The first round of practices are in the books here at Hangtown, and so far Justin Cooper is looking fantastic. The Monster Energy/Star Yamaha Racing rider was not only faster than Jett Lawrence by a whole second, but was faster than all of the 450 riders as well. Granted, the track was different for the 450 guys after the 250 riders put in work (Jett and Hunter Lawrence were faster than the 450 riders too, except for Chase Sexton and Eli Tomac), but still, Cooper was flying out there! Jett Lawrence looked smooth, shocker, and never looked like he was going all out. Then again, does he ever look like that?

One rider who did look like he was riding aggressively was Michael Mosiman, who’s racing in front of his hometown fans today. And when he wasn’t dropping the hammer he was rolling around and eyeing up lines. He was fourth fastest and just a smidge off the pace of the Lawrence brothers.

In 450 action Chase Sexton was back on top, but just barely over Eli Tomac, who is always strong at Hangtown. Both riders put in their fastest laps late in the session, Sexton in the fifth, and Tomac on the seventh lap, with Sexton edging Tomac by a little less than a tenth of a second. The standout time of this session has be that of Joey Savatgy, who is filling in for Adam Cianciarulo at Monster Energy Kawasaki. After exiting the supercross season early with a torn ACL, Savatgy is making his return to racing today, and in his first qualifying session was fifth-fastest! That’s incredible! Tony Cairoli was 14^th-fastest, about five seconds back of Sexton, but don’t let that fool you. He wasn’t pushing it in this session and isn’t familiar with this track. Most of his time was spent cruising and learning the ins and the outs of the course. Expect him to climb higher in his second qualifier.

As far as the track goes, if conditions stay the way they are it should be great. The temperature is cool and there is enough cloud cover that the sun isn’t blasting the hills of Hangtown like it usually does. That means it should be a little easier to keep this track hydrated without making things muddy. A lot of the turns also have inside and outside options, with the insides having a raised section, but almost everyone was opting for the inside in those sections. Check back soon, as the second round of qualifiers is happening shortly, and should shed a bit more light on how today might play out.

The times were slower in the second 250 qualifier, so as far as gate picks go these numbers don’t mean much, but if you’re Hunter Lawrence, you’re still pumped because you were faster than anyone in this one. Cooper, who was by far faster than anyone in the first session, did spend some time up top, with his teammates, Levi Kitchen and Nate Thrasher holding down second and third, but the Yamaha trio wasn’t able to hold on, and after Lawrence displaced them RJ Hampshire would do the same on his last lap to sneak in second-fastest.

Jett Lawrence never found the pace in this one. With the lap times being slower maybe he knew it wouldn’t matter much and chose not to push it, or maybe he’s still not feeling good. Yesterday the word was that he was sick, so it’s possible he was conserving energy. Either way, he was feeling good enough to blast down the start straight, in a wheelie, standing up, and turning left at full tilt when the 250 class was practicing starts. It was pretty impressive, and he did it a few times. He closed out the qualifier in 14^th, nearly four seconds back of his brother in first.

When the 450s hit the track it was Jason Anderson who quickly entered the chat. The Monster Energy Kawasaki rider was quick immediately and looked great, and his times reflected it when he shot to the top of the board and stayed there for several laps. Sexton eventually topped Anderson, only to have Tomac lay down a heater right away and sneak to the front. Anderson quickly retaliated, however, somehow beating his own time by more than a second and claiming the fastest lap of the session, and becoming the fastest 450 qualifier of the day. Even his second-fastest time was good enough for fourth fastest in this one! Clearly, Anderson is onto something this morning.

Cairoli was much, much faster in this one, and unlike the first session, he was cracking it wide and unleashing some of his world-renown speed. At one point he tucked in behind his teammate, Aaron Plessinger, and followed him for about half a lap before jumping by him. It was very entertaining to watch in person, as seeing him, or anyone for that matter, on TV just isn’t an accurate representation. Seeing Cairoli’s fluid and refined riding style was great, and his times were much higher this time around too. He ended this session seventh-fastest.

The weather here at Hangtown is still fantastic, with a thick cloud cover keeping things much cooler than normal and preventing the sun from completely baking the track to a hardened, dusty crisp. The weather report is saying these conditions should persist all afternoon, which means it’ll be perfect for the upcoming motos. Let's drop the gate already!

250 Moto One

There’s just something extra about racing in front of the hometown fans, and at this round, it was NorCal native Michael Mosiman who got the home crowd boost. The Troy Lee Designs Red Bull GasGas rider was fantastic from start to finish. He withstood early pressure from Seth Hammaker, then battled for much of the first half of the moto with Jalek Swoll. Swoll shut down Mosiman’s every attempt until Mosiman was able to finally jump to the inside of Swoll and make the move stick. Justin Cooper, who’d holeshot, was about four seconds up on Mosiman, but Mosiman caught fire, gobbled up the gap in seemingly the blink of an eye, and straight up checked out to win the first moto of his career.

Behind him Cooper was able to hold onto second, although the Lawrence brothers nearly caught all the way up to him on the last lap.  And speaking of the Lawrence brothers, neither one got a great start, but they both battled to third and fourth. At that point Hunter made a quick and easy-looking pass on Jett, who’s riding sick, and it looked like that was that. But then Hunter promptly went down and lost a few spots! Hunter recovered and came back to fourth, and nearly third, but Jett was able to hold him off. 

Late in the race Swoll, who didn’t even know if he was going to be able to race this week after crashing out of the opener last Saturday, found himself under fire from Hammaker and Jo Shimoda. The trio put on a great battle, with all three of them in the air at the same time over jumps, before Shimoda took over the spot (fifth). A few turns later Swoll went down. RJ Hampshire must have had a crash out of view as well. He was running in the top six or seven for most of the race but ended up 16^th.

450 Moto One

If this moto was a baseball game, you’d be forgiven for leaving a few innings early. But you’d kick yourself when you found out the final score! For the first twenty minutes this thing was largely a yawn. Chase Sexton took the early lead and looked to have it completely sewn up right away. Jason Anderson was all alone in second, Ken Roczen held a lonely third, and was Eli Tomac in fourth with nobody in the same zip code. Ryan Dungey and Christian Craig briefly battled for fifth, but once Craig took over the spot Dungey didn’t have anything for Craig and both were, yep, alone. Tony Cairoli had a little action early with Joey Savatgy, but once Cairoli got by and into seventh he was, you guessed it, all by himself.

That’s how most of this moto would play out, leading one to believe it would be a total snooze-fest. But then, with about eight minutes to go, it became apparent that Anderson was starting to eat into Sexton’s lead, which was incredible because Sexton had looked so calm, clean, and in control this entire time. It didn’t matter to Anderson, however, who kept inching closer and closer to Sexton as the minutes ran down. It got to the point where Anderson was all over Sexton, and as the two went up a hill Sexton clipped a lapper with his rear wheel. The lapper went down, but it didn’t seem to slow Sexton much, although it gave Anderson enough of an opportunity to take the inside advantage going back down the hill. As the two came to the bottom, Anderson ran Sexton wide, blocked him, and took over the lead.

At this point it looked like Anderson was about to check out, but with two laps remaining Sexton mounted a final push and caught right back up to Anderson. The final lap was bananas, and as the two circulated the track slicing through lappers the crowd was going nuts. Anderson was able to hang on, but barely, edging Sexton by 0.39 seconds.

Aaron Plessinger had a crash in this one early while running well and finished ninth. Josh Gilbert, who came from the UK to surprise everyone last week, crashed hard in this moto and didn’t finish. The gentle breeze and cool air that was present this morning has given way to slightly higher temperatures and drier track conditions. It's still nicer than it usually is here, but there's no question the second motos will be more of a chore than the first.

250 Moto Two

Moto two started in much the same way as the first 250 moto did, with Cooper getting the holeshot. But less than a lap in he made a mistake and went off the track, which handed the lead to Jett Lawrence. Cooper was able to get back on the track in second place, and with Lawrence riding sick (he threw up right before the second moto), it seemed Cooper would be able to get the lead back. Cooper hung in second, keeping Lawrence honest, but the battle that seemed inevitable just never materialized. Then Jo Shimoda got in the mix, got around Cooper, and went after Lawrence. He was catching him too, but then Shimoda made a heartbreaking mistake and went down in a rut all by himself. Cooper and Hunter Lawrence both went by, and Shimoda would never find himself in a spot to challenge any of them again.

Up front Jett Lawrence continued to lead, and as the race started to wind down, it became apparent nobody was going to catch him. When it was over, Lawrence had somehow won the moto, which handed him an unlikely overall win on the day. Hunter Lawrence zapped Cooper on the last lap, and while those points are valuable for the championship, Cooper still maintained second overall.

Heartbreak for Mosiman, who dominated the first moto but then had a big crash on the first lap of the second moto and badly bent his bars. His bike was either too twisted, or he was too shaken up to continue, because Mosiman pulled out. Jalek Swoll got a DNS in this one after crashing in the first moto, and his teammate, RJ Hampshire, who also went down in the first moto, didn't line up.

450 Moto Two

Cairoli got a taste of life up front at the Nationals in this one when he holeshot, but Roczen quickly took over the lead, with Sexton in tow. Cairoli held down third for a while, but then Tomac came alive and started surging forward and sliced cleanly by Cairoli. Cairoli then fell victim to Anderson and Craig. Up front Roczen and Sexton had already built a bit of a gap, and eventually Sexton took over the lead. It really looked like he was going to set sail, but Tomac was having one of his signature rides, and after disposing of Roczen, Tomac went after Sexton. You could almost smell the pass coming, as Tomac, who’s always strong at Hangtown, got closer and closer with each passing lap. Sexton hung in tough, riding hard and even sitting down another lapper who was unfortunate enough to find himself involved, but there’s only so much you can do when Tomac is on one. Tomac was finally able to make an uneventful pass on Sexton and stretched out a gap right away. It looked like the battle was over, but Sexton wasn’t willing to give in and started making a late-moto push, at one point pulling to within a bike length of Tomac. The crowd roared their approval as Sexton applied immense pressure on the final lap, but Tomac would not crack and hung on for the moto win.

Behind the lead duo, Anderson was having a good race himself, and had taken over third from Roczen. That put him in a position to win the overall, the first of his career, as long as Tomac hung on for the win, which we already know he did. Anderson didn’t know what the situation was, however, and when he took the checkered flag he didn’t even know he’d won the overall. When he was informed he let out a big shout, realizing he’d finally won a round Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross after twelve years of trying.