The Pro Motocross Championship, sanctioned by AMA Pro Racing, left the state of California for the first time this summer for Race 3 of the 2025 campaign, where the mile-high altitude of Colorado’s Thunder Valley Motocross Park provided near-perfect conditions amidst an extended period of rainfall in the region. The Toyota Thunder Valley National signified Round 20 of the SMX World Championship and showcased an incredible battle in the 450 Class that saw multiple racers challenge Team Honda HRC Progressive’s Jett Lawrence over the course of two motos. Despite the threats, Lawrence withstood the pressure to prevail with an impressive 1-1 sweep and his third straight win to open the season. In the 250 Class, Team Honda HRC Progressive’s Chance Hymas made it a clean sweep for the “Red Riders” with his first ever 1-1 performance in which he went wire-to-wire in both motos.
Moto 1
The first moto of the afternoon got underway with the top five riders in the championship leading the way, with Team Honda HRC Progressive’s Hunter Lawrence emerging with the Pro Motocross Holeshot, only to give way to his brother, Jett Lawrence. Behind Jett, multiple riders jockeyed for position, with Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Aaron Plessinger settling into second ahead of Hunter Lawrence and the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammates of Eli Tomac and Justin Cooper.
Jett Lawrence was able to assert his control of the moto, but Plessinger showed impressive pace to keep the Honda within striking distance. Meanwhile, a tense battle for third unfolded between Hunter Lawrence and Tomac. Their fight helped bring them closer to Plessinger, which allowed Lawrence to seize the opportunity and make the pass for second. He then gave pursuit to his brother. Halfway through the moto the top four were separated by just four seconds.
A sibling battle took shape approaching the final 10 minutes as Hunter closed to within a second of Jett, but the younger Lawrence inched away and reestablished a margin of around two seconds. With just over five minutes to go things changed again as Plessinger surged forward and reclaimed second from Hunter Lawrence. Plessinger then charged onto the rear fender of Jett Lawrence and made a pass for the lead with three minutes remaining. Jett regrouped and battled back to reclaim the position. The fight wasn’t over as lapped riders slowed Lawrence’s pace enough to allow Plessinger to get alongside once more, but the Honda rider fended off the pass. Lawrence sprinted on the final lap to pull away and grab his fourth moto win of the season by 3.3 seconds over Plessinger. Hunter Lawrence went down while running third, which handed the position to Tomac, and remounted for fourth. Cooper followed a distant 45.8 seconds behind the leader in fifth.
Moto 2
The second moto started with the Muc-Off/FXR/ClubMX Yamaha of Coty Schock out front with the Pro Motocross Holeshot ahead of Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Cooper Webb and Hunter Lawrence. Both Jett Lawrence and Plessinger started outside the top five, while Tomac was mired outside the top 10. As Schock continued to pace the field a lot of moves were made behind him as Hunter Lawrence moved into second, Cooper into third, and then Jett Lawrence and Plessinger all making their way around Webb.
An aggressive Hunter Lawrence was able to wrestle the lead away from Schock as Cooper followed through into second to initiate a battle for the lead. Jett Lawrence made additional passes to slot into third. Back out front, Cooper made the pass for the lead as the Lawrences battled for second. Behind them, Plessinger and Tomac got by Schock and looked to close in on the lead trio.
As Cooper continued to pace the field Jett Lawrence was able to get around his brother for second. Not long after, Tomac charged his way into third. With half the moto remaining Lawrence mounted his attack on Cooper. The Yamaha rider kept the Honda at bay for a while, but Lawrence used an outside line to slip past and take control of the moto with a little more than 10 minutes to go. Meanwhile, Tomac got by his teammate for second and faced a deficit of about two seconds to Lawrence.
As he closed in on Lawrence and appeared to have the pace to apply pressure Tomac tipped over, which ended the threat. Lawrence carried on to take his fifth moto win of the season by 11.1 seconds over Tomac, with Cooper in third.
Overall
Lawrence’s second 1-1 effort of the season, and the 15th of his career, resulted in the Australian’s 18th career premier class victory in 19 starts, which moves him into a tie for 10th on the all-time wins list. Tomac earned his second runner-up effort of the young season (3-2), while Plessinger made it back-to-back podiums in third (2-5).
Lawrence added to his lead in the championship standings, which now sits at 25 points, one full moto over Tomac, who reclaimed second. Plessinger dropped to third and sits 27 points out of the lead.
The overall SMX regular season standings have Webb maintaining his hold of the top seed after 20 rounds, with a 47-point margin over teammate Cooper with eight rounds remaining. Cooper sits 21 points ahead of Plessinger, the current third seed.