An outsider would think the perfect seasons of Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart were marked by nail-biting motos, last second comebacks and maybe a little racing luck bailing them out on bad days. Not really. They didn’t have bad days! All season, RC4 and JS7 were pretty much out front. Stewart had Mike Alessi giving chase for the first half of the 2008 season, and a close call in the mud at Unadilla from New Zealand’s Cody Cooper. For the most part, he was rolling. Same with Carmichael, who had riders like Sebastien Tortelli, Tim Ferry, Kevin Windham and Chad Reed challenging him, at times, but most motos were in the drama-free zone.
And that’s how Jett Lawrence’s still-perfect 2023 campaign (as a rookie!) has looked. Chase Sexton did shadow him at round one and might be rounding into that same form now for the second half of the year, but as of now, not only has no one been able to beat Jett, they have barely been able to lead him! In fact, the only other rider to lead laps this season is…Ken Roczen! Ken doesn’t even race the series full time anymore!
(We might someday look back at Ken’s High Point appearance as even more impressive than we realized at the time. Also, we hear Ken may return for Unadilla, a track where he absolutely flies. That will be interesting.)
Anyway, since Roczen’s High Point appearance, Jett has led every single lap. That’s 105 straight, eclipsing his own 97-straight laps led before High Point. How impressive is 105 straight? For The List, we take a look at long laps-led streaks starting with Carmichael’s first perfect season in 2002, through now. Let’s have a look!
Most Consecutive Laps Led:
James Stewart: 2008, 221 laps: Shoutout to @mxrefrence for crunching some of these numbers. The data shows Stewart leading a ridiculous 221 laps in a row during his 2008 season with Monster Energy Kawasaki. This streak started after Mike Alessi led the first lap of the first moto at RedBud, then Stewart led the rest of that race, and Alessi crashed out of the season in moto two. Stewart also had a big laps-led streak earlier this season, which you will see below.
The 221 laps are such a long streak that Jett would have to lead every lap for the rest of 2023 to have a shot at this mark.
[Note: 450 motos generally run 15-18 laps. If there were eight 15 lap motos left this season, Jett would have 120 possible more laps to lead, which would push his run to 225.]
Ricky Carmichael: 2002, 141 laps: RC’s first perfect season in 2002 was already insane, but what’s crazier is that he also barely lost anything in 2003 and then had another perfect season in 2004! But that’s a different topic for a different list. As for RC leading laps, he ended 2002 on a 141-lap streak, which started after…Doug Henry came out of retirement and led laps at Southwick! From there through Washougal, RC led them all before getting interrupted again at Washougal by holeshot master Kyle Lewis on the Moto XXX Honda.
Ricky Carmichael: 2002, 118 laps: After Lewis led laps at Washougal, Carmichael led the rest of the season to get to 118 laps in a row. His streak ended when Kevin Windham showed up for the start of the ’03 season and led the first laps of that year at Glen Helen.
[Credit to AMA Pro Racing for digging up the 2002 lap charts at our request.]
Jett Lawrence: 2023, 105 laps: So, Jett’s 105 laps currently stands as fourth all time. Will in continue this weekend?
Jett Lawrence: 2023, 97 laps: Jett led all the laps to start the year, until he crashed while leading High Point’s moto one, and Roczen took the lead.
Ken Roczen: 2016, 94 laps: 94? Did Ken actually tune this to match his number? Ken’s ’16 season wasn’t quite perfect, with 20 moto wins in 24 starts, but he sure looked perfect when he was rolling on that Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s RCH Suzuki.
Ricky Carmichael: 2004, 90 laps
Ricky Carmichael: 2004, 87 laps
Ricky Carmichael: 2005, 70 laps: Look, kids, Ricky Carmichael was really, really good at dirt bike racing.
Ryan Villopoto: 2013, 64 laps: RV won the 2011 450MX title, but it was a nail-biter. In 2013, he was pretty darned dominant.
James Stewart: 2008, 62 laps: Wrapped around some laps led from Alessi, Stewart led more early in the season.
Kevin Windham: 2003, 62 laps: Here’s a weird deal. Carmichael won 10 of 12 races in 2003, but he didn’t have the longest laps-led streak. Kevin Windham led all the laps at Unadilla and Washougal back-to-back that summer, which added up to 62 laps in a row. Carmichael’s best streak that year was 33 laps. Having a CR250R two-stroke in a world rapidly changing to 450s meant holeshots—and leading the first lap—was rare for RC that year. The starts are probably why you don’t see Eli Tomac on this list, despite winning four AMA 450 National Motocross Championships.
What’s also impressive is that Windham leading all the laps two weekends in a row is enough to get him on this list. You’d think there would be dozens more times when a rider led all the laps in four-straight motos. It’s a feat rarer than you’d think!
