Hunter Lawrence tops brother to win at High Point
Score one for the older brother.
Hunter Lawrence, like the rest of the Pro Motocross field, has been chasing his younger sibling, Jett Lawrence, for the better part of three years.
But on Saturday Hunter bested Jett to win the 450 class at the 49th annual High Point National in Mount Morris.
Hunter, a native of Australia, swept both motos to claim his second overall title of the season.
In the 250 class, New Zealand native Cole Davies won the overall for his first career moto win and ensured both victors Saturday were international riders.
Jett, 22, had won the previous three High Point Nationals, but Hunter, 26, was dominant in both motos Saturday to secure his first victory in the event.
He got the holeshot in the first moto, but fell to third behind Cooper Webb and Jorge Prado in the first turn. Hunter eventually tracked them both down and left everyone in the dust winning by nearly 14 seconds over Jett, who finished second.
Hunter and Jett went head-to-head for the holeshot in the second moto and Hunter got the early advantage. After taking the lead, Hunter pulled out to an eight second lead and eventually crossed the line four seconds ahead of Jett to sweep the day.
Haiden Deegan placed third in the overall, Jorge Prado was fourth and Aaron Plessinger finished fifth.
Hunter and Jett now have two overall wins apiece. Jett leads Hunter by two points in the standings.
Davies, in his first visit to High Point Raceway, swept both motos in the 250 class. He charged from sixth place to win the first moto. At one point he was behind Julien Beaumer by seven seconds, but Beaumer made a mistake at the start/finish line jump, which allowed Davies to close in. Davies took the lead with less than 10 minutes remaining and beat Beaumer to the line by nearly two seconds.
In the second moto, Davies got the holeshot and cruised from there. His lead grew to over 14 seconds at one point and he beat Beaumer to the line by three seconds.
Beaumer was second in the overall. Jo Shimoda placed third, Levi Kitchen was fourth and Kayden Minear finished fifth.
There was some drama in the second moto. Seth Hammaker, who entered Saturday as the co-championship leader, had a hard crash while running third. He did not finish and was scored last in 40th place after placing fifth in the first moto.
Hammaker went from a tie for first in the standings to fifth place.
After High Point, the top four in the 250 standings are separated by seven points: Kitchen (150), Shimoda (149), Beaumer (148) and Davies (143).
Venetia native Gavin Towers finished 24th in the overall standings in the 205 class. His day started well with a career-best 19th place finish in the first moto, but issues in the second moto relegated him to a 39th place finish.