THE GREAT OUTDOORS ARE HERE! Round one of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship got underway in Pala, California, and the weather was great. Maybe the nicest Southern California day in years for a national and I think it helped the track as well. Well, until the second motos, that is. We were able to keep moisture in it, develop some lines, and it seemed pretty good. Nobody is really going to pick Pala as their favorite track on the circuit, we know Glen Helen is better, but I think Pala is a reasonable facsimile of a national track. Especially compared to Lake Elsinore years ago.
Must be pretty awesome to be Darren Lawrence, father of the Lawrence brothers, and at the end of the day, stand there and see both of your sons win their respective classes. The family went from Australia to Europe to here, and now, the Lawrence Brothers invasion is complete. Well, no one’s won a 450SX yet but, yeah, that’s coming in January. Pretty great deal for the whole family for sure.
Jett Lawrence’s record at Pala is great, and Chase Sexton’s record at Pala is great so this was a battle of the immoveable force versus the unstoppable object. On Honda machinery. Lawrence came out with the 1-1, joining Pierre Karsmakers, Jeff Ward, Sebastien Tortelli, some guy named Ricky Carmichael, Ryan Villopoto, and Jeffrey Herlings as the only riders to pull that off. Which is, yeah, impressive for sure.
If you’re Jett Lawrence, you’re obviously stoked because, well, you just went 1-1 in your first national and looked pretty calm and composed in doing it. This lines up with people at the 83 compound telling me that his 450MX speed was unreal. Benny Bloss said that he couldn’t believe how quick he was able to get to that speed on the bigger, heavier bike. We knew he’d be good, but did we know he was going to be this good? I say yes. He’s not going 22-0, everyone calm down, but can he win this title? Of course.
If you’re Chase Sexton you’re also pretty happy with your day. You went down in practice pretty good, you waited too long to attack Dylan Ferrandis in the first moto and Jett got away, but in the second moto, you had a better lap time than Lawrence, you reeled him in a couple of times on a track that everyone said was very one-lined, and you’re thinking that if you started ahead of the kid, you would’ve beat him. And I think a solid case could be made for that.
So, if you’re Lawrence or Sexton, you’re in a good place. Everyone else in the class? Oh boy. Sound the alarm.
Ferrandis will be better. He admitted he’s not where he needs to be with his bike and fitness. He had a bad concussion, and his crash at Daytona when he tried to come back didn’t help things. So, will he get beat by 43 seconds next week? Well, actually maybe he will, but soon enough, he will not. Dylan’s starts were good though and he seems to accept that he’s going to not be ready to win just yet. If you’ve interviewed Dylan ever, you know that’s a big breakthrough for him to admit because he’s usually very blunt and thinks he should win all the time.
It was interesting to me to hear Dylan say the 2023 YZ450F is a huge difference from before. I know the new Yamaha is geared toward better SX performance, Dylan himself has told me that, but this is motocross, and it sounds like Dylan, who didn’t like the 2022 bike for SX that much, now wishes he had the 2022 machine. Ironic, isn’t it?
Truthfully, Aaron Plessinger probably would’ve been third overall had he not fallen three times in moto one and then in moto two gotten a better start. He was very fast, caught Ferrandis in moto one, but yeah, just kept falling. He had a good start to the season and with AP, you know he’ll be much better when we head east and get some softer terrain.
Good to see Cooper Webb come back to the nationals. He admitted afterward that he’s not up to speed yet coming off his injury in supercross and thought it might be after the break until he’s 100 percent. He told me he saw in supercross that you never know what can happen, so missing some races wasn’t an option for him. With the lack of depth in the field, Webb can grab some podiums here, one would think.
So, yeah, the depth in the 450MX class. Not exactly the Mariana Trench out there right now. Are we in for this all summer long? Where the last factory guy (Adam Cianciarulo) was 20 seconds ahead of the first privateer in moto one? Where we see the top two guys have 43 seconds on third? Pretty bizarre to watch for sure, but in my opinion things can only get better.
We’ll have Justin Barcia and Jason Anderson back, Webb and Ferrandis are going to get better, AC and AP will be better on softer dirt tracks, and so yeah, let’s not make any harsh judgements about a Southern California track that no one really loves and is weird to ride.
At least this is what I’m gonna tell myself at night to sleep better….
With the depth of the 450MX class not quite there yet (Jason Anderson and Justin Barcia will help) the privateers were chomping at the bit to grab those SMX points like Pac-Man pellets. Let’s go through them, yeah?
7th | Grant Harlan
Yeah man, it’s crazy how good Harlan has been this year. Maybe we should’ve known this was coming when he jumped off his Kawasaki last year onto Kris Keefer’s Honda and almost made the top ten. This year he’s going to miss a couple of nationals for WSX stuff, but at Pala, he went 9-6 for seventh overall. Great starts, he’s in good shape, and while there’s nothing flashy about him, he gets the job done. Impressive!
8th | Jose Butron
Uhhh, wow. Butron was once a factory KTM rider in the GP’s but that was… uhhh (checks notes), 2013. He’s 32 years old, rides for something called WildCat Racing, and was really good! I mean, he was the EMX Open title winner (whatever that is) so he’s been racing at a high level, but this was great. The Spaniard told me after the race that his bike is pretty stock, and he hopes to be better once he gets better feeling on the GasGas.
9th | Lorenzo Locurcio
Remember Lorenzo? He’s been hurt a lot lately but he’s a veteran of the SX/MX series. He’s now healthy, put this Team WildCat thing together with his buddy Butron, and he was top ten. Yeah man, I know some crazy stuff happened at Pala right? Both he and Butron were solid, and Lorenzo came from way back in moto two as well.
11th | Jerry Robin
Jerry didn’t Jerry! The long-time privateer got his shoulder fixed this year, did okay in SX, and is eyeing those SMX rounds at the end of the year. He also jumped on a Yamaha YZ450 for this summer and was good. He got good starts, his fitness seemed great, and he didn’t go down. Jerry’s speed is still strong, as he qualified in the top ten (costing me $20, BTW) and laid down these results.
Besides these guys, we had two off-roaders in the mix (Ryan Surratt and Dante Oliveria), we had a guy from France (Romain Pepe), and a dude who had barely ridden his new bike before the race (Kaeden Amerine). I mean seriously, what an eclectic bunch of riders inside the top 20 in 450MX! Can you imagine the meetings on Privateer Island? We got some real diversity out there on the fringes of the sport.
Let’s talk 250s!
Hunter Lawrence won and did what title threats do. In moto one, halfway through, he was in seventh and not making any huge gains. But then fitness, determination, and skill started to come through and before we knew it, he ended up third and was all over second. This is the stuff that championship riders do. They just sort of metamorphosize themselves into podium spots when bad starts come their way. Second moto he grabbed the lead early and was gone. Again, he put himself into a good spot and won. When things don’t go your way, like in moto one, you still make it work.
We came into the race thinking Hunter Lawrence was the title favorite and we left just nodding our heads.
BTW, everything is just coming up Honda these days, huh? Harkens back to 1986 or something. What a time to ride red.
When the gate dropped for the second moto, I was rubbing my hands together like that RV [Ryan Villopoto] GIF thinking of the matchup we were going to see. Instead, only Lawrence came out unscathed. First moto winner, RJ Hampshire, crashed and was last, runner-up, Max Vohland, was back there, Jo Shimoda was even further back, and Justin Cooper’s starts went bye-bye on this day. So, it was a rather uneventful moto for the 96 as his first-moto rivals all had a lot of work to do.
Hampshire’s first moto was impressive. He got the start, sliced through the pack, and was gone. Second moto we had the “old” Hampshire back with three crashes and a very “loose” moto out there. Still got third overall on the day though.
We had his teammate Christian Craig in-studio on the PulpMX Show and he thought his crashes were somewhat due to the choice to run the paddle tire out there. Hampshire got on the phone and somewhat agreed but also said that “95 percent” of the time, he’s going paddle this summer. Off the new grates they’re good, with the deep start straights they’re awesome, and the riders can make them work everywhere else and besides, not too many tracks are going to get as hard as Pala. Hampshire stressed to us that he’s calmer now than in past years and pointed to his SX season as an example (and outside of Anaheim 2, he’s right). He said that even in his second turn crash in Pala, he checked up because that’s the calm thing to do and then he got plowed into by guys trying to ride like the “old RJ,” and he went down.
Anyway, he’s absolutely stoked with his motor setup this season, he’s in great shape, and seriously, if he can bring more “moto-one-RJ” to the nationals this summer and less, “moto-two-RJ,” he can win the title. Am I there yet? No, he has to show me he can stay upright, but getting that moto win on a track you know he’s not that great at was a nice start.
I guess the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing guys ordered a grate like the ones the outdoors are now using but didn’t get it in time. Other people tell me it’s the same grate as SX so I’m not sure the difference but the other pre-season title favorite, Justin Cooper, didn’t have the day he wanted to. He qualified fastest (again) but his starts sunk him. He did move forward though, there is that, but for someone who skipped SX to prepare for the nationals, he’s got to be a bit bummed at his round one speed. Last year there was an injury, this year I don’t believe there was anything. He’ll be better moving forward, he’s got to.
His teammate, Haiden Deegan, had a great day, second overall, and his career-best finish outdoors in just his, what, third career national? He’s got speed, we’ve all seen that, but his fitness and maturity is there as well. Great ride for Danger Boy!
I think Shimoda and Vohland can both be happy with their rides. Shimoda was impressive in moto one moving up, although he can’t be happy with that crash and letting Lawrence by late. Still, he was on point to start the year. Vohland, who’s looking for a ride next year, finished fifth overall last summer in the points and rides Pala well. He got second in the first moto of the year and then got that poo-poo start in moto two.
Tom Vialle scared me a bit in moto one with that fade backward. It wasn’t that hot, and he shouldn’t have been that tired, one would think. After all, he’s a two-time world champion and motocross is his specialty. Not sure what was up with that drift backward, but in moto two he was much better and just missed the podium on the day. A solid start to American motocross for Tom. We heard and saw he was a good starter over in Europe and his starts have followed him here, it appears.
Levi Kitchen’s day wasn’t great. In fact, he and his teammate, Cooper, were the two guys in the top ten that I thought could walk out of Pala and not find something to be happy about. He’ll be better.
Ryder DiFrancesco was on the PulpMX Show Monday and agreed with me that he’s had a bit of a confusing path to this point, where he’s now a full-fledged pro. He debuted after Loretta’s last year and was solid at times, other times his lack of fitness showed (he agreed with me on that), but then he strangely went back to ride one futures SX round (he was hurt at the start of the year). Like, to me, after LL's that was it. He was pro and should’ve been into Monster Energy AMA Supercross, and if not injured, not race Futures SX for the third year in a row? I don’t know man, but it’s time. He’s a pro now and he had his most consistent national day with two good starts, a fall, and two (to me), good motos. He said he even got a high-five and a “good job” from Mitch Payton! Oh, and he’s training with Ryan Villopoto and he also didn’t really get the barbed wire look that was on his Fox gear. #KIDS
Guillem Farres was back and rode very well in both motos to get a top ten overall. This kid’s story is a wild one. The Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha guys grabbed him out of nowhere last summer and now he’s just been grinding away, waiting for the outdoors.
Thanks for reading OBS! Email me at matthes@racerxonline.com if you want to chat about this outdoor MX opener or anything else. See you next week live from the Dirt Digger classic AKA Hangtown.