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Morning Report

The second round of the 2026 AMA Pro Motocross Championship is upon us and what a day it's shaping up to be! Fresh off his dominant win last week at the season opener, Hunter Lawrence leads Jorge Prado by six points, a lead he'll be looking to extend today. The other Lawrence, Jett, is clearly not back up to speed after a nasty leg/ankle injury sustained before the beginning of supercross. He still managed to get on the podium with a third last week, but it was obvious, both from his riding and his limp when off the bike, he's not performing at his full potential. 

Elsewhere in the class is Haiden Deegan, who made his 450 debut last week by going 5-4 for fifth overall. It was a solid start for the rookie, but you know he'll be looking for more at Hangtown. Two riders who won't be looking for results at Hangtown are Eli Tomac and Malcolm Stewart. Tomac had a hard crash last week after a collision with Garrett Marchbanks, and Stewart twisted his knee in the second moto. For a full look at who's missing the action today, check out our Injury Report.

In 250 action, things were wide open coming into the season opener at Pala, and while Seth Hammaker was brilliant with his 2-1 victory, there are plenty of riders who could do the same today. Look for guys like Levi Kitchen, Julien Beaumer, Jo Shimoda, Chance Hymas, Ryder DiFrancesco, and more to try to make their mark on the series while also battling fierce up-and-comers like Caden Dudney and Cole Davies.

Also racing today are the athletes of the Women's Motocross Championship, powered by Synchrony. They ran their first moto yesterday, and it was outstanding. Defending champ Lala Turner holeshot and started checking out, but a crash after just a couple laps caused her to lose a ton of time. She charged back forward though and made a thrilling pass for the lead on Charli Cannon on the final lap. For a full report on the action go here, and be sure to tune in today for the second WMX moto.

Update: We later learned Cannon was penalized one position for accelerating while off the track.

Whatever happens today, the athletes will have great weather. It's just after 8:00 a.m. right now and the weather is in the 60s. Yesterday was blazing hot, but today the forecast is calling for a high of just 84 degrees. Those temps should help keep the track from drying out too badly too. There are plenty of rice hulls mixed in with the dirt, so that should also help with moisture retention. As far as the track goes, it's a very similar layout to what we usually see here, with the track winding up and down the hills of Hangtown. Some new additions are an uphill roller section and a big triple in the middle of the track. The big step up jump, formerly known as the Fly 150, looks a little bigger than last year too. 

The first qualifying sessions of the day are underway, so check back soon on a report of who's flying in Northern California.

Qualifying – First Sessions

If the first 250 qualifier of the day revealed anything, it’s just how tight the racing might be today. The usual suspects hovered around the top three-five spots, with Ryder DiFrancesco ending the session fastest, but check out how close they are! The top eight riders are separated by less than a second, with the top three being separated by less than a tenth of a second.

In 450 action Haiden Deegan was fastest early, but riders like Justin Cooper, Chase Sexton, Hunter Lawrence, and Jett Lawrence soon set faster times. Jett put in plenty of laps cruising, but when he wanted to go, he looked great. He didn’t look like he was putting a ton of effort in, but you could tell he was flying, and he looked like he was moving from line to line with ease and going wherever he wanted. Not surprisingly, he had the fastest lap for a little while. Justin Cooper would ultimately unseat him though, posting a 1:51.014 to Jett’s 1:51.462, and as the session wore down it looked like that’s how things would end. But, on the final lap, Hunter and Deegan both had heaters and jumped past Cooper. Deegan’s lap was superior, which makes him the fastest qualifier of the day so far.

Check back soon, as the second round of qualifiers are set to begin here shortly. With the track now broken the lap times will likely be different than the first round.

Qualifying – Second Sessions

Not much to report on from the second set of 250 qualifiers. Seth Hammaker set a hot lap early in this one and that was it. Nobody would better his time, including himself, for the rest of the qualifier. His time was faster than Ryder DiFrancesco's fast lap from the first qualifier too, making Hammaker the fastest 250 rider in qualifying.

When the 450s came back out it was Jett Lawrence setting a fast time early, but it was substantially slower than the fast times from the previous session. It was destined to fall, but it took several laps for it to happen. In the opening laps the majority of the guys looked like they were just cruising around checking out the track, rather than trying to actually lay down heaters. But when the urgency started to emerge it was Jorge Prado who leapt to the top of the board. It didn't last long though, as Jett dropped down into the 1:49 range.

There were still several minutes left in this one at that point, but nobody was able to match Jett's pace. Hunter Lawrence put in an effort at the very end, and was absolutely ripping, but something happened to him out of view that ruined his lap. When he came back into view he was cruising. 

In Jett's interview afterward he was asked how important it was for him to set the fastest time, to which he joked. "It wasn't important, but it's good to know I can still do a hot lap."

250 – Moto One

When the first gate of the day dropped it was Seth Hammaker who flew out of the gate to nail the holeshot. Behind him was Julien Beaumer, and as the race started to unfold these two started getting away from the pack, with Hammaker putting time on Beaumer every lap. Before long Hammaker was gone up front, while Beaumer rode in a lonely second.

Nick Romano held third, but he had Jo Shimoda all over him. Shimoda clearly had an edge, but he just couldn’t make a pass no matter what he tried. Lap after lap Shimoda struggled to gain the upper hand, trying insides, outsides, slingshotting, and scrubbing. Nothing he was doing was working, until he was finally able to slice underneath Romano on the inside right after the finish line. Shimoda immediately took off and started marking Beaumer in second. The gap was pretty big, but Shimoda went to work and started reeling Beaumer in. He’d need to hurry, too, because Levi Kitchen, who’d gotten a bad start, was positively ripping in the second half of this moto and was catching both Shimoda and Beaumer.

By the time Shimoda was close enough to make a move on Beaumer, Kitchen was right there too, and when Shimoda went around Beaumer at the top of an uphill roller section, Kitchen followed suit almost right away. A few turns later, Kitchen threw a move on Shimoda to take over second and sprinted off. That was as far as he’d get, however, as Hammaker’s lead was massive.

At this point the top five of Hammaker, Kitchen, Shimoda, Beaumer, and Chance Hymas were pretty spread out, and the next closest battle was between Kayden Minear and Romano for sixth. Romano did his best to fight Minear off, but Minear kept the pressure up and eventually took the spot.

Lux Turner exited this one early. It looked like it was a mechanical issue because he was walking off the track fine while his bike was being pushed off. There were multiple crashes on the first lap, including one that claimed Michael Mosiman in the second turn. He took a while to get going again and was only able to charge up to 28^th.

450 – Moto One

For a moment it looked like Haiden Deegan might holeshot this one, but it was Jett Lawrence who reached the line first. Deegan settled into second with Hunter Lawrence right behind him. Hunter immediately went to work on Deegan, but had to back off when he had a tense moment trying to go to the inside of Deegan. As the race unfolded Jett slowly started inching away from Deegan, while Hunter started closing in. But then Deegan stretched it back out just a little on Hunter. This dynamic would unfold several times as the laps clicked away. Hunter would look like he was getting close, then Deegan would inch away again.

Finally, with about five minutes left, Hunter found himself all over Deegan’s rear wheel. As the two raced up one the hills and crested the hip jump at the top, Hunter outjumped Deegan and landed next to him on the downhill. He was positioned to take the inside, which he did, and took off with second place. Deegan tried to get it back up the inside in the next corner, bumping into Hunter in the process, but Hunter dropped the hammer and rocketed away from there.

One of the best battles of the day took place between Dylan Ferrandis and RJ Hampshire for fifth. Ferrandis held the spot, but Hampshire was all over him for what seemed like forever. The two were absolutely flying around the track, with Hampshire doing anything and everything possible to try to get by, but he just couldn’t quite get there. On the final lap the battle still raged, and Hampshire tried to rail around the outside of Ferrandis but ended up going off the track. He barely lost any time, but Ferrandis managed to hold him off. Afterward Ferrandis stopped and stuck out his hand to high-five Hampshire, but Hampshire just rode right by. Maybe he didn’t see him?

Elswhere, Jorge Prado ran fourth all by himself for the entire race until his bike gave out right at the end. Talk about heartbreak! Justin Cooper got a horrible start and had to come through the pack. He took eighth. Aaron Plessinger made a mistake early and went off the track and ended up 12^th. Chase Sexton also had trouble, crashing early and taking 11^th.

WMX – Moto Two

Piper Bell nabbed the holeshot in this one, but Charli Cannon made quick work of her and immediately started working on gapping the field. Lala Turner meanwhile, had started in about sixth. She soon found herself in third chasing down Mikayla Nielsen and went around her at the top of the hill after a long roller section. Turner then set out after Cannon, but Cannon made it easy on Turner when she went down all by herself. Cannon got going again, but Turner now had the lead. Credit to Cannon—yesterday she gave up a huge lead to Turner in the first moto, but today she didn’t let Turner get away. Cannon stuck to her rear wheel like glue, and despite casing a triple late in the race, only lost to Turner by 0.781 seconds. Nielsen took third.

Jordan Jarvis had some mechanical trouble and almost didn’t even start this race. They got it sorted out literally as the board went sideways! She and Taylah Mccutcheon battled for fourth, going back and forth for quite a while, before Jarvis took ownership of the position late in the race.

250 – Moto Two

There was major chaos off the start in the final 250 moto of the day. As racers rounded the first turn bikes started bouncing off of each other, and suddenly bikes were cartwheeling and guys were going down everywhere. It looked like about half the field was involved, with moto one winner, Seth Hammaker, right in the thick of it. Jo Shimoda, Nate Thrasher, Casey Cochran, Dax Bennick, and a bunch of other riders were also collected in the commotion.

One rider who made it through cleanly was Cole Davies, and he took full advantage of the situation, dropping the hammer immediately and sprinting away from the first-turn mess. Deacon Denno and Nick Romano were second and third, but Levi Kitchen was charging and soon found his way into second. By that point Davies was absolutely gone, however, and Kitchen, knowing he had the overall in hand, chose not risk a charge.

Julien Beaumer was charging hard early in this moto, and even though he didn’t get a great start, it wasn’t long before he found himself on the rear wheel of Denno, who’d gotten passed by Romano, for fourth. Beaumer sliced to the inside of Denno in turn two, then went after Romano for third. Credit to Romano, who fought Beaumer hard lap after lap. Beaumer finally set up a turn after the finish line, then finished it off by going inside of Romano in the same place he passed Denno. That put him in third, where he’d finish, which helped him end up second overall.

Hammaker, as mentioned above, was caught up in the massive first-turn pileup, but fortunately he was okay and got going again. He was a ways back, but managed to charge up to ninth, which landed him on the podium with third overall. Shimoda went 3-6 for fifth.

450 – Moto Two

Hunter Lawrence jumped out to the lead in the final moto of the day with his brother, Jett, close behind. Unfortunately Justin Cooper clipped a downed rider on the first lap on a steep downhill section and went down hard. That triggered a red flag, which benefitted Cooper Webb, who’d gone over the bars on the start. Aaron Plessinger also went down on the start. Cooper was eventually taken off the track on a stretcher, and while we don’t have details on his condition yet, we know he was alert and talking to the team.

On the restart it was Webb nailing down the holeshot, but Jett and Hunter quickly went around him. As the laps unfolded Hunter stuck right on Jett, although he never got close enough to quite show him a wheel. Then, at the halfway point, Jett dropped the hammer and took off. That was by design, too. Afterward Jett said he’d been conserving his energy as much as possible, then did a quick sprint halfway through the moto to break Hunter’s rhythm. Well, it worked because Hunter wasn’t able to keep up after that.

Elsewhere Haiden Deegan hadn’t gotten a great start, but he was working his way forward. He steadily passed Garrett Marchbanks for sixth, then Dylan Ferrandis and Justin Barcia for fifth and fourth, then reeled in Chase Sexton for third. Sexton didn’t put up a fight when Deegan went around him, and Deegan found himself all alone in third almost right away. The gap to Hunter was massive by then, and Deegan settled in. Sexton started closing on him a little toward the end, but it wasn’t enough to get close. Jorge Prado, who had a horrible gate pick in the second moto due to a mechanical failure in the first, got a terrible start and was buried. He was able to charge his way back up to 13th.