Well, he has done it. Jett Lawrence claimed the 2024 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship with a no-pressured seventh place finish at the season finale. Going against former champions Eli Tomac, Cooper Webb, Jason Anderson, Chase Sexton, and a handful of other top factory riders was not going to be an easy feat. Lawrence had completed a perfect 22-0 season in the 2023 AMA Pro Motocross Championship last summer, but learning the premier class of AMA Supercross is no joke and even the best motocross riders have failed to figure it out, let alone in their first 450SX season. Expectations were high for the rookie, but he delivered. After Saturday night's racing had completed, the newlycrowned #1 talked to the media about his night, his season, and his Pro Motocross expectations, and more.
Jett Lawrence: I think the most thing is that it’s finally over, really! It's felt like a long season but in some ways, it felt like it went really fast. I think the emotions might sink in tomorrow, but obviously I’m super happy about it and more happy for the team, really.
What was running through your mind during that main event?
Jett Lawrence: What was running through my mind was, “Don’t mess up, don’t mess up, don’t mess up!” Little bit of sketchiness, just back it down. Mom would have been happy with that. Any risk that could have been taken, we took it out.
You just said you were trying not to make a mistake. We did not see the pass you made on Jason Anderson, but you did look back, and then you made a mistake. Was that running through your head when you made that mistake?
I think he just forgot that there were two Lawrences out there, and he did that [knocked down Hunter] right in front of the other Lawrence. Yeah, guys like them, they need a hit in the mouth sometimes. Yeah but thankfully the mistake, it kind of worked out. At first it was like, “Oh no, a mistake.” But then it was like…. [he gestures toward waving Anderson by him] so it kind of helped me get my stuff rocked [locked in]. It is what it is.
| Rider | Time | Interval | Best Lap | Hometown | Bike | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Chase Sexton | 24 Laps | 52.762 | La Moille, IL  | KTM 450 SX-F | |
| 2 |  Justin Cooper | +3.228 | 53.122 | Cold Spring Harbor, NY | Yamaha YZ450F | |
| 3 |  Cooper Webb | +4.406 | 53.370 | Newport, NC | Yamaha YZ450F | |
| 4 |  Jason Anderson | +9.803 | 53.063 | Edgewood, NM | Kawasaki KX450SR | |
| 5 |  Justin Barcia | +11.957 | 53.199 | Monroe, NY | GasGas MC 450F | |
| 6 |  Malcolm Stewart | +34.797 | 54.060 | Haines City, FL | Husqvarna FC 450 | |
| 7 |  Jett Lawrence | +39.337 | 52.619 | Landsborough, Australia  | Honda CRF450R | |
| 8 |  Dylan Ferrandis | +44.568 | 54.307 | Avignon, France  | Honda CRF450R | |
| 9 |  Mitchell Oldenburg | +46.076 | 54.651 | Alvord, TX | Honda CRF450R | |
| 10 |  Dean Wilson | +47.179 | 55.282 | Scotland, United Kingdom  | Honda CRF450R |
![Lars Lindstrom with Jett Lawrence.]()
Lars Lindstrom with Jett Lawrence. Align Media ![The Lawrences celebrate.]()
The Lawrences celebrate. Align Media
You left Australia at such a young age. Did you ever think you’d get to this point, being 450 supercross champion when you were age nine or age 10?
Honestly no, at that age, I was still more excited to play with friends and stuff at age nine! [Laughs] It didn’t really become a goal to win this 450 supercross championship until I got my [450] outdoor championship. I was like, “I guess I could do this, let’s go for supercross.” It’s definitely a dream come true since we got here, we obviously thought about it and stuff, but you don’t really think you can do that. My dirt bike history [knowledge] sucks, but I think the last person who did this [450 title as a rookie] was Ryan Dungey? Yeah, not many people can do it. Grateful. I have a great team behind me and they gave me an awesome bike and I was able to do this for them.
Any moment stick out at the highlight of the year?
I think the one that comes to mind is Anaheim 2, getting the whole stadium booing me. At the time, I thought it was great, because people are going to come whether they like me or they hate me. I knew it was going to come, Ricky [Carmichael] told me, James [Stewart] told me, they all go booed at one stage. I might have gotten booed for different reasons, but we’re gonna take it the same way as theirs! Let’s just say we did! [Laughs] I’d say that was the biggest one. I mean, we could have had a good night [Anaheim 2] but we messed it up ourselves, still learning stuff. Then obviously the championship was also a good uppercut to those guys [the fans that booed him].
| Position | Rider | Hometown | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jett Lawrence | Landsborough, Australia | 351 |
| 2 | Cooper Webb | Newport, NC | 336 |
| 3 | Chase Sexton | La Moille, IL | 307 |
| 4 |  Eli Tomac | Cortez, CO | 282 |
| 5 | Jason Anderson | Edgewood, NM | 282 |
Did you think you would be this good when you moved up? How did it feel when you crossed the finish line and realized you had won the championship?
Hell no I didn’t think I’d be this good on a 450! For outdoors you obviously have that high goal, but the high goal is the championship. Because we have our good friend Dylan Ferrandis who did it in 2021 [won 450MX title in first season in the class]. So we knew it was possible. Going 22-0 was a bit surprising to myself, too! Then this year it was like, it we can do outdoors, let’s see if we can do supercross, too. It started out good but obviously we had some ups and downs. But yeah, every racer has the same mentality going in. You want to win championships. I don’t think it was anything special for me to be thinking championship….okay I lost track of what I was gonna say. [Laughs] Yeah, pumped to win it.
You had some tough races in the mud earlier in the season. Did that help you when we got to some of the softer tracks later in the year?
Obviously San Fran wasn’t the best for me. I thought I was a mud guy but apparently I wasn’t. Then San Diego I was dealing with both thumb injuries, sprained them both pretty bad and they puffed up like balloons on Saturday morning [due to press day crash]. So we had that to deal with. It’s just good learning. There’s always stuff I can learn, even outdoors I still learned stuff, I learned something new every race, almost, because the 450 is new. I think once we got to the East tracks our bike works really good on those rutted tracks, with the softer dirt and having our bike stiffer. And I felt more comfortable on that living in Florida.
Where do you go now having won everything there is to win? You can’t even say perfect season, because you checked that box already.
I mean, hey, Ricky did it twice so we might as well go for another [perfect] season! [Laughs] That’s the hard thing. If I’m struggling I could reach out to Ricky or James because those guys won multiple championships and could give some good advice. But it’s hard because you can get into a slump where it’s like, yeah I win and you need to get back into that mental frame, get a humbling, and know there are always other people coming. My crew does a great job with that. I know there’s people getting better by the day, still. So, yeah, that keeps my head down and I have Hunter at the compound and he’s getting better every day. You guys got a small glimpse of what he could do last week. He’s going to be a big pain in my ass in the future.
We had a weather delay. Does that start to mess with your mind?
[Laughs] I was losing it in the truck! All I wanted to do and the calmest I’d been all day was when I was on my bike. So all I wanted to do was just get to the main! That was killing me. You can’t fully predict, with our sport, so I knew I just had to execute the start and whatever happened from there, I’d have to deal with it. But the long wait definitely made it more painful.
Any sense of urgency when Cooper [Webb] started ahead of you?
Not really. I know my math isn’t the greatest, from previous races. [Laughs, recalling last year's second round of SMX Playoffs in Chicago] Wasn’t too much of an urgency. Settle in and get into a safe environment, then just do cruising laps and stay consistent.
After tonight does your mind go straight to outdoors or do you get to take some time to celebrate?
I think today and tomorrow we’ll look back and appreciate what we’ve done. When we get to Monday we’ll get back to work and focus on outdoors.
Have you already started testing?
I haven’t done much testing, we got to try a few different things, but our base from last year was so good. Derek did an awesome job with chassis parts. Also, I was kind of hurt after St. Louis [from the Justin Barcia collision] so I didn’t get to do much testing. Thankfully it’s easier to go from supercross to outdoors.
