We’re here for another weekend of Pro Motocross and things couldn’t be more interesting just before the Washougal national. In the 250 Class Cole Davies now finds himself in third place, 25 points back of points leader Levi Kitchen, after a disastrous round last week at Spring Creek. We spoke with Kitchen yesterday, and he’s not ready to go into management mode with this championship.

“There's too much racing left for that,” Kitchen said. “I'm just going to keep trying to execute the best I can. And if I'm feeling it, I'm going to send it for sure. You know, I want to get to the front and that's what I've been doing.”

Julien Beaumer is fresh off his first overall win, and Chance Hymas broke through to win the second moto last week, his first of the season. Pierce Brown is also making his return after getting injured during supercross. The stage is set for a wild day in the 250 Class!

In 450 action things are just as exciting. Hunter Lawrence holds his biggest lead of the season, 10 points, over his brother, Jett Lawrence, and whatever happens today could prove to be pivotal for the championship. When we talked to Hunter yesterday he said the points lead isn’t something he’s paying attention to right now.

“We've still got four races to go so a lot of racing, just got to keep my head down, keep focusing,” Hunter said. “I've done that all year. Just focused race by race. I'm not worried about the future. I'm just worried about what's happening in front of me and what I can control and, and do that.

Eli Tomac, who returned from injury last week at Spring Creek, is here too. He’s traditionally been very, very good at this track, but the best he could muster last week at Spring  Creek was 11^th (via 13-10 finishes). Will the combination of having a race under his belt and Washougal being one of his better tracks help propel him closer to the front? When we asked Tomac about it yesterday he didn’t want to put a number on it, simply stating that he is only looking for improvement.

“I don't even want to put a position on a goal,” Tomac said. “Just be better, have more intensity, and and finish better than I was the week before.”

And speaking of riders who are very good here, Haiden Deegan has been spectacular here, having won two of the three times he’s raced here. Those results were in the 250 Class, of course, so we’ll see if it translates to the 450 later today.

On top of all that, the weather couldn’t be better today. It’s chilly this morning, it’s a little overcast, and highs are expected to top out in the mid-70s. The mild temperatures should allow riders to go harder deep into the motos, which should make for some excellent racing. The track conditions will likely be different too, with the track retaining more moisture than usual. Buckle up, we’re in for a wild ride today!

Well, everyone suspected Haiden Deegan would be strong at Washougal, he always is, and the first qualifier went a long way toward confirming those suspicions. After cruising for a few laps, Deegan put in a heater on lap four, a 2:10.548, then really dropped the hammer on the sixth lap in the closing stages, recording a 2:08.222. That displaced Garrett Marchbanks, who’d posted a 2:08.580 the lap before. Marchbanks, by the way, was on the podium here last year in the 250 Class.

None of the guys posted fast laps early, with most of the heaters coming toward the end, which suggests the track is still breaking in. We’ll see what the times look like in the second qualifying sessions shortly. Will one of the Lawrences rise to the top, or will Deegan's time stand?

Sometimes the track will speed up, or slow down depending on conditions, for the second qualifier but for the most part, there wasn’t a big difference in lap times in the second session today. In fact, Haiden Deegan’s fastest lap from the first session held up to be the fastest lap of the day. It wasn’t due to lack of effort from Jett Lawrence, however. Jett turned a 2:09.942 on his fourth lap, then made a push on his final lap but feel just a tad short, recording a 2:08.701 (Deegan’s fastest lap from the first qualifier was a 2:08.222).

Cole Davies and Landen Gordon came into the second turn side by side, but Gordon made a mistake and went down, which triggered a pileup. Many riders were collected, including Julien Beaumer, Levi Kitchen, Pierce Brown, and Michael Mosiman. Brown didn’t rejoin the moto.

Davies immediately went to work getting away from the field, and it wasn’t long before he’d checked out. Behind him Ryder DiFrancesco held second, with Chance Hymas and Dax Bennick in third and fourth. Those riders started losing touch with each other and pretty soon they got pretty spread out.

The riders to watch were Kitchen and Beaumer, who were ripping forward after rejoining the race just about in last place. Beaumer was leading Kitchen at first, but Kitchen was ripping and got by Beaumer and was able to work up to sixth by the end of the moto. Beaumer would end up eighth behind Nate Thrasher. Another great moto for Carson Mumford, who rounded out the top five.

450 – Moto One

Haiden Deegan shot out to a big holeshot to kick off the first 450 race of the day, but unfortunately he went down in the second turn in the same exact place as Landen Gorden in the 250 moto. It’s too bad because Jett Lawrence was right behind him, with Hunter Lawrence a spot or two back of him. It would have made for a great battle. Deegan got going again quickly, but he was at the very back he did.

Up front the Lawrence brothers immediately went to work doing their thing. Jett held the lead, and Hunter quickly got around Prado for second and it wasn’t long before they’d stretched out a pretty decent gap. Jett initially started inching away from Hunter, but Hunter stabilized the gap, then made a little time back up on Jett. Hunter hung about a second or two back of Jett for the first half, but a little after the halfway point Jett started inching away. This time there would be no drama like last week, and Jett would go on to win the moto by a little over seven seconds over Hunter.

Back in the pack Deegan was absolutely ripping through the field and in under ten minutes he’d slashed and dashed all the way up to seventh! His forward march didn’t stop there, either. After brief battles with Justin Barcia, Dylan Ferrandis, and Cooper Webb found himself in fourth at the halfway point. He kept pushing, but wouldn’t get any more spots—Prado was already light years ahead of him in third.

Mitchell Harrison put in a great ride and was running inside the top five early before losing a few spots and finishing eleventh behind Benny Bloss, who also put in a great ride. Another great ride came from Mitchell Oldenburg, who muscled his way to thirteenth. That’s substantially better than he’s been doing so far this summer.

Eli Tomac either just got a horrible start or had some trouble somewhere we didn’t see, because he was way back early in this one. He finished fourteenth. Garrett Marchbanks didn’t have the moto he wanted either. He had a big crash and decided to call it early.

Ryder D ripped a beautiful holeshot to start the final 250 moto of the day with Hunter Yoder right behind him. Cole Davies wasted no time in taking over the lead though, and just like that, Davies was in control again. Ryder DiFrancesco worked his way into second and was keeping Davies honest for a few laps, but soon Davies started getting away.

As the race progressed DiFrancesco would find himself all by himself in second, with Chance Hymas holding third. Carson Mumford was right on Hymas and refused to let him break away for most of the moto. Hymas was able to finally gap Mumford, but credit to Mumford for maintaining the pressure deep into the moto.

Levi Kitchen got a really bad start and was outside of the top fifteen early but he went to work. He’d worked up to eighth by the halfway point, and late in the moto he’d closed on a battle between Julien Beaumer and Casey Cochran for fifth. Beaumer responded and got away from Cochran but Kitchen wasn’t willing to let Beaumer do the same thing to him. Kitchen kept charging and was all over Beaumer late in the moto. On the final lap it looked like Kitchen was going to make a move on Beaumer at any moment, but then Kitchen made a little mistake and Beaumer squirted back away and held onto fifth. Rough day for Kitchen in the points, he gave up 18 to Davies, but considering Kitchen’s track position early in both motos, it could have been a lot worse.

Michael Mosiman crashed in the second turn on the first lap and got going again in last. He was able to work his way up to 16^th. Yoder rode extremely well in this moto, racing in the top five for quite a while, but something must have happened to him that we didn’t see because he ended up 13^th.

Jett Lawrence holeshot this race with Hunter Lawrence and Haiden Deegan right on his tail. Hunter had the inside coming out of turn two though and was able to take over the lead. Hunter, Jett, and Deegan immediately started getting away from Dylan Ferrandis and Justin Barcia in fourth and fifth. Jett then made a small mistake and went off the track. He quickly got back on, but was later penalized a spot because he was accelerating during the short time he was off the track. As the opening laps clicked off Deegan was able to stay with the Lawrences. But then, as we’ve seen all summer, the Lawrences started inching away, and next thing you know, they’d gapped Deegan.

For the first half of the race Hunter held a second or two on Jett, but at roughly the halfway point it looked like Hunter upped the pace. Jett quickly responded though and lit the burners. Not long after, Jett was able to get around Hunter and started getting away, but on the next lap he made a small mistake and went down, handing the lead back to Hunter. Jett got going again before Deegan passed him, but Deegan was all over him for a couple laps. Jett eventually got away, and put in a huge push on the final lap to try to catch Hunter. He got close, but ultimately came up just short. Even if he'd passed him he still would have taken second overall due to the one-spot penalty.

Elsewhere in the class RJ Hampshire crashed big while chasing Barcia, but was able to remount and chase Barcia back down and make the move. Hampshire would finish sixth in the moto. Ferrandis held fourth early, but Jorge Prado ended up getting by him.