The 2023 AMA Pro Motocross Championship is nearing the halfway point (Southwick’s first moto will mark the end of the first half) and Jett Lawrence is still undefeated on a 450. He now has the longest win streak to start in a new class in AMA Motocross history. The win at the weekend’s FMF RedBud National held a little extra significance because Lawrence’s Honda HRC teammate Chase Sexton returned to action, and Sexton was expected to battle Lawrence this season, until he went missing with illness and injury after round one.
Sexton was back and scored a podium, and Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Dylan Ferrandis continued his improvements. In the end, though, it was the same old result: Jett goes 1-1. He spoke about it all in the post-race press conference.
Jett, unbelievable start of your season, obviously. Ten for ten. Nobody has moved out of their class into a rookie season to have ten for ten wins in motos and five overalls. You’re making it easier on yourself by getting good starts. When you’re riding out there, are you just trying to manage or are you just focusing forward?
Jett Lawrence: I’m just focusing forward, just focusing on trying to hit my marks. That second one, it took me a little bit to try to find my flow. I just had the worst time trying to find my flow because Dylan [Ferrandis] was right there. But it’s been an awesome season so far. Obviously Chase [Sexton] is going to get better. It’s his first race back since round one, so he obviously hasn’t raced in a little while. He’s going to get better and better, and same with Dylan. Dylan was there at first [in the second moto]. I saw the pit board and the gap and went, “We’ve got to step it up!” Awesome season so far. Super pumped. Just make sure we try and keep those starts good because like you said, it just makes it a lot easier on myself just starting up there. It’s a big key of making it a lot easier on yourself.
This is the first time all of you have used the new old start. This is the original starting line. You’ve run it before one other time. What did you think of the new start, Jett? This was the original Red Bud. Maybe that’s why they brought it back for the 50th anniversary of the national here. What did you think of this start versus the other one that you’ve used?
Personally I like the other one better. I think that’s why they went with the other one. It was better. But we’ll let it slide for one round. Going back to since it’s the 50th here, we’ll let it slide.
You made a comment on the podium about lapped riders. Do you feel the track was a little bit more one-lined that made it harder to get around the lapped riders, or what? To be perfectly honest, watching the race, I think you made it through the lapped riders maybe a little bit easier than some of the other riders that you were racing with. I know Dylan got hung up a couple of times. You did a masterful job getting through them, but what was your thoughts on just the lapped riders and the one-lined track?
For me, obviously we’re going fast enough to get around them eventually, but when they see the blue flag they start going. It’s like a sign to do hot laps all of a sudden. So I don't know if they need to start throwing the blue flags at them or something. A lot of the guys were good. There’s obviously every now and then you’ll have a lapper who will get out of the way and see it. So it’s not to all of them, but there’s those few guys who just have no awareness around. They don’t know that there’s another race going on besides theirs. Almost like there should be a rule at some point in time if you’re how many seconds down and you get lapped, and almost getting lapped again, you almost get pulled off, because at that point it’s just dangerous that you’re going that slow. It was just a pain because sometimes it creates good racing, but also it screws over the one guy, because he’s doing really good and hitting his marks but then a lapper comes in and ends up messing him and get tangled up. It’s very easy to get tangled up with these guys. They’re struggling, obviously. It’s just a bit of a struggle because obviously us three and the rest of the top five to ten guys are going a lot faster than those guys. It’s a lot of laps. So for us it gets dangerous.
One of the fans asked if each one of you riders, do you have a pre-race ritual or any sort of superstition? Silly as it sounds, I remember a rider back in my era, if he won a certain race he would wash but wear the same underwear the next race, and do it over and over until he lost. Do you have any sort of rituals or superstitions that you have with your races?
No, not really. I just have my same thing every time. Before I do my start, I’ll bang my head twice and then kind of yell. But besides that, no. We don’t have any crazy thing like that.
Ten moto wins. You now have the sole record for the best start going into a new class. Do records mean anything to you at all? I suspect there are more of them coming down the pipe.
No. I think for me if I’m doing my job right, I guess the records will come. For me each weekend, I’m just coming in trying to do the best I can each weekend and focus on what I get paid to do and focus on what I need to get done.
You now have more than one full round’s worth of points lead. You said you were chilling in moto two. You’ve been so dominant in a lot of these races. Is it just that natural moving on to this bike?
I think my riding style definitely gels pretty decent with this bike, but we’re still learning the bike. It’s still today wasn’t the best with a few things on settings, but the bike looks after us so well with a lot of things. I think that obviously helps, but the second one I think I had to push a little bit more at the start just because Dylan was there and I didn’t have that flow. I think once I found my flow, you go back to just trying to time things and stuff like that. It’s not always just smooth sailing through the motos. When Dylan was close at the start there, I still had to push a bit.
You looked like you were pushing the second moto. You mentioned comfortability and stuff and just kind of finding your flow. We saw a couple bobbles there early when Dylan was catching you. Can you talk about the race management again? We saw you looking back over the jumps. Just talk about pushing it but also staying on two wheels and that mindset there.
Yeah. I was obviously trying just to find my pace, and a few times it’s got a little bit off balance from just catching a foot peg in the ruts, because they were so deep. I don’t really get to see where Dylan is the whole time. A few times you just get to look back and see where he’s at. I feel like that helps me manage a lot. That section I can see he’s a bit faster, that section I’m a bit faster. So, it’s just all going towards where I’m better and where he’s better. He’s a tough competitor. He definitely pushes to the end, so it’s hard to try and figure out where you’re better and that stuff. The biggest thing I tried to focus on was just trying to hit my marks and just make sure I get that flow and started trying to time bumps and not try to smash everything. Obviously, I’m not as big and heavy a guy as some of the other lads, so I got to be a lot smarter because the bike punches back if I try to push it too much.
We saw your brother go down. Obviously anybody seeing a rider go down, nobody wants to see anyone go down, but knowing how tight you guys are, how do you remain focused for your race that’s coming up and how do you manage your emotions and not overthink everything? Talk a little bit about that mentality.
I think out of all the times that Hunter has actually raced and has gotten injured and I’ve been racing that day, I’ve won that day. Like a different Jett comes out. Thankfully we didn’t have to bring that out. He was okay enough. I got to see him before I went out. Thank God he’s okay. He ended up getting a bad jump and some other guys just not being aware there’s other racers on the gate. That’s why I didn’t like the 250 class much. Not many guys race with their heads. At least the guys in 450 are smart enough to know when to push or when not to. That’s the thing with 250. You end up dealing with younger kids who aren’t as smart and don’t have as much experience.
For all three of you guys, Motocross of Nations was here last year. You guys all raced for your respective countries. If you were to be picked again for Motocross of Nations, what would that mean to you guys?
I would say so. I feel like obviously Dylan is one of the top French guys, and same with Chase [for the Americans]. There’s not many Australians, so I guess I’d have to go also! [Laughs] We’ve got Hunter and I doing it, most likely. It will be fun.