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00:00And better late than never, let's say welcome to the Lawrence Brothers.
00:03Jet and Hunter join us.
00:04Hunter, great to see you and your little bro mate.
00:07And we're looking forward to when you return.
00:10When is that?
00:10Let's just ask the big question up front.
00:13No, absolutely.
00:14Let's address the elephant in the room.
00:16We'll be back May 24th, first round of pro motocross season,
00:19parlor in California.
00:21So thanks for having us up here in the booth.
00:22We're happy to be here.
00:23Jet, welcome back.
00:24You were with us not that long ago.
00:25I know.
00:26It's a long time no see, eh?
00:27So it's good to be back.
00:29And, yeah, we're excited.
00:33Here we go.
00:34250 main in Pittsburgh before a weekend off for 250 east.
00:39Who is going to get this win?
00:41Five different winners on the season.
00:43Hamaker with those two wins.
00:45Does he extend his championship lead or does he give it up?
00:48And does this guy, Tom Vial, finally get a win?
00:52So many stories, so much talent, and so much to play for.
00:56After this, there's only one round left.
00:59Let's do it here in Pittsburgh.
01:00Pittsburgh.
01:00RJ has nailed his start.
01:06Super important here.
01:07Tom's got a good line up the inside as well.
01:10Seth buried a little bit mid-pack.
01:12This is going to be a tough one to come back.
01:13All these guys are so fit that it's pretty much a 15-minute sprint in all reality.
01:17It's Nate Thrasher out in front of all the Monster Energy Star Yamaha.
01:22This is the thing about Nate Thrasher.
01:24It's the guy that, when you think he's out, then he turns up, gets a good start.
01:28Oh, no.
01:28Hamaker's got more problems.
01:30Oh, man.
01:34And this is what happens when you miss the start.
01:37You get up.
01:37Everything gets so jammed up.
01:39Guys going everywhere.
01:40You don't know where they're going to land.
01:42He's going to have to be very, very patient right now.
01:46Oh, we know it all too well.
01:47It's a bad start.
01:48You just increase the risk factor even more.
01:51Oh, you know, things are going left.
01:52Oh, yeah.
01:54Oh, wow.
01:55Goodness, how did he save that?
01:58Yeah, gosh.
01:59That was in.
02:00That's one place you never want to be in is mid-pack on a first lap of a supercross race.
02:05That is some of the scary days of some of our lives is being in mid-pack because everyone's
02:10sprinting, going hard, going for small windows.
02:13So, yeah, it's a scary moment for sure.
02:15Him and Lance Cobush got together.
02:19Hopefully, there's no damage to his bike.
02:21It almost looks like his front brake, his lever is bent down a little bit.
02:25Coming up on Austin Faulkner in 14th place.
02:30If, indeed, it works out that Seth Hamaker wins this championship, that save could be the
02:35save that saved his title.
02:37Absolutely.
02:37This is what they talk about, a championship ride, winning a title on your worst night.
02:41So, this is, we're going to see what Seth is made of here.
02:44This is going to be a tough one, and it'll be one he remembers if he can pull it off and
02:47salvage as many points as he can.
02:49Well, he's been in this position so many times in his career.
02:53But, oh, there's Austin.
02:56Just got a little wide on that triple onto the tabletop.
02:59Those tough blocks can get you.
03:00I know that too well.
03:02Unfortunately, hopefully, he can get back up and get some points.
03:05It'll be fun to watch, Seth, and see if he's able to keep his composure, not override the
03:10motorcycle mode.
03:11Oh, goodness.
03:11Hardy Munoz.
03:13Hardy stay on the bike.
03:15This main event is off the rails.
03:19I'm not sure we can take another 12 minutes of what we've just endured for three.
03:22The Lawrence brothers are grabbing their chests.
03:27They can't believe what they've seen.
03:29And let's take you back and show you what happened to Triumph Racings' Austin Forkner.
03:32Look on the left.
03:33Top box.
03:35Oh, you know what?
03:36He thought Hamaker was going to go to the right-hand side.
03:39He just got, yeah, he just tried to thread the needle a little too tight and, oh, man,
03:45that was lucky for both guys.
03:48Yeah, gosh, that could have been really bad.
03:50So, thankfully.
03:52No one ever does that stuff intentionally.
03:54It's just the nature of the beast and the name of the game, unfortunately.
04:00Meanwhile, up front, Nate Thrasher boasts a 1.7 second advantage over Tom Vial and Max
04:05Voland.
04:05Then RJ Hamshire and Hymas.
04:08JT.
04:10Well, you think about the situation that Tom Vial finds himself in.
04:13His back was up against the wall coming in here.
04:15Seven points down.
04:16Two rounds to go.
04:18And look at the situation he finds himself in now.
04:21He's got two spots between himself and RJ Hamshire.
04:23And Seth Hamaker is in big trouble in the back.
04:26The face of this championship to completely change in the next 11 minutes.
04:30Well, and this is why we haven't counted Tom Vial out, despite him lacking a little bit
04:35of speed, because the dude knows how to race for championships.
04:38He's been steady with the most consistent guys out here.
04:42And he's the guy that's going to gain from this whole race here tonight, tied up right
04:47now currently as they run with RJ Hamshire.
04:49Exactly.
04:50These 250 championships are very short and you can't make big mistakes.
04:55And Tom's been very, very consistent.
04:56Obviously, he got very lucky with the mud race and with being dead last and still being
05:01in the title hunt right now is unreal.
05:04So, yeah, these 250 championships are very, from personal experience, very stressful because
05:09you try to not make any mistakes.
05:11But he's, you're going to try and be clean as possible.
05:14And a guy who used to ride a Red Bull KTM on the 92 is Max Voland.
05:20He would be in a career high finish if he stays where he is.
05:24Hunter, this is a great ride from Voland.
05:26Unreal.
05:27You've seen him in the heat race.
05:28He was just, he was hot, man.
05:30He was going left and right, dodging and weaving wherever RJ was.
05:33He was a lot of explosive body movement and if I didn't know any better, I'd say he's
05:37feeling pretty good.
05:39You know, this guy has a lot of bike skill too, Voland does.
05:43Coming from BMX background, I mean, I raised his dad 20 years ago, but anyhow, he's had
05:50a rough go at it.
05:51Got injured his rookie season and just fighting injuries.
05:54So, to come back has a handbrake instead of a footbrake.
05:58It's incredible.
05:59Guys, have a look at this.
06:01Points as they run as Voland and Vial clash.
06:04Points as they run would be a three-way tie between Hammocker, Hampshire and Vial heading
06:10into the season finale.
06:11Are you kidding?
06:13Unbelievable.
06:13We're on the edge of our seat.
06:15Obviously, we're a little biased here to Seth.
06:17He trains with us during the week.
06:18So, of course, we're pulling for him naturally.
06:21And Colin as well.
06:22So, it's difficult.
06:22Unreal, you can't ask for much more as a storyline.
06:25Three guys tied for the championship lead with one to go.
06:28Unreal.
06:31I can't even talk.
06:32I'm too busy trying to watch.
06:33My heart rate's...
06:35We ran here and now my heart rate hasn't even came down because of this now.
06:39These two guys in the top box fighting hard in Vial and Voland are helping Nate Thrasher
06:45eke out to a two-plus second advantage in the lead.
06:49Meanwhile, Hammocker's made up another position.
06:52And every position comes with a point as he claws his way up into sixth place from at
06:59one point.
07:00He was buried down in about 17th or 18th position.
07:03People at home might be thinking, as you mentioned earlier, for Max Voland, this is a career best
07:08finish as he sits now.
07:10People might think, well, why doesn't he just try and bring it home?
07:12But with eight minutes left, he's obviously feeling good and he wants more, you know.
07:16So this is just, he's like, oh, I'm in third, but how good would it be if I could just get
07:19one more guy and get second?
07:21And then he's thinking that for the next guy.
07:22It'd be unreal to see him land on the box.
07:25I mean, Thrasher's not far in front of these two guys.
07:28He's close.
07:29And Nate has these unreal standout rides, you know.
07:32And he's a good start and he just puts it all together and puts a flawless night.
07:36So it's interesting.
07:38We've no shortage of action.
07:41That was a good line that Voland had out of the woods.
07:43You see, he was able to quad that out kind of like Justin Cooper was doing before 50s.
07:48Justin was doing that in the heat race and, oh, my gosh, he was making up so much time
07:52at the end.
07:53He was able to scrub onto the tabletop, which is the other guys are stretching that out.
07:58So he loses some at the start, but he gains a lot in the end.
08:01By the way, just keep looking in the background at the Rockstar Energy Factory Husk Varner
08:06rider.
08:07RJ Hampshire is not that far back and is certainly within touch with still the second half of
08:13this 250 main remaining.
08:16Nate Thrasher is the race leader over Tom Vial, but by about a second, there's Vial now getting
08:21closer into the picture.
08:22That's less than a second for sure.
08:26The whoops just predominantly are jumpers now.
08:28Ultimately, skimming earlier in the day was the faster line, but you see guys like Jay
08:33Coop, Justin Cooper in the heat race was on rails with his two, three, four, and then
08:38scrubbing on to that tabletop.
08:40And now pretty much all the guys skimming it, just getting the rhythm.
08:44It's a lot easier to just do over and over every lap, which is obviously faster over the
08:50duration of a full main event.
08:51So what do you guys think that Vial should do to get a little more speed on that first
08:57rhythm lane?
08:57Seems like he's losing a lot of time there.
09:00Yeah.
09:01A big thing I always remember with 250 was trying to really like, you'd want to like pump
09:05almost like a pump track in BMX.
09:07You really want to pump hard with a 250 and just create momentum and generate speed to
09:12those rhythms.
09:13And personally, I've found that help a lot with me on a 250 and where I made up a good
09:18amount of time there.
09:19Right.
09:19So you really want to try and use your legs a lot, a lot.
09:22And I mean, there already are, but a little bit more.
09:25Here we go.
09:26Hampshire has caught Volant.
09:28He takes that inside option and it's going to work out beautifully.
09:31So Hampshire now climbs up onto the podium and we are over the halfway mark.
09:36Quick reminder to stock up on Monster Energy drinks available now at Giant Eagle.
09:40Although RJ was able to get by Volant, Volant still had an incredible performance here.
09:47Both RJ and Tom Villar, they're no dummies.
09:50They know exactly where Seth is.
09:52Their team, you know, mechanics would be letting them know on the pit boards where he is and
09:56where, how many positions he's made up.
09:58Obviously at this late in the season, the championship is what they're really honed in
10:02on.
10:02So they know exactly where he is on the track.
10:04That was good heads up riding by RJ.
10:06Not running the back of Lujovic exiting that corner.
10:11Yeah.
10:11There's a lot of close calls with lappers and stuff like that and having good heads up
10:15riding like that's good.
10:16You need to have that.
10:17Even though a close moment there, but we all know RJ is good at saving them.
10:22Not only did RJ Hampshire put himself in contention for a podium, but he's also, as they run right
10:28now, got the championship lead back.
10:31Ooh, Volant.
10:32I don't think Volant wants that though.
10:33It looks like he's coming back harder now.
10:36RJ is fighting for as many title championship points as he can get.
10:39Volant's fighting for that podium.
10:43First career podium.
10:44First career podium.
10:45There you go.
10:47All the mechanics are screaming to the lap riders.
10:50Get out of the way.
10:51Our guys are in a hunt.
10:52They're going for a podium for championship points and then the lap riders are fighting
10:55for their own respective positions.
10:57A lot of enthusiasm and emotion in the moment, emotions down there.
11:01You're looking at those whoops and those guys are jumping through there and the transitions
11:05in the bottom don't look too smooth to me.
11:08No, it seems like a pretty hard base track.
11:11So it's really hard to get a smooth groove through those whoops.
11:16And as we see there, Seth makes a pass on chance.
11:20More championship points for Seth, which is awesome.
11:23But yeah, back to what I was saying with the whoops, it may look like they're doing it
11:27easy, but it's very difficult.
11:30The gap that they've got to try and fit their wheels into is very small and it can catch you
11:34off guard very quickly.
11:37And I think Thrash is actually still skimming the whoops.
11:39We'll see here.
11:40But the last time I saw it, yeah, he's still blitzing.
11:43Wow.
11:44What a job.
11:44That's quick.
11:45That's fast.
11:46If you can stay on top, that normally is the fastest way.
11:49But then there's some guys that are just so good at jumping them that they can jump through
11:54them faster than some guys skim.
11:55But Thrash has got obviously a good line through the whoops that's consistent and he knows what
12:00his bike's doing and he's just committed.
12:02Fastest guy on the track, boys.
12:03Last lap was RJ Hampshire.
12:05He hit a 49.4.
12:08That's pretty sporty.
12:10Half second faster than the owl and over second faster than Thrash are.
12:14Talking about lap times, RC.
12:16Here they are.
12:16The last three for the top two in the race on your screen.
12:20Nate Thrasher, who won the Triple Crown in Birmingham, Alabama earlier in the year.
12:25He's getting better and better with that hand injury.
12:27He's getting stronger and stronger each week out.
12:30And he's looking good with three and a half minutes to go plus a lap.
12:34If he can hang on and hold off, Tom D'Arl.
12:37But boys, we would go to the last round in Salt Lake City with a tied championship.
12:43Positions as they run between Hamaker and Hampshire.
12:47Couldn't ask for more.
12:47This East Divisional Championship has been superb this year.
12:52No shortage of entertainment, that's for sure.
12:56Man, all those jump faces are getting so rutted.
12:59The foot pegs must feel like they're just scraping on the takeoffs.
13:03And if it looks sketchy and gnarly on the TV screen,
13:06you guys don't even want to know what it actually looks like down on the base of the field.
13:11It's unreal.
13:13That's what the SMX Next riders were saying, guys,
13:16is how they can't believe how destroyed and rough the track is
13:19compared to what it looks like on the TV.
13:22Absolutely.
13:22And you've got to remember, these are the best guys in the world.
13:25And it's their job to make it look this easy.
13:27But it's no different to watching the professional golfers at Augusta.
13:32You get a regular weekend golfer out there, you'd understand how difficult it is.
13:36Same goes for this.
13:37Hey, JT, this is the section I was talking about where Vial, I feel,
13:40loses some time to Thrasher.
13:42Watch, Thrasher holds way more speed.
13:45Yeah, and that's the section Vial also crashed into qualifying practice.
13:48He had a big one there this afternoon.
13:51And for, you know, I understand the reason he's not going outside and pulling that 3-3,
13:55but I truly believe if he would put that section together,
13:58he would be able to get around Nate Thrasher.
14:00JT, something's happened to RJ Hampshire.
14:03He has fallen out of third place.
14:05Where's he?
14:06I think he's still falling.
14:07Was that Heimus that went by him?
14:09Nope.
14:10No, this is a lot brighter.
14:11Here's the replay.
14:12What happened to the husband?
14:13Top of your screen.
14:15Seat bounces.
14:17Goes up right.
14:18He went to the left of the lapper, I think.
14:21The lapper was maybe a little far left.
14:24Again, try to thread the needle.
14:25It's a game of inches and centimeters.
14:27He was already on his feet before he fully stopped.
14:30He's not wasting his feet before the bikers on the...
14:36It was even fully stopped.
14:38He had the hustle going on.
14:40Meanwhile, things have got tight at the top.
14:43Look at this.
14:44Tom Villar wants that elusive win.
14:46He goes for the inside.
14:47Gets the lead.
14:48Nate Thrasher comes back.
14:49Oh, watch Vial.
14:51This is a tricky time.
14:52What do they do?
14:54Oh, heads up from Nate Thrasher, but Vial had enough until now.
14:59Thrasher tries to throw it at the inside, but couldn't.
15:01Oh, Thrasher was nice to him.
15:04There's a minute plus a lap to go.
15:06Oh, his run got wrecked, got closed out.
15:08That's smart from Vial.
15:09Oh, it's just an all-out sprint now.
15:14It's an all-out, just empty the tank.
15:16Empty the tank, everything you've got.
15:18Oh, hold on to it, Tom.
15:20It has been an agonizing and eventful wait for Tom Villar
15:25to try and get to the top step of the podium for the champ.
15:29Is this the moment that he's finally going to do it in 2025?
15:34Gosh, and Ken, I know it's a bit of a big gap for Seth,
15:37but can he close that gap in these last few laps to RJ?
15:40It could be another point, extra point in the championship as well.
15:44It would be a lot.
15:46They're going to have two more laps.
15:47Look at the time clock, top left of your screen.
15:51Two more laps to go.
15:54Lappers are gnarly right now.
15:57Boys, we mentioned earlier in the show
15:59that we're watching history with this 250 East.
16:01If Vial can hang on, he would be the seventh different winner,
16:06and that has never happened.
16:07But he hasn't got it yet.
16:09Oh, Thrasher ain't going to let him have it easy.
16:11He's going to claw and fight back at this one.
16:15Look at this is where he's so much faster, the 41.
16:18Oh, can we get close enough to plan a pass?
16:22It's the biggest thing on this track.
16:23It looks fairly difficult to pass,
16:24so if he can put one together and make it stick,
16:27that could be major.
16:28I think his best bet is get close for the whoops,
16:30or maybe that lane where he's going triple,
16:32triple, and then dive to the inside.
16:34That's his two best options, it looks like.
16:37He's got it.
16:38As you guys know, he's got to be a little bit closer than he is right now
16:41if he wants to make a move for the lead.
16:43One to go.
16:44One to go for Tom Villal.
16:47I'm Thrasher, I'm sending it.
16:50I'd be bringing back 20-20, Jett Lawrence,
16:53where he just doesn't care what the result will be.
16:55If the 24-year-old Frenchman can hang on,
16:58it would be his first win of the season,
17:00and he would go to the season finale with the championship lead.
17:05The story gets so good for Villal in less than one lap's time.
17:14He's just got to bring it home now.
17:16He's got two seconds on it.
17:18Don't want to jinx it.
17:20Oh!
17:22A little front end low there.
17:23Oh, he looks back over his shoulder.
17:25Bolin going to get his first podium and best finish yet.
17:28Unreal.
17:29What a ride from the boys tonight.
17:31Unreal.
17:31It's finally there!
17:33Tom Villal gets that elusive victory
17:36and wins here in Pittsburgh.
17:39Nate Thrasher follows him home.
17:41Max Voland will get a career first podium.
17:46And RJ Hampshire finishes fourth.
17:50It is game on
17:51when we head to Salt Lake City
17:54with still a winner-take-all.