Hunter Lawrence keeps championship hopes alive with victory in Denver

2022 Monster Energy AMA Supercross
Round 16 Denver Empower Field At Mile High Denver, CO

Report by Trevor Hedge – Images by Jeff Kardas

250 Heat One

Christian Craig fired off the line to the holeshot in the first heat, ahead of German Dominique Thury and Japan’s Jo Shimoda. 

Thury was quick enough to hold off Shimoda for the opening two-minutes of the six-minute plus one lap Heat race.  It then took Vince Friese a few laps to push the German further back to fourth place. 

Up front though Craig was just reeling off laps by himself, until he started lapping people that is…  Craig was the clear victor by ten-seconds over Shimoda, while Vince Friese rounded out the podium 

Aussie privateer Geran Stapleton was 15th and thus had to head to the LCQ where he went on to finish fourth to earn his spot in the Main. 

250 Heat One Results

250 Heat Two

Hunter Lawrence scored the holeshot by a nose over Carson Brown and Michael Mosiman in Heat Two but capitalised on that start to leave the field behind and romp away to a clear victory.  Noteworthy though was the fact that Hunter’s fastest lap was half-a-second quicker than Craig managed in the opening Heat…

Second place was Michael Mosiman, who also lapped quicker than Craig while Garrett Marchbanks rounded out the top three ahead of Chris Blose.  Mosiman earned that second place after a tumble just over halfway through the race relegated him to fourth but he had the speed to climb back up to second place before the flag.

250 Heat Two Results

250 Main

The form guide for the Main going off what we witnessed in the Heat races, was that it would be a fight between Christian Craig, Hunter Lawrence, and Michael Mosiman and, depending on how they get away, Jo Shimoda and Vince Friese who’d also shown podium pace if things fell their way…

Going in to the Main Christian Craig only needed to finish a couple of places ahead of Hunter Lawrence tonight to clinch the 250 West Championship with a round still remaining.  The two were side-by-side on the start line but it was Lawrence that got the holeshot ahead of Swoll and Craig. Craig was quickly up to second and it was the two championship challengers 1-2 with 15-minutes plus one-lap to go…

Craig only needed to follow Lawrence home in order to take the championship at this round but he showed the young Aussie a wheel two-minutes into the race to let him know he was right there… Further back Mosiman had worked his way forward and up to third after taking Swoll. 

RelatedPosts

Hi-res images from AMA Supercross finale at Salt Lake City

May 10, 2022

Thrasher wins 250 East-West Showdown from Lawrence

May 8, 2022

Craig shadowed Lawrence, piling the pressure on and even looked to have more pace in hand as he waited for his moment – or for Lawrence to make a mistake – but it was instead Craig that made that mistake! Five-minutes into the race Craig went down in the sand and had been shuffled back to seventh by the time he was back up and running. 

At half-race distance Lawrence now led Mosiman by five-seconds, Shimoda equidistant back in third while Christian Craig was back up to fifth – now three-seconds behind Shimoda and 13-seconds behind race leader Hunter Lawrence. 

With five-minutes to run all the leaders were having to deal with lapped traffic at almost every turn.

Christian Craig took third place from Jo Shimoda with two laps to go and once past left him behind with ease. Craig then started catching Mosiman before traffic ultimately halted that charge and he ran out of time to challenge for that second position, having to settle for third. 

Hunter Lawrence was the clear victor, withstanding that early pressure from Craig and riding clean for the 26-points.  

Craig’s 21-points for third place sees him head into the Salt Lake City season finale East-West showdown next weekend with an 18-point advantage over the Australian. Eight years between them in age, and 18-points the difference… Craig certainly has the upper hand heading to the final round but it’s not over until it’s over… The pair now have four wins each this season.

The only other winner this season has been Michael Mosiman who won the third round of the season in San Diego. Mosiman is out of the running for the #1 plate but is only 16-points behind Hunter Lawrence and not out of the contest for #2…

Victorian privateer Geran Stapleton finished the main in a highly creditable 14th, his fourth points scoring finish in the last five rounds to move up to 22nd in the championship standings.

250 Main  Results

250 Main Video Highlights

250 Post Race Press Conference

250 West Championship Standings