"Luckily, we built up a good
enough points lead to where it
wasn't a super stressful night.
I ended up with a decent start
and just went from there. I don't
think the pace would have im
-
proved me at all, but we'll take it.
We
got a championship out of
that one."
The racer at the front of the
field was the defending cham
-
pion, Chase Sexton. In his last
race
wearing the number-one
With Webb only a few places
ahead at the halfway mark,
Lawrence cruised around for
the remaining laps and stayed
upright to ensure a safe finish. A
seventh-place result was more
than enough for him to win his
first 450SX Championship as a
rookie—he's just the third person
ever to do so.
"Normally we don't like going
slow but that was the pace that
was safe," Lawrence added.
450SX
Lawrence built up a comfort-
able 20-point lead heading
into
Salt Lake City and simply
needed to finish inside the top
15 to wrap up the title at the
final round. This was all but a
given since he hadn't finished
outside the top 10 all year. His
worst result came in a muddy
round two with a ninth. After
starting closely behind title rival
Cooper Webb in SLC, there was
no sense of urgency for Law
-
rence.
"I
knew the points, and I knew
if he [Webb] was just in front
of me, then I'm doing okay,"
Lawrence said. "It wasn't so
much urgency; it was just set
-
tling in and making sure I'm in a
safe environment
where I could
just click off my laps and do a
normal practice day."
ROUND 17 / MAY 11, 2024
RICE-ECCLES STADIUM / SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
SUPERCROSS I MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP / SMX WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
P82
51 JUSTIN BARCIA
5TH 450SX
Justin Barcia nearly won a 450SX
heat race and later logged a top five
in the main event. "Salt Lake City
was a good way to end the Super-
cross season," Barcia said. "I felt very
comfortable all day, which landed me
finishing second in the heat race, and
I'm happy to end the season with a
top-five finish."
MYOWNRACE
Chase Sexton took
the Salt Lake win in
his last race with the
number-one plate.
For now.
