Earlier this season, our man Jason Thomas made a point: Chase Sexton had never actually passed Jett Lawrence in a race. A few others had managed to get the better of Jett here and there, even briefly, but Sexton, perhaps his main rival, had only been able to stalk him or even pull up close last summer. Even through Monster Energy AMA Supercross, Sexton had not been able to make an actual move on Lawrence, as far as we can remember.
That changed during his incredible worst-to-first charge at Hangtown, when he forced his way past an ailing Lawrence and everyone else. Since then, Sexton has made several quick and aggressive moves since, including the early laps of Thunder Valley’s second moto, and then again in High Point’s second moto, which is as close as Sexton has come to a virtuoso “straight up” victory over his old Honda HRC teammate.
Credit to Lawrence for hanging close and even repassing Sexton at times. He never gave up, and then Sexton tossed it away with a pair of crashes.
“I mean from the first moto to the second moto I was like a different person,” said Sexton, who was some 20-plus seconds behind Jett and Hunter Lawrence in moto one.
“That was nice, but being on the ground twice, those were just dumb crashes,” Sexton said, still mad at himself an hour after the race in the post-race press conference. “They were in turns with no ruts around a pretty rutted track. I wasn’t really pushing, which was weird. I had these weird crashes, but I wasn’t really pushing, I was in my comfort zone. I was just making stupid mistakes. Clean those up. That’s the most frustrating part, but I guess the speed’s good.”
Sexton kept pointing to the idea of a reset over the upcoming off weekend. He’s so close to capping the deal (he had the fastest lap time in both motos at High Point), and he’s still right in the thick of the points hunt.
“The last two weekends I didn’t feel like I was fully myself, but the second moto was a lot better, I just had two stupid crashes,” he said. “I felt like the speed in the second moto was good, we changed a lot on the bike, and we still have a lot of work to do. Stay off the ground and honestly just rest these next couple of weeks, then train, but it will be good to reset. These next four races are going to be really important.”
Before that second moto, Sexton’s mechanic was spotted raising the forks in the clamps just after the sight lap. Pretty late for a big change, but Sexton wasn’t too worried.
“Yeah we did a big change after the first moto with the shock, and we did the sight lap…to be honest I was like racing the sight lap to get back to the start gate because I knew we needed to make a change, that wasn’t going to work for 30 minutes,” he said. “We just adjusted the ride height of the bike, and it was quite a bit better. I put my own fuel in the bike because Kyle [mechanic] was adjusting the forks, so I was fueling up the bike and I spilled fuel everywhere, on my hands, on the seat. [Laughs] Yeah, I probably shouldn’t touch the bikes. I knew what I was getting, I just didn’t know how big of a change it was going to be.”
It worked. Sexton says he felt comfortable at that pace in moto two.
“This track is so rutted and technical, you have to race the track instead of your opponent,” Sexton says. “That’s kind of what I did in the second moto, I knew I was faster I just had to stick to my lines and kind of, not make as many mistakes as I did. We [with Jett] kinda went back and forth a few times. He was a little bit faster in the back section in those ruts, I was a little bit more patient. Then the other side of the track, where I fell, I was pretty fast the triple before there. But before that, I was just racing the track and hitting my own lines.”
Multiple times, Sexton did what he had not been able to do last summer—he actually passed Lawrence. At some moments, he appeared to have the moto win locked. Jett kept stalking, though. Sexton (of course) says it wasn’t pressure from Lawrence that led to the crash, as most riders would. Then he crashed again. Even after he crashed a second time, he started to close back to Jett in the final laps.
“Well, I knew Hunter was behind me and I didn’t know how close he was…I felt really good on the bike in the second moto, it wasn’t like I was pushing. When I was riding, I felt like I was going fast and it felt fairly easy. It wasn’t like I was trying to get closer, because he [Jett] was pretty far gone, obviously. I was just trying to navigate the track and focusing on myself.”
The loss stings, and Sexton is one that always takes it emotionally. Hunter Lawrence, for example, has a very analytical, non-emotional approach. For Sexton, it hurt.
“I was definitely pissed off when I came off the track initially,” he says. “But I have to take the positives from that race, I was riding pretty well and stuff was coming to me easily. I don’t need to change much, riding, to be honest. I just need a reset.”
Why keep going back to reset? Sexton’s first week riding back in Florida (after Thunder Valley) really threw off his plans with the motorcycle for High Point.
“I ended up riding this week and not feeling very good, so we ended up switching the bike based on what felt good in Florida. Then the first moto was not good. Then it was a scramble, do we go back to what we had at the last two races? We kind of split the difference, it was kinda like halfway between what I had this week in Florida and the last two races. It was like a guess and test kinda thing. Second moto was good. We’re kind of in between what I was on before and what I found in Florida. You wouldn’t have wanted to see me in Florida this week. I was all over the place, I was not riding very well, and I was kinda a mess.”
Southwick, last year, was one of Jett Lawrence’s most dominant performances. In that sand, Sexton was not able to get very close. Tracks like RedBud and Millville, though, have traditionally been good for Sexton, speed wise. Even though he didn’t follow his Hangtown epic with similar rides at the next two, there’s still plenty of time to stay in this title fight.
“I think being on this bike, the softer tracks are a good thing for me, going to Southwick, Red Bud and Millville should be good for me,” he said. “I’m going to be riding sand the next couple of weeks and get comfy on that scoop tire.”
