Steve Cox | September 3, 2017
2017 US MXGP Results: A few AMA regulars joined the fray for the 2017 MXGP of the USA at WW Motocross Park in Jacksonville, Florida, and they and the World Championship regulars were greeted by temperatures nearing 100 degrees and typically very high humidity. In fact, during the day, it reached 96 degrees at 65 percent humidity, which represents a heat index of about 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
At the end of the day, Americans won three of the four motos and occupied half of the overall podium spots.
2017 US MXGP Results
In the MX2 class, American Thomas Covington of the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna team was the top qualifier on Saturday. He got the holeshot in moto one, but gave way to Florida native RJ Hampshire of the GEICO Honda team. A little later in the moto, Covington went down while battling with Hampshire, but was still able to finish out in second, less than four seconds behind Hampshire. Suzuki’s Hunter Lawrence, from Australia, landed himself in third at the finish, just in front of Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha’s Mitchell Harrison, Husqvarna’s Thomas Kjer Olsen, and GEICO Honda rookie Chase Sexton.
Lawrence’s teammate Jeremy Seewer (second in points) finished ninth, one spot in front of championship leader Pauls Jonass of Red Bull KTM.
2017 US MXGP Results
In MX2 moto two, Covington got his second holeshot of the day, but this time was quickly displaced by Hampshire, who took the lead. Covington gave chase for more than half the moto, but “hit the wall” in the heat at about the 2/3 mark of the race, losing second to Lawrence and third to Seewer.
Lawrence put in a late-race run at Hampshire in the heat, but came up just short at the finish. Seewer finished third, gaining more valuable points in the championship over points leader Jonass, who ended up fifth, just behind Covington in fourth.
Hampshire took a 1-1 score to win the MX2 class over the 3-2 of Lawrence and the 2-4 of Covington, who will be joining Cole Seely and Zach Osborne as a member of Team USA at the end of this month’s Motocross of Nations in England.
Seewer now trails Jonass by 40 points with two GPs left to run.
2017 US MXGP Results
In the premier MX GP class, Red Bull KTM’s Jeffrey Herlings carried his hot hand from the MX National finale last weekend in Indiana to the USGP, qualifying first on Saturday in front of points leader Antonio Cairoli, while Monster Energy Kawasaki’s newly crowned 450cc National MX Champ Eli Tomac struggled on his way to 12th.
Tomac improved his speed in warmup on Sunday, coming in third-fastest behind the Red Bull KTM pair of Herlings and Cairoli, and then grabbed the holeshot in the first moto while Herlings and Cairoli both had to fight their way through the pack. By the time the KTM duo moved into second and third, at around the halfway point, Tomac was gone.
Tomac won the moto going away, with Herlings finishing over 28 seconds behind in second place, and Cairoli a further 8 seconds behind that in third.
2017 US MXGP Results
In moto two, all Cairoli had to do was beat Herlings to clinch his ninth World Championship with two races still to go, and he grabbed the holeshot to start the moto over Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Gautier Paulin and Max Nagl, Herlings, Suzuki’s Kevin Strijbos, and Tomac.
Cairoli tried to sprint away with the lead, but Herlings would have none of it, moving into second before the end of the opening lap while Tomac went by Paulin for third a lap later. For a few laps, it looked as if Tomac was going to put on a charge at the lead pair, but he couldn’t match the pace of the leaders and eventually dropped off of his own pace, settling for third.
Herlings, though, went after his teammate and went around the Italian legend with six laps left to take the moto win and the overall with a 2-1 score. Tomac’s 1-3 was good for second overall, while Cairoli’s 3-2 gave him third. It was the first moto loss for Tomac in an MXGP event in the past six tries, as he had won all four motos of both US GPs last year at Glen Helen and Charlotte.
2017 US MXGP Results
In the championship chase, Herlings now trails Cairoli by 96 points, which means if he scores six or more points – finishes 15th place or better – in the first moto next weekend at the MXGP of the Netherlands, at Assen, he will clinch the 2017 MXGP World Championship.
2017 US MXGP Results
2017 US MXGP Results
2017 US MXGP Results
2017 US MXGP Results
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