A poor start and late clash couldn’t stop Hunter Lawrence salvaging fourth and keeping the 450SX red plate by a single point heading to Arlington

Round 6 of AMA Supercross in Seattle didn’t go the way Hunter Lawrence had planned, but the Honda HRC Progressive rider limited the damage from what could have been a far more costly night, salvaging fourth place and doing enough to keep control of the championship picture as the series heads to Arlington, Texas.

In the 450SX main event, Lawrence spun the rear tyre off the start and came out of turn 1 in an uncharacteristic seventh. He made a quick pass, then made a mistake on the tricky track and dropped a position on lap three. Around 10 laps in, the Australian settled in, found his rhythm and started to charge forward. He was fifth at halfway, then moved into fourth with eight laps remaining.

From there, Lawrence rapidly reeled in Ken Roczen and went for a podium spot with an aggressive move in the sand section—an area where he’d been making strong passes in the laps prior. The lines converged and the two made contact, putting both riders on the ground. Lawrence remounted with only Justin Cooper able to get by, leaving him to bring it home in fourth with limited time left to recover further.

Earlier in the day, Lawrence posted fifth in 450SX combined qualifying. In the second 450SX heat race, he battled Cooper Webb for the lead before Webb tipped over, which opened the door for Lawrence to take the win. It was his first heat-race victory of the season and the second of his career.

Despite the Seattle result not matching his plans, Lawrence remains the 450SX championship leader, holding a one-point advantage over Eli Tomac, and he’ll carry the red plate into Arlington for round 7 this Saturday.

450SX Results

  1. Eli Tomac (KTM)
  2. Cooper Webb (Yam)
  3. Justin Cooper (Yam)
  4. Hunter Lawrence (Hon)
  5. Chase Sexton (Kaw)
  6. Malcom Stewart (Hus)
  7. Aaron Plessinger (KTM)
  8. Joey Savatgy (Hon)
  9. Dylan Ferrandis (Duc)
  10. Ken Roczen (Suz)

450SX Championship Points (after 6 of 17 rounds)

  1. Hunter Lawrence: 124
  2. Eli Tomac: 123
  3. Ken Roczen: 113
  4. Cooper Webb: 113
  5. Chase Sexton: 106
  6. Justin Cooper: 95
  7. Jason Anderson: 83
  8. Joey Savatgy: 80
  9. Dylan Ferrandis: 75
  10. Jorge Prado: 73

Hunter Lawrence
“It was a bittersweet main event. I feel like my riding was really good, but I spun off the gate. I’m not sure 100% why that happened, but after that I was making my way through the pack. At the 10-minute mark, I figured the track out and really got going; I was able to do a lot of the rhythms deep into the main. Then I made my attempted pass on Kenny [Roczen] for third, and we got together. I certainly didn’t intend on taking him out—it was just a crappy racing incident, but not how I wanted the night to go, especially after how I felt. In my perfect world, I would’ve jumped to the inside, got that lane, and then tried to catch Cooper Webb. Obviously, it’s cool to still have the red plate—we definitely salvaged some points. With a good start, I feel like it could’ve been a completely different night; I had what it takes to get the win.”