Mud races always bring the potential for shakeups, and that was indeed the case at the sloppy second round of AMA Supercross, held in a downpour in San Francisco. Unfortunately, Team Honda HRC came out on the short end of the stick in the unpredictable conditions, with Jett and Hunter Lawrence both surviving to finish the 450SX main event in the top 10, while Jo Shimoda wasn’t so fortunate in the 250SX West race.
Conditions were atrocious for the shortened 450SX main event, and Jett and Hunter Lawrence found themselves mired in the pack early in the first lap—sixth and eighth when they completed lap 1. Falls and vision problems saw them shuttled back to 10th and 11th on lap 5. The brothers were close to one another for much of the race and even swapped positions, but in the end, the best Jett and Hunter could manage was ninth and 10th, respectively. On the positive side, Jett’s result was good enough for him to emerge second in the points standings, seven behind the leading Chase Sexton. Putting in an impressive performance was Phoenix Honda racer Dylan Ferrandis, who charged through the muck to a sixth-place result.
Shimoda started in fourth in the 250SX West main event but immediately went down. He remounted but came to a halt a few turns later with a technical issue that seemed to have resulted from the fall. SmarTop/MotoConcepts Honda’s Carson Mumford threatened for a podium position for a while but ultimately slipped to a career-best fifth, while his teammate Mitchell Oldenburg managed a top-10 finish.
Jett Lawrence: “Nothing too exciting to talk about after the main event. We’re just happy to get out of here with some points. We aren’t many points behind, so we’re going to get some good races in before the break and hopefully get some wins.”
Hunter Lawrence: “The main takeaway from tonight is that the heroes of our sport are the mechanics. They had to work incredibly hard all day to make sure our bikes were running smooth. A huge pat on the back to the team overall in these conditions. Other than that, I’m ready to move on to round 3.”
Jo Shimoda: “It was nice to get a good start in the heat race, get some battles in and still get the win. Obviously, the main event didn’t go how I imagined. I got a good start but tipped over on the straightaway. Two turns later, I had a mechanical and couldn’t finish the race. It’s not where we wanted to be after tonight, but I’m looking forward to next weekend.”
Lars Lindstrom: ““This is the first time that we haven’t been on the podium with any of our riders since Anaheim 3 2022, which is an incredible record, I think. As everyone knows, mud races can really shake things up, which can be the exciting part of them. They’re also a great teacher, and we’ll take this opportunity to learn instead of sulking about our results.”
