The third round of the 2024 AMA Pro Motocross Championship took place this weekend in Lakewood, Colorado, and as my loyal readers know, this race is one of the better ones on the circuit. Good track, great viewing, ease of getting in and out, lots of amenities around and this year some terrific prep! Early on in the day the track looked great. It wasn’t the “sealed” track of a couple of years ago and it wasn’t the usual, ripped super deep track of many years, including last year. Nope, it appeared it was a mid surface rip (I just made that term up, BTW) and the guys could go wherever they want to. It looked like a lot of fun to ride, although the jumps were too big. Let’s not have those for the PulpMX ride day in September, okay?
Jett Lawrence is pretty amazing. I’ve probably spent four years now writing about him in this column using many superlatives to describe his riding. In fact, now that I think about it, I’ve written a LOT of words about Lawrence. Well, this week on a podcast I said that Jett “can’t win” Lakewood because, from people I texted with, he was REALLY beat up from Hangtown. He did ride this week, but “people” told me that his shoulder is pretty bad and the longer he rides, the worse it gets. So, thinking about that fact, the fact that Chase Sexton was SO good at Hangtown, and also, Lawrence’s brother Hunter has been on fire, I made that declaration. In fact, I threw $20 down that anyone other than Jett would win Lakewood!
So now I’m poorer for this fact, and I may go after the person I talked to about Jett for the money. Or maybe I’ll go after Sexton for the money (more on him later). The Jett was amazing this weekend because he wasn’t his usual amazing self, you know? It looked like to me that Jett was doing just enough to stay in the race until late when he decided it was go-time.
In the second moto, with six laps to go, he went from third to first. Jett decided that it was time, I guess, dug deep and got by his brother and Justin Cooper, just like that. You know his shoulder was killing him, too. It was impressive. Whatever percentage you want to put his health at, it wasn’t 100 percent, and he still won the damn race. It’s Jett Lawrence’s world and we’re just living in it.
I wondered about Hunter’s mood after the race because yes, he got the red plate in 450MX for his first time ever and being the points leader is always cool, but after holding off Jett in moto one, he couldn’t do the same in moto two. Afterward, although he had the red plate, he seemed a bit subdued on everything. Still, impressive day for Hunter and since about the middle of supercross, he’s beginning to emerge more and more.
Justin Cooper led 23 laps, pulled both holeshots, and had a good day in getting third overall. I was a fan of him admitting afterward that he came up just a bit short in terms of fitness. I mean, that was obvious to anyone who watched it, but racers like Cooper don’t ever admit that anymore. They say “tight” or “arm pump” or “bike setup was off,” so props to Justin for admitting that he needs a bit, and just a bit, more fitness.
Going to be interesting to see what happens with Cooper in 2025. He’s going to be a hot property but there doesn’t appear to be any spots for him. Kawasaki, Honda, and KTM are full. Husqvarna doesn’t appear to be filling the second spot next to Malcolm Stewart, TLD GasGas is set with Justin Barcia.
Eli Tomac is coming back (I hear contract details are almost done), Cooper Webb is there (and getting a big raise), so therefore, how much money is left over for Cooper? I would think, although I don’t know, that he’s probably not getting paid what he “should” for how he’s been doing. This is a dude who has pole positions in 450SX, podiums in 450MX and SX and yeah, he’s an up-and-coming guy. I would guess he’s sort of stuck there as a third guy at Yamaha, which might bum him out?
We wondered, out of Aaron Plessinger, Hunter Lawrence, Cooper, and Jason Anderson, who would emerge as the guy next to the top two riders. Well, it seems to be Hunter, AP and Cooper so far through the first three rounds but also, it does seem like week to week another rider is going to emerge. This is maybe, at least to me, very interesting to watch week to week.
Chase Sexton? Yeah man, I was a little off on how last week’s epic Hangtown was going to be a springboard for him going forward. He crashed twice in moto one and once more in moto two. At least in moto two he was sending it toward the front and appeared to be a man on a mission. Hey, 6-1 on the day would’ve been okay, you know? Instead, he sort of forced the pass for the lead, went down, and that was all she wrote.
I’m sure he doesn’t care about moral victories at this point, but he was ripping early in moto two, so there’s the moral victory he probably doesn't care about. The rest of his day? Yeah, not ideal. But this being Sexton, would anyone be surprised if he goes 1-1 this weekend?
Speaking of AP, he got a podium at Lakewood last year but told me after his so-so day that he’s never really gelled with this track, and when everyone was zipping by him early in moto one, he was a little shell shocked. We had Ian Harrison, team manager of Red Bull KTM, on the PulpMX Show Monday and he said that AP and Sexton are so far apart in terms of what they like on a bike, there’s no chance they can learn something on the bike that can help both riders.
Justin Barcia was fourth overall, a good ride just a few days after he and I did some motos “together” at Glen Helen. Coincidence? I think not. Hey, at least Bam Bam is riding during the week now.
Outdoors are hard. They’re not a lot of fun when you’re a factory guy eating rocks back toward the top ten. Especially after not racing them for a long time. Malcolm Stewart did race a few a couple years ago but he’s basically been MIA from motocross for a long time. I think he’s doing pretty well, and more impressive, to me at least, is his attitude each weekend when I’ve talked to him. He seems like he’s having fun, he’s okay with his results, and isn’t just hating life, which sometimes guys like him can do when they’re not making podiums. Anyway, props to Mookie.
Grant Harlan and Marshall Weltin are teammates at Gizmo Mods Rock River Yamaha, and they look to be racing closely the rest of this summer. Weltin had a poor Hangtown after a practice crash and Harlan didn’t do well at Pala, but at Lakewood, they were very good.
Tough days for both Kyle Chisholm and Cullin Park. Lakewood does seem to be one of those tracks where you need to sort of figure it out, keep momentum going, and not point and shoot your turns. If you're on you're on, if you're off, you're off. Both riders will be better moving forward, I’m sure.
Haiden Deegan is three-for-three to start the year, he’s got four moto wins, he’s led almost 50 percent of the laps (47 percent), and has almost a moto ahead in the points. After battling Hunter Lawrence down to the wire last summer, he appears to have taken a step forward in 2024. Hard to beat him—he’s got the recklessness of youth, he’s got great speed and fitness, and his bike is great. Total package for sure and it didn’t seem like he liked Tom Vialle’s last corner pass attempt on him in the first moto. To me, there was nothing wrong with that pass attempt. Then later in the press conference, Deegan said he was okay with the pass attempt and would have done the same thing. I think Deegan, as we saw in SX, does have a tendency to make mistakes out there but man, even with stuff like the helicopter get-off we saw at Hangtown, he seems like he’s going to be hard to beat for this title.
If you’re struggling in life with weight loss, can’t get that promotion at work, need to make more money, whatever it is, maybe change your diet! I mean I’m kidding obviously, but Honda’s Chance Hymas made some changes to diet and it’s made all the difference from SX to MX. In SX he showed speed with heat race wins or laps led, but in the end, his SX was sort of, ehhhhh. Well, outdoors he’s a new man. He was fastest in the very first session of the year and he’s continued his strong riding with his first moto win of his career this weekend and earned second overall! Change your diet and win motos, people!
Hymas has the equipment, he’s got the program around him with riding with the Lawrences, and he’s doing the work off the bike with Michael Byrne. Like, there’s nothing around him to stop him from winning, other than health and speed. So, if he can keep showing this speed, it’s not unreasonable to think about a title for Hymas in 2025. Impressive start to the MX season!
Tom Vialle’s crash early in moto two really hurt him. As I mentioned above, there will be a time when Deegan makes a mistake and loses a bunch of points, but the small stuff that’s affected Tom, like this crash, the penalty at Pala, and his first moto ride at Hangtown when he couldn’t get going, it’s just two points, three points, etc., but they’re adding up for the KTM kid.
Red Bull KTM manager, Ian Harrison, spoke very highly of Vialle. Harrison said he’s a bit steadfast in what he wants, but when you make him happy, he delivers. Harrison also mentioned that Vialle winning the 250SX East championship was not something the team had thought he could do in year two but hey, they’ll take it!
I feel for Joey Savatgy. He’s been caught up with bike issues (Hangtown), first turn crashes (Pala, Lakewood), and out of the six motos so far, he’s got, really, one good result that he would like. The others have been tough for sure. This is a guy who is a potential race winner, or at least a podium racer. Thunder Valley is a great track for him, and he even took a “safe” inside gate in moto, but that didn’t help him out. Hymas holeshot from that same gate in moto two, BTW. Better days are ahead for Savatgy, for sure.
The real Jo Shimoda poked his head out in moto two with a great ride to third! He’s alive!
Jordon Smith was sick going into the race, crashed in the first turn in the first moto, and passed a ton of guys to get 11th. Second moto, he didn’t pass as many but still some to get to 11th again. Unfortunately for Jordon, they don’t award passing points in motocross. He rode well though.
Jalek Swoll rode well and that’s with a last lap fall in the first moto that took him from fifth to seventh. Second moto he got a fifth, so he should’ve gone 5-5 very easily. Swoll is sixth in the points, which is pretty solid.
Pierce Brown is off to a good start to the series, and I was impressed with his moto two ride-from-behind at Lakewood. Like his SX series, he’s been a bit under the radar with his 10-8-5-10-6-9 finishes. Brown is 15 points ahead of Ty Masterpool after six motos but if you’re like me, those two sixth-place motos for Ty, plus running second last week for a bit, plus fast qualifier, all stand out more than what Brown has done, right? But Brown is 15 points up! See what I mean?
Ryder McNabb, two-time MX2 Canadian champion, scored a 13th in the first moto. Pretty good! He’s still young and figuring things out but that 13th is… something.
Thanks for reading OBS, email me at matthes@racerxonline.com if you want to chat about this race or anything else, I’m off to MXGP this weekend in Italy, so look for a column on that next week.
