For all of his crashes and odd moments throughout the day, Sexton was still way better than everyone else not named Jett Lawrence on the racetrack. After his crash in the second moto, he was behind Adam Cianciarulo for all of half a lap before repassing him and dropping the rest of the pack again.

While a 2-2 day is solid, Sexton is clearly frustrated and wants to get back to winning ways. It felt like today was the closest version to 2022 Chase Sexton that we’ve had in Pro Motocross and if he continues to build each week, it seems inevitable he breaks through for one of these wins eventually. If and when he does, it also appears he’ll be the man to break up the perfect season.

“I got on the gas too hard,” said Sexton of his second moto mistake. “I was in that soft stuff, and I expected to get traction…I did not get traction. Then I was in second, he made a big mistake and I thought he was going to go down, but he didn’t go down, but I was right behind him and in the roost, I could not see at all, and I ended up going down. I just went over the rut.  My riding is getting better, just a few mistakes. I’m not going to quit and I’m going to throw everything I have at it. Washougal is my style, and I’m looking forward to more battles. You live and you learn.”

A distant third on the day went to Dylan Ferrandis who put 5-3 scores on the board for third overall. He started behind all the factory guys in the first moto, and spent the whole-time eating roost, especially from Aaron Plessinger. Plessinger ate a fair dose of Ferrandis’ roost early in the year, so it could be looked at as evening it all out.

But Ferrandis was a little better in the second moto all around. A better start and better riding equaled a relatively comfortable third place finish. But Ferrandis, like Sexton, isn’t happy with his current riding and is looking for some big improvements down the stretch.

“Difficult day for me,” said Ferrandis. “Struggled a lot with myself and my bike and I don’t know why. First moto I was behind AP, and I couldn’t figure out a way by, and second moto was the opposite. I want more and I’m not really satisfied. I think I have ridden this track all seven years I have been here, and this was the worst year on this track with the dirt. I don’t know why they prepped it the way they did. I didn’t really like the track, it was very scary and very tricky, but anyways it was the same for everyone, so it was just a difficult day for me today. They stopped prepping like they used to do in previous years, big deep ruts and so deep. [In past year’s] We couldn’t get speed. Right now, they make every track faster and I think it’s more dangerous. To me it’s not really safe, too much, not hardpack, but too hard, not enough grip and too fast. Maybe some guys like it, but personally I don’t like it.”

Aaron Plessinger put 4-4 scores on the board for fourth overall on the day. It was a step in the right direction after Plessinger has been dealing with a small back injury the last few weeks that has really hampered his results. He was in the fight with Ferrandis, Cianciarulo, and Jason Anderson all day long as that group looks to be where the battle for third will live.

Cianciarulo ended up going 7-5 on the day but unfortunately went backwards in both motos. He holeshot the first moto and slowly slipped backwards whereas the second moto, he was in second after Sexton's fall but was passed by Sexton, Ferrandis, and eventually Plessinger. The nerve injury in his wrist is still a constant variable for AC and it seemed it may have gotten him both motos today.

Also spare a thought for Jason Anderson who was a very strong third in the first moto but then crashed with Shane McElrath on the first lap of the second moto, which ended both of their days early. Anderson appeared to be okay aside from a big scrape on his chest, but it was an unfortunate end to an otherwise strong day for the #21.

In the 250 class, parity was the name of the game rolling into the seventh round as rookie Haiden Deegan found himself with the points lead after his win at RedBud and subsequent bad day for Hunter Lawrence at Southwick put Deegan into the lead. Hunter Lawrence was still dealing with the effects from his crash at RedBud and how his recovery would continue to develop from that seemed to be the biggest catalyst in the championship picture.

But aside from Deegan stealing the championship lead away, many others like RJ Hampshire, Jo Shimoda, Justin Cooper, and more were suddenly much closer in the championship as well making it feel like we had a bit of a reset at the halfway point. In particular, Jo Shimoda won the second moto at Southwick while Justin Cooper may have been the best rider on the track. Could they also make this championship fight interesting? Spring Creek was going to be a big test to find out.

Typical to form, Justin Cooper set the pace in Q1, but it was actually Hunter Lawrence who lit up the sheets in Q2 to lay down the fastest time of the day. Hunter isn’t usually a qualifying ace compared to Cooper, so it certainly raised some eyebrows. But when the first moto commenced, that qualifying time made more sense.

All of the riders who still realistically had a shot at winning the championship started up front in the first moto with Tom Vialle and Levi Kitchen also in the mix. Jo Shimoda led early from Deegan, Kitchen, Cooper, Hampshire, Vialle, and Lawrence at the tail of the group. As the race progressed, Lawrence slowly and methodically worked his way around all of them. The only gift he received was Deegan going off the track when Lawrence was on him for second. Otherwise, it was quite the statement ride as Lawrence worked all the way up to Shimoda, passed him with two laps to go, and took off with his fifth moto win of 2023.

The second moto looked like it may cap off a perfect day for Lawrence who stole the lead from Kitchen on the first lap and began to take off at the front. That is until two laps to go when he crashed in the back tabletops on the track handing the lead and eventually the moto win over to Justin Cooper. It was a weird moment, seemingly out of nowhere, and Hunter looked a bit shaken up after as he clutched his ribs. But the second-place result in the moto was still more than enough to claim the overall victory on the day with 1-2 scores. Thanks to a rough day for Haiden Deegan this time around, Lawrence moved back into the points lead with the win as well.

“It was a good day, but obviously second moto, feeling a little bit tired and I think I had four lappers in front of me,” said Lawrence. “They’ve got their own stuff going on, as I do, just last-minute split decision to miss them, and I just pushed the front up the face of that wall jump. Wasn’t ideal, and it kind of took me a bit to get up. Almost winded myself a little bit, and then I was trying to see where third place was, I didn’t know where Jo was, so I kind of had to dig a bit again! So, it was close, but all in all a pretty good day.”

Unbeknown to him until the last half of the final lap of Moto 2, Justin Cooper was not only gifted the moto win but gifted second overall on the day as well. Cooper was fourth in the first moto and actually went a little backwards late which is uncharacteristic of him. The second moto was much better as he hung only about eight seconds back of Lawrence nearly the whole race and was there to take the win when Hunter crashed it over to him.

A moto win and second overall on the day was a great result for Cooper who sits fifth in the championship now 21 points behind Lawrence out front. If today’s version of Hunter Lawrence shows up at the remaining four rounds, it will be tough to beat him, but Cooper seemingly proved today that he will be knocking on the door from here on out.

"First moto, I just couldn’t go,” said Cooper. “I was just going through the motions, and it was frustrating. I really had to kick my butt into gear for the second moto. I feel like I’m still recovering from Southwick! I just put so much out there, and I’m still recovering. But that’s no excuse, you’ve got to show up every Saturday, no matter how you’re feeling. Just a pretty poor performance in the first moto, but hey, we got gifted second moto, so we’ll take that.”

Rounding out the podium was Jo Shimoda who followed up his second moto victory from Southwick with 2-3 scores today for third place overall. He lamented losing the first moto to Lawrence after he had built up a pretty good lead, but he still was right at the front all day long and is starting to look more and more like the Jo Shimoda who beat Hunter Lawrence in the points last year.

“Honestly, I’m feeling happy with the starts more than the riding,” said Shimoda. “The riding is getting better during the week. I feel like I have my bike getting pretty dialed in, so now I’m more focused on the volume during the week, and I think that’s going to help me in the next few races, so I’m excited.”

RJ Hampshire and Levi Kitchen rounded out the top five in what both were “what could have been” type of days. Kitchen got great starts in both motos but seemed to struggle to really get the ball rolling until late in both of them. Whereas Hampshire didn’t have particularly awesome starts in either moto but spent some time in both motos as the fastest rider on the track. The tough thing for both of them was ultimately losing several points to Hunter Lawrence today which will sting.

What stings even worse though is the day Haiden Deegan would rather forget. He looked solid in the first moto running second until the aforementioned off-track moment pushed him behind Lawrence and his teammate Cooper into fourth. But RJ Hampshire also got him, shuffling him back to fifth. Then in the second moto, a bad start left him slowly working forward the whole time and an eighth was the best he could do when the dust settled. It won’t be the last time in Haiden Deegan’s career that he has the red plate, but a seventh overall day in his first experience with the red plate will definitely leave a sour taste in his mouth.

Now Deegan sits 13 points back of Hunter Lawrence in the championship with these four rounds to go. Jo Shimoda and RJ Hampshire are tied for third in points, both of them 20 points back of Lawrence, while Cooper sits 21 back. Washougal next week will be the last race before a two-week break and that momentum from the race going into the break is what each of these guys will be eyeing next weekend. Onto the Pacific Northwest we go!