2023 High Point Motocross Photo Gallery

2023 High Point Motocross Recap

Tried and almost succeeded, but a muddy, squirrely, rutty track nor a past champion and veteran of the series could put a stop to the domination of Jett Lawrence.

Early rains precipitated Round 4 of the 2023 Pro Motocross Championship series on Saturday but the High Point National in Mt. Morris, PA resisted a mudder while still allowing a bevy of mistakes with some proving costly as others were mere shrugs of the shoulder resulting in the same winners of the previous three rounds albeit with a bit more excitement.

Ken Roczen celebrated Father's Day weekend racing instead of on his boat as the social media and racing veteran plus two-time 450 class Motocross Champion laid aside his sole commitment to Supercross (but the newly formed World Supercross Championship has supposedly run into some lack of interest for a round this year) and hit the Outdoors. He won it all nine years ago, again in 2016 and by the looks of it Saturday maybe should have considered a full season this year. The big question was could he stop the undefeated Lawrence?

In Moto 1, Lawrence grabbed the MotoSport.com Holeshot repeating pretty much what he's done all season. This time, though, he didn't check out. Roczen, in fourth, quickly got into second and began closing in on the rookie. Near halfway through the race, with Roczen not far behind, Lawrence swapped out in a rut and was tossed off the bike. This allowed Roczen to take the lead and put a feisty Garrett Marchbanks in second.

The undefeated season hanging in the balance, Lawrence needed just three minutes after remounting to get past Marchbanks and the race to the checkers was on. Slowly he reeled in Roczen and with a bit more than four minutes on the clock, he caught and passed the 2-time Outdoor Champion, who then retook the lead no more than 30 seconds later. Alas, it did not stick, Lawrence needed about the same amount of time to retake the lead again then with two laps to go, Roczen hit the dirt and was unable to get his bike started. A once 20 second lead over third-place and 40 second lead over fourth place evaporated as he tried kickstarting his Suzuki to no avail. Meanwhile, Lawrence coasted home and Roczen ultimately finished seventh. Marchbanks got a career best second and Cooper Webb took third, 42 seconds back of Lawrence.

In Moto 2, Roczen got the MotoSport.com Holeshot and began to pull away while Lawrence got held up outside the Top 5 and needed time to work around Adam Cianciarulo and Aaron Plessinger. Roczen extended his lead to 10 seconds at one point over Lawrence who seemed content on dialing it back and ensuring an overall win rather than fighting for the undefeated season. But...

Plessinger fell leaving Cianciarulo to fend off Lawrence. Cianciarulo put up a meager effort for a few corners before giving up second, so Lawrence slowly closed in on Roczen. Around the five-minute mark, Lawrence jetted around an outside berm passing Roczen and kept the win streak alive.

"I was thinking after I got to race with Kenny, I used to look up to Kenny and now I got to race him," Lawrence said in regards to the two racing each other for the first time. "It was a tough day, I didn't feel too confident, too comfortable on the bike today. The track was pretty tricky with the ruts, I'm happy to come (away) with a win."

Despite the seventh-place in Moto 1, Roczen (7-2) took second overall for his 50th career podium after just two days of Outdoor practice.

"I might have to come back for a couple of more I think," he said.

Cianciarulo (4-4) took third overall on the tie-breaker to Roczen. Marchbanks (2-8) suffered a mechanical problem in Moto 2 requiring attention in the pits. He managed to race back into eighth for sixth overall tying in points with Dylan Ferrandis (6-3), who took fourth overall, and Cooper Webb (3-6) who took fifth.

Standings remain unchanged from the previous week though Lawrence increases his lead over Ferrandis to 49 and Roczen enters the standings in 17th place.

2023 Motocross 450 Class Standings after Round 4

Jett Lawrence - 200
Dylan Ferrandis - 151
Cooper Webb - 147
Aaron Plessinger - 138
Adam Cianciarulo - 134

250 Class

In the 250 class, RJ Hampshire tried putting a stop to Hunter Lawrence's overall win streak and eventually will make it look easy but not this day. He grabbed the MotoSport.com Holeshot and with Lawrence outside the Top 10 to start, Hampshire only had rookie Haiden Deegan to contend with, but (always a but with Hampshire) about 12 minutes left, he went down handing the lead to Deegan. Meanwhile, Lawrence worked his way into fourth.

Always crashing but always pinned, Hampshire staged an intense surge, nearly crashed again and on the final lap sideswiped Deegan then took off to the checkers. Lawrence took third, the third time this season he finished third in Moto 1 which means...

He won Moto 2 and took the overall win. Hampshire collided with Jalek Swoll at the start of Moto 2 as rookie Chance Hymas enjoyed the lead for a bit until Lawrence took the front position midway through the race. Hymas eventually fell to fourth. Tom Vialle took second 18 seconds behind Lawrence and Jo Shimoda's last minute pass on Levi Kitchen gave him third. Hampshire fought his way to seventh in the race for second overall and Deegan, also held up at the start, worked his way to sixth for third overall.

Justin Cooper endured a horrible crash crushing his chest and neck with the handlebars during qualifying which led to a night's stay in the hospital when his throat start closing up while being tended to in the medical unit at the track. His absence drops him from second to fifth in the standings and moves Deegan into second-place. Hampshire moves into third with Shimoda in fourth.

Post-race Lawrence was docked seven points for jumping a red cross flag but retained the overall win.