We’ve seen dominance before, but we’ve never seen it executed quite like this.
Jett Lawrence is off to an 8-0 career start, undefeated as a 450 rider so far, and furthermore his brother Hunter Lawrence is 4-0 on overalls in the 250 class this season. Read that back. Two brothers have won every race this year so far. Prior to this season, brothers had never won both classes on the same day. Now it’s happened four weeks in a row.
This is far from an overnight sensation, as this takeover has been taking shape for a while. This feels inevitable, first because the brothers are that damned good, and second because their approach is so calculated and methodical. In sports, dominance is often defined by unquestioned physical traits of size, speed and strength, and in this sport, dominators display that with more throttle, bigger jumps, more intensity. It could be a feet-off-the-pegs Bob Hannah charge, Eli Tomac’s Beast Mode, or anything in between, but in sports speed usually kills.
This is not that. This is not watching two riders simply overpower everyone. The Lawrences only use the speed when needed. They’re doing it with tremendous efficiency and smarts. It’s a plan of sustainability. This isn’t lightning in a bottle, this is like the electricity in your house. Yeah, a few random events might knock it out, but you expect it to work every day.
The family and crew have created a plan to reduce risk. The boys have developed perfect technical form, they know how to set up their bikes, and they’re in shape. Any bad habits that could lead to crashes have been erased. Fingers on the levers, standing, riding with the legs instead of the upper body, using the clutch, feet on the pegs, running the low RPM, you name it, they control it with technique, not more gas.
Jett is exceptional not just for results but for how he looks doing it. He’s always looked like he’s cruising when he’s hauling, but with a huge gap over the current 450 riders, he’s refining that process. Everyone wonders if we’re even seeing him push it at all. At times he looks like he’s riding at 75 percent. That’s not the case, but it looks that way.
We understand that the main players who could push Jett are currently not racing, namely Tomac and Chase Sexton. Still, Jett can only race who is on the gate, and he looks amazingly at ease doing it. Would he push over the edge if he had to? Honestly, it’s doubtful he would. We’re used to superstars who would rather die than lose, but the Lawrence’s sustained approach means Jett would likely rather learn than crash. We’ll never know how it would have looked if Tomac was here, but it’s doubtful Jett would have risked everything just to make sure he was always the fastest guy.
The High Point National presented Jett’s biggest challenge since Sexton exited with injury and illness. Ken Roczen showed up in prime form on track conditions that suit his strengths. Jett felt off. He tipped over in practice, and then crashed while leading moto one, his first major error of the season. In the second moto, his start wasn’t so good, and then he had a few bad laps allowed Roczen to put 10 seconds on him.
“I was kind of off a little all day,” Lawrence explained. “To have a mudder here and have it be all rutted out, it’s a tough track to race on, let alone just ride on it. Yeah, and that first moto I got a little cross rutted. Just felt like my balance was off all day. A few times I got lucky, and I ended up wheeling out of them, but that one it ended up biting me and I ended up going down.”
He would, of course, still go on to record a 1-1, catching Roczen both times. He managed the situation and the clock, not pushing the whole race, but doing just enough to dig out the wins. He even found a silver lining in the struggle. Remember, as a rookie, he’s supposed to learn.
“I think it’s just learning, if the bike isn’t working well, trying to push through that, and trying to make stuff happen,” said Jett. “I wasn’t feeling too comfortable, but I can’t come in after a bad result and say “I just didn’t feel well.” That doesn’t work. And even if as much as can today was a second or third, then that’s all I had, but thankfully I was able to get back up to first in both motos. It was good today to kind of break up the routine. I got kind of used to holeshotting and leading laps. I felt like that crash was almost kind of needed for me, to kind of bang me up a bit, to just stay focused and not think it’s always gonna be easy where you always get holeshots. It was also fun battling with [Garrett] Marchbanks in the first one, and then Kenny and AC. It was the first one where I’ve had to battle and do some passing, so it was fun.”
Moto two showed ace race management. Instead of freaking out while Roczen and Adam Cianciarulo battled 10 seconds ahead of him, he waited, even saying in his TV interview that he took some time to learn how the bike was going to work. This is unheard of at this level. We’re not used to seeing dominant riders take laps off. They pin it, always. Jett hung in there, running 2:17 laps, then a pair of 2:19s, then a 2:16. That was a bit too risky, so he then ran a 2:18, which was still enough to bridge the gap to Roczen. It was a come-from-behind win, but a controlled, risk-averse, sustainable version.
“But it was good to kind of have that humbling real quickly to make sure I focus again,” he said. “The second one [moto], on the start I put my head down because I was about to get roosted on that turning step down thing. I ended up getting roosted so it knocked my visor off a little bit. So, then I just whacked it and finished off the job of running no visor! But for not feeling the greatest today on the track and being a little bit off with suspension and stuff, it was still a good day. Get a nice little break off and reset. I like RedBud, it’s a fun one.”
As great as Jett’s record is, 8-0, Hunter Lawrence is showing off even greater management skills in the 250s. He continues to get bad starts in the first motos, so he just takes what he can get, usually a second or third, instead of risking it all for one moto. In the second moto, he gets it done. Adam Cianciarulo gave his perspective on watching Hunter on his podcast, Plugged In.
“I don’t know Hunter super well, I’m not trying to get brownie points here, you can still take me out, [Laughs] but he just controls a race so well now,” said Cianciarulo. “He’s had a habit of getting bad starts in the first moto, and the way he picks his passes, I’ve noticed this, he won’t get too close to someone going into a corner if he knows the pass isn’t going to happen there. He’s kind of staying out of the roost. Just little things I noticed. He’s controlling the race, and you just have this sense every time the gate drops that he’s going to figure it out, no matter what happens.”
Hunter managed the conditions at High Point with a controlled aggression, a stark contrast to RJ Hampshire and Haiden Deegan, who led moto one with pure throttle. Hunter didn’t even try to run them down. He took his third, playing the long game.
“We got the overall, that was really cool,” said Hunter. “The track was wild, there were so many soft spots you couldn’t see, and sink holes. In qualifying, the only strategy was don’t crash, for one. I don’t think anyone expected it to be that wet, or maybe it was just me that was caught off guard. It was tricky.”
It was tricky, so he managed it instead of pinning it. That’s what the Lawrences do best, which means not only wins now, but many more in the future. Racing is a risky business, but by reducing the risks, there’s going to be much more racing and much more winning for a much longer time.