Thunder Valley recap
Now that we’ve completed the third round of outdoors a few storylines are starting to clear up or materialize. The first would be a Jett Lawrence at 70-80% seems to be still good enough to beat everyone else, but we need a few more chances to put this one to rest. His brother Hunter is starting to look like the best competition for Jett on a weekly basis for Moto wins. Chase Sexton blew us away at Hangtown but then got a case of the crashums again. The one thing I like about Chase so far is his desire to be more aggressive and push, he just has to find the fine line between wreckless and controlled chaos. And lastly, Chance Hymas is having the early season start that HRC expected out of Shimoda so far, while Jo is having his usual slow start to the season.
450 MX Motos
You can’t help but be impressed by Justin Cooper this weekend, he got both holeshots and let for a combined 53 mins of racing with Jett and Hunter just behind him for the majority of that time. Why he couldn’t hold the lead for those last few is something we hope he figures out and corrects if its a fitness issue. In moto two we saw Sexton pressuring Cooper for the lead by lost the back end going up a jump face and spins out and falls back to sixth place. This felt like he was being to aggressive for the track conditions and needed to have a bit more patience.
The elder Lawrence captured the first moto win of his 450 Class career by eight seconds over Jett, while Cooper followed in a distant third. Barcia parlayed his strong start into a fourth-place effort, with Plessinger fifth. Sexton finished just outside the top five in sixth after late misfortune in the moto.
The brothers went head-to-head for the win once more, this time in opposite positions. A half second separated the siblings as they took the white flag. Jett Lawrence dug deep and carried on to his third moto win of the season by a margin of 1.2 seconds. Cooper finished in third.
250 MX Motos
The highlights of the 250 class have to be the battle between Haiden Deegan and Tom Vialle and the impressive start of Chance Hymas. The competition between Deegan and Vialle is living up to what most had hoped for this season. They are both very skilled and are having some entertaining racing during the weekends. We saw Tom show good speed to catch Haiden and go for a pass on the inside only to lose balance and tip over and give up the chance at the moto win. The start of the season by Hymas has been impressive but he stepped it up even further at Thunder Valley by grabbing the holeshot and leading wire to wire in Moto Two for his first pro motocross win.
A fierce battle ensued over the final stages of the moto as Deegan searched for alternate lines. As they came to the white flag Deegan took advantage of an inside line to push Vialle wide and reclaim the lead. Vialle battled back and made one final pass attempt that saw the two riders make contact and put Vialle on the ground. That allowed Deegan to bring home his fourth moto win of the season by 5.8 seconds over Vialle, who remounted quickly, while Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Levi Kitchen followed in third. Hymas was fourth, with his Team Honda HRC teammate Jo Shimoda fifth.
Deegan’s 1-2 effort easily secured his third straight overall win and extended his points lead. Hymas’ moto win capped off a career-best performance in the runner-up spot (4-1) for his first ever podium, while Vialle rounded out the top three (2-4). With his win streak, Deegan enjoys a 23-point lead over Vialle and Hymas, who both moved up the championship standings and now sit tied for second.
All Photo Credit: MX Sports Pro Racing, Inc.