Hunter Lawrence to Race 2025 CRF450R

Trying to spark an RV 2011/GL 07 run here. I respect it.

I rremember when Villo swapped for the new frame/bike towards the end of the season.

Worked out pretty well.

We all had the same thought.

Especially excited for the next Pit Bits now!

Head start on next year's testing if nothing else.

I remember when Tomac did for the MXDN…

Ooooh good pull. 

Yep, big chassis improvements for both of those bikes.

Makes me wish even more that I had been able to get out there.  I hope it stays dry.   Too late for me to pull off heading out there now.  I am only 5ish hours away. But work and mostly being around for my mother have kept me from getting out to a race. 

Sounds like a lot of cool things to see . Kenny , the 25 CRF. Oh well, maybe next year. 

As a recall it you can run something that will be in production within 6 months or something like that. RC did that one year. Same loophole as the Austrian factory edition bikes.

It's Honda the AMA isn't gonna say anything! Lol

This..

Why would they? It clearly say's they are GTG after August 1.

I think that says you must keep bikes for the current season for sale until at least August 1. August 1 is not a free pass to run non-homologated bikes. 

Anything run during the 2024 racing season must meet homologation rules (which would require 400 of the Y2025 bikes to have been on sale to the public through dealers back in June and at least 200 back in March).

I don’t read it that way. It says that the OEM must maintain availability of the approved (2024) bike until 1-Aug. It also says there has to be 400 units for sale by 1-Jun, did Honda have 400 2025 CRF450s on the showroom floor at the beginning of last June?

It’s cool for Honda, and I know similar stuff happened in the past.. 

He's giving the '24 to Catanzaro... 

AJ must train 5 years first, then go back in time to race it.

He's good to go!

It could be added to the homologated bike list but it hasn't been updated since January 30th, 2024.

https://mxsportsproracing.com/approved-equipment-list

Hunter is so close to leading the points, they must have confidence in this bike enough to bring it out.

I think they have been training on one since at least Hangtown,

RC was under the works exemption rule. Honda burned theirs in 01 with Ryno

What if Honda has had 400 bikes sitting in warehouses and homologated the 25 when  months ago. Its been raced  since the start of MXGP , so its not crazy to think that is not possible.  According to the screenshot, it only says the bikes have to be imported. And for the bike to be allows to race before august1st they have to be available to other racers with a Pro lic. After the deadline only the other parts of the rule would need to be met. 

 Honda can say that is how they interrupt the rule and its up to the AMA to agree or disagree.    

  In the past there was no penalty for breaking the rule anyway. Nothing written in the rulebook. I have not read the entire 2024 rulebook though . And was told they were changing the rule the last time I brought up the lack of a clearly defined  penalty. At that time it was reported that the penalty would be a fine a " large amount of money". The manufacturer would just have to pay a fine .  

To me its always been more of a gentlemen's rule.   

Does anyone think that 400 CRF450s are not "available" right now? Go down to your local Honda dealer and give the guy $100, he'll find you one. The rule doesn't say anything about when the customer has to take delivery of the unit.

If the AMA really wanted to enforce that rule, they'd word it a lot more clearly. 

My memory is a bit foggy on this one but i have a memory of RC saying that he raced another frame one season that would come in production the next year so he was good to go. 

"...they'd word it a lot more clearly.

Seems to be SOP for the AMA Rulebook... which they really should rename "AMA Word Salad Novella", because much of it makes no sense and even less is clear.

Read the rule concerning how the bikes are supposed to line up behind the starting gate. 🤦‍♂️

Do you guys really think you are smarter than HRC or AMA… like honda is trying to get one over on everyone and it is somehow a “works bike” and doesn’t follow the production rule? Do you really think Lars hasn’t cleared it through AMA, you really think there aren’t enough 2025s in the country available to anyone including privateers that want to purchase one? 

Looks lIke we're all tthinking about Villo when we saw this

Such a shame it will probably be on a muddy track straight away 

I know he rode a 98 frame in 01. I don’t remember him riding a new frame early though. If you remember any other details that would be cool to dig into