Hunter Lawrence wins Denver Supercross, heads to finale one point behind Ken Roczen

Ken Roczen led Hunter Lawrence into Round 16 at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver with a four-point advantage and a newly acquired red plate. With Lawrence’s win and the reduction of three points, the two riders head to Salt Lake City in a winner-take-all scenario.

Lawrence won his heat, while Roczen finished third in Heat 2.

Lawrence took the feature lead early, and once he sniffed clean air, he steadily increased his gap on second.

“It’s good,” Lawrence told Peacock’s Will Christien. “[At the] five-second board, I’m just so excited. Let’s go out, have fun, and do what I love to do. It couldn’t have been much better than that.”

Lawrence cut the championship deficit to a single point heading into the season finale. The two riders each have five victories.

If Lawrence and Roczen manage to tie in points, which will happen if they finish in the middle of the pack with Lawrence on spot ahead of Roczen, the tiebreaker would come down to second-place results. Lawrence finished second five times early in the season; Roczen has two runner-up results.

Meanwhile, Roczen had a modest start and had to come through the pack. Once he settled into second, he lost the tow of the leader, and ultimately lost more than 12 seconds to Lawrence.

Returning from an injury suffered in Cleveland, Eli Tomac thrilled the hometown crowd with the final podium position. He stalled his bike in sand in the opening laps but executed Beast Mode in the middle stage of the feature.

Fourth-place Malcolm Stewart and Chase Sexton rounded out the top five.

In-Race Notes

Jorge Prado earned the holeshot, but Lawrence took the lead quickly.

Roczen slotted into fourth on the opening lap. There is a five-point gap between first and third in Supercross scoring.

But Roczen secured second from Prado on Lap 3, and trimmed three points from the gap.

Roczen lost 4.5 seconds to Lawrence as he made his way into second.

The third title contender, Cooper Webb, took third from Prado on Lap 5.

Lawrence had the flow in the opening laps. He extended his lead to 6.2 seconds on Lap 7.

Tomac stalled in the sand and fell outside the top five, but found his rhythm and climbed to fourth on Lap 8. Webb lost a position to Prado earlier in that lap.

Lawrence was on a rail, forcing Roczen to ride on the edge of his comfort zone.

A little further back in the field, Justin Barcia was sixth on Lap 10 in his second race back.

Tomac secured third from Prado on Lap 12.

Roczen fell to eight seconds behind on Lap 13. Eight minutes remained on the clock.

The top three settled into a rhythm with seven minutes on the clock. The gap between them was slowly widening.

Cooper and Dylan Ferrandis tangled while challenging for sixth.

One lap later, Webb tangled with Jorge Prado, and both riders lost momentum. Webb hit the dirt and dropped outside the top 10. That ended his dim hope of securing a fourth Supercross championship.

Malcolm Stewart moved into fifth.

One lap later, Stewart grabbed fourth from Sexton.

In all the chaos, Justin Barcia (eighth) climbed into the top 10 in his second race after returning from a scary crash in the season opener at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California.