Jett Lawrence ended his 2022 season by hopping on a 450 for the first time and winning his first moto at the 2022 Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations, winning the overall Open class, and helping Australia to a third-place finish in the event. In case you missed that, Jett Lawrence won the first ever full-length professional moto he ever did on a 450. That was three months ago. Right now, Jett Lawrence is preparing himself for what will be his final handful of 250SX class races of his career as he hops over to the West Regional Championship of Monster Energy AMA Supercross looking for an East/West back-to-back season sweep. In an effort not to rush him onto a 450, Honda HRC is going to wait to move Jett up full-time to the 450 class for AMA Pro Motocross in 2023, but that might not be the first time we see him on a 450 in 2023.
We chatted with Jett at the Honda HRC team intro on Friday to get the scoop.
Racer X: Let’s go back a little bit. Let’s talk about the Motocross of Nations because that was a pretty cool experience. Jumping on the 450 for the first time, putting Australia on the podium. How do you surmise how that weekend went and how exciting it was for you?
Jett Lawrence: It was definitely kind of unexpected but then also I was hoping for this. It was definitely a wonderful weekend. It was kind of like a catch-up weekend. It didn’t even feel like an actual race weekend. It was awesome to catch up with some old people, friends and that stuff. First race on the 450. First time at MXoN. First time racing for Australia. So, it was a lot of first-time things, and it was really cool. I’ve gone with a 1-2, 1-1 with the open class but in the actual race combined it was 1-2. It just went smoothly. First 450 win. First race on the 450. You couldn’t have asked for a better race weekend.
Moving from that, how did the off-season grind begin? Was it nice to take a couple weeks off and refresh a little bit? How has it been since then?
We didn’t take a few weeks off; we just took one week off. It was good. I just stayed home and was more of a teenager. I went out late. Not to bars, so calm down on that. We went to an arcade place a lot. They had pool tables, so I got really into pool, bowling, that stuff. Just kind of watched some movies. Just being a normal teenager because I rarely get to do that. Everything’s always pretty serious in my job. So, it was good to kind of do that and have some fun with that. Then obviously after that, we ground the 450 a little bit. I was only on the 450 for a month before MXoN. So, it was good to do some more motos on that, get more comfortable with that, and then the past few months we’ve just been on the 250 grind with supercross and stuff, just getting our supercross feet back under me.
![Jett Lawrence at the 2023 Honda HRC team photo shoot.]()
Jett Lawrence at the 2023 Honda HRC team photo shoot. Honda HRC ![Jett Lawrence]()
Jett Lawrence Honda HRC ![Jett Lawrence in his 2023 threads.]()
Jett Lawrence in his 2023 threads. Honda HRC ![Sexton, Colt Nichols, Jett Lawrence, Chance Hymas, and Hunter Lawrence at the 2023 Honda HRC intro.]()
Sexton, Colt Nichols, Jett Lawrence, Chance Hymas, and Hunter Lawrence at the 2023 Honda HRC intro. Simon Cudby
How unique is that? You know you’re going to be racing the 450 outdoors but you’ve still got to race the 250 indoors. Balancing that, is that kind of a hard challenge or is it kind of fun to be able to go back and forth on both bikes and do some different testing?
It’s definitely a bit tricky, but we’ve got it fairly planned out. Once we do West Coast and it goes to the East Coast, we’re going to do some testing on the 450. Get some better settings. The bike is already fairly good, but we can always be better, as we always say. Just looking for myself to be better on the 450 and the bike, so going towards that. Might do some 450 rounds on supercross, but we’re just kind of playing it by ear right now. My main focus is 250. It’s definitely a bit tricky. You go from that style of being off the back a lot more with the 250, then 450 if you do that, you’re going to loop out. That’s probably the main tricky thing, and obviously the bike. They’re the same bike, but they both have different characters to it. So, it’s a bit tricky learning that, but I think we both know it now. So hopefully either one, you get used to it.
Like you said, you’re going to be doing west. You could win maybe both coasts, which would be cool to do, but was that also done strategically like you said so you could have that time to test the 450 in that break?
Yeah, it kind of worked out really. I wanted to go to the West Coast. Last time I raced on the West Coast, it didn’t go as good. Again, it’s kind of always looking into the future side of things. In 2024 I’ll be racing the full 450 supercross season. I can only pick one coast. I wanted to do this one. So, I’m going to have to do the full season with that. With going west, I can learn the dirt, know the dirt. This side is a little bit slippery, a little bit harder base. So, I’m kind of learning that side of things. Then it obviously just works out with when it goes east I can just kind of train on the 450 and get some testing on that. So, it kind of just works out smoothly to a smarter play for the future, and on the resume I definitely want to get a West Coast title.
How exciting is it to go back west? I don’t think you’ve raced in Angel Stadium since you crashed, and kind of became a little bit of a folk hero there. So, is it kind of cool to come back here and see these stadiums again and race in them?
Yeah, it’s definitely going to be cool going back to Anaheim. It’s been a while. It’s been a love/hate relationship there. Hopefully we can get the similar cheers but more for maybe a main event win, not so much a crash. I hope we can leave that place in one piece, and if we can, that’s already a win there.
Then moving to the 450 outdoors, it’s going to be your rookie season, but I think you probably put your expectations a little bit higher, especially after what happened at MXoN. So, how do you gauge what you want to do for yourself outdoors when we get there?
I don’t really have much of a gauge. Right now it’s just kind of more so I just want to learn. There’s still some veterans, you could say. I don’t want to call them old, but a little more older guys like Chase, you got Jason in there. A lot of the top guys where they’re smarter, more experienced. So, it will be good to get their experience and how they race and learn off of them. Then if it’s my season, it’s my season and I’ll do good, but if not, I don't want to force anything. I have plenty more years to go since I’m still so young, going into 19. So, we have some time, but right now it’s just kind of building up that skill and just kind of broadening my skill and range where I can know a lot more stuff.
If all goes well, I think you’d be the only guy we could ask you this where you’d qualify for SMX in both the 250 and 450 class, so I’m guessing at that point you’d roll it 450 still and go into SMX on a 450?
Yes, I definitely will look after. I’ve seen something on Vital MX, I think. A lot of people said I’m going into my fourth year. One of the guys said, “You’re going to be the veteran this season.” I’m like, that doesn’t seem right because I’m still so young, so much younger than other guys. But we’re definitely looking to 450 in 2024 in supercross. It’s a smart decision. There’s no need to go back. I’ve done most of what I want on 250, so now it’s just kind of about the next chapter in my career to go up to 450.
