Hunter Lawrence wins topsy-turvy Ironman National

2025 AMA Pro Motocross Championship
Round Nine – Ironman National

Images by Stephen Hopkins

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Blistering heat and heavy humidity greeted the 2025 AMA Pro Motocross Championship paddock as they rolled into Crawfordsville for round nine to take on the formidable challenge that is Ironman Raceway.

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450 Moto One

Eli Tomac scorched to the lead ahead of Hunter Lawrence when the opening 450 Moto got underway.  

Jett Lawrence was way back in the pack outside the top twenty after prematurely jumping into the gates before they had dropped.   Chase Sexton was running fifth before losing the front late on the opening lap, which saw him slip to eighth.

Hunter Lawrence took the lead from Tomac at the ten-minute mark. At this juncture, Justin Cooper was still running third, RJ Hampshire fourth. Chase Sexton was fifth while Jett Lawrence had scythed his way through the field to sixth place ahead of Jorge Prado.

At the halfway mark, Hunter Lawrence had almost four seconds on Tomac and over the next couple of laps doubled that lead to more than eight seconds.

Chase Sexton then squeezed past Tomac for second place as Jett Lawrence got the better of Cooper and Hampshire to move up to fourth.

A stumble from Hunter Lawrence with just over ten-minutes left on the clock saw his 12-second lead over Sexton reduced to eight-seconds.

Jett Lawrence then took third place from Tomac and pulled away from the Yamaha man with apparent ease.

With five-minutes left on the clock, Hunter Lawrence’s lead over Sexton had been reduced to three-seconds, and Jett Lawrence was only a couple of seconds further behind. RJ Hampshire had moved up to fourth place after getting the better of Tomac.

Jett and Chase then went bar to bar for second place, but the KTM man managed to stave off the advances and block Jett’s repeated attempts to pass. That pair, slowing each other down in the midst of battle, had allowed Hunter to stretch away a little further out front.

After a couple of attempts to put a move on Chase had almost ended in tears, Jett looked to settle for third, relenting in the battle to instead play the long game for the war…

With two laps to go, Hunter got baulked by a lapped rider, and that allowed Chase Sexton to sweep through to the lead.  From thereon, the KTM man didn’t look back and stretched away to secure victory by almost five seconds at the chequered flag.

After coming through from almost dead last, Jett took the flag in third but was subsequently demoted to 17th place by officials who hit him with a one-lap penalty for his early jump into the gates.

Jett’s misfortune saw RJ Hampshire promoted to third, Justin Cooper fourth and Jorge Prado fifth.

An under-the-weather Eli Tomac still bagged good points for sixth.

450 Moto One Results

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450 Moto Two

Eli Tomac scored the holeshot in the second moto on a now much drier track ahead of Jorge Prado and Hunter Lawrence, but Hunter swept past Prado and then Tomac to take the lead only a few turns into the opening lap.

Chase Sexton was down in 11th and Jett Lawrence in sixth as they negotiated the opening turns of the contest.

Jett Lawrence stole second place from Eli Tomac as they started lap two and set out to chase down his brother. It took Jett only half a lap to do exactly that, moving into the lead with a scintillating burst of speed.   Chase Sexton was up to sixth by this juncture.

Jett didn’t sprint away from Hunter; big bro stayed in his tow while also shrugging off the early thrusts and parries from a determined-looking Eli Tomac.

Chase Sexton eventually reeled in RJ Hampshire to move up to fifth before then also chasing down Jorge Prado.

Hunter Lawrence went down ten-minutes into the moto!  Moments later, Chase Sexton also went down! The KTM man then went down again when he tried to get going, as the front wheel was locked up on the 450 SX-F!  The Moto One winner was out of the race!  It appeared as though his front wheel actually locked after taking off from the previous jump, which suggested a mechanical failure could have been responsible for Sexton’s initial crash.

Hunter Lawrence rejoined in third place and, despite his crash, now looked set for the overall.

Up front, Jett Lawrence now had a seven-second lead over Eli Tomac, who in turn had a few seconds on the recovering Hunter Lawrence.

By half-race distance, Jett enjoyed a significant 11-second lead over Tomac.  Hunter Lawrence was a further five-seconds behind the Yamaha man in third. RJ Hampshire was still a strong fourth ahead of Jorge Prado, Justin Cooper and Malcolm Stewart

Just when it looked as though that was the way it would finish, Tomac stalled it with three laps to go, which allowed Hunter Lawrence to slip back through to second place.

Jett Lawrence cruised the final laps to take the clear victory, but that penalty in the opening moto meant that he only took sixth overall for the round. Still, the Australian took more points from the round than Chase Sexton, which could prove pivotal in the race for the SMX Championship.

Hunter Lawrence secured the round overall with second place, while RJ Hampshire’s fourth place secured him second outright for the round ahead of Eli Tomac.

The round win saw Hunter reduce Jett’s championship lead by 14 points, the difference between the brothers now 47 points. Hunter has a 41-point buffer over third-placed Tomac. No matter what happens from here, with only two rounds remaining in the 11-round series, it is certain that one of the Australian brothers will win the 2025 AMA Pro Motocross Championship.

Hunter Lawrence

“You know, I haven’t got energy to be, like, emotional or happy or whatever. Man, it’s hot. I’m finished. So happy to finally get one, after ten second-place finishes, like, being the best second-place guy this year. So it’s good to get the monkey off the back.”

Jett Lawrence

“Yeah, it wasn’t my best day, you know, I guess, the AMA have their rules, so… It is what it is, but I think the more important thing is. I don’t know how I got to first by, like, a few laps. I just kind of blacked out because I was so pissed off, and, yeah, a couple laps in, we’re in the lead, so, like, we’ll take it, and I had a few good lines, but I just wasn’t very happy with my riding today, honestly. So we’re gonna go back to the books and work hard and come back, just so, yeah, that I don’t get penalised and get better starts and sort that out. It might not look like it on TV, but I felt like a bit of a swapper out there, so I hope we can go back and come back and hopefully feel like a pro next weekend. It’s great for Hunter though, I know he’s been very close, and I’ve been a pain in the butt for him in getting that, so… I’m pumped he got it, so… Good day for him.”

Justin Cooper chased Jorge Prado hard over the final laps and stole fifth place from the Spaniard on the final lap to also secure fourth place for the round ahead of Prado.

In the combined SMX points, Justin Cooper leads the way on 596 points, well clear of second-placed Cooper Webb on 516 points.  Chase Sexton is third on 510 points, and despite missing most of the SX season, Jett Lawrence is in fourth place, only 27 points behind Chase.

450 Moto Two Results

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450 Round Points

450 AMA MX Championship Points

450 SMX Championship Points

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250 Moto One

Jalek Swoll and Jo Shimoda were side by side through the opening turn, but emerging out the other side with the lead was the Japanese Honda rider.

Haiden Deegan was down in fifth place early on but wasted little time in working his way forward.

Shimoda already had over five seconds on the field after the opening two laps. Deegan took second place from Swoll four minutes into the contest.

Jo Shimoda maintained a five-second lead over Deegan for the next 15 minutes before the defending champ really started hauling him in. Once he sensed he blood was in the water, Deegan doubled down and started catching Shimoda hand over fist.

Deegan took the lead with just under three minutes left on the clock and never looked back. The Yamaha youngster romped away over the final couple of laps to secure the victory by more than six seconds.

250 Moto One Results

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250 Moto Two

Haiden Deegan wasted no time getting down to business in the final moto, charging to the Pro Motocross Holeshot ahead of Tom Vialle and Jo Shimoda.

As Deegan looked to break away, Shimoda quickly dispatched Vialle and set his sights on the leader. The front three soon found their rhythm, with only a few seconds splitting Deegan and Shimoda through the middle stages.

With 10 minutes to go, Shimoda began to close the gap, but Deegan answered with a burst of pace to open up his advantage. From there, the Yamaha rider controlled proceedings, completing a wire-to-wire victory — his 12th moto win of the season — by 12.3 seconds over Shimoda, with Vialle a distant third.

250 Moto Two Results

 

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250 Round Points

250 AMA MX Championship Points

250 SMX Championship Points