Jett Lawrence Given Written Warning for Roczen Wave By
Jett Lawrence's decision to wave Ken Roczen around him in the second moto of Saturday's SMX race at Chicagoland Speedway has certainly garnered its share of opinions. There's now an official take from AMA Pro Racing, via the weekly penalty report released today. Lawrence has received a written warning for violating the rules below.
While a written warning won't have an impact on the results from Chicagoland, it does shine light on the stance AMA Pro Racing (AMAP, as referenced here) has on situations like this.
1.5.9 PERFORMANCE OBLIGATION
a. AMAP requires that all Competitors give their utmost effort and compete to the best of their capability, striving to secure the highest achievable finishing position in the Event.
b. Should any Credentialed Participant deliberately manipulate, or attempt to influence, the final outcomes of the Competition, or incite, convince, or motivate others to do so, they will be subject to disciplinary measures as outlined in Section
3.1: Violations and Disciplinary Action.
C. The term "deliberately manipulate" pertains to any demonstrable behavior or strategy from a Participant which indicates they did not compete with full effort or intent, with the objective of altering the end results of the Competition, as determined exclusively by AMAP.
Lawrence won the first moto at Chicagoland and led the second moto. Roczen was running a close second when Lawrence elected to pull over and wave Roczen around. Roczen went on to win the moto. Lawrence won the overall, anyway, with a 1-2 to Roczen's 3-1.
On the podium, Lawrence spoke of the overall results structure of SMX and doing math along the way, and he appeared to be indicating that he wanted to help Roczen move to second overall and push Chase Sexton to third, which would allow him to gain more points on Sexton, who leads the SMX series. Jett's math was off, though, as Roczen still would have taken second overall ahead of Sexton, even if he finished the moto in second.
"I think it was the two laps when I think Kenny was really on me, when he kind of closed the gap," explained Lawrence in the post-race press conference. "I was riding, but my mind was somewhere else thinking, trying to do math. But, I kind of took two laps and was just thinking and making sure if I did let him pass, it wouldn’t affect my overall. But it turns out my great math wouldn’t have meant anything if I would have let him pass or not. [Laughs] So that’s my good math. But it was two laps I was thinking of it. Then I was like, I’m pretty sure I’m good. So at that back section I just let him pass. Then just kind of ran behind. I got to see how he races, so it was a good thing for me because obviously I can only learn so much if I’m in front of the guy. So it was nice to kind of see how Kenny’s lines were and see how he kind of races on a bit of a tighter track. I got to see in outdoors, but I haven’t quite seen in more of a kind of supercrossy layout."
Lawrence also joked that the win was a baby gift for Roczen, who welcomed a new baby the Wednesday before the race.
Roczen has expressed his opinion on the matter on his Instagram account.
"2nd main, well i could care less about a “oh so kind baby gift” win from Jett. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it… the math didn’t make a difference whatsoever on the overall anyway.
What i did love was the effort i was able to put in and the speed we were going. Not letting him go, and also reeling jett in when i needed to.
I guess i just like seeing hard work paying off. We made a suspension change that i already ran in qualifying with an adjustment after the sight lap and that was what allowed me to ride to my full potential. Thank you @activeride
The Fans were unreal yesterday once again and i am super glad i am able to make it a bit exciting. You guys are the absolute best and i am thankful to be able to feel that kind of love!"
