2023 Hangtown Motocross Photo Gallery

2023 Hangtown Motocross Recap

Just a walk in the park.

Little excitement up front for Round 2 of the 2023 Pro Motocross Championship series on Saturday at the Hangtown Classic in Rancho Cordova, CA as a depleted field continues to plague the 450 class.

Reigning 450 Supercross Champion Chase Sexton added to the injury woes that leaves many factory riders on the sidelines this season. A concussion sustained after a crash in practice last week took the title contender out for Hangtown and possibly more after it was discovered he also has the kissing disease, a.k.a. mono. As a result, rookie Jett Lawrence cruised to his second straight overall with a sweep and remains undefeated.

"The track was so brutal out there, (but) the bike handles amazing," Lawrence said. "You had to be really patient you couldn't take too much."

Lawrence said he didn't eat enough (food, not roost) before the 2nd moto and lost energy halfway through, though you'd never know it. He finished ahead of Dylan Ferrandis in the first race by four seconds and five seconds over Cooper Webb in Moto 2, that second race not as close timewise partly because Aaron Plessinger (3-6) crashed while on the gas pursuing the lead while in second-place with about three minutes left leaving him with a broken clutch lever. It probably wouldn't have mattered, in both races Lawrence led all laps.

Ferrandis took second overall on a (2-3) day fending off Plessinger for much of Moto 1 and Webb rounded out the podium on a (4-2) day which also included a royal battle with Plessinger in Moto 2 as the two played cat and mouse for much of the race before Plessinger finally got around Webb and headed for a promising podium until the crash dropped him to fourth overall. Adam Cianciarulo rounded out the Top 5 on a (5-4) day.

Ferrandis moves into second in the standings and Webb jumps from fifth to third. Sexton drops from second to eighth in the standings thanks to his absence and outside of a freak injury to Lawrence, his attempt to take the premier class Championships in both Supercross and Outdoors, as Eli Tomac did last year, appears over. Though strange things have happened (smile face wink emoji).

2023 Motocross 450 Class Standings after Round 2

Jett Lawrence - 100
Dylan Ferrandis - 82
Cooper Webb - 74
Aaron Plessinger - 69
Adam Cianciarulo - 63

250 Class

In the 250 class, rookie Haiden Deegan opened Round 2 by grabbing the MotoSport.com Holeshot and leading the whole way for his first career Moto win. But it wasn't enough as Hunter Lawrence repeated his overall win to open the season a week prior with another (3-1) day battling his way up from seventh to third in Moto 1 and needing just six minutes to take the front position in Moto 2 with little trouble thereafter to remain undefeated, overall, for the season. Justin Cooper took second in both Motos for second overall and his first podium of the season.

Elsewhere, Tom Vialle also repeated his performance from opening weekend at Fox Raceway with another (7-3) day for fourth overall and RJ Hampshire rounded out the Top 5 at Hangtown on a (5-5) day.