450SMX
Three riders came in with a realis-
tic shot at the SMX crown, Chase
Sexton, Jett Lawrence and Ken
Roczen. After last week's mid-mo-
to math calculations and waving
Roczen by (which led to a written
warning from the AMA), there
was no doubt that Lawrence was
ready to win for real. The Honda
rookie, Lawrence, uncorked a
risky quad-on-off line during the
first-moto battle. This line moved
him from fourth to first in a matter
of a few laps as he went on to
take the opening win.
The second moto was much
more suspenseful. With Sexton
leading, Lawrence played it cool
in second, ahead of Roczen, and
in position for the title. Sexton's
late-race crash put Lawrence into
ROUND 3 / SEPTEMBER 23, 2023
LOS ANGELES MEMORIAL COLISEUM / LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
MOTOCROSS I SUPERMOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
P70
7 AARON PLESSINGER
12TH (20-6) 450SMX
Red Bull KTM's Aaron Plessinger had
a mathematical shot at the title but a
crash in the first moto extinguished
that goal. "I tucked the front-end
after the restart there in moto one
and ended up on the ground with a
pretty hard hit. Second moto, I did
what I could to salvage a finish, which
was good enough for sixth place. A
mediocre day here at this round—that
one big mistake cost me bad. All in
all, a few too many mistakes on my
end during this series."
33 PIERCE BROWN
7TH (8-5) 250SMX
Pierce Brown clocked one of the top
qualifying times before grabbing sev-
enth overall. "I qualified good. In moto
one, I had a bad start, but I ended
up eighth. In moto two, I got a better
start, and I ended up fifth, so I was
happy with that. I feel like I was riding
well all day. I'm happy with it."
MYOWNRACE
(Above) Lawrence (18) held off
Roczen (94) in both motos.
