Image: Octopi Media.

The reigning 250SX East champion in Monster Energy Supercross added to his success in 2023 as Hunter Lawrence captured the first Pro Motocross Championship 250MX title of his career at the season-ending Ironman National.

The day’s first moto had an immediate championship impact as a second-turn pile-up affected both Lawrence (Team Honda HRC) and Justin Cooper (Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing) — the top two in the points standings.

Cooper fell in one of a few small crashes in the corner that led to a large stack-up that held up Lawrence.

Both riders recovered and began charging through the field while Tom Vialle (Red Bull KTM) ran in the top three early surrounded by the Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki trio of Ryder DiFrancesco, Seth Hammaker, and Jo Shimoda.

DiFrancesco broke away to an early lead, but Vialle soon cut into it and made the pass for the lead with just over 21 minutes plus two laps still to go. Shimoda began to pounce on his teammate DiFrancesco as well and swiped second on the same lap while Haiden Deegan (Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing) caught this trio from fourth.

Shimoda was soon on the rear wheel of Vialle and challenging for the lead, which he successfully passed into with 15 minutes to go. Deegan soon made a pass of his own, relegating Vialle to third and finalizing this moto’s podium positions.

Shimoda beat Deegan to the checkered flag by 7.696s, with Vialle ending up a further 10.322s back. A mistake for Hammaker just a few turns from the checkers dropped the Pro Circuit rider from fourth to sixth behind Austin Forkner (Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki) and Lawrence, whose run from the back of the pack culminated in a fifth-place result — more than enough to clinch his first 250MX title one moto early.

Levi Kitchen (Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing), Vohland, DiFrancesco, and Talon Hawkins (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna) rounded out the top 10, with Cooper climbing to 13th but falling short of delaying Lawrence’s finalization of the title to the second moto.

The one-two Pro Circuit punch of DiFrancesco and Shimoda ran up front from the get-go in the second moto for the 250MX division, with Kitchen, Julien Beaumer (Red Bull KTM), and Jalek Swoll (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna) pursuing from just behind.

Shimoda applied heavy pressure to DiFrancesco and passed for the lead 10 minutes into the moto.

The Star Yamaha duo of Kitchen and Cooper soon worked passed DiFrancesco to take over the two other podium positions, which may have set the top three spots in stone if not for a crash for Kitchen that marked the end of his day. Instead, Deegan moved into the third position, ultimately finishing the race about half a minute behind Cooper who took the final checkered flag of the Pro Motocross season 2.177s after Shimoda.

With his 1-1 result on the day, Shimoda took the overall victory in Indiana in commanding fashion.

A heavy crash for Forkner, like with Kitchen, didn’t seem to injure the rider who was battling near the front but left him in serious pain and receiving attention from the Alpinestars medical team, and also had the effect of altering the running order near the front of the field. Vialle finished fourth, ahead of DiFrancesco, Daxton Bennick (Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing), Vohland, newly crowned champion Lawrence, and Pierce Brown (TLD Red Bull GasGas).

Deegan’s 2-3 moto scores were strong enough for second overall, with Vialle joining Shimoda and Deegan on the overall on the strength of his 3-4 results. Title rivals entering the day Cooper and Lawrence ended up fourth and fifth overall.

With the 2023 Supercross the Pro Motocross schedules complete, the sport heads next to Concord, North Carolina to kick off the first-ever trio of SuperMotocross World Championship playoff rounds on September 9.

Detailed results