Davies sweeps High Point, Hammaker's day cut short
SMX Insider recaps the 250 action from High Point, where Cole Davies notched his first 1-1 MX win, Seth Hammaker's day ended after getting bucked from his bike, Jo Shimoda jumped into second on the leaderboard and more.
Video Transcript
250 class highlights for Pro Motocross and Monster Energy SMX, the Eupho Plast High Point National from Mount Morris, Pennsylvania.
So it had been really the story of the Kawasakis coming into this race, holding the point lead tied were the teammates of Levi Kitchen and Seth Hammaker.
But Cole Davies is gonna get a good start here.
Just, though, sneaking past is Casey Cochran.
Yeah, Casey got that start and ran up front this first moto for a while.
You can see Julian Bommarito slide in, and Cole Davies got a great start, but you notice he's not in that top five.
He actually started going back in the first of the big three, you would say, the, title contenders with Levi Kitchen to make a mistake early in the race, ends up going back and kind of stayed in that position.
Then it was Julian Bommarito after Casey led this race for a while.
Julian closed in, closed in, and then he was able to make that pass and at that point just start pulling away from these guys, kind of looked like Cole Davies in the second moto.
Little mistake by Cole's teammate right here.
He's gonna get up the inside.
That's Dugney, and Cole had to flow, but still even when he got past Casey Cochran for a second, he didn't really close the gap on Julian Bommarito.
That was a nice pass.
Nice angle, by the way.
And then the moment of the race out front about eight, nine seconds goes down on the finish line.
Still leads that lap.
Goes down, but see how long it takes Cole to get here, and this was towards the end of the race.
Julian's gonna get up in second place, keep Cole honest, but not close enough.
And then Jo Shimoda, this is gonna be the theme of the day for him.
Especially in this corner, you'll see soon.
Jo Shimoda was able to get up in that third spot after a bad start, but Cole Davies hangs on.
Julian close to him, but Cole Davies wins moto number one here at High Point.
So well done for the kid out of New Zealand.
That's his third career moto win, but has not been able to convert those into overalls.
Another good start for Davies this time, Seth.
Thinkin' got, starts figured out now.
I'd say he has.
Nah, he absolutely has, and you can see Julian right there, but Cole is not gonna get passed at this race.
In fact, nobody's really gonna see him much after this opening lap.
This guy was on a different level this second moto, different rider.
And now their second f- Oh!
co points leader, Seth, that was a huge crash.
Opening lap came up, we need to say short.
That bike hooked up on him.
It looped out, caught him by surprise.
Walked off the racetrack, but we'll find out more on him and that's where I was saying Jo Shimoda, another bad start, a so-so start.
Has to make his way up and with Cole Davies looking the way he does, Jo's gonna have to figure that part out.
You can see Levi Kitchen behind him.
Jo had to work on his teammate, Chase Seifried, who had a good ride going from that second moto, so shout out to him.
Hopefully that only gets better, but Jo's able to get past him.
And then Julian Bommarito after Kate Manera rode great this moto.
Julian's able to get to him in second place, so he went two-two on the day, Julian that is.
And then Levi Kitchen, this pass while we're showing it, he's gonna get around Ryder D. I believe this is for fifth place, but he actually be able to keep the red plate by this pass by one point over Jo Shimoda.
Brought everybody else in this field with Seth going out and everything, but Levi still holds onto that red plate.
But the man of the day was this guy right here.
Different guy, little mini version of Hunter Lawrence, and this guy can run away from this championship if they allow Cole Davies to win like this.
Yeah, big momentum and a big hug from Mom for the young man out of New Zealand.
There is another podium for Bommarito who's also right in it championship-wise.
He's been great to start the season as well.
Shimoda said it wasn't his best day, but he still came up with third.
He had an unbelievable battle with Manera on that tunnel jump especially, you were alluding to.
Manera solid run in moto two for third.
It gives him fifth overall and look at these points in this championship.
This is absolutely nuts.
It is a one point lead for Kitchen over Shimoda.
He has two points on Bommarito and seven points on Davies and it's so tight that Hammaker, despite having crashed out of a moto, is still down only 16 points.
Yeah.
So all five of them, they're in contention.
Best case scenario for all these guys.
Really good.
Yep, and a week off for everyone to think about it, but they're gonna have to think about Cole Davies a lot, 'cause we already know what he can do when he gets momentum.
He did it in Supercross and won that 250 East title going away and that's why he has, when you combine the Supercross and Motocross points together, this big gap.
Kitchen and Hammaker second and third in those playoff rankings.
All right, Cole Davies on top today.
