Image: Octopi Media.

Team Honda HRC’s Chase Sexton and Monster Energy Star Yamaha Racing’s Justin Cooper have set the early standard at the penultimate round of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, qualifying fastest in their classes.

450MX championship contender Sexton threw down the fastest time in qualifying, after he and Eli Tomac (Monster Energy Star Yamaha Racing) traded quickest laps in the second session.

In the end though, Sexton’s time of 1m 57.817s late in the piece was almost a full second quicker than the series leader’s best effort of 1m 58.886s.

Tomac’s Monster Energy Star Yamaha team-mate, Christian Craig, rounded out the top three, ahead of Team Honda HRC’s Ken Roczen and last week’s winner, Jason Anderson (Monster Energy Kawasaki).

P6-10 were filled by Joey Savatgy (Monster Energy Kawasaki), Red Bull KTM riders Aaron Plessinger and Ryan Dungey, Malcolm Stewart (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna) and Justin Barcia (TLD Red Bull GasGas).

Image: Octopi Media.

In the 250MX division, Justin Cooper jumped to the top of the  qualifying times with a scorching lap during the first session.

Cooper’s time of 2m 00.271s was almost 1.5s quicker than that of championship leader, Jett Lawrence (Team Honda HRC) who posted a 2m 01.697s, also during the first qualifying outing.

Lawrence’s Honda HRC elder brother and team-mate, Hunter Lawrence, set the third-fastest lap, getting the better of Jo Shimoda (Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki) and Nate Thrasher (Monster Energy Star Yamaha Racing).

Completing the top 10 positions were Michael Mosiman (TLD Red Bull GasGas), Levi Kitchen (Monster Energy Star Yamaha Racing), last week’s winner RJ Hampshire (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna) and Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki pairing Seth Hammaker and Ryder DiFrancesco.

Detailed results