First Qualifying Sessions

As qualifying got underway, the track had been ripped deep overnight in an attempt to hold moisture in the dirt and it was creating some havoc for guys out there. Without lines fully developed from the B group, the 250 A guys went out and sloshed around a little bit as well before finally some main lines began to wear in.

It was a bit of déjà vu back to the opening round at Fox Raceway as Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Seth Hammaker went fastest in Q1 for the 250 class. Hammaker was the fastest qualifier at this track way back at the opening round in May and it seems he’s still feeling pretty good on it.

His teammate Jo Shimoda was second fastest ahead of Nate Thrasher and a surprise appeared from Haiden Deegan in fourth. Jett Lawrence was seventh fastest just ahead of his new teammate for the weekend in debutant Chance Hymas who was eighth.

The 450 class hit the track next and it was already warming up pretty quick in the Pala valley. SGB Honda riders Bryson Gardner and Jace Kessler both ended up running camelbacks in the session in an attempt to keep as much water in their system as possible. We’ll see if they keep doing that throughout the day.

As for the times, Eli Tomac set the pace early and set the pace throughout as he was clearly the fastest rider in Q1. For much of the session, he was nearly two seconds clear of everyone with Chase Sexton being his closest competition.

Eventually, Jason Anderson dipped into second place and was only 1.3 seconds off of Tomac, but the 2:26.482 was more than enough for Tomac to qualify on top in the first session. Times were also pretty spready out but that could just be a factor of the track still wearing in. We’ll see if times improve in Q2.

Second Qualifying Sessions

The heat continued to rise as it crawled up over 100-degrees by 9 a.m. and was only getting hotter when the second qualifying sessions got going. The 250 A group was the first to see how much the track changed and got faster with the drying conditions.

This time it was Justin Cooper who set the early pace and was at the top of the sheets for much of the session. Jett Lawrence was spending most of the session hanging back and working on his line selection just to uncork a hot lap down right as the checkered flag was being displayed. His time was more than enough to go faster than what Hammaker put down in the first sessions as Jett Lawrence qualifies P1 for the Fox Raceway 2 National in the 250 class.

Moving to the 450 class next and it became a cat and mouse game between Chase Sexton and Eli Tomac as both riders got out front of the group and went right to running fast laps. Sexton set the early pace with a mid 2:25 and had Tomac about six tenths of a second behind him.

They then proceeded to both cruise around looking for lines for a lap before they wicked it up again and tried to lay hot laps down. Somehow, they both made mistakes at the exact same time and aborted their quick laps at that time. When they came back around again and went to work on putting down another fast one, this time it all came together for Tomac who dipped down to a 2:24.3.

Sexton’s time was also better than his original P1 lap at a 2:25.1, but Tomac’s time was too much for Sexton in the end. Tomac P1, Sexton P2. Now there’s nothing left to do but drop the gate and see who wins.

250 Moto 1

The wait was finally over as the gates fell on 250 Moto 1 and it was Jett Lawrence who launched out to the holeshot. Lawrence could clinch the championship in the 250 class by taking a 12^th place finish or better no matter what anyone else did and getting out to the early lead was going to be a big help in accomplishing that result.

Jo Shimoda was the man behind him in second place off the start and Marvin Musquin found his way into third fairly quickly as well. The lead three riders were putting time on the field as it was Justin Cooper and Hunter Lawrence back in fourth and fifth.

Shimoda caught up to Jett for the lead and began applying the pressure a bit. Jett seemed to realize how quickly Shimoda was catching him and starting to get the ball rolling again to open the lead back out to a little over two seconds.

The biggest battle on track for a while became the battle for third. Hunter Lawrence started clicking off some of the fastest laps of the moto and made quick work of Justin Cooper for fourth. Just as he got to Marvin Musquin for third, Musquin jumped off the track before the finish which allowed Lawrence to zoom by into third.

Musquin was slipping back as Justin Cooper was next up to catch him, but Cooper couldn’t make a quick pass stick and both riders sort of fell into each other’s pace. With about eight minutes of the moto left, Musquin and Cooper had fallen to 15 seconds behind the leaders while Hunter Lawrence took off in third to close the gap down.

Shimoda in his typical fashion found another gear in the second half of the moto and closed the gap down to Jett Lawrence out front. While he was closing in on him though, Hunter Lawrence was closing in from third and it was turning into a three-rider battle for the lead with just a few laps left to go.

As the two-lap board was displayed, the three riders out front were essentially nose to tail with Hunter Lawrence really working on Shimoda trying to make a pass for second. As they jumped down the big hill nearly side by side, Hunter Lawrence flew down the inside and ended up slamming into Shimoda which put the Kawasaki man on the ground.

From there, Jett Lawrence held off a last lap charge from his brother to win the moto and clinch the 2022 250 class championship in Lucas Oil Pro Motocross.

450 Moto 1

The showdown was finally ready to commence as the 30 second board went up for the first 450 class moto. When the card went sideways and the gates fell, Tomac led them into the first corner, but Sexton slipped up the inside and was able to nab the holeshot. Justin Barcia sat in third place early on but the duo out front quickly began pulling away from the field.

Ryan Dungey went down in the second corner and got up at the back of the pack. By the halfway mark of the moto though, Dungey was already into the points paying positions as he weaved through the pack.

All eyes were on the battle out front though as Sexton led Tomac by just over a second and they had already put over 15 seconds on everyone else after just 10 minutes of the moto. Sexton seemed like he was inching away a little bit, but Tomac was having none of it as he pulled Sexton back quickly and they stayed nose to tail for much of the early part of the race.

The battle for third was picking up as Justin Barcia had slipped back to Christian Craig behind him. Craig landed on the podium at the opening round at this very racetrack and hasn’t been on the box since so the Southern California native was extra motivated to push into a podium place. Craig was able to make the pass stick with 14 minutes of the moto still remaining.

The battle out front continued as Sexton and Tomac continued to yo-yo a little bit with Sexton pulling out a gap and Tomac able to reel it back. It all hit a critical juncture with about six minutes remaining in the moto when Sexton caught a group of lapped riders and ended up losing a few seconds to Tomac.

Tomac was all over him for the lead and when Sexton couldn’t hit this tricky line he was doing through the rollers one lap with a lapped rider in the way, Tomac pounded to take over the lead. Similar to what happened at Ironman a week ago, Tomac clicked into another gear at the same time to try to break away from Sexton behind him.

Sexton responded well and kept the gap at just a couple of seconds. With time winding down, Sexton seemed to find his groove again as he slowly closed back up to Tomac ahead of him. With the two-lap board out, Sexton came into the corner after the finish and nearly stalled it as he got high centered in a rut.

Tomac pulled out a three second advantage and put Sexton on full send mode to try to recatch him. Sexton made a few more runs but also made a few more mistakes and it was just too much in the end.

Eli Tomac took home a critical first moto victory which pushed him out to four points ahead of Sexton with one moto remaining. As long as Tomac finishes second in the final moto of the year now, he will win the championship no matter what Sexton does.

250 Moto 2

Justin Cooper sprung out of the gate and nabbed the holeshot in the final 250 class moto of the year. Jo Shimoda was back with a vengeance after his first moto collision with Hunter Lawrence and up in second place early on. As for Hunter Lawrence, he started outside of the top 10 and had quite a bit of work to do if he wanted to steal second in the championship away from Shimoda.

Shimoda sized up Cooper for the first lap and then used an outside line after the big triple jump in the middle to make the pass for the lead. He immediately went to work on extending the race lead out with Cooper slipping back into the clutches of Jett Lawrence behind him as Jett made an early pass on Cameron McAdoo to get into third place.

Hunter Lawrence was tailing RJ Hampshire throughout the first half of the moto as the duo worked through the field moving around riders like Seth Hammaker, Carson Mumford, and Ryder DiFrancesco. By the halfway mark, Hampshire was into the top five but sat over 10 seconds behind McAdoo ahead of him in fourth.

Jett Lawrence started to get the ball rolling from third place at the midpoint of the moto as he reeled in Justin Cooper for second. As quick as he got to him, he also got around him as Cooper was reeling a little bit.

It seemed like Jett Lawrence was going to roll away from Cooper and start catching Shimoda even, but Justin Cooper stuck right with Lawrence and actually Shimoda kept putting more and more time on them to pull the lead out over 20 seconds.

The gap to the lead continued to grow throughout the rest of the moto as Shimoda laid it down the entire second moto. Cooper made a few runs at Jett Lawrence for the second spot but couldn’t quite make it happen and eventually backed off him and settled for third.

In the end, Jo Shimoda claimed the final moto win of the year to secure second place in the championship as well. The day went to Jett Lawrence though as he would take 1-2 scores to the overall victory and his second 250 class title as well.

450 Moto 2

Christian Craig grabbed the final holeshot of the year and brought Jason Anderson with him. Chase Sexton was in fourth place early on with Eli Tomac down in 10th place. Sexton quickly moved into third place and was keeping tabs on Craig and Anderson ahead of him while Tomac moved into eighth.

Suddenly, Sexton got sideways out of the fourth corner on the second lap of the race and went down. He was able to remount right behind Tomac now in seventh as Tomac had moved to sixth, but Sexton then tipped over again at the top of the hill and lost another spot to Aaron Plessinger.

Craig continued to lead from Anderson, but Anderson wasn’t wanting to waste much time behind him as he got alongside of him and stole the lead away a few laps into the moto through the rollers.

Ryan Dungey then had a crash from third after the mechanics area and remounted behind Tomac who now slotted into third place. Chase Sexton then ended up right behind Dungey after Justin Barcia also moved around the #5 for fourth. Sexton went right to work passing Dungey and Barcia in the same lap leaving just about five seconds between him and Tomac.

Tomac then caught Craig for second and Craig swung wide by the mechanics area and allowed Tomac through on the inside to get into second place. Anderson remained just up the road from Tomac as Sexton started closing in from fourth place.

As Sexton got to Craig for third though, he fell again as he tucked his front end at the bottom of the downhill. This crash pushed him to about 10 seconds behind Eli Tomac who was now right on Anderson for the lead of the race.

It only took Tomac a few more laps to sneak by Anderson and into the race lead. All the while, Sexton was still charging hard to try to catch up and at least battle Tomac for the win in the final moto. He slowly reeled in Anderson and got around him for second but was already six seconds behind Tomac by the time he got there.

Perhaps Sexton realized it was futile, or perhaps Tomac was simply too strong, but Eli Tomac would actually pull away from that point onward to win the moto, win the overall, and win the 2022 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship. Sexton unofficially finishes the season seven points behind Tomac in a title fight for the ages.