Team USA placed two riders in the top five on Saturday despite being saddled with the 35th gate pick. Justin Cooper was third in MX2 with RJ Hampshire fourth in the Open class.
CRAWFORDSVILLE, Indiana: Jett Lawrence won the MXGP Qualification race with Sacha Coenen scoring the MX2 win and Hunter Lawrence victorious in the Open class.
Nineteen teams qualify based on their two best finishes in the qualification races. The remainder of the field will be determined by a Last Chance Qualifier on Sunday morning.
MXGP
Australia's Jett Lawrence earned the holeshot with Germany's Ken Roczen locked on his back wheel. Jett sprinted to an eight-second lead, moderated his pace, and easily won his qualification race.
"Executed the start," Jett said. "Didn't hit the gate this time, so I'm happy about that. Last time I was here, the first race, I hit the gate. Already starting off better. I just wanted to get some good laps out there. I knew Kenny would be good on those first few laps, he's really good at sprinting, so I had to keep my composure there and hold him off."
Roczen was in a class of his own. He finished 8.3 seconds behind Jett and more than nine seconds ahead of France's Romain Febvre.
"It was a pretty good race, but we need to find out some new lines and limits," Febvre said. "Today, I'm pretty happy with that. I didn't get the start and was looking for lines still during the race."
It was a horrible start for Eli Tomac. After drawing a poor gate pick of 35th, he was behind the eight ball from the beginning. The poor gate draw allowed most of the field to box him out of the preferred line as he was wide of the competitors.
Tomac was outside the top 30 on the first lap and without faster riders to pace, it was challenging to move forward. By Lap 3, Tomac was knocking on the door of the top 10, but without the pull of the fastest riders, he settled into a safe pace.
Tomac stalled behind Anthony Cairoli and his Ducati, which is scheduled to debut in the SuperMotocross League in 2026.
Lucas Coenen crashed on Lap 1 and climbed to sixth.
Fourth-place Ruben Fernandez (Spain) and Tim Gajser (Slovenia) rounded out the top five.
Glenn Coldenhoff (The Netherlands) crashed and failed to finish. Fell out of a top-10 position.
MX2
Sacha Coenen (Belgium) and Simon Lingerfelder (Germany) got the jump on the field, but Team USA's Justin Cooper was able to do in MX2 what Tomac was denied in MXGP. Cooper earned a strong start and cycled third on the opening lap.
"On the start, I messed up a bit going to the inside," Coenen said. "[...] I just did a really good race. I wasn't feeling good out there but we will try to work on it and be better tomorrow."
Kay de Wolf (The Netherlands) passed Cooper for third later on Lap 1 with Denmark's Mikkel Haarup inside the top five in the opening minutes. Haarup broke his collarbone late in the Pro Motocross season at Unadilla and has recovered nicely.
Lingerfelder and Haarup began to fade after a couple of laps were in the books.
More importantly, the de Wolf pass galvanized Cooper, who stayed in contact with the leaders for the remainder of the race. Finishing third, Cooper and the leaders were in a class of their own with more than 25 seconds separating third from fourth-place Lingerfelder.
Before the race, USA's Open rider RJ Hampshire told NBC Sports that Cooper was assigned the MX2 division because of how well he starts.
Kyle Webster (Australia) moved into fifth on Lap 2 and remained there until the checkered flag.
Haarup landed 11th on the grid. He reportedly jumped on the wrong bike before the race and struggled with the ride height.
Open
Hunter Lawrence scored the holeshot and commanded the entire 11-lap Open qualification race. With Jett's victory in MXGP, Team Australia dropped out Webster's fifth-place finish in the MX2 division and had a perfect score of 2 to secure the best gate pick for Sunday's features.
Valentin Guillod (Switzerland) and Andrea Bonacorsi (Italy) rounded out the top three early with Jo Shimoda fourth on an unaccustomed 450.
Everts rounded out the top five as the field completed its first few laps.
As those riders faded, the current SuperMotocross 250 champion, Shimoda moved into second as he became more comfortable on the bike.
Meanwhile, Calvin Vlaanderen was working through the field and took over a third-place position on Lap 9. He remained there for the remainder of the race.
After watching his teammate Tomac get boxed in on the outside groove, Hampshire chose the far inside and fell into 13th on the opening lap. Hampshire moved into the top 10 on the backside of Lap 1. He was seventh on Lap 3 and continued to move forward until finishing in fourth.
Everts rounded out the top five.
More Motocross of Nations News
Jett Lawrence, Justin Cooper, and Hunter Lawrence set pace in Practice
Haiden Deegan out, Justin Cooper in for Team USA
RJ Hampshire replaces Chase Sexton on team
Chase Sexton withdraws from 2025 team
Roger De Coster retires as Team USA manager
Category: General Sports
