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00:00versus the outside option. Nothing to lose. Fly racing, 15 second board up then for the final
00:05time today. The open class qualifying heat here at Ironman Raceway. Gates about to drop, 20 minutes
00:12plus two laps. Francisco Garcia Spain gate number two alongside RJ Hampshire. Had those gates become
00:18available? That's what I want to know. Both riders get squeezed to the inside. Can they hold it nice
00:23and tight around the inside? That's going to be the question. Well, both of them beyond mid-pack
00:28as Hunter-Lawrence leads away. Bonacorsi, 24 in second for Italy as they hit that city bridge.
00:35And then we've got over on the far side is that 27, Valentin Guillaume for Switzerland.
00:45And then Liam Evers for Belgium in the yellow and black and red as they drop through the trees.
00:51So we've got Laurence, Guillaume, Bonacorsi, Shimoda and Evans, fourth, fifth. Koulas, Jonas on the 30,
01:06Volander at 8th, Renault 9th. And then we've got Dos Santos is next. For Brazil, I think that one is on the number 39.
01:14The sun is also going to be playing havoc now as well. Like, we've got the sun behind us here,
01:22but every time they launch back in the opposite direction, it's very, very low this time of day
01:26in the afternoon, almost 5 o'clock, 4.30 at the moment.
01:33Valentin Guillaume, no stranger to U.S. soil this year, riding the outdoor series, of course.
01:39Winning a few fans as well, I imagine, JT. Yeah, no question about it.
01:43I see Shimoda trying to move forward. This is the first time he's ever raced the 450 on American soil.
01:48Hard to get used to that number 81, but he's looked really good so far today.
01:52Getting alongside Evers as they come into that double, triple section.
01:56Neither of them committing through there.
01:59Going to go either side of Bonacorsi here if the Italian isn't careful.
02:02Well, Evers gets squeezed to the inside. Shimoda goes around the outside, picks off the Belgian,
02:07and tries to run him to the outside here just to protect that pass that he almost made.
02:12Bonacorsi still hanging on, though, in that third place.
02:16Shimoda on the Honda in fourth.
02:19Going to get squeezed all day long there by the Italian, but it's Lawrence who leads by three seconds
02:22over Guillaume, Switzerland second. Shimoda third, Evers fourth.
02:28Sorry, Bonacorsi third, Shimoda fourth, Evers fifth.
02:31And then just behind them, Valana and Jonas Kules.
02:33Ampshire, great recovery into ninth place for the number six from a not fantastic start.
02:39Yeah, and I think this MX Open class allows that to happen. It's so much more difficult
02:43than an MXGP class. You have world champions, you have pro motocross champions. It's just a really
02:49tough ask to move forward from a tough start in MXGP. This MX Open is a little bit less critical,
02:54but for RJ, he's going to want to be up there in the top five battling, so he needs to continue to push forward.
02:58Japan, as it stands right now, would go through in 11th place.
03:05Quite the turn around.
03:06Yeah, quite the turn around.
03:10And they never qualified in 2022
03:14when they lined up. In fact, they were 15th
03:19after the first two races, so pretty decent.
03:21But every pass is a point, and every point is vital in this event.
03:30Bonacorsi in blue for Italy in third place on the number 24, just stepping up onto the GoPro now.
03:36Shimoda around the outside of him. And for someone like Joe Shimoda, who lives in races out here,
03:40he's got his fans anyway. And because he's probably racing for Japan, he probably keeps those neutral fans as well, doesn't he?
03:46Well, yeah, and I like to think about it two different ways. There's, in America these days,
03:51there are fans of Hayden Deegan, and there are fans of anyone that is beating Hayden Deegan.
03:56So, Joe Shimoda falls into category number two. He's also an incredibly nice human being,
04:01which I think goes a long way for him.
04:03He doesn't understand English though.
04:05Exactly. But he's really grown his fan base. He's become incredibly popular in the last year or so,
04:10and I truly think it's one, performance, but two, it's the way he handles himself.
04:14Yeah. Now, he's a good kid. Very mildly mannered, softly spoken, and just there just to get on with the job.
04:22Yeah, and he's always respectful. You know, he's just the, you know, just the anti-villain.
04:28He really is that guy. And, you know, I think a lot of it's Japanese culture. You know, it's very polite,
04:34very respectful, and Joe epitomizes that.
04:37See some riders, actually, when we have the close-ups there, with a clear goggle lens,
04:41rather than a smoked or a tinted lens, just because when you get the sun that starts to
04:45set nowadays, like this time of the year, that tinted lens, that dark lens, creates almost like
04:50everything in front of you is a silhouette, rather than that clarity that you need, especially when
04:54you're under the trees here. Yeah, and this dark section with a tinted lens would be almost impossible
04:58to see with the quick transition that they're going through right now.
05:02But of course, he under attack from Shimoda. Italy versus Japan.
05:05You heard RJ talking about the hard sections. This is one of the hardest sections on the racetrack.
05:10They virtually have no grip on top of no vision. It's really tricky back there.
05:14And then you jump back out into that brilliant sunshine again, and low sunlight at that.
05:19Guillaume still hanging on in second. Hunter Lawrence extends his lead.
05:22He's at the bottom of the corner of the screen, out of sight already.
05:25And as it stands right now, Australia with two wins. That is the ultimate lowest score in terms of
05:30qualification. A win for Jett, a win for Hunter that can drop the score of Kyle Webster, which was
05:36just a five pointer. Yeah, I mean, that's that's been the worry for anybody trying to work out the
05:41math of how to beat Timo Shojai. If Hunter and Jett do what they've done throughout most of the year,
05:46they could seriously come into the final race with, you know, four or five points between the two of
05:52them. And then Kyle Webster has to have one reasonable moto and you put up a 10 number.
05:57No one's going to be able to touch that. We've seen throughout history. If you get anything close
06:00to a 10, forget it.
06:04So Bonacorsi impressed on his first nation's visit on a 450 when he was riding MX2 machines back in 2023.
06:14And of course, he got pulled into MXGP after five or six rounds in 2024. He's had his first full season.
06:21Thought he'd made that pass on Guillo. Guillo snuck back up the inside and made that double
06:25over the finish line, hanging on to that second position.
06:31Great to see someone in the twilight years, Valentin Guillo, still being able to compete in his
06:35level. Yeah, he's had a great summer here. You know, I think a lot of people are kind of wondering,
06:38how's this going to go? We'd really know nothing about him. Made it to SMX. Yep, just kept plugging away at
06:43it, kept putting in good results. And he found himself as a consistent top 10 guy at the end of the
06:47Pro Motocross Championship, which I think was one of the feel-good stories of 2025 here.
06:54I didn't realize, actually, when you're up there in the skybox, you get to see the
06:58back-end section of this as well. I've not been down there yet, but you see the start,
07:01you see the run, quite a lot of the track, and then you've got all of this wooded section that
07:05you can sort of, you know, keep an eye on what's going on there.
07:12Bonocrossi, mistake. Shimoda up the inside. The Japanese rider into third.
07:19Still got some work to do, though. The Italian on the Fantic. He'll try to come up short, will he? No,
07:25he'll take the long way round. Shimoda does make it stick.
07:32Nice little bit of ride in that, but it was all held by a mistake as well from the Italian.
07:35Yeah, and Joe had been working on that pass for quite a while, but see a replay of that.
07:41RJ Hampshire
07:44finding his way past the number 30 of Paul's Jonas moves into seventh position.
07:48Yeah, this racetrack's tricky because you make a move to the inside, but then that turns into the
07:57outside in the next section, which is significantly slower, so you have to think several corners ahead
08:02when you're making a move here. Calvin Millaneren here, number nine, going after the 24 of Bonocrossi.
08:07So the South African, sorry, the Dutch, the South African rider, but riding for the Netherlands,
08:12as he has done for the last few years. Number nine.
08:14No way through here on that factory Yamaha, but it looks to try and go round the outside and generate
08:22a little bit of pace.
08:26Chooses not to go for the double, and still gets himself up the inside, got traffic to deal with,
08:31and that just halted his forward momentum, I think. But look how tight it is between Gio, Shimoda,
08:38Bonocrossi, and Volanderen as they get at that turn and up towards turn one once again.
08:44Pass through the trees here, Shimoda, around the outside of Gio, moves up into second place.
08:54Impressive, that from the Japanese. Yeah, Joe steadily moving forward here. I don't think he'll
08:59have, you know, anything to close down on Hunter, but second place here would be a great finish and
09:05result on Saturday. Probably the best ever for Japan, I would say. And you've got to imagine he's
09:10riding a full factory Honda machine this weekend. Yeah. So what I was told, Volanderen, Randy,
09:15outside of Bonocrossi, picks up a position as well into fourth place. That is Jett's spare bike.
09:20Okay. So Jett's racing his primary bike. They use Joe for the backup bike. So Jett won't have a
09:26second bike for this weekend. Worst case scenario though, Jett and Hunter's bikes are very similar,
09:32so if they needed to change that, they can do it very quickly. Yeah, yeah. Apart from the last race.
09:39XGP and MX Open. Might be Team USA's only hope. Yeah, yeah.
09:44Anyway, what do we got? Ten and a half minutes plus two laps to go. Hunter Lawrence leads away from
09:49Joe Shimoda by seven and a half seconds. Pantigio there, 27, just going out of sight for Switzerland.
09:55Still there in third. The rider in blue, Andrea Bonocrossi in fourth. Kevin Villarman just behind him
10:00for the Netherlands in fifth. Evertz about another one and a half seconds further back in sixth place
10:04for Belgium. Then we've got RJ Hampshire another second further back. So RJ looking to find his way.
10:09Paspello, Hasvana rider, Evertz, and pick up another point. That will put them on nine.
10:16But look at the transformation. The Netherlands going from 34th to fourth place with what would be a seven and a
10:22two, five points. But we still have that unknown factor of Glenn Koldenhoff, of course, whether he
10:25lines up tomorrow or not. But Australia on two points. Germany on six with the two and the four
10:31from their first race. Max Spies down in 20th position at the moment. They can ditch that result.
10:36Belgium on third with seven points, tied with the Netherlands. So Calvin Villarman could affect that
10:44if he makes another pass. And he looks to make that move on Valentin Guillo here, drop it into that
10:49first turn. And all of a sudden Belonger now for the fourth place.
10:56See, RJ has made the move now. And RJ has been looking ahead at this battle in front of him.
11:01RJ is not a rider that really gives up. He doesn't really relent until the checkered flag flies. So he's
11:06going to be pushing towards these guys. Even if we're in a safe position qualifying to Sunday, no
11:10problem. It's just RJ style. He really doesn't ever really back off. So I would not be surprised to
11:15see him in the fight in the next lap or two. Calvin Villarman, Andrea Bonikorsi. Bonikorsi
11:21making it difficult for the number nine at the moment. And Guillo still lurking in the background.
11:27As you say, Hampshire has found his way past Evertz into sixth position.
11:32Good drive that out of that turn for Calvin Villarman. Finds his way past Bonikorsi once again.
11:38Tried it on a couple occasions. This time it makes it stick. So this time,
11:41Villarman up into fourth and into third.
11:51Because Lawrence leads the way. Shimoda second. Villarman now third.
12:02RJ making light work. And Valentin Guillo.
12:06Guillo trying to get a tear off there. Going to cost him a position.
12:09And again, still struggling. Still trying to get a tear off.
12:12An easy pass in the end then for the number six as he moves into fifth position.
12:22And when we were talking to Will Hahn during the first break between race one and race two,
12:29talking about gate picks, he said, well, anything is going to be better than 35 that we've had today.
12:32That's right, isn't it? That's how this works. Now that you've got the three scores on display here.
12:36And eight and a three, sorry, what have we got? A three and a five, eight points.
12:43As it stands right now. They're going to be somewhere fourth or fifth gate pick.
12:4730 positions better. Take a look at the start once more.
12:50Over on the left side, inside gates. The number six, RJ Hampshire gets squeezed coming out of the turn.
13:00Him and Francesco Garcia. But Hunter Lawrence, as he has done all summer long,
13:06quick to the foxhole shot line. And he had Bonacorsi there, Evertz to the inside. The 57 of Kulas.
13:17Look at the green there of Hunter Lawrence.
13:20Pretty familiar sight this summer.
13:23I like that banked first turn, though. Gives people options, doesn't it?
13:26Yeah, it's a really fair start. Now, is the middle gate as good as the very outside? No.
13:30But it's still possible to get a good start out there, which is really important for Team USA today.
13:37They're going to salvage a top ten overall here for what could have been horrific after the ballot.
13:44Hunter Lawrence, emulating Brother Jet, who was victorious in the MXGP race.
13:53Mechanic Cam there, looking on.
13:56Australia, the defending champions, of course.
13:59On one hand, you've got the knowledge that you were the first team ever to win this event for Team Australia.
14:06Then you've got the pressure of going in with the one, two, three on the front of those motorcycles,
14:10having to defend with the same team that brought you the championship a year ago.
14:15But as we know, both these two guys, if summer long, have been one and two.
14:21Kyle Webster, another Australian title under his belt down there in Australia.
14:26And no hand injury that hampered him a little bit last year in terms of his preparation.
14:32And even his fifth place that has been scratched in favor of the two ones of the two Lawrence brothers,
14:38giving them the lowest score.
14:41So it's been a very positive start for the defending champions.
14:44Yeah, they have to feel good going into Sunday.
14:47I think they've both proven that they have the class of the field in each division.
14:52And then Kyle Webster was really the only wild card, even if you can call it that.
14:56He's the Australian champion.
14:57But to have a top five finish from them, that puts so much pressure on every other team to have a perfect Sunday,
15:03to even have a chance.
15:04Yeah, just looking at the teams that are qualified, 19th place.
15:08Venezuela there on 32, Canada on 33.
15:12And their first two races count, the 16th and the 17th, 33.
15:16They're 22nd at the moment in this race with the 45 of Tanaroa.
15:23It's not going to count.
15:24So they are definitely going through the B final.
15:26So too, Austria, Finland, Estonia, Israel, Morocco, Ireland in 29th place,
15:31with their scores from race one and race three.
15:35So their MXGP and their open class riders, Stewie Edmonds and Martin Bar.
15:43But tomorrow will be a different day.
15:45All of those guys in the B final line-up, all three riders per country.
15:50Maxi Bruneau, going the long way round for France.
15:54Does he emerge? No, he doesn't.
15:57Wellington Guillaume making him work extra hard for it.
16:00Privateer Yamaha versus Factory Yamaha.
16:02Seen that quite a lot this year.
16:03Yeah.
16:06But this battle for seventh position as they sail over the jump in the middle of the circuit.
16:13Guillaume tries to muscle his way across the Frenchman, but in the end has to yield.
16:20Guillaume now down to eighth as Renault moves into seventh.
16:24Yeah, Renault's been, I think, a question mark.
16:28A lot of people were wondering, could he put in a performance that would give France a chance at
16:32a podium or better?
16:34Certainly did it in 2022, but I think he'd have to have a little bit more pace than he does today.
16:40Certainly a better start, but he's capable.
16:42MX2 champion, won the first GP of the season in 2025.
16:46Health seems to be the concern, though.
16:49Just looking at the time of day here, we've got three and a half minutes left.
16:52We're around just about quarter to five in the afternoon.
16:55In terms of an American national, when you come here and race the Ironman in summer,
16:59what time of day are the second races done and dusted, whether it's 2.50 or 4.50?
17:04Yeah, so the final moto would take off at four, would end 4.45-ish.
17:09Okay.
17:09So, yeah, right around now.
17:11But you've got to think we're two months later in the calendar, right?
17:14So the sun's going to be much lower in the sky.
17:16R.J. in red, going after Bonacorsi.
17:24This for fourth place.
17:26So Bonacorsi on the 24 for Italy.
17:28R.J. Hampshire and his Rockstar Energy Husqvarna for Team USA.
17:33Number six, as Ryan Dungey said in the pre-war.
17:35I'll tell you what, he's making it work, isn't he?
17:37Running it wide.
17:38R.J. will be getting frustrated with that.
17:40But as Ryan Dungey said, you know, and also R.J.
17:43having that knowledge of riding in France and...
17:46More like a family race for him.
17:49A lot of friends and family showing up for this race for him.
17:51But you've still got to go perform in front of the fans.
17:53Yeah.
17:54And R.J. is not really the rider that you want to kind of play a game of chicken with.
17:58Yeah.
17:58He doesn't really...
18:00He's got big elbows.
18:00...respect risk the way that most people do.
18:02So Bonacorsi is a big guy.
18:06Be hard to push out of the way, but R.J. is not scared to get into that game.
18:11Yeah, he's got a head on him as well as he's like a Rottweiler.
18:14But anyway, these two fighting over that fourth place at the moment.
18:16R.J. with pretty much 90%, I would say.
18:2195% of the fans around this race circuit cheering for him.
18:25Just behind, you've got Liam Evertz.
18:28Hasn't gone away either in that sixth place.
18:32Those sand waves just chewed up.
18:34Gnarly.
18:35Bit of a stab in the turn there for Bonacorsi.
18:38Loses drive.
18:39R.J. Hampshire, outside momentum.
18:41Slips up the inside, a wayward Bonacorsi up the side of the track.
18:45Evertz will go through because he had nowhere to go.
18:48So loses two positions in the blink of an eye.
18:50Does Bonacorsi.
18:52You see him trying to muscle his way back past.
18:55Bit of bump and grind there into that final turn.
18:56Go on, Liam.
18:59Get your elbows out.
19:00Yeah.
19:00Go on, Andrea.
19:01Defend your honor.
19:04But Hampshire up to fourth.
19:08And already clear at these two, crucially.
19:11Yeah, and I think for R.J., he'll be satisfied with this ride.
19:15Was it exactly what he wanted?
19:16No.
19:17But with that kind of start, are you expecting more than a fourth?
19:20You know, your 20th coming around the first lap.
19:23A 30-foot gate pick.
19:23You go to the outside, you want to hide into nothing.
19:25You go to the inside, you don't make a good jump.
19:26You want to hide into nothing.
19:27So he made the best of a bad situation.
19:29He'd already got himself up to a ninth or tenth at the end of that first lap.
19:32Yeah.
19:33Yeah, I think everybody will leave this race with something to be okay with.
19:37Maybe they're not thrilled, but I think they'll all be like,
19:39okay, some things to work on.
19:41Similar to what the comments we heard from Roman Febvre earlier,
19:43I need to work on a few things, but we're okay.
19:46That really kind of rings true for this final qualifier.
19:48Just looking down the order here.
19:50Obviously, we're showing Bonacorsi is dropping down the leaderboard a moment ago,
19:54but he's going to get reinstated because he had nowhere to go when he got bumped up.
19:56Well, he bumped himself up the side of the track.
19:58So he didn't actually go through the beam, but there is a second backup line.
20:02That will kick in.
20:03So ignore that at the moment.
20:05So aggressively bumped himself off the track?
20:06Aggressively bumped himself off the track,
20:08trying to regain a position.
20:10Cross-routed, grabbed a handful, out to the left side of the track.
20:14Couldn't get back on because you can't do a UE there just before the finish either.
20:18So went the wrong side of the jump over the bridge and down,
20:20and then obviously we saw him and Evertz going bar to bar, elbow to elbow.
20:24And Evertz there for Belgium.
20:32Hanging with RJ here, kind of closed the gap back down.
20:35Not sure if RJ made a mistake.
20:36I wonder how similar those two 450s are.
20:38Obviously, Liam Evertz and that Nostalers final team don't run a 450 program in Europe in MX2 World Championship.
20:48So are they just using one of the Rockstar bikes in different livery, their own parts and things like that?
20:54Or would they have flown one over from Europe?
20:56Yeah, it would make a lot of sense if they, you know, Malcolm Stewart's bikes idle.
20:58Yeah.
20:59So something like that.
21:00Just swap the plastics and the parts, the hard parts that you need.
21:04Because obviously different pipes and silences may be, different contractual obligations.
21:09Yeah, and that, you know, things like that, they could make that change in a few hours.
21:12Yeah, yeah, easy.
21:13But it would save a lot of expense and a lot of hassle to just use equipment on site.
21:21Solid performances from Hunter Lawrence.
21:24Number three for Australia.
21:26Jet Lawrence went and won the MXGP qualifying race.
21:29Kyle Webster, this fifth, came into this second race, into this final race today on six points.
21:34With Hunter Lawrence leading the way, they can ditch that fifth from Webster.
21:41And leave here two points, the maximum qualifying score.
21:46Both Lawrences.
21:48With race wins here, we're into the final two laps.
21:51Lapping a bit to go for Hunter Lawrence.
21:54Mindful of the situation, coming into traffic, because a lot of these guys will race at a very high level.
21:59Some will ride at a decent level nationally, and then you've got other riders that are just here for the journey.
22:04And just don't know how these riders are going to react when you come up against them.
22:08So that's the scary thing.
22:10But if you've got enough experience under your belt, of course, you know how to deal with some of those situations.
22:16Reading the situation.
22:17Yeah, and I think Hunter qualifies for that.
22:20He's so methodical and analytical the way he approaches his racing.
22:24Kind of see it in his riding, too.
22:25It's one of those situations where a rider's personality matches his race craft, too.
22:30Just no unnecessary movements.
22:33Doesn't really take a lot of risk on the racetrack.
22:35You see him standing up through the corners.
22:37Everything seems and feels so calculated with Hunter.
22:40Into the final lap.
22:42It's in a few Aussies in the green and gold, knocking around here.
22:44So we've got that big jump in the middle of the circuit and then stepping up to the GoPro.
22:48The big tent on the left-hand side.
22:50I won't say it's all Aussies, but there's a fair few over there.
22:53Probably coming over with Jeff Liske and the guys.
22:57Just as they did for Mattelie Basin a year ago.
23:00Which was a monumentally historic occasion for Team Australia.
23:05Anyway, here's Joe Shimoda.
23:08Second.
23:09This is great for him, isn't it?
23:10And his mechanic, Ben.
23:12He was telling me yesterday, Ben, that we rode the bike and, you know,
23:16rode the 450 a little bit in the winter and bits and bobs.
23:19Only he and Shimoda were there.
23:22So the team didn't really know how that went and stuff.
23:24So when they released video of him riding this week and everyone's like,
23:27this guy, you know, he's riding it well.
23:30They already saw that in the winter briefly, you know?
23:33No news of him for 26 yet, which is interesting, I think.
23:36I can't imagine a world where Honda HRC releases him or doesn't re-sign him, I should say.
23:42But it is interesting to be October with he just wins the SMX Championship,
23:46the first Japanese rider to ever win a championship in America.
23:48and he still hasn't signed a contract.
23:52Then we've only ever had one Japanese rider win a world championship.
23:55125 class in 1978.
23:59Mr Watanabe, Akira Watanabe.
24:08But H.J.
24:09H.J.
24:10As Jeff calls him.
24:13Running away with it here.
24:15And you say running away with it, eight seconds.
24:16Looks like he's got a little bit more room in the tank here.
24:18Just doing enough, I think, just to stay there.
24:21Can't imagine the effort level is very high right now.
24:24That's what you want as well.
24:25Save a little bit for tomorrow.
24:26It's not exactly a scorching hot day here, but the less that you can do today, minimize all of that.
24:32The exertion, go out, enjoy, enjoy the track, enjoy the flow.
24:36And then when you go and come out of the line and take the chequered flag.
24:40And it's a perfect score for Australia today.
24:42Two wins, the lowest score on the board.
24:45H.J. takes a look over the shoulder.
24:48Bit of a salute.
24:49An easy day.
24:50An easy day.
24:51An easy day.
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