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00:00Spain gate number two alongside RJ Hampshire. How did those gates become available? That's what I want to know.
00:05Both riders get squeezed to the inside. Can they hold it nice and tight around the inside?
00:10That's going to be the question. Well, both of them beyond mid-pack.
00:14As Hunter Lawrence leads the way.
00:17Bonacorsi 24 in second for Italy as they hit that city bridge.
00:20And then we've got over on the far side is that 27.
00:27Valentin Guillaume for Switzerland and then Liam Evertz for Belgium in the yellow and black and red as they drop through the trees.
00:38Shoujomoda. Oh, Jocho. Just there for Japan. Look in the red and white behind Evertz.
00:46So we've got Lawrence, Guillaume, Bonacorsi, Shimoda and Evertz fourth, fifth.
00:50Koulas Jonas on the 30th, Valada at 8th and 09th. And then we've got Dos Santos is next.
00:58For Brazil, I think that was on the number 39.
01:03Sun is also going to be playing havoc now as well. Like, we've got the sun behind us here.
01:07But every time they launch back in the opposite direction, it's very, very low this time of day in the afternoon.
01:13Almost five o'clock, 4.30 at the moment.
01:19Valentin Guillaume, no stranger to US soil this year, riding the outdoor series, of course.
01:24Winning a few fans as well, I imagine. JT?
01:27Yeah, no question about it. See Shimoda trying to move forward. This is the first time he's ever raced the 450 on American soil.
01:33Hard to get used to that number 81, but he's looked really good so far today.
01:38Getting alongside Evertz. They come into that double, triple section. Neither of them committing through there.
01:44Going to go either side of Bonacorsi here if the Italian isn't careful. Well, Evertz gets squeezed to the inside.
01:50He goes around the outside, picks off the Belgian and tries to run him to the outside here just to protect that pest that he almost made.
01:57Bonacorsi still hanging on though in that third place. Shimoda on the Honda in fourth.
02:04Going to get squeezed all day long there by the Italian, but it's Lawrence who leads by three seconds over Guillaume.
02:08Switzerland second, Shimoda third, Evertz fourth.
02:14Sorry, Bonacorsi third, Shimoda fourth, Evertz fifth.
02:16And then just behind them, Villano and Jonas, Kules, Hampshire. Great recovery into ninth place for the number six from a not fantastic start.
02:25Yeah, and I think this MX Open class allows that to happen. It's so much more difficult than an MXGP class.
02:30You have world champions, you have pro motocross champions. It's just a really tough ask to move forward from a tough start in MXGP.
02:37This MX Open is a little bit less critical, but for RJ, he's going to want to be up there in the top five battling, so he needs to continue to push forward.
02:44Japan, as it stands right now, would go through in 11th place.
02:50Qualified the turnaround.
02:51Yeah, quite the turnaround.
02:56And they never qualified in 2022.
03:00When they lined up, in fact, they were 15th after the first two races, so pretty decent.
03:07But every pass is a point, and every point is vital in this event.
03:15Bonacorsi in blue for Italy, in third place, on the number 24, just stepping up onto the GoPro now, Shimoda around the outside of him.
03:23And for someone like Joe Shimoda, who lives and races out here, he's got his fans anyway.
03:27And because he's probably racing for Japan, he probably keeps those neutral fans as well, doesn't he?
03:32Well, yeah, and I like to think about it two different ways.
03:35There's, in America these days, there are fans of Hayden Deegan, and there are fans of anyone that is beating Hayden Deegan.
03:41So, Joe Shimoda falls into category number two.
03:44He's also an incredibly nice human being, which I think goes a long way for him.
03:48He doesn't speak, he doesn't understand English, though.
03:50Exactly, but he's really grown his fan base.
03:53He's become incredibly popular in the last year or so, and I truly think it's one, performance, but two, it's the way he handles himself.
04:00Yeah, he's a good kid, very mildly mannered, softly spoken, and just there just to get on with the job.
04:08Yeah, and he's always respectful.
04:10You know, he's just the, you know, just the anti-villain.
04:14He really is that guy, and you, you know, I think a lot of it's Japanese culture.
04:18You know, it's very polite, very respectful, and Joe epitomizes that.
04:22See some riders, actually, when we have the close-ups there, with a clear global lens, rather than a smoked or a tinted lens,
04:28just because when you get the sun that starts to set nowadays, like this time of the year,
04:32that tinted lens, that dark lens, creates almost like everything in front of us, a silhouette, rather than that clarity that you need,
04:38especially when you're under the trees here.
04:40Yeah, and this dark section, where the tinted lens would be almost impossible to see us with the quick transition that they're going through right now.
04:48Got a Corsi under attack from Shimoda, Italy versus Japan.
04:51You heard RJ talking about the hard sections. This is one of the hardest sections on the racetrack.
04:55They virtually have no grip on top of no vision. It's really tricky back there.
05:00And then you jump back out into that brilliant sunshine again, and low sunlight at that.
05:04Guillaume still hanging on in second.
05:06Lawrence, Hunter Lawrence extended his lead, is at the bottom of the corner of the screen, out of sight already.
05:11And as it stands right now, Australia with two wins, that is the ultimate lowest score in terms of qualification.
05:16A win for Jett, a win for Hunter, that can drop the score of Kyle Webster, which was just a five-pointer.
05:23Yeah, I mean, that's been the worry for anybody trying to work out the math of how to beat Timo Shohei.
05:28If Hunter and Jett do what they've done throughout most of the year, they could seriously come into the final race with, you know, four or five points between the two of them.
05:37And then Kyle Webster has that one reasonable moto. And you put up a 10 number, no one's going to be able to touch that.
05:44We've seen throughout history, if you get anything close to a 10, forget it.
05:50So Bonacorsi impressed on his First Nations visit on a 450 when he was riding MX2 machines back in 2023.
05:59And of course, he got pulled into MXGP after five or six rounds in 2024.
06:04He's had his first full season.
06:06Thought he'd made that pass on Guillaume. Guillaume snuck back up the inside and made that double over the finish line, hanging on to that second position.
06:16Great to see someone in the twilight years, Valentin Guillaume, still being able to compete in this level.
06:20Yeah, he's had a great summer here. You know, I think a lot of people are kind of wondering, how's this going to go?
06:24We don't really know nothing about him.
06:26Made it to SMX.
06:27Yep, just kept plugging away at it, kept putting in good results.
06:30And he found himself as a consistent top 10 guy at the end of the Pro Motor Car Championship,
06:34which I think was one of the feel-good stories of 2025 here.
06:40I didn't realize, actually, when you're up there in the skybox, you get to see the back-end section of this as well.
06:45I've not been down there yet, but you see the start, you see the run,
06:48quite a lot of the track, and then you've got all of this wooded section that you can sort of,
06:51you know, keep an eye on what's going on there.
06:57Bonacorsi, mistake, Shimoda up the inside, the Japanese rider into third.
07:04Still got some work to do, though.
07:07The Italian on the Fantic, he'll try to come up short, will he?
07:10No, he'll take the long way round.
07:13Shimoda does make it stick.
07:17Nice little bit of riding that, but it was all helped by a mistake as well from the Italian.
07:20Yeah, and Joe had been working on that pass for quite a while, but see a replay of that.
07:26RJ Hampshire finding his way past the number 30 of Paul's Jonas moves into seventh position.
07:38Yeah, this racetrack's tricky because you make a move to the inside, but then that turns into the
07:42outside the next section, which is significantly slower, so you have to think several corners
07:47ahead when you're making a move here.
07:48Calvin Mulaneren here, number nine, going after the 24 of Bonacorsi.
07:53So the South African, sorry, the Dutch, the South African rider, but riding for the Netherlands,
07:58as he has done for the last few years. Number nine.
08:02No way through here on that Petri Yamaha,
08:05but he'll try and go round the outside and generate a little bit of pace.
08:08He chooses not to go for the double and still gets himself up the inside, got traffic to deal with,
08:16and that just halted his forward momentum, I think.
08:20But look how tight it is between Gio, Shimoda, Bonacorsi, and Philaneren as they get at that turn
08:26and up towards turn one once again.
08:32Pass through the trees here, Shimoda,
08:35around the outside of Gio moves up in the second place. Impressive that from the Japanese.
08:40Yeah, Joe, steadily moving forward here. I don't think he'll have, you know, anything to close down
08:47on Hunter, but second place here would be a great finish and result on Saturday. Probably the best
08:52ever for Japan, I would say. And you've got to imagine he's riding a full factory Honda machine
08:56this weekend. Yeah, so what I was told for London around the outside of Bonacorsi, picks up a position
09:02as well. That is Jet's spare bike. So Jet's racing his primary bike. They use Joe for the backup bike.
09:09So Jet won't have a second bike for this weekend. Worst case scenario though, Jet and Hunter's bikes
09:16are very similar. So if they needed to change that, they can do it very quickly. Apart from the last race.
09:22Oh crap. XGP and MX Open. Might be Team USA's only hope. Yeah, yeah.
09:29Anyway, what do we got? Ten and a half minutes plus two laps to go. Hunter Lawrence leads the way
09:34from Joe Shimoda by seven and a half seconds. Pantigio there, 27, just going out of sight for Switzerland.
09:40Still there in third. The rider in blue, Andrea Bonacorsi in fourth. Kevin Palama just behind him for the Netherlands in fifth.
09:46Everts about another one and a half seconds further back in sixth place for Belgium. Then we've got RJ
09:51Hampshire another second further back. So RJ looking to find his way past Velo-Hosfana ride at Everts
09:56and pick up another point. That will put them on nine. But look at the transformation. The Netherlands going
10:03from 34th to fourth place with what would be a seven and a two, five points. But we still have that
10:09unknown factor of Glenn Koldnoff, of course, whether he lines up tomorrow or not. But Australia on two points.
10:14Germany on six with the two and the four from their first race. Max Spee is down in 20th position at
10:19the moment. They can ditch that result. Belgium on third with seven points. Tied with the Netherlands.
10:27So Kevin Wallander could affect that if he makes another pass. And he looks to make that move on
10:32relative to Guillo here. Dropping into that first turn. And all of a sudden, Valandria now for the fourth place.
10:41See RJ has made the move now. And RJ has been looking ahead at this battle in front of him.
10:46RJ is not a rider that really gives up. He doesn't really relent until the checkered flag flies. So he's
10:51going to be pushing towards these guys. Even if we're in a safe position qualifying to Sunday, no problem.
10:56It's just RJ style. He really doesn't ever really back off. So I would not be surprised to see him in the fight
11:01in the next lap or two. Kevin Wallander and Andrea Bonacorsi. Bonacorsi making it difficult
11:08for the number nine at the moment. And Guillo still lurking in the background. As you say,
11:14Hampshire has found his way past Evertz into sixth position.
11:17Good drive that out of that turn for Kevin Wallander. Finds his way past Bonacorsi once again.
11:24Tried it on a couple occasions. This time it makes it stick. So this time, Wallander up into third.
11:31Because that Lawrence leads the way. Shimoda second. The Laundren now third.
11:48And RJ making light work at Valentin Guillo.
11:50Gio trying to get a tear off there. It's going to cost him a position.
11:56And again, still struggling. Still trying to get a tear off.
11:58An easy pass in the end then for the number six as he moves into fifth position.
12:08And when we were talking to Will Hart during the first break between race one and race two,
12:14talking about gate picks, he said, well, anything is going to be better than 35 that we had today.
12:18That's right, isn't it? That's how this works. Now that you've got the three scores on display here.
12:25What have we got? A three and a five, eight points as it stands right now.
12:30They're going to be somewhere fourth or fifth gate pick. 30 positions better.
12:35Take a look at the start once more.
12:36Over on the left inside gates. The number six, RJ Hampshire gets squeezed coming out of the turn.
12:46Him and Francesco Garcia. But Hunter Lawrence, as he has done all summer long,
12:52quick to the foxhole shot line.
12:53He had one cause you there. Everett's to the inside. The 57 of Kulas.
13:02Look at the green there of Hunter Lawrence.
13:05Pretty familiar sight this summer.
13:08I like that banked first term though. Gives people options, doesn't it?
13:11Yeah, it's a really fair start. Now is it, is the middle gate as good as the very outside? No,
13:16but it's still possible to get a good start out there, which is, uh, really important for Team USA today.
13:22They, they're going to salvage a top 10 overall here for what could have been horrific after the ballot.
13:30Hunter Lawrence in emulating brother jet, who was victorious in the MXGP race.
13:38It's kind of cam there looking on.
13:40One, Australia, the defending champions, of course.
13:44On one hand, you've got the, the knowledge that you were the first team ever to win this event for Team Australia.
13:51Then you've got the pressure of going in with the one, two, three on the front of those motorcycles,
13:55having to defend with the same team that brought you the championship a year ago.
14:01But as we know, both these two guys, all summer long, have been one and two.
14:06Kyle Webster, another Australian title under his belt.
14:10Down there in Australia.
14:12And no hand injury that he, that hampered him a little bit last year in terms of his preparation.
14:17And even his fifth place that has been scratched in favor of the two ones of the two Lawrence brothers,
14:24giving them the lowest score.
14:26So it's been a very positive start for the defending champions.
14:30Yeah, they, they have to feel good going into Sunday.
14:33I think they've both proven that they have the class of the field in each division.
14:37And then Kyle Webster was really the only wild card.
14:40Even if you can call it that he's the Australian champion, but to have a top five finish from
14:44them, that puts so much pressure on every other team to have a perfect Sunday to even have a chance.
14:50Yeah, just looking at the, uh, teams that are qualified.
14:53Nineteenth place, Venezuela, they're on 32.
14:56Canada on 33.
14:57And their first two races count, the 16th and the 17th, 33.
15:01They're 22nd at the moment in this, uh, race with, uh, the 45 of Tanner Roar.
15:07It's not going to count.
15:09So they are definitely going through the B finals.
15:11So too, Austria, Finland, Estonia, Israel, Morocco, Ireland in 29th place with their scores from
15:18race one and race three.
15:20So their MX GP and their open class riders, Stewie Edmonds and Martin Bar.
15:28But tomorrow will be a different day.
15:30All of those guys in the B final lineup, all three riders per country.
15:35Maxine Bruneau, going the long way round for France.
15:40Does he emerge?
15:41No, he doesn't.
15:43And it's in Guillaume making him work extra hard for it.
15:46Privateer Yamaha versus factory Yamaha.
15:48Seen that quite a lot this year.
15:49Yeah.
15:52But this battle for seventh position as they sail over the jump in the middle of the circuit.
15:57Guillaume tries to muscle his way across the Frenchman, but in the end has to yield.
16:05Guillaume now down to eighth as Renault moves into seven.
16:11Yeah, Renault's been, I think, a question mark.
16:13A lot of people were wondering, could he put in a performance that would give
16:17France a chance at a podium or better?
16:19Certainly did it in 2022, but, uh, going to have,
16:23I think you'd have to have a little bit more pace than he does today.
16:25Certainly a better start, but he's capable.
16:27MX2 champion, won the first GP of the season, 2025.
16:32Health seems to be the concern, though.
16:34Just looking at the time of day here, we've got three and a half minutes left.
16:37We're around just one quarter to five in the afternoon in terms of an American national.
16:42When you come here and race, uh, the Ironman in summer,
16:45what time of day are the second races done and dusted?
16:48Whether it's, uh, 250 or 450?
16:50Yeah, so the final moto would take off at four.
16:52Okay.
16:52And 445-ish.
16:54Okay, so, yeah, right around now.
16:56But you've got to think we're two months later in the calendar, right?
17:00So the sun's going to be much lower in the sky.
17:02RJ, in red, going after Bonacorsi.
17:10This for fourth place.
17:11So Bonacorsi on the 24 for Italy.
17:14RJ Hampshire and his Rockstar Energy Cusvana for Team USA.
17:18Number six, as Ryan Dungey said in the pre-
17:20Well, I'll tell you what, it's making it work, isn't he?
17:22Running it wide.
17:24RJ will be getting frustrated with that, but as Ryan Dungey said,
17:26you know, and also RJ having that knowledge of riding in pranks and understanding the format a
17:32couple of years ago and then coming here with all of that under his belt, that expectation,
17:37that pressure has kind of gone in one respect, but now you're at home, on home soil.
17:42RJ would liken it back to more like a family race for him.
17:46A lot of friends and family showing up for this race for him,
17:48but you've still got to go perform in front of the fence.
17:50Yeah, and RJ is not really the rider that you want to kind of play a game of chicken with.
17:55Yeah, he doesn't really respect risk the way that most people do.
17:59So Bonacorsi is a big guy.
18:02It'd be hard to push out of the way, but RJ is not scared to get into that game.
18:07Yeah, he's got a head on him as well as he's like a Rottweiler.
18:10But anyway, these two fighting over that fourth place at the moment.
18:15RJ with pretty much 90%, I would say, 95% of the fans around his race circuit cheering for him.
18:20Just behind, you've got Liam Evertz, hasn't gone away either in that sixth place.
18:29Those sand waves just chewed up, gnarly.
18:32Bit of a stab in the turn there for Bonacorsi, loses drive.
18:35RJ Hampshire, outside momentum, slips up the inside, away with Bonacorsi up the side of the track.
18:42Evertz will go through because he had nowhere to go.
18:44So he loses two positions in the blink of an eye, does Bonacorsi.
18:48You see him trying to muscle his way back past.
18:52Bit of bump and grind there into that final turn.
18:54Go on, Liam.
18:56Get your elbows out.
18:57Yeah.
18:57Go on, Andrea, defend your honor.
19:01But Hampshire up to fourth.
19:05And already clear at these two, crucially.
19:08Yeah, and I think, uh, for RJ, he'll be, he'll be satisfied with this ride.
19:11Was it exactly what he wanted?
19:13No, but with that kind of start, are you expecting more than a fourth?
19:17You know, your 20th coming around.
19:19Oh, 35th gate pick.
19:20You go to the outside, you want to hide it from nothing.
19:22You go to the inside, you don't make a good jump, you want to hide into nothing.
19:24So he made the best of a bad situation.
19:26He'd already got himself up to a ninth or tenth at the end of that first lap.
19:29Yeah.
19:30Yeah, I think everybody will leave this race with something to be okay with.
19:34Maybe they're not thrilled, but I think they'll all be like, okay,
19:36some things to work on.
19:38Similar to what the comments we heard from Roman Febvre earlier,
19:40I need to work on a few things, but we're okay.
19:43That, that really kind of rings true for this, this final qualifier.
19:45Just looking down the order here, obviously we're showing Bonacorsi
19:48is dropping down the leaderboard a moment ago, but he's going to get reinstated
19:52because he had nowhere to go when he got bumped up.
19:53Well, he bumped himself up the side of the track.
19:55So he didn't actually go through the beam, but there is a second backup line.
19:58That will kick in.
20:00So ignore that at the moment.
20:02So aggressively bumped himself off the track.
20:03Aggressively bumped himself off the track,
20:05trying to regain a position, cross-routed, grabbed a handful,
20:09out to the left side of the track.
20:11Couldn't get back on because you can't do a UE there just before the finish either.
20:14So we went the wrong side of the jump over the bridge and down,
20:16and then obviously we saw him and Evertz going bar to bar, elbow to elbow.
20:27And Evertz there for Belgium.
20:28I'm hanging with RJ here, kind of closed the gap back down.
20:32I'm not sure if RJ made a mistake.
20:33I wonder how similar those two 450s are.
20:36Because obviously,
20:37Liam Evertz and that Nostal and Sparta team don't run a 450 program in Europe,
20:41in MX2 World Championship.
20:42So are they just using one of the rockstar bikes in different livery,
20:46their own parts and things like that, or would they have flown one over from Europe?
20:50Yeah, it would make a lot of sense if they, you know,
20:52Malcolm Stewart's bike's idle.
20:53Yeah.
20:53So something like that.
20:55Just swap the plastics and marks, the hard parts that you need.
20:58Because obviously, uh, different pipes and silences may be different contractual obligations.
21:04Yeah, and that, you know, things like that, they could make that change in a few hours.
21:07Yeah, yeah, easy.
21:07But, uh, would save a lot of expense and a lot of hassle to, to just use equipment on, on site.
21:16Solid performance system, Hunter Lawrence, number three for Australia.
21:20Jet Lawrence went and won the MXGP qualifying race.
21:23Kyle Webster, this fifth, came into this second race, into this final race today,
21:28on six points.
21:30With Hunter Lawrence leading the way, they can ditch that fifth from Webster
21:36and lead here, two points, the maximum qualifying score.
21:41Both Lawrences.
21:43With race wins here, we're into the final two laps,
21:46a little bit to go for Hunter Lawrence.
21:48Mindful of the situation, coming into traffic, because a lot of these guys
21:52will race at a very high level, some will ride at a decent level nationally,
21:56and then you've got other riders that are just here for the journey,
21:59and, uh, just don't know how these riders are going to react when you come up against them.
22:03So, that's the scary thing, but if you've got enough experience under your belt,
22:07of course you know how to deal with some of those situations, reading the situation.
22:11Yeah, and I think Hunter qualifies with that. He's so methodical and analytical,
22:16the way he approaches his racing. I kind of see it in his riding too. It's one of those situations
22:21where a rider's personality matches his race craft too. Just no unnecessary movements,
22:27doesn't really take a lot of risk on the racetrack. You see him standing up through the corners,
22:31everything seems and feels so calculated with Hunter.
22:34Into the final lap. It's in a few Aussies in the green and gold, knocking around here,
22:39so we've got that big jump in the middle of the circuit, and then stepping up to the GoPro,
22:42the big tent on the left-hand side. I won't say it's all Aussies, but there's a fair few over there,
22:47probably coming over with Jeff Leeski, uh, Jeff Leeski and the guys, just as they did for
22:52Masley Basin a year ago, which was a monumentally historic occasion for Team Australia.
23:00Anyway, here's Joe Shimoda, second. This is great for him, isn't it? And his mechanic, Ben.
23:06He was telling me yesterday, Ben, that, uh, yeah, we rode the bike and, uh, you know,
23:11rode the 450 a little bit in the winter and bits and bobs only he and his, uh, and Shimoda were there,
23:16so the team didn't really know how that went and stuff. So when they released video of him riding this week,
23:21and everyone's like, this guy, you know, he's riding it well. They already saw that in the winter, briefly,
23:26you know? No news of him for 26 yet, which is interesting, I think. I can't imagine a world
23:32where Honda HRC releases him or doesn't re-sign him, I should say, but it is interesting to be
23:37October with, he just wins the SMX Championship, the first Japanese rider to ever win a championship
23:42in America, and he still hasn't signed a contract.
23:44And then we've only ever had one Japanese rider win a world championship, 125 class in 1978.
23:54Mr. Watanabe, Akira Watanabe.
23:56But, HJ.
24:04HJ.
24:04As, uh, jet goals in.
24:06Yep.
24:06Running away with it here, as you say, running away with it, eight seconds.
24:11Looks like he's got a little bit more room in the tank here. Just doing enough, I think,
24:15just to stay there.
24:16Can't imagine the effort level's very high right now.
24:18That's what you want as well. Save a little bit for tomorrow.
24:21It's not exactly a scorching hot day here, but the less that you can do today,
24:26minimize all of that, the exertion, go out, enjoy, enjoy the track, enjoy the flow.
24:31And then when you go and come out of the line and take the chequered flag,
24:34and it's a perfect score for Australia today.
24:37Two wins, the lowest score on the board.
24:40HJ takes a look over the shoulder.
24:42Bit of a salute.
24:44An easy day at the office for both the Lawrences and Team Australia.
24:47They will qualify first. They will get the first gate pick ahead of the races on Sunday.
24:53The Netherlands will go to the line second with a 2-3.
24:56A score of five points.
24:58Belgium, six.
24:59Germany, six.
24:59And the USA, seven, as it stands at the moment.
25:05Ah, that rook catching out Maxim Renaud in the same way that it caught out Bonacorsi.
25:09So, Lawrence Shimoda, Volandran, third.
25:12Uh, Hampshire, fourth.
25:13Everts, fifth.
25:13Bonacorsi, sixth.
25:14Maxim Renaud, seventh.
25:17We wait for Guillaume.
25:20He crossed the line in eighth place.
25:21And it should be Jonas in ninth.
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