Jason Lawrence On Podium Again

CARLSBAD, Calif., (Jan. 22, 2007) – Monster Energy-backed Jason Lawrence was all over the competition at the second of three Anaheim (Calif.) supercross rounds, clocking one of the Lites class’ fastest overall lap times and parlaying that speed into another podium finish (2nd) in the Western Region Supercross Lites division of the ’07 Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross Series.

With the effort – his second podium finish in three rounds this year- Lawrence, running the Yamaha of Troy-tuned YZ250F, took over sole possession of 2nd place in the overall WSX standings, six points ahead of Chris Gosselaar, but still a bit behind overall WSX points leader Ryan Villopoto (72-55). And it’s that gap between he and Villopoto that Lawrence is looking forward to changing.

“If I can get out with Ryan, it’s on!,” says Lawrence.

With a mid-pack start in the Lites main event, Lawrence had to rail through a ton of top shelf racers just to make the top ten – which he did much of by the end of the first lap. From there the SoCal transplant (New Jersey) blew past a whole host of outstanding talent through the next five laps, including factory-backed racers Josh Grant, Martin Davalos and Josh Hill.

“Jason was on a mission,” added Lawrence’s agent, Scott Sepkovic of Crown AMG.

That mission began during practice where Lawrence busted out the second-fastest lap time in the first Lites practice session. The second session, however, had Lawrence pulling off the track. 
Undaunted, the young talent knew exactly what was going on.

“We finally got the settings figured out, and I knew what I needed after the first practice session anyway,” said Lawrence.

Out of his heat race in good shape (podium 3rd) to make the main, Lawrence didn’t get the start he wanted and was forced to play catch up.

“I’d had a bad start in my heat race and my start in the main pretty much sucked as well,” said Lawrence. “On top of that there were a lot of guys in front of me making mistakes, which made it even more difficult to get through the pack and up to the leaders. Then once I got into 2nd place (lap six), I knew there was no chance of catching Ryan, so I just rode smart and got to the podium in 2nd. 
Pretty stoked about that.”

One of the sections that was noteworthy in Lawrence’s comeback was a triple out of the whoops, which only he and Villopoto were clearing (and only a couple Supercross class racers as well). Through that portion of the track Lawrence was able to pick up enough time to clock a 48.546 – through traffic – which put him up close to Nick Wey’s fastest time in the Supercross class main event.

“Yep, I was just a click off the podium times in the big bike class,” said Lawrence.

Next up for Lawrence is the fourth round of the WSX Lites division this weekend at San Francisco’s SBC Park (Jan. 27th). Last year at SBC Park Lawrence finished 4th overall.