Justin Cooper went all-out to win the second moto at the Toyota Thunder Valley National. So did Chase Sexton. Sexton crashed. Cooper got tired. They went really fast early, determined to get it done.
“I ran out with about five minutes to go in each moto, I started hurting, but I tried to get away in the time that I could,” said Cooper. “The first moto it felt like I was about to get away, so that was nice, but as soon as I started to settle in I kind of lost my pace. That’s where it came back to bite me. I just couldn’t pick it back up, which I kinda regret now. But I tried to change that for moto two and keep the hammer down, but I got pretty tired there and those guys were charging.”
Said Sexton in a Red Bull KTM statement: “It was nice to have the red plate today, and I felt like we had speed on our side, but it just didn't come together in the motos.”
Hunter and Jett Lawrence, meanwhile, just chilled a bit early, and they were fresher, later.
Said Hunter: “They put a lot of water on the track, so I gave myself maybe five laps to not do something dumb and throw it away. I was like, 'Yeah, he’s on one!' He had a good pace. I didn’t see what happened. I came over and there was a KTM upside down.”
Jett had secondary reason to wait, as he was hurting all weekend following the Hangtown crash. The gash in his leg from his footpeg was a problem, but it appears his shoulder was actually the biggest issue.
“It was a rough one last weekend, but during the week, I was on therapy, but I couldn’t see Doc G [Dr. H. Rey Gubernick] during the week because we had to do testing and work on some suspension stuff. Got here Friday, and when G landed he went straight to the hotel, did his magic, got me feeling better. Before we saw him on Friday, at press, it was looking pretty rough. But G has the magic hands. It could have been way worse and I got lucky with it.”
The results say Jett was better in the second moto, because he won it. He admitted he backed it down late in moto 1 to safe some energy. He still felt worse for moto two, but experience with managing his speed and effort, the same stuff he does while holding small, but comfortable leads throughout a moto, came into play.
“Well, the second one more so, my legs were already shot. I was just lazy riding around the outside to just bounce on the bumps a bit!” Jett explained. “I knew I had to keep Hunter close because he was right there in front of me. Chase had a charge at the start and ended up going down. I assumed I had to stay there. Midway through I was like, 'I’ll just stay here for third, but do I try to make points up?' So I decided to stay in third and just watch in case someone comes up. Then Hunter made a bit of a mistake, and he relaxed in that section and I was able to get him there. Then I was like, 'I gotta get Justin because otherwise Hunter is going to get me back,' so I sprinted. I ended up getting Justin with a few laps to go and it was just head down, keep on charging.”
Once into the lead, the adrenaline took over.
“It was like trying to mentally block it out a little bit," he said. "When I was able to get around them, especially with Hunter there I was able to just focus on hitting my marks. My legs were shot but when you’re racing for an overall win you almost become numb to it. At that point I was either going to see Jesus or see the checkered flag!”
Jett Lawrence has already won a lot of races by playing the 30+2 like a marathon and not a sprint, going full speed only if and when needed, and mitigating risk at other moments. This keeps his fresh when he needs to put in a charge. It’s a different approach than the grip-and-rip-it we’ve seen from many others, and even young protégé Chance Hymas has been trying to learn it.
“It helps when you’ve got two of the best to learn it from,” says Hymas.
This time, Jett wasn’t just managing energy and risk, he was managing the pain. How long could his bruised up leg and banged up shoulder hold on. He got everything he could out of his body, and stopped his race-losing streak at just one overall victory. Outside of Hangtown, he’s won every 450 Pro Motocross overall he’s ever attempted.
With a week more healing before High Point, another winning streak could be brewing.
Rider | Hometown | Motos | Bike | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() Jett Lawrence | Landsborough, Australia ![]() | 2 - 1 | Honda CRF450R |
2 | ![]() Hunter Lawrence | Landsborough, Australia ![]() | 1 - 2 | Honda CRF450R |
3 | ![]() | Cold Spring Harbor, NY ![]() | 3 - 3 | Yamaha YZ450F |
4 | ![]() | Monroe, NY ![]() | 4 - 6 | GasGas MC 450F |
5 | ![]() | La Moille, IL ![]() | 6 - 5 | KTM 450 SX-F |