• Hunter Lawrence sweeps both 450 motos to tighten championship battle
• With a strong 2-2 showing, Jett Lawrence retains red plate
• Jo Shimoda earns third overall in 250 class, closes title-fight gap to one point

For the second time in four rounds, Honda HRC Progressive rider Hunter Lawrence rode to convincing 1-1 moto scores in the premier class, earning a dominant overall win at the High Point National in Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania. The performance moved him to within two championship points of fellow CRF450RWE rider Jett Lawrence, who was second in both races this weekend at the “Country Club of Motocross.” Between them, the brothers and teammates have topped all eight motos campaigned thus far, in addition to taking six holeshots and—incredibly—leading every lap except one. It was also a good weekend for Jo Shimoda, who finished on the 250 overall podium and moved to within a point of the championship lead, while Chance Hymas notched 13-8 results for ninth overall.

Hunter grabbed both 450 holeshots and controlled both races from start to finish. After managing early pressure in each moto, the Australian steadily pulled away from the field, building commanding advantages before relaxing the pace in the later laps. Meanwhile, Jett showed impressive speed throughout the day, beginning with taking the fastest qualifying time. He battled forward from an 11^th-place moto-1 start to secure second within five laps and maintain the position to the checkered flag. Moto 2 saw the defending champ narrowly lose the holeshot to Hunter and challenge for the lead early on. Even after losing touch, Jett stayed well ahead of the rest of the field before relaxing near the end, securing another second-place moto finish and second overall.

In the 250 class, Shimoda started ninth in moto 1 but worked his way forward before making a decisive late pass to claim third. Hymas charged into the top 10 but was caught up in another rider’s crash and went down, then recovered to salvage 13^th. Under darkening skies in moto 2, the teammates put in tandem charges through the field, pushing each other toward the front. The Japanese rider eventually moved past Hymas and into fourth, securing third overall on the day, while Hymas finished eighth in the moto and ninth overall.

With another positive weekend behind them, Honda HRC Progressive carries strong momentum as they head into a short series break.

NOTES

・Waynesburg Powersports—a pair of Honda dealerships situated just north of the race venue—provided the dealership support for Honda HRC Progressive at High Point, where they engaged with fans and showcased the team’s production 2027 CRF450R.

・Between qualifying sessions, Honda HRC Progressive hosted an autograph signing for race fans, featuring all four team riders.

・High Point marked the halfway point of the WMX Championship, and Quad Lock Honda’s Charli Cannon secured the overall victory with 5-1 finishes, moving to within nine points of the leader in the championship battle. SLR Honda’s Mikayla Nielsen was fourth overall with a 4-3 tally. The race also marked the pro debut of SLR Honda rider Mayla Herrick, who turned 17 on Friday (the AMA’s minimum age for professional racing). The Colorado native grabbed the moto 1 holeshot and claimed victory, before suffering a turn-1 moto-2 crash that resulted in a red flag and her being carried off the track by the Alpinestars Mobile Medical team. Later evaluations confirmed a concussion but no broken bones. American Honda wishes Herrick a speedy recovery. The WMX Championship now enters its midseason break before returning at Unadilla on August 14-15.

・Jett Lawrence topped 450 combined qualifying, with Hunter Lawrence close behind in second. Quad Lock Honda rider Christian Craig qualified in 11^th, while Valley Motorsports’ Jeremy Hand was 16^th. SLR Honda’s Justin Rodbell was 24^th, 110 Racing’s Brett Heidorn was 32^nd, Ryan Diezic was 45^th, Storm Lake Honda’s Deegan Hepp was 51^st and Feine Tune Racing’s Gavin Tilford was 57^th.

・Honda HRC Progressive riders Jo Shimoda and Chance Hymas were not able to get many clean laps in during 250 qualifying, ending the sessions 13^th and 18^th, respectively. Phoenix Racing Honda’s Gavin Towers was 25^th, while teammate Aden Keefer was 36^th. MPS Enterprise-backed Ty Freehill was 55^th, and McGinley Clinic’s Kyle Czworkowski was 69^th.

・Hunter posted the fastest lap times in both 450 motos. Jett was second on the lap-time sheets in the first moto and third in the second moto. Shimoda posted the third-fastest lap in the first 250 moto and the second-best lap in the second outing.

・High Point marked Hunter’s third career premier-class overall victory, and his second 1-1 sweep in the division (the first having come at this season’s opener). His victory also extended Honda’s premier-class win tally at High Point to 17—five more than the next-best manufacturer. Hunter joins other Red Riders to have won at the venue, including Jimmy Ellis, Bob Hannah, Rick Johnson (twice), Jeff Stanton (twice), Doug Henry, Damon Bradshaw, Ezra Lusk, Ricky Carmichael (four times) and Jett Lawrence (three times),

・Hunter and Jett now share the same number of overall wins through four rounds this season (two each), with all those victories coming via 1-1 sweeps.

・Jett holds a slim two-point lead over Hunter in the 450 standings, while Shimoda now sits just one point behind 250 championship leader Levi Kitchen.

・The AMA Pro Motocross Championship now enters its first summer break before returning on July 4 for round 5—the RedBud MX in Buchanan, Michigan, where Jett Lawrence will carry the red plate aboard his CRF450RWE.

Jett Lawrence 18 “Hunter got one back on me today, but it's really cool, us brothers going back-and-forth winning. My ankle didn’t hurt; it was more just the riding ability—I can’t use it that much. I’d love to be using both of my legs, but today it had to be a lot more on my arms, which made it a little bit difficult. But it’s still getting better and better. It’s about trying to be smooth and working with the track. Obviously, today I wasn’t as good, but it was still good enough to go 2-2. Hunter was just riding really well—it doesn’t happen very often that someone kind of pulls away, but I just didn’t feel good on the track all day. I tried taking some of his lines, and he still gapped me. I was like, Today’s not my day, so I just kind of cruised. We’re looking forward to this off-weekend, doing some testing, relaxing a little bit, then coming back to Redbud.”

Hunter Lawrence 96 “You always show up and try to do your best, and this weekend I wanted to go back to base. That was what I was after, and it gave me the feedback, connectivity and trust that I needed—I was happy with that. Me and Jett are two from two against each other in the first four rounds. I really wanted to kind of stop the momentum. I feel like in Thunder Valley, my riding and speed were good enough to win; I ended up having some very uncharacteristic crashes throughout the day that were just frustrating because I don’t make those mistakes normally. Now I have another goal for the next four rounds. The work doesn’t stop.”

Jo Shimoda 30 “Points-wise, it was good; we got a little bit closer to the leader. That’s the positive, but today, honestly, I was on the struggle bus. I haven’t been able to ride like myself yet in these first few rounds; we need to find more pace. The team’s working really hard, and each weekend me and Chance are getting better; hopefully we can be on the podium every single weekend. Now we have a little bit of a break, so we’ll try to come out better for RedBud. We just have to keep being really consistent. Everyone’s pretty fast nowadays, and the tracks aren’t super technical anymore. I just have to be really fit and get a start, and I should be fine.”

Chance Hymas 29 “This weekend was better for me—we made good steps in the right direction with my riding. The first moto wasn’t great, with a bad start again, but I finally got a good start in the second moto and ran near the front. We’re building each weekend, piece by piece, brick by brick, and it was good. I’m looking forward to the break and getting back to it.”

Lars Lindstrom Team Manager “This was a rare weekend when I didn’t attend the race, because of important family events. I did my best to pay attention to all the details that I could through live timing, Race Day Live and the broadcast. Funny enough, that can be useful as some information that we can use isn’t heard, because we don’t have time to pay attention to everything that’s said on race day when we’re at the track. It’s such a pleasure to watch the brothers race each other, and I’m really happy for Hunter redeeming himself after being really quick last weekend and not getting the result he deserved. As far as I can remember, this is the first time that anybody has been able to pull away from Jett in 450 motocross, which is pretty insane to even think about. It’s going to be awesome to see how it plays out between the two of them the rest of the summer. I was really excited for Jo to gain points in the championship; for a while it seemed like he would be leading it, but looking at the positives, he didn’t ride as well as he can and was still able to get within one point of the championship. I was also happy to see Chance get that second-moto start, run the pace at the front, and hopefully gain some momentum for the rest of the season. He knows he should be up there with those guys, and hopefully this leads to him doing that.”