The 2023 AMA Pro Motocross Championship season has come to an end, and it's no secret that the Lawrence brothers, Hunter and Jett, performed exceptionally well all season long. Jett brought his 450 debut to a perfect close, remaining undefeated every weekend, just as Hunter never stopped pushing for that 250 championship, even through injuries and mechanical failures. The Australian natives have truly proved themselves and their tireless efforts throughout the entirety of this outdoor season. See what they had to say about their championships below:
Congratulations, gentlemen. We’ll start with you, Jett. You have to be excited because I’m sure you’re on the ballot for Rookie of the Year in the 450 class. You must be at least in consideration there!
Jett Lawrence: Gosh, I hope I won the rookie of the season because if I lost that, that would suck. [Laughs]
Yes of course I’m being sarcastic. Perfect season. Joined Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart, and now yourself, who have won all motos competed in. 22 straight moto wins. Tell us about it. More inspiration today than I’ve seen. This was a big deal for you, it seemed like today.
Jett: I was so pumped. From where I came from, and the biggest thing I kept on saying, and I know my manager, Lucas [Mirtl], says it, my dad says it, is we shouldn’t be here. The way we were living in Australia and how we were struggling there enough, the pathway for us to be where we are and undefeated in our rookie season 450 championship, there was no pathway for that for us. Let alone winning a 250 championship. There was no pathway for us. So, to do what we’ve done and make history and be up there with Ricky Carmichael, James Stewart, to be with those guys, it means the world. Because they’re such a household name in our sport. If you bring up motocross, you can think of James Stewart, Ricky Carmichael, Jeremy McGrath, all those guys. They’re household names. So to be up with those guys is an unreal accomplishment. I was nervous as hell, but thankfully I was able to do it.
From my perspective, and I’m sure some other people, today there were a couple of times I felt like you put almost 100 percent effort in a lap. Chase [Sexton] was pushing very, very hard. You mentioned going off the track and landing on the Godzilla jump. How close were you to going 100 percent?
Jett: I was not full 100 percent, but we were going at least 95 percent, I would say. We were trying to push the envelope and just trying to push Chase to his limits and trying to break him. That’s the only way to try and beat Chase. It’s already hard enough to do that. It’s almost impossible. This man does not stop at all. So, I was pushing hard. He was pushing hard. It was awesome racing against him this year. I was glad he came back, because he has made me a better rider. I know for sure I feel like I’ve helped him with. I think we’re at that limit of speed where it’s almost light speed. It’s been awesome racing him. That last moto I just had every single bit of motivation. I was pushing the entire time. I did not care how….I was almost numb to what I was feeling. I was just so focused on executing every single thing and every single turn, making sure I keep on pushing, breathing. At the end I barely felt my body, how I was feeling, how tired I was. It didn’t hit until after. I was like, “Yeah, I'm tired.” But the adrenaline that I had was through the roof.
Speaking of elevating each other’s game, Hunter, congratulations on a remarkable season also. Had some ups and downs, had to come through that RedBud first turn crash, battle an injury—ribs—early on in the season. Then had a mechanical. At that point, you lost the championship lead and came back almost with vengeance. The first moto, you knew it was in your hands. If you won that first moto, at that point you mathematically eliminated everybody. You had the championship. Then the second corner, you see it. A crash happens. You mentioned earlier that you saw the bike was number 32 that was having trouble. So, what did your game plan at that point become, knowing your nearest competitor was behind you and on the ground?
Hunter Lawrence: When I went around the first turn, I was like, all right, this one is going to be a tough one. Then came to a stop with that pileup. Then I saw unfortunately Justin was on the ground. I’m like, okay, maybe it just got a little easier. That was the only guy, really, I had to focus on beating to wrap it up in the first moto. It was honestly just kind of riding to that, in all reality. Just kind of taking passes that came. Not really pushing above my head. I kind of knew where he was all moto, and my mechanic was doing a good job of letting me know. So I just kind of did that and brought it home. Don’t do anything stupid. It was ours to lose, essentially. So, just brought it home.
Being highly competitive and a racer like you are, how hard was it to govern yourself back and say, “Listen, I don’t need to push. I don’t need to try to pass the guy ahead of me. As long as Justin’s behind me, I’ve got this thing?”
Hunter: Not hard. It’s harder to keep pushing harder and make up that time, so it was a lot easier on my side. Still, why risk it to win a battle when you can win the war? So that’s what we were doing today. We were here to win the war.
You guys are dressing alike a lot here lately. Hunter, you were wearing Jett’s gear after his clinch. Now this. Is there any way for a championship to be more special given that you guys are both getting it? Now twice, supercross and here.
Hunter: Maybe if we both get the SMX title as well. That might be the only thing that makes it more special. But no, absolutely. Both supercross titles. It has been done before, but in the same year I don't think it had. Now outdoor pro motocross championships. Epic.
Jett: Unadilla was my day, wrapping up my championship, and today from the start it was about Hunter wrapping up his championship after all he’s been through. So, it’s the reason why I wore his shirt. It’s for me to show respect to him. I feel like it’s just the right thing to do, even if I was going undefeated or not. It’s his day, and that’s what I’m here for.
Is the family bond pushing each other to this level of excellence? Is that fundamental, foundational for you guys?
Jett: Yeah. Nowadays we wake up and when we go practicing, we’re pushing ourselves to each other every day. We’re trying to be the best we can and be the best athletes in the sport.
Hunter: Yeah, absolutely. Whether it’s in this sport or in life in general. You’re always going to have someone that pushes you to become better. I think what’s unique about this side is we both push each other to be better, and whenever either of us win, it’s benefitting the same family rather than another family or someone else. So I think that’s what makes it special. We’re brothers and family first. Racing always comes second.
Jett, going into SMX and then on the 450 being closer to the SuperMotocross vibe, how are you preparing over the next week and a half?
Jett: Like everything I go into, I’m going to train my butt off. Going to try and recover from this and then just go straight into training. Work my butt off and just try and get the best prep I can in the two weeks before SMX and try and go in with open eyes. See what we get dealt with, how the track is, and then just adjust.
Hunter, what are you most looking forward to in the SMX playoffs?
Hunter: I think more than anything else, the unknown. No one really knows what to expect. The first round I’m sure everyone will be there with their notepads out, and then back to the drawing board after the first one. So hopefully we can get it right with the team and we land on our feet running.
Jett, you said this is like an impossible dream to have come this far, but now looking back, this crazy background you guys have, does that actually help in the end? All the struggles you went through, all the experience you got around the world, did that actually work out for the best as a rider now?
Jett: For sure. I think whoever goes through those tough times and makes it out, they learn something. There’s only very few people that can get themselves out of that hole and those people are the ones who kind of succeed the most. You look at some of the richest guys in the world. They started from the bottom and went through a tough time. Other people went through the same stuff, but you see they almost kind of get beat down a little bit more or even sometimes they just don’t get that bit of Lady Luck with being the right place at the right time. So we just kept our head down. When we went to Europe, it was win at all costs because we didn’t have that much money. We went over there with 8,000 Euros to our name, to all of us, and we had to make that last until the house was sold. So we went over there and we were like, we’re here to succeed at any cost. We don’t care how it gets done. We’re going to do it and we’re making sure we’re doing it. To end up where we are now, where we’re living happy in a nice, big house, we have our sports cars… Other people might not look at it as a big deal, but for us to go bankrupt and then be driving matching Ferraris around—I’ve got a twin turbo R8—to be driving that stuff around, it doesn’t seem real.
Even from a riding and training perspective, just talk about all the experience you get, that most of the riders you’re up against here probably don’t have.
Jett: Yeah. I think that grit of getting out of that hole, it overlays into your riding. The pressure back then to try and succeed was way more than being where we are nowadays trying to win championships. It’s not even half the pressure what we got back there. Say if we lost a moto now, it’s a bummer, but we have another chance next weekend, where back then we didn’t have that second chance. It was the plan A and we’ve got to execute plan A. So it goes into our riding so much with just trying to make sure we give it everything that we’ve got and make sure we execute everything that we’ve learned and put it onto the track.
Same thing for you, Hunter. In America, it’s a pretty defined path that all the kids have. Your background is different. Do you think it has actually worked out for the best for you?
Hunter: Yeah, absolutely. I think what really was instilled in us and why I think we are where we are is because we started off with nothing to fall back on. So it was do or die. When we were in the tough times, it was not like, you get denied a few times and you’re like, “Okay, we’ll just go back to a normal life.” There was no normal life for us! Nothing. So, it was just always make it or break it. I think that can-do attitude definitely helped. Having an unreal role model in our dad, just in being an everyday battler and a fighter and showing us the right things and the right attributes without even realizing it. You kind of adopt them. I think it has definitely paid off a ton to where we’re so fortunate and grateful for everything we have right now and the people we get to work with and what we get to do for our day job. We race dirt bikes for a job. It’s pretty damn badass. As a kid, you don’t even know that you're going to have to work one day and how the world works and this and that. It’s a very big consumption of our life, but we’re living the dream.
I know you’re a guy to dedicate yourself to the craft. Can you give us one story or one example of putting in the extra time to do whoops or a corner, or “I’ve got to get this right?” I know a lot of it is going to come from Johnny O and your dad and things like that, but are there times when you critique yourself and you’re like, “I can’t leave the track today until I get this right?”
Hunter: Yeah. It was Wednesday this week! [Laughs] Still. We’re always working to be better. Any driven person in life, you aim to be 1 percent better every day whether it’s dieting or whatever it may be. Every day we try to be better, whether it's in our sport, in life itself, just anything. Never met someone that says, I'm still not learning. They say, I’m still learning to this day, and as are we.
I believe it has been 45 years since a manufacturer has won all the same championships in the same year, since 1978. So, things are good at the Honda camp. I see some of your staff here, team manager Lars Lindstrom and all the crew here. So, right now, your situation at Honda, tell us about what you’re feeling over there. Is it just a family affair over there at this point for you?
Hunter: Yeah, absolutely. Going to go burn the truck down later. It’s just unreal. The boys are going to get the cigars out. It’s going to be the HRC drinking team here shortly.
A little sip of bourbon, or how’s it going to be there?
Hunter: I hope they just go blind.
Jett: Basically what he said. We’re going to go back and burn the truck down. Johnny is going to get hammered. It might not happen, but we’re going to slip somebody’s drink. [Laughs] Also…don’t do that! But, we won’t be drinking. I’ll be going blind off of Sprites and Red Bulls. Maybe even ice cream if we chuck that in there. We can’t celebrate too much. We’ve got to get back to work for SMX. I know the team, Hunter, and I, we have no clue what that’s going to be like. So we’re going to try and get blind enough to where we’re something for SuperMotocross.
Talk about briefly SuperMotocross. It’s some serious cash available for both of you guys.
Hunter: Yeah, we love cash.
Half a million dollars for the 250 and a million for the 450. It’s something to focus on, I'm sure. Are you getting excited for it? Are you going to start testing? Have you been studying the track maps at all or even talking about them with Honda?
Jett: You know what that money goes into? More cars. It’s so hard to study because I feel like we haven’t got a full like, yeah, it’s basically going to be like Monster Cup where it’s still supercross just with a few long straights and no whoops, or if it’s going to be more stadium-crossy where it’s a little bit more fast and basically table-tops and a speedway. That’s the exciting thing about it. It’s so new to us and new to everyone. We have zero clue going in there. Like I said, we want to go in with seeing some, but we’re basically going in blind with this.
Hunter, your approach to the new SMX? What’s your feeling, too?
Hunter: I don't know. Not yet. I’ll let you know on Monday.