Hunter Lawrence wins AUSX Open in front of record crowd in Melbourne

Hunter Lawrence won a drama-filled AUSX Open in front of a record-breaking crowd at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on Saturday. 

The Queenslander and his superstar brother Jett Lawrence received loud cheers from the 42,000-strong crowd, as they raced on home soil for the first time since rising to the top of world motocross and supercross.  

For older brother Hunter, it was his first official race in Australia since leaving for Europe in 2015. Jett, who now has six AMA titles to his name at just 21 years of age, last raced in Melbourne in 2019, when he made his pro debut at the same event. The pair arrived in Australia fresh off winning the Motocross of Nations for their country in the UK. 

While the Honda and Red Bull-backed brothers were undoubtedly the stars of the show, there was plenty of competition from two-time AMA Supercross 450 champion Cooper Webb (Yamaha), as well as fellow international stars Joey Savatgy (Honda) and Dean Wilson (Honda). 

Savatgy and Wilson were competing against local talent for the Australian Supercross Championship title, with the AUSX Open acting as last stop in the five-round series. The local contingent was led by Jed Beaton (Yamaha), Luke Clout (Kawasaki), Aaron Tanti (Honda), and Matt Moss (Yamaha). 

But the addition of Webb and the Lawrence brothers made things complicated for the championship contenders on a difficult Marvel Stadium track. 

Webb took a comfortable victory in the first of three races, while Jett managed to claw his way from the back of the pack to second in just 8 laps. However, both Webb and the younger Lawrence went down in race two, and both were ruled out for the night. Webb was injured (but was cleared post-race) while Jett busted his stock Honda CRF450R and had no parts available to repair it. 

The third and final race proved to be the most interesting. A flat tyre left Savatgy’s championship lead at risk, giving an injured Wilson motivation to go for the win. But a charging Hunter, off the back of the race two win, pushed him all the way, eventually passing him on the final lap to a deafening cheer from the crowd. 

Lawrence took the AUSX Open overall win, while Savatgy secured the championship ahead of Wilson and Clout. Beaton put in a stunning effort to finish second overall on the night and fourth in the championship, while Wilson defied the odds to finish third overall with a bung shoulder. 

Aussie legend Brett Metcalfe (Kawasaki) competed in his final professional race, but sadly was carried off on a stretcher after a mid-air collision in the final moto. He later told social media he was knocked out and suffered some minor injuries. Clout, Moss, and Tanti also had big falls on what was a chaotic night of supercross. 

The SX2 class was equally action-packed, but American Shane McElrath did enough to claim the round win and the championship for Honda. Teammate Col Thompson joined him on the podium, while 16-year-old Kayden Minear turned heads aboard his KTM to finish a super-impressive third overall on the night. The Perth youngster will take his talents to the US in 2025. 

Kayd Kingsford took out the SX3 class win, with Seth Burchell securing the championship, while Seth Thompson was victorious in a CR22 Cup 85cc race that also included Chad Reed’s son Tate, and Ben Townley’s son Levi. Mason Ezergailis took out the Yamaha 65cc Cup, and Rob Adelberg won the FMX Best Trick competition, which was dedicated to the late Jayo Archer – a former AUSX Open FMX winner. 

 The AUSX Open returned to Melbourne this year after a four-year hiatus. It was put on hold initially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and then was replaced at Marvel in 2022 and 2023 by the WSX Championship. 

Both Lawrence brothers verbally committed to returning to Australia for the event in 2025 but in the meantime will turn their attention to the AMA Supercross opener at Anaheim in early January.