The field of Australian riders in the AMA Supercross 250SX West Coast Championship put on a show at Anaheim 2.
GEICO Factory Honda rider Jett Lawrence jumped out to the early lead in the 250SX West main event and started pulling a gap on the field. Lawrence, in just his third AMA professional supercross, held the lead and looked steady. Then things came undone. 16-year-old Lawrence had a big lead. Then he crashed, which allowed Dylan Ferrandis to close. Lawrence fought back to hold a slim lead as the riders leaped past the white flag. Ferrandis challenged Lawrence and took the lead, Lawrence tried to fight back over a jump and into a turn, but Ferrandis edged ahead. With one whoop section before the finish, Lawrence pounded the whoops in hopes of closing back to Ferrandis and perhaps trying for a last-turn pass. Instead, he mistimed the whoops and went into a slow endo, which ended with a violent crash hard into the Anaheim dirt. The Australian banged his head and broke his collarbone in the mess. He was still credited with ninth place because of the amount of riders lapped in the race.
“No words really!” said Lawrence in a social media post to his fans. “I’ll never settle for second and will always leave everything out on the track. Lucky to only have a broken collarbone. We will get it all sorted tomorrow and get back to the races.”
Lawrence will be out of action while his collarbone heals. Craig will be on track this weekend at Glendale, Arizona.
Penrite Honda’s Luke Clout didn’t have the heat race he had hoped for. He crashed in the opening laps which resulted in a trip to the last chance qualifier.
“I felt good in the opening laps, the boys made a change to my suspension between qualifying and racing and I was strong in the whoops. I passed Alex Martin for fourth and was gunning down third. Unfortunately, I crashed and had to go to the LCQ. I just rode quick enough in the LCQ to make the main”.
In the main event, Luke started well and settled into a comfortable rhythm and rode to a career-best sixth in the main, which has put him inside the top 10 overall in points.
“I am ok with my sixth but I have a lot of work to do. The team has been great; they are giving me everything I need. It’s different over here. I know that doesn’t make sense to some people, but the tracks are different, they are prepared differently, they develop ruts and have moisture in them. The intensity is much higher. In Australia we were doing eight-lap races and over here I am doing 18 laps. We have a plan and we are working towards it” said Clout.
Yamaha Riders
Aaron Tanti and Jay Wilson were both in the mix during the Anaheim 2 250SX West Coast Main Event. Tanti placed 13th overall, a repeat performance from the weekend before in St. Louis. On Instagram the Yamaha rider was positive about the experience, “A2 done and dusted, ended up p13 in the main event. Super grateful for the opportunity to be racing over here in the states, can’t wait to get the next few done and improve.”
Meanwhile, Jay Wilson finished 11th in the Main Event, an improvement from his Anaheim 1 result where he finished 17th. Wilson decided to skip St. Louis and focus on recovering from a small injury sustained during practice before A1. “11th in the main last night. I can’t wait to go racing again next weekend. Thank you to everyone that supports what we’re trying to do over here, especially our partners, my mechanic, his family, and Misty and Pops. Moments like this are epic.”