Image: Octopi Media.

Moments after his younger brother Jett secured the 2023 Pro Motocross Championship 450MX title, Hunter Lawrence went to work in the second 250MX moto of the Honda Unadilla National and finalized the overall win with 2-2 moto scores.

Levi Kitchen (Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing) dominated the opening moto of the day aboard his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing machine, but a thrilling multi-rider battle behind him ensured start-to-finish action.

In one of the many bouts of battling, a four-rider duel between Maximus Vohland (Red Bull KTM), Seth Hammaker (Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki, Hunter Lawrence (Team Honda HRC), and Haiden Deegan (Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing) featured multiple passes, partially enabled by slower lapped riders and also due to rapid pace from all four riders.

Kitchen was comfortably up the track by about 4s as this battle took a turn when Hammaker crashed heavily entering the closing minutes. Kitchen was soon being closely pursued by Lawrence after these two dropped Jo Shimoda (Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki), Vohland, and Deegan in the top five by more than 7s.

Running near the front early before fading outside of the top five, Justin Cooper passed his Star Racing Yamaha teammate Deegan for fifth moments before Deegan suffered a race-ending mechanical failure mere seconds before the white flag.

Kitchen closed out the victory by a margin of 3.211s over Lawrence. Shimoda was a further 16.163s back. Vohland, Cooper, Jalek Swoll (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna), RJ Hampshire (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna), Tom Vialle (Red Bull KTM), Ryder DiFrancesco (Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki), and Dilan Schwartz (BarX Suzuki) comprised the remainder of the top 10.

Following a weather-induced delay, a red flag for a violent crash suffered by Hampshire, and a full restart, the day’s final moto at Unadilla finally got going for good with DiFrancesco out front.

Cooper and Shimoda pursued from second and third while Deegan looked to advance from an early position of 18th following his gate pick of 38 due to his moto one DNF. Cooper moved past DiFrancesco into the lead and quickly built up a gap of more than 6s.

Lawrence soon swiped second from DiFrancesco’s teammate Shimoda who had moved forward while Kitchen circulated behind in fourth following his first-moto triumph.

Cooper closed out a dominant race win just 2s up the track from Lawrence who was nearly caught by Shimoda as the checkered flag neared. Kitchen came home fourth, 33.16s behind Cooper.

Had Shimoda passed Lawrence, Kitchen’s 1-4 moto scores would’ve delivered him the overall, but Lawrence’s 2-2 on the day ultimately put the Honda rider atop the class, with Kitchen and Cooper joining the Australian on the overall podium.

Forkner finished fifth, leading Vohland, Vialle, Hammaker, Daxton Bennick (Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing), and Deegan in filling out the rest of the top 10.

Heading to Budds Creek for the 10th round out of 11 on August 19, Lawrence holds a 22-point lead over Cooper in the 250MX standings. Shimoda is a further 13 points back, while Deegan how has 38 to make up to catch Lawrence following his 17th overall result at Unadilla.

Detailed results