Jett Lawrence, Anderson, Sexton, Webb, and Plessinger Penalized at St. Louis SX

There was a big shake up in the second race of the 450SX Triple Crown in St. Louis, which appeared to have been won by Jett Lawrence. Instead, Lawrence was one of many who jumped the finish line jump while it was showing both a red cross flag and the checkered flag, and he and four others have taken on penalties from the AMA.

Five riders, in total, were penalized: Jett Lawrence (two positions), Cooper Webb (two positions), Chase Sexton (two positions), Aaron Plessinger (two positions), and Jason Anderson (four positions). Lawrence, Webb, Plessinger, and Sexton jumped when the white flag was out, Anderson jumped the jump with both the white flag and the checkers, so he took on a double penalty (four positions).

This has major implications on the Triple Crown overall, because instead of Lawrence coming into the final race tied with Eli Tomac (2-1 and 1-2 results), Lawrence now sits on a 2-3 and will need help to try to wrestle the overall win away from Tomac.

Then the night got worse for Lawrence in race three when he was absolutely slammed in a corner by Justin Barcia on the first lap. Lawrence cut down a bit in a berm while battling his brother Hunter, and Barcia was coming up the inside in an extremely aggressive angle at a high rate of speed. It’s hard to say what line Barcia was intending to go to, as most riders were using the berm in that corner but Barcia was cutting across the inside, possibly to keep the door closed to the riders behind him (Vince Friese at this moment). Either way, this left him with a nearly head on collision with Jett Lawrence. Barcia locked up the brakes to try to avoid it, but it was too late and Lawrence got slammed. At first, the series’ leader was down holding his left hand or arm, but he did eventually get back on the bike to cruise around at the back of the pack and try to collect points. He finished the race in 21st place, and unofficially would end up eighth overall after 2-3-21 finishes in the three races. The trouble in race three negated most of the damage from the penalty in race two, although he might have finished seventh overall without the penalty, which is worth one additional championship point. After the race, Barcia and Jett Lawrence both stopped to talk before leaving the track, as Barcia seemed to apologize. Jett gave Barcia a positive thumbs up and a pat on the back as if to acknowledge it was simply a racing incident. 

The word on Jett is that the left side of his body was battered and bruised but he’s going through further evaluation. In the post-race press conference Hunter Lawrence, Jett’s brother who finished on the podium, said, “Yeah thankfully he’s not hurt really bad as of now, after Doc G’s diagnostic check.” 

Lawrence entered the race up 16 points on Cooper Webb in the series standings, Webb with a podium overall ended up cutting that gap down to eight points as the series hits its final off weekend of the season.