Hunter Lawrence Penalized, But Keeps Win at High Point National
Right at the end of the day at the High Point National, Hunter Lawrence received a penalty from the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA). The Honda HRC rider won the second moto en route to 3-1 finishes for his fourth consecutive overall win to start the AMA Pro Motocross Championship, but he was penalized for jumping on a red cross flag in moto two. The penalty takes away seven points from Lawrence, but he does in fact keep both the moto win and the overall win, despite his 37 points are being less than RJ Hampshire’s 38 total points. Lawrence receiving a seven-point penalty but keeping the win does match up with the way the rule is written.
Section 2.10 of the AMA Motocross rulebook states the following:
2.10. Signal Flags
b. Warning Flags and Signal Lights:
iii. White Flag with Red Cross or Red/White Flashing Lights:
9. If Race Direction determines that there was a blatant violation of this rule, the penalty for non-compliance will be:
c. During a Moto Race, if any positions are gained, the loss of the number of positions gained, plus the points and purse equal to two additional positions in the final results for that race, plus two additional points.
The championship leader was asked about the penalty in the post-race press conference, to which he had a very short respond. Check it out below.
Hunter Lawrence gives his opinion on the penalty received in Moto 2 😅
— Pro Motocross (@ProMotocross) June 18, 2023
📺: https://t.co/IYWJ5bmCFd#ProMotocross #SuperMotocross #HighPoint pic.twitter.com/Foh2Xnr4ur
Through four rounds of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship, Hunter Lawrence has a 27-point lead on second place in the standings, now Haiden Deegan after P2 entering the day Justin Cooper had a huge crash in qualifying that ended his day with an ambulance ride to a local hospital before the motos started.
| Position | Rider | Hometown | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Hunter Lawrence | Landsborough, Australia  | 419 |
| 2 |  Justin Cooper | Cold Spring Harbor, NY  | 399 |
| 3 |  Jo Shimoda | Suzuka, Japan  | 393 |
| 4 |  Haiden Deegan | Temecula, CA | 371 |
| 5 |  Levi Kitchen | Washougal, WA | 322 |
