In the 250 Class, Hunter Lawrence had claimed the first three overall wins. Would his winning streak continue? When the gates dropped, it was RJ Hampshire, Jo Shimoda, and Jalek Swoll leading the 250 Class through the first turn. But a mistake from Shimoda on the inside of turn two paused a majority of the field as they navigated through the deep turn. Hampshire, Swoll, Haiden Deegan, Ryder DiFrancesco, Max Vohland and a few other others managed to get away but Levi Kitchen, Jordon Smith, Tom Vialle, and more were all stuck momentarily.

Hampshire had the early lead, but Deegan eventually charged forward and battled the #24 for the race lead. A mistake from Hampshire gave Deegan the lead for a few laps, but the Husqvarna rider fought back, retook the lead, and claimed the moto win (his second of the season), holding off the rookie by 2.669 seconds. Hampshire had a typical RJ Hampshire ride: leading, crashing, and fighting back through adversity as he gave it his 100 percent all.

Behind Hampshire and Deegan was the championship leader Lawrence, as he worked his way to third place ahead of Swoll and DiFrancesco. Shimoda came through seventh about a second behind sixth-place Vohland.

Right off the bat in the second moto, two quick crashes cost several riders a shot at the overall. In the first turn, Deegan went down, which sent Vohland into the banners and set back the KTM rider as well, then turn two caused more problems as teammates Hampshire and Swoll collided with one another, costing them both a shot at the overall win. Out front was Chance Hymas and Kitchen, although Tom Vialle made his way into a podium spot. Just as he has the previous three rounds moto twos, Hunter Lawrence charged to P1 and cruised to the race win. Vialle came through second about 19 seconds back, then Shimoda, Kitchen, and Hymas rounded out the top five. Deegan’s charge to sixth gave him third overall (2-6) behind Hampshire, who managed to pull through a seventh-place finish to claim second overall on the day with 1-7 moto finishes. The #96 claimed his fourth straight moto-two race win and his fourth straight overall win.

“Yeah, it’s a good habit I guess,” said the #96 on fourth moto two win and overall. “No, I’m stoked can’t thank the team enough man this track was wild.”

After the race, Hunter was penalized seven points from the AMA for jumping on a red cross flag. The rule is written as a points penalty, not a positions penalty, so the #96 keeps his race AND overall win, even though his 37 points are now less than Hampshire’s 38 points.

On the podium, Hampshire acknowledged the collision with him and Swoll was his mistake.

“Yeah, that's all me 100 percent. Got a decent start, man I guess I just ran in too hot on the second corner and I didn’t really expect him to come out. Man, it's just a bummer that’s my teammate too. Yeah, not too stoked on that you know. I apologized to the team. That sucks but hey we’ll take it second podium of the year, stoked on that.”

Although his first turn crash in moto two left him with a lot of work to do, Deegan charged through the field, showing speed, fitness, and comfortability with the bike.

“First moto went solid,” Deegan said. “It was a tough race with these lappers. It was a hard track, so the lappers were tipping over a lot and we had to move around a lot. But it was a good race, I was hyped to get second in the first moto. That’s always a good goal for me to be up there running up front with those guys. Then second moto, first turn crash. Me and Smitty [Jordon Smith] got together, Smitty got out of it, I didn’t. Yeah, then I got ran over, the whole nine yards on the start. But I got up, and charged my way from last and was just laying down some smooth, solid laps. I was on the edge, definitely, I will tell you that. And made my way up to fifth or sixth, one of those. Hyped to get on the podium.”

“Bikes in a solid place right now, it definitely showed in that second moto that I was able to hammer out,” Deegan added.

“I’m happy with the progress we’re making each week and I just need to stop making costly mistakes,” said Shimoda (7-3 for fourth overall). “Things haven’t really gone my way but I’m up for the challenge and I can’t wait to get to RedBud in a few weeks where I got my first overall.”

Vialle, Hymas, DiFrancesco, Swoll, Kitchen, and Vohland rounded out the top ten overall.

"It was very muddy here at High Point at the beginning of the day," Vialle said in a KTM PR. "First moto, unfortunately, I fell in the first corner with another rider – I had nowhere to go, so I charged through the field for 11th. Second moto was a better start, which was important for vision, and then I got in behind Hunter [Lawrence] and was on him for a lot of the race, and finished in P2 which was good. Two weeks before the next one, my wrist was okay here as we taped it up very good, so the rest will be good."

"I’m happy with the day overall,” said DiFrancesco. “It’s a challenging track and the rain made it even more demanding each moto. I think we learned a lot here and I’m really excited to go back to RedBud where I made my pro debut last year.”

“It was pretty rough," Kitchen said. "I qualified 32nd overall, which is pretty bad, and I need to work on that. In the first moto, I fell a few times in a pileup and then worked my way to 12th. In the second moto, I turned it around and got the holeshot. I didn’t really have a great pace to run with the leaders, and then Jo (Shimoda) got me in the last turn, so I fell back to fourth. For the way the day was going, it was a good turnaround. So I’m happy with that and looking forward to the weekend off and then on to RedBud, which is one of my favorites.”

Swoll posted on Instagram:

Vohland (6-12 for tenth overall) was not happy with his results.

“It was pretty mediocre, to be honest, Vohland told me in the post-race media scrum. “First moto the track tacked up a lot and I had my steering dampener quite tight for the mud and when it tacked up, it made it really hard to stay in my ruts and to get the thing to turn. So, first moto, I got a pretty good start, didn’t feel very comfortable but was able to get a sixth not riding very well, for my standards at least. Then second moto, we changed a lot on the bike, and I felt way more comfortable. I felt really good on the sight lap and kinda raced the sight lap a little bit to feel the bike out. I got a pretty good start. I ended up not running a paddle [tire], which I think kinda hurt off the start because everyone had a paddle. But I had a good start, and I was managing and I think I would have been fine, but Haiden went down in front of me and I kinda got stuck on his bike and was off the track and went through the banners. Then I was already set back, then I was trying to charge through the field the first lap and had a huge crash down the super steep hill… That really hindered me. The bike was really twisted and banged up. I fought hard and made my way back to 12th. I think I got tenth overall.”

“First moto was all right, didn’t ride good, got a good finish. Second moto, rode better, didn’t get a good finish,” Vohland continued. “So it was kinda opposites. But I’m not happy with how today went, I’m pretty frustrated actually. I’m determined to get on the podium. I’m glad we got the week off because I am looking forward to working my ass off this week. I’ll get there eventually and I’m not gonna stop until I get there.”

Caden Braswell (9-13 for 11th overall) raced what was planned to be his final race with the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/GasGas team, during the post-race media scrum he was unsure of what the rest of the season holds for him.

“I had some ups and downs today, it was a little bit like a roller coaster,” Braswell said. “I had a lot of fun. Super grateful with the Troy Designs/Red Bull/GasGas racing team. We enjoyed it. Improved from last weekend in Denver. And looking forward to whatever comes next. This is the end of my four-round races, so whatever comes next, I am praying I get to keep racing. We’ll see what happens.”

In the second qualifying session, Braswell saw Ryder D stuck with his bike on his right leg, so Braswell stopped, dropped his bike, and lifted the Kawasaki off of his competitor's leg. If you know Braswell, this act of kindness is nothing new, as the Christian rider is extremely polite. Hopefully the 2022 Nicky Hayden AMA Motocross Horizon Award recipient is able to race the remainder of the summer. 

Shout-out to Matti Jorgensen, who made his pro debut on a #245 KTM 250 SX-F. The rookie was the fastest in the first session of the day (250 Group B when the track was fresh) and used the untouched track to qualify second overall on the day. Unfortunately, a bike issue (burst radiator hose) would end his rookie debut early. But we expect to see Jorgensen once or twice more before the Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch.

Hunter Lawrence (175 points) leaves the fourth round with a 28-point advantage back to Deegan (147 points) as Hampshire sits third with 133 points, Shimoda fourth with 129 points, and Cooper fifth with 121 points. Hunter Lawrence also continues to lead the SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) standings. 

In the 450 Class, we had another Lawrence streak in the works—but this one was all about perfection. Jett Lawrence had led every single lap (92 so far) through the first three rounds as he was a perfect six-for-six when the series traveled to the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania. The fourth round was where we first saw Jett challenged. And he still delivered. A first moto crash had him fight back from third (sans visor) and a sixth-place start in the second moto (also sans visor). But despite the challenges and not leading every lap, the #18’s perfect moto streak continues as he starts eight-for-eight now to begin the season. He won the first moto by 26.205 seconds over Garrett Marchbanks (more on him momentarily), and then claimed the moto two win by just 2.448 seconds over Ken Roczen after the two battled for the race lead in both motos.

“It’s actually pretty crazy, I used to look up to Kenny, now I got to race him and that’s definitely one pretty sick thing to accomplish with racing Kenny, and it was a tough day, didn’t feel too confident, too comfortable on the bike today. The track was pretty tricky with the ruts and that stuff but I’m happy to come away with a 1-1.”

In his first Pro Motocross event of the season—and his first with this team—Roczen rode well all day long. He took the fastest qualifying spot and became the first rider not named Jett Lawrence to lead a lap in the premier class this season. On the last lap Roczen went down while running second and he failed to start his machine right away, losing a few positions before finishing seventh. The German native rebounded in the second moto to again lead laps and battle Jett for the race win en route to claiming second both in the moto and overall.

“I am beyond stoked,” Roczen said. The support that I’ve been getting from the fans made this so worth it, you know? This was a brutal track to come back to. I’ve had two days of outdoors this week with a little bit of testing and I couldn’t be more stoked I rode tough out here I rode my heart out I can't believe I finished second with finishing seventh in the first moto! That's so rad; I did this for my son and my family you know it’s Father’s Day weekend. I might have to come back for a couple more I think."

Rounding out the overall podium was Adam Cianciarulo, who put in a solid 4-4 day to claim his first overall podium since the 2021 High Point National at this very track. Cianciarulo was even contesting for the race lead in the second moto before Jett and Dylan Ferrandis bumped him back two spots.

Dylan Ferrandis finished 6-3 for fourth overall, pushing late into the second moto as he was just held off by Roczen. Cooper Webb claimed third in the first moto then six in moto two for fifth overall. Big-picture wise for Webb, he takes over sole possession of the 450SMX standings.

“In the first moto, I made a mistake in the first turn and lost pretty much every position," Ferrandis said in a Yamaha release. "I was kind of dead last and had to come back through the field to finish sixth. In the second moto, I got a better start. We changed some stuff on the bike, and it was way better. I think we finally found something that I really like, so yeah, the feeling was great. It took me a little bit to understand the new setup, but then I got going pretty fast. So that was good. I finally had a good moto. I just had a little crash on Lap 2. I didn’t lose much time, but enough to maybe cost me the moto win or the overall podium today.”

"It was an up-and-down day here at High Point," Webb said in a KTM release. "The second qualifier was good with a P2, before in the first moto I got a great start, rode consistent, solid, and got third, which was a good step. Second moto, just got an average start and didn’t do much with it and ended up sixth. Fifth overall on the day – not our best day, not our worst day – but we’ll enjoy this off weekend and come back strong at RedBud.”

Garrett Marchbanks rode an incredible ride. After finishing second in the first moto—for a career best in his first ever moto podium in either class—he had a mechanical issue early in the second moto that called for a quick pitstop. The #36 returned to the track at the end of the pack and charged to an eighth-place finish. His 2-8 results earned him sixth overall, as he will possibly be a candidate for this week’s RC Hard Charger award. For the Utah native it was a huge day, as he said his moto P2 was a win in his books. He said he practiced a lot of starts on Wednesday and it paid off on Saturday.

“Yeah, honestly, it was the best day I’ve ever had in outdoors,” Marchbanks said. “Qualified P3, my best 450 qualifying so far. Moto one went awesome. Got off to a second-place start. Ran in that for a couple laps, Kenny got around me, and I just latched onto him. Jett went down, I rode second for a couple of laps. Jett got back around me. Rode a quite third-place finish until about two to go when Kenny made a mistake and fell over, so yeah, I got second. Pretty pumped about that!”

Ty Masterpool had another solid day inside the top ten, although he said four total crashes on the day cost him. He went 5-67 for seventh overall. Arron Plessinger, Grant Harlan, and Derek Drake rounded out the top ten, respectively. Romain Pape put into another tenth-place moto finish then a 13th in moto two gave him a new career best 11th overall. In his return to racing and Pro Motocross season debut, Phil Nicoletti went 12-21 for 15th overall, with a crash in the second moto leaving him with a swelled-up leg. Fredrik Noren (14-10 for 12th overall) was right behind Phil when he crashed and Noren said Nicoletti’s crash was the longest crash he had ever seen. Shout-out to Pennsylvania native Bryce Shelly who finished 20-24 for 25th overall aboard a Yamaha YZ450F, scoring a point in first ever pro race.

“High Point started off very muddy!" Plessinger said. "I didn’t ride great in practice and then tried a couple of changes for the first moto, which didn’t work in my favor – I didn’t ride too good at all. Second moto, I made some better changes and was in third, but went down, unfortunately. Charged back, was riding good, but yeah, we've got some homework to do before RedBud.”

Matt Burkeen and crew tore apart the top end of his Yamaha YZ250 two-stroke after the first moto in order to swap the piston after he said it was running lean. He even had to borrow a base gasket from fellow two-stroker Jared Lesher! The Burkeen camp pulled off the swap just in time for the second moto, but Burkeen said the throttle was sticking so he had to pull off in the second moto as well. Check out our best post-race show tomorrow for more on Burkeen and his two-stroke. He went 39-39 for 40th overall.

 Jett Lawrence (200 points) leaves the fourth round with a 49-point advantage over Ferrandis (151 points). Cooper Webb takes sole possession of the 450SMX points lead, as he leaves the 21st round (of 31) with a 45-point lead over Chase Sexton. Jett now sits 11th in the 450SMX standings with 200 total 450SMX points on the season.

And lastly, happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!