The Aus-X Open is the crown jewel of the Boost Mobil Australian Supercross series and last night in Melbourne, the race didn’t disappoint. With attendance somewhere around 30,000, Honda HRC’s Jett Lawrence rebounded from a disappointing Paris SX last week to sweep his heat race, the Superpole and then both 10 lap main events.
“Honestly you’d say the riding side of thing was boring but you’d never complain about it,” said Jett after the race. Jett had mentioned he had a plan of how he hoped things would go, and it pretty much all became reality. “As long as I get good starts, execute my laps and have fun, it’ll be a good race. I enjoyed my time out there and it created a core fun memory for me.”
Privateer Aussie rider and veteran Matt Moss pulled both holeshots and led some laps, giving Jett (and others) a bit of fits and had a strong night. Still, once the #18 home-nation hero put his Honda in front, it was a walk in the park. Jett was one of the few to put a 3-4 rhythm lane together alongside the start which helped as well. In fact, he actually over jumped it early and made it look like he was going for a five! He said that was just an accident as he adjusted to the steepness of the takeoff ramp. Just another day for Jett, and of course, his whoop speed was impressive.
Standing next to Jett on the podium was Quad Lock Honda’s Dean Wilson who is on the verge of clinching the Australian SX1 title next week at the final round. Dean rode up through the pack in both mains to 2-3 finishes. Wilson remarked after the race that when he shows his kids a photo of the podium years from now, he’ll be with a red plate and beating one of the Lawrence brothers!
Hunter Lawrence, last year’s winner, got a terrible start in main one and could only work his way into fifth. The second time out his start was better and he too second, which meant he ended up third overall. Moss came through after that and then came impressive (to me anyways) Dylan Wills. Aussie veteran Hayden Mellross was also pesky to the factory guys with good starts and solid laps despite a fall in main event one. He finished sixth overall.
Racer X’s own CDR Monster Yamaha’s Phil Nicoletti had a night he’d rather forget with crashes, an off-track excursion and more misery. Afterwards Phil seemed very upset in his post-race interview and contemplated retiring…again.
His teammate Mitchell Harrison didn’t do much better as he did show speed but also couldn’t keep it on two wheels.
In the SX2 class it was Canadian Cole Thompson taking the overall with 1-3 finishes while Shane McElrath went 4-1 to finish second overall. McElrath is the defending champion but not racing the whole series this year (because the WSX Championship conflicts on the calendar) suffered horrible starts in his heat and first main which forced him to do some serious work. The second main he got the holeshot and rode away from everyone.
The biggest news in the SX 2 Class actually came from a bummer deal in practice. SX2 points leader Lux Turner who had been crushing it and led the points, sustained a hurt wrist when he got out of shape in the whoops and flipped over the netting in a scary crash. He was unable to race the night and now Ryder Kingsford moves into the points lead with his 3-2 finishes.
In the SX3 development class, Ryder Malinoski led from start to finish. Jack Deveson secured second and Koby Hantis completed the podium in third.
In the end it was a homecoming for the Lawrence brothers and more fun time than the previous week in Paris for sure. When asked about the race itself, Jett took some time to appreciate his first Aus-X win in front of his home fans.
“This is very similar to USA here, the track guys do well. The track’s a little smaller and that’s why I OJ’d a lot of stuff” he laughed. “Compared to our stuff at the farm, it’s a lot shorter. The crowd is great here and it’s really loud. It’s cool, I’ve said this multiple times already and when you look back it’ll be easy to remember the memories we made here. It’s a fun trip to come back.”
What a night down here in Australia, the fans got what they paid for and then some.
