Hunter Lawrence Set for Second One-Point Finale Showdown for Title of 2026

For the second time this year, Hunter Lawrence finds himself in a winner-takes-all scenario heading into the finale of a premier class championship. As far as we can tell, this is unprecedented!

Rare is it for either series to go down to the wire like this, so that’s why seasons when they do, like the famous 1992, 2006, or 2009 in supercross draw heart eye emojis from those who remember. Pro Motocross saw it as recently as 2022, but both series in the same year? With the same rider involved? Crazy work.

The closest we can come up with is 2011, when Ryan Villopoto held slim leads in both series heading into the final round—but he had a buffer. RV won the SX title by four points over Chad Reed by finishing third in the finale, behind Chad’s win. In motocross, he won by 12 points over Ryan Dungey.

This year, Hunter entered the SX finale down one point on Ken Roczen. He’s now up one point on Jett Lawrence heading to the Pro Motocross final round this Saturday at Ironman Raceway. You can also throw in multiple shots at the SMX Championship in the three-round playoff format. In 2024, he and Jett were tied going into the final race, Last year he was down six points but in the triple-points finale he still would have won the title with a win. This man knows drama.

Only three times has a rider finished second in both the SX and MX Championships in the same year (David Bailey in 1986, Dungey in 2014, and Marvin Musquin in 2018). Hunter does not want to join that list!