years and it seemed like all that success came boiling right back to the top on Saturday.

For Roczen, it was a great way to start off his season with terrific starts and consistent motos. Even if he did ultimately get pipped by his teammate, there’s plenty of reason to believe that Roczen could contend for his potential third 450 class Pro Motocross title this summer.

“I fought hard,” said Roczen. “That was my game plan. I passed [Chase] in the beginning and I had some really good lines and some really good speed. I hung in there the whole way. He’s really strong right now and really fast. The most important thing for me was to not give up and that’s what I did.”

Rounding out the 450 class podium on the day as Christian Craig who flew under the radar of his championship winning Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammates leading into the season but promptly cruised to the highest finishing Yamaha rider on the day. The 3-3 performance for Craig was also the first time in Craig’s now 13-year career that the California native landed on the overall podium. The newly crowned 250SX West champion was emphatically pumping his fists as he crossed the line in the final moto and was all smiles afterwards as well.

“Man, I’ve gotten robbed so many times of overalls, so to get that one was awesome,” said Craig. “Battling with my teammate Eli the entire moto, I’m so proud just to have this moment. Thank you for everyone cheering me on, I heard it all the way around the track. To have my first overall podium at my home track is something special.”

Craig’s teammate Eli Tomac rounded his day out with a fourth place overall after putting up 7-4 scores. Tomac looked a bit off in the first moto and the concern certainly crept in that his knee injury was hampering him, but his second moto ride seemed to thwart any concern there as he moved forward the entire time.

Tomac tied Ryan Dungey on the day in points but had the better second moto as the #5 machine put 5-5 scores on the board after five years off. It was a remarkable return to racing for Dungey who was happy to put to solid motos together as he looks to build. If that’s the starting point for Dungey this summer, it seems there’s not telling what could lay ahead for him.

“It was definitely a surprise to myself,” said Dungey. “I almost thought I was crazy for coming back, but you know, I wanted the challenge. I’m excited to be here. The team did an awesome job today. This track was nasty. I was a little bit off the pace of course but that’s okay. We’ve got to start somewhere, and we’ll build from here.”

Other notables on the day feature Jason Anderson snagging sixth overall with 4-8 scores. Anderson had a horrible start in the first moto and then fell with Justin Barcia at the start of the second moto. He was borderline the fastest rider on the track at many times throughout the day but was left to showcase his speed in slicing through the field just to salvage a good result.

As for Barcia, who was back there with Anderson in both motos, he also fared well with recovery riding as he put 8-9 scores on the board for ninth overall. Splitting Anderson and Barcia was the Red Bull KTM duo of Antonio Cairoli and Aaron Plessinger. Cairoli crashed late in the first moto which cost him a few spots but even with a few more spots given in the first moto, he still would have ended up seventh overall on the day anyway. Plessinger was eighth and looked a bit off in the second moto but will chalk it up to mostly a successful return to racing after his injury and move into Hangtown next week with some good points.

In the 250 class, a lot of focus was placed on defending 250 class champion Jett Lawrence. The Honda HRC rider not only came in with the #1 plate on his bike but was also fresh of clinching his first 250SX title of his career just a month ago. The only question mark that truly loomed for Lawrence was whether the twisted ankle he suffered right at the end of the supercross season was enough to hamper his early season result in Pro Motocross.

That being said, his closest challenger for the 2021 championship, Justin Cooper, had much more of an uphill battle ahead of him. After breaking his foot in December, Cooper missed the entire Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship in 2022 and still hadn’t had a ton of time on the bike coming into Saturday’s action. So with Jett’s biggest rival from a year prior coming in a bit behind in prep, who would step up?

Qualifying showed us a unique challenger that perhaps flew way more under the radar than he should have. Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Seth Hammaker put himself on pole position for the 250 class opener with a stellar lap in Q1 that would hold up for the rest of the morning. Jett Lawrence did top Q2, but it wasn’t enough to topple Hammaker off the top spot overall.

When the gates dropped though, it was actually Cooper who came out firing with the first holeshot of the year. It appeared like Cooper might actually be a bit better than expected as he led the first four laps until Jett Lawrence nabbed the lead away from him. Unfortunately, that would only be the start for Cooper who slowly slipped backwards the rest of the moto and eventually put two scores outside of the top 10 up at the opening round.

As for Lawrence, that was the last anyone would see of him in the first moto as he pulled out to a comfortable lead and cruised to the win in moto one. Rookie Nick Romano then holeshot the second moto but spent just a lap in the lead before Lawrence again pounced early and took off. The checkered flag waved and a perfect day to start his title defense is exactly how Jett Lawrence drew it up.

“That HRC Honda bike is hooking up out of the gate,” said Lawrence. “It’s giving me a lot better opportunity here. [Winning] four times and going undefeated here is a good feeling even though it’s not one of my favorite tracks… It was a good one. I’m pumped for Honda to go 1-2.”

The closest challenger at the opener as it turned out was Jett’s brother and Honda HRC teammate, Hunter Lawrence. The elder Lawrence brother got into second place quickly in the first moto and kept Jett honest by not letting him get too far away. The second moto ended up being a bit of a different story as Hunter didn’t have a great start this time around and spent much of the moto passing the likes of Romano, Seth Hammaker, and Michael Mosiman, only to end up chasing Jo Shimoda for nearly the whole race.

Shimoda on his Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki put up a great fight to keep Hunter behind him, but Lawrence found another gear as the two-lap board was displayed. It took until the final lap and after many tries to get it done, but Hunter Lawrence nabbed second from Shimoda with seven turns left to go in the moto. The result was a 2-2 performance on the heels of his brother’s 1-1. Coupled with the 1-2 sweep in the 450 class, Honda HRC quite literally had a perfect day at the opener.

“It was tough,” said Hunter Lawrence. “It’s a pretty tough track to pass on. It’s one lined, but I’m happy. A great way to start the season and I can’t thank the team enough. I’m looking forward to it.”

Despite the gut-wrenching loss of his second-place ride right at the end of the second moto, Shimoda’s 4-3 scores were still plenty to secure him the overall podium on the day. Despite a lackluster start in the first moto, Shimoda put a very solid day together to kick off his season and certainly looks like he could potentially step up to start winning races this year if this form continues.

“My supercross season was a struggle and I’ve been working hard for this,” said Shimoda. “I feel like we’re going the right direction and hopefully I can do this again next week. Let’s have a fun summer.”

Fourth place on the day went to RJ Hampshire who had arguably the best ride in the first moto to come from 11^th to third. Unfortunately for him, he left himself even more work to do in the second moto as a bad start left him outside of the top 30 early on. He eventually charged all the way up to ninth spot to go 3-9 for fourth on the day.

Rounding out the top five was Michael Mosiman who tied Austin Forkner on points but had the better second moto score. Mosiman had a terrible start in the first moto that left him with a similar workload to that of Hampshire in the second moto as he too would come home in ninth in that first moto. Coupled with a fourth in the second moto and Mosiman at least put some good points on the board after what could have been a disaster start to the season.

Fastest qualifier Seth Hammaker was sixth overall on the day. He struggled a bit in the first moto after starting up front but seemed to find a bit more consistency in the second moto which was good signs of steady improvement. The speed is certainly there, he’ll just need to continue building as he too recovers from a back injury sustained in January.

It was a tough opener for two riders hoping to have a positive turnaround in Pro Motocross as Jalek Swoll nor Cameron McAdoo completed a full lap of racing. Swoll crashed heavily at the top of the step up and damaged his shoulder which forced him out of action for the day. McAdoo also crashed heavily and seemed to hit his head pretty hard as his face and helmet were pretty scratched up. McAdoo eventually was taken via ambulance to a local hospital. No further update on his condition at this time.

That’s a wrap from the opener though where it was Honda’s day all the way. Join us next week for the second round as the series heads to Prairie City SVRA for the Hangtown Classic. We’ll see you there!