The second round of AMA Supercross took place on Saturday in San Diego, where all three participating Honda HRC Progressive riders turned in impressive performances. Hunter Lawrence and Jo Shimoda fought through challenges to demonstrate their grit and determination in posting commendable results in their main events (fifth in 450SX despite a bad illness for the former, seventh in 250SX West despite two broken fingers for the latter), and Jett Lawrence showed considerably more speed than he had at round 1, notching second place in the premier class and reducing his deficit in the title fight. Words: HRC
Jett had a so-so start and sat just inside the top 10 after turn 1. Nonetheless, he pushed his CRF450RWE through the field, climbing to second place by about the midway point. He then pressured the leading Eli Tomac for the last half of what was a thrilling race, ultimately coming up just 1.518 seconds short. Meanwhile, Hunter Lawrence slotted into second early on and rode strong to an eventual top-five result, and Phoenix Racing Honda’s Dylan Ferrandis and Quad Lock Honda’s Joey Savatgy also finished in the top 10.
In the 250SX West division, Shimoda had an excellent jump out of the gate, but he ran wide in the first turn and found himself midpack. He shrugged off the pain in his hand as he battled through the pack to finish in seventh place, securing valuable points.
Jett Lawrence: “A lot of improvement over last weekend, so I’m super-happy. The bike is getting better and better. I felt good through the night; I just made the one little mistake of going back to the inside in the sand and Tomac getting me, but we’re looking forward to the next rounds to come up. I’m feeling more familiar with the bike each weekend. I’m looking forward to it; we’re going to go home, just log some laps in and hopefully get a better result next weekend.”
Hunter Lawrence: “I had been struggling with my throat a bit during the week, and I thought it was more from the ashes and stuff from the fires [in Southern California]. I thought I was coming good, and then Friday night, it just got so bad. It was a really tough day. I’m feeling pretty sick and I have no energy, so I’m pretty happy to come out fifth. I did what I needed to do to make my night a little easier. It was a tough day at the office, but I’m just looking to get back to 100% as soon as I can.”
Jo Shimoda: “Overall it’s good to score a little bit of points. Obviously I ended the night with two broken fingers, but I’m looking to get a little recovery and hopefully be a little better next weekend.”
Lars Lindstrom – Team Manager: “Today was a challenging day for the team, with Hunter being very under the weather, and Jo having his incident in practice that broke two fingers on his left hand. Overall, I’m extremely proud of our athletes, for really gritting their teeth and showing everyone what warriors they are. Obviously, the biggest story from the weekend is our 450 boys really turning things around from last weekend, and I want to thank our crew, who were able to get the bike in a better spot than it was. Maybe that’s why I wasn’t stressing about the bike’s performance like some in the media were, because we have such a great team that works together so well, and I had complete confidence in them. Hopefully we can get Jo to be able to get through the next two rounds, so he can heal up more and continue to be a frontrunner in the class. I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.”
Image:@empiresportsphotos – Chris Schulte
