Eight and a half months, 31 races, one AMA Pro Motocross 450 title, and a wrist fracture in the final practice session. Honda HRC Progressive closed the 2026 campaign at the SMX Final in Ridgedale, Missouri, today with a third-place overall finish from Hunter Lawrence and not much else to show from a day that started badly for two of the team’s three riders.
Lawrence was pushed wide in turn 1 on the first 450 start but salvaged third. He matched that result in moto 2, pressing through the middle stages before a close call near the three-quarter mark cost him any realistic shot at the lead. The 3-3 scorecard, with triple points on the table, locked him into third in the 450 SMX Championship at 136 points. Red Bull KTM’s Jorge Prado won the title at 158, with Haiden Deegan on a Yamaha second at 151. Going into Ridgedale, Lawrence had needed a near-perfect day to catch Prado, who held a 16-point lead after Lawrence’s second-overall at Carson pulled him into a tie for second in the standings.
Jo Shimoda’s day was worse. Two early crashes in the first 250 moto left him rejoining at the back of the field; 15th was the best he could recover. A mid-pack start in the wet second moto dropped him as low as 12th before he worked back to eighth. The 12th-overall finish left him ninth in the 250 championship on 86 points, a painful end to a season he started managing a neck injury. Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Levi Kitchen took the 250 title with 153 points.
The harder story is Chance Hymas, who overjumped an obstacle during Friday practice and won’t race again for some time. Scans confirmed fractures to two small bones in his left wrist, ending his Saturday and his involvement in the upcoming Motocross of Nations. Hymas, who led Honda’s 250 effort at the storm-shortened Columbus opener with seventh overall, finishes the SMX playoffs 15th in the championship at 51 points.
Team manager Lars Lindstrom put the season in plain terms: any year with a championship is a good year, and Lawrence’s AMA Pro Motocross 450 title makes this one. The injury toll everywhere else was the counter-argument. Shimoda started the season within three weeks of a neck injury, a compression that, by his own account in the post-race paddock, colored the entire year. Hymas now heads into the off-season in a wrist brace.
The Ridgedale venue, described as an amphitheater setting in southern Missouri, ran a hybrid track that punished riders from the back. Lawrence’s turn 1 contact in both motos was costly in a layout where the fastest lap times clustered and passing lanes were scarce. He qualified second overall on Friday before the incident-filled Saturday program.
The race also served as the farewell for two former Honda-affiliated riders. Eli Tomac, who raced under the Factory Connection banner, and Dylan Ferrandis, a former Phoenix Racing Honda rider, both competed in their final professional races at Ridgedale. Honda acknowledged both riders’ careers and wished them well in retirement.
On the women’s side, Quad Lock Honda’s Charli Cannon ran near the front of the WMX Invitational before settling for second behind Yamaha’s Lachlan Turner. SLR Honda’s Mikayla Nielsen and Mayla Herrick finished fifth and ninth, respectively. Phoenix Racing Honda’s Tayla Jones came home 12th.
Honda HRC Progressive has won 16 professional AMA championships over the past seven years. Lawrence’s Pro Motocross 450 title this summer kept that run going, even as the SMX playoff format, which concentrates a season’s title implications into three triple-points events, ultimately favored Prado. The team enters the off-season under new HRC US president Kelvin Fu, who took over from David Salters on September 12.
Lawrence’s off-season starts now. Shimoda’s reset begins in earnest once his neck has had the time it didn’t get in February. And Hymas will spend the early months in recovery rather than preparation. Honda’s 2027 campaign depends on all three being ready at once, which hasn’t happened yet.
Source: Honda. Images courtesy of Honda.
