Thrasher wins 250 East-West Showdown from Lawrence

2022 Monster Energy AMA Supercross
Round 17 – Salt Lake City – Rice-Eccles Stadium

Report by Trevor Hedge – Images by Jeff Kardas

The Supercross season finale was without its freshly crowned 250 East Champion! Young Aussie Jett Lawrence sprained his ankle during morning practice and decided it would be smarter to pull out of the event and give his ankle the best chance of making a quick recovery rather than put it at further risk.

Thus the 250 East-West Showdown was staged without the 250 East Champ as with just three weeks before the start of the 2022 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, Jett instead now focuses on being 100 per cent ready for the Pro Motocross season opener in Pala, California, on May 28. 

250 West Heat

Christian Craig ran away with the 250 West Heat that kicked off proceedings at Rice-Eccles Stadium in front of a huge Salt Lake City crowd for the 17th and final round of the 2022 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship. 

Nate Thrasher took the flag six-seconds behind Craig while Chris Blose was more than double that distance behind the winner to take third place ahead of Jo Shimoda.

Hunter Lawrence had a difficult start to the day. Hunter was sixth early on before making a mistake on lap five that saw him shuffled as far back as tenth, before the Aussie youngster recovered to a seventh place finish. 

Countryman Geran Stapleton just missed out on a transfer spot after crossing the line 11th and this was headed for the LCQ but after finishing sixth in that contest unfortunately failed to make the cut. 

250 West Heat Results

250 East Heat

Recently crowned 250 East Champion Jett Lawrence did not make the start of the 250 East Heat race after spraining his right ankle in a crash during morning practice.

Mitch Oldenburg escaped to an early lead in the 250 East Heat while Austin Forkner gave chase and eventually closed him down before passing him and pulling away from the Honda man. 

Forkner the clear winner from Oldenburg while Enzo Lopes nursed his way to the line to clinch third place after a gearbox failure late in the race. 

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RJ Hampshire made some mistakes but clawed his way back inside the transfer cut-off late in the race to earn his spot in the East-West Showdown Main.  Pierce Brown however didn’t make the cut and was headed for the LCQ but went on to win that contest to earn his spot in the Main. 

250 East Heat Results

250 E/W Showdown Main Event

Hunter Lawrence and Christian Craig were side-by-side in turn one but it was Hunter that took the early advantage as Craig played it somewhat safe to protect his box seat in the championship.  

In third place was Craig’s team-mate Nate Thrasher and he was not going to force the issue but a door opened two-minutes into the race and Thrasher rode through it to that second place and immediately started to challenge Hunter Lawrence for the lead.  Thrasher’s pass on Lawrence not quite as careful as it was on his team-mate but it was still clean enough and once through he left Lawrence in his dust. 

Christian Craig went down five-minutes into the race and lost a couple of positions from that mistake, slipping to sixth place just behind Austin Forkner. The Kawasaki man then made a small mistake which allowed Craig to go back up to fifth.  

At the halfway point of the contest Thrasher led Lawrence by 2.5-seconds with Pierce Brown a similar distance further back in third place.  RJ Hampshire was a few bike lengths behind Brown and running in fourth place, while Craig was a couple of second further back in fifth. 

Jo Shimoda then worked his way past Austin Forkner before then proceeding to push Christian Craig back to sixth.

With four-minutes to run Lawrence stepped up to take the challenge for victory to Thrasher as they negotiated lapped traffic. Two-minutes later Hunter was all over the back of Thrasher and looking for a way past. Hunter’s first attempt cost him a little time and the clock was running down fast. Further back Craig had been relegated to eighth by Forkner and Mosiman…

Hunter made another attempt on Thrasher with 30-seconds left on the clock which again cost him plenty of time but they still had a lot of lapped traffic to negotiate over the final two laps. 

It was a tense and exciting final lap but Lawrence could not find a way past Thrasher and had to settle for second place a bike length behind the Yamaha man who ended his sometimes difficult season on a high note. 

Pierce Brown rounded out the podium ahead of RJ Hampshire and Jo Shimoda but with an eighth place finish that was enough for Christian Craig to win his first ever AMA Supercross Championship.

30-year-old Christian Craig the 2022 250 West Championship winner by ten-points over 23-year-old Hunter Lawrence. 

Christian Craig Championship Winner Press Conference

23-points further back Michael Mosiman finishes with third place in the West championship, 35-points ahead of 19-year-old Jo Shimoda. 

Jett Lawrence might not have contested the final round but still finishes season 2022 with a 34-point advantage over RJ Hampshire as the young Aussie added the 250 Supercross East Champsionship ahead of getting his AMA Pro Motocross Title defence underway late this month.

250 Rookie of the Year was Cullin Park. 

Atop the final manufacturer points standings, which are calculated on a combined basis of 250 and 450 results, is Honda by five-points over Yamaha.

250 E/W Showdown Main Event Results

250 E/W Showdown Main Video Highlights

250 Post Race Press Conference

250 East Final Championship Standings

250 West Final Championship Standings

2022 Manufacturer Points Standing – Points Earned (450SX/250SX Combined)

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