Through the first ten motos of this season’s AMA Pro Motocross Championship, Chase Sexton and Hunter Lawrence each got the better of each other five times. Now though, Sexton is going next level and staying there, reeling off two-straight 1-1s, and five-straight motos total, dating back to Southwick. What was once a Hunter/Chase tally of 5-5 not sits 9-5 in favor of Sexton with 14 motos completed. He’s also taken the points lead away and stretched it to 13.
This of course leads to the theory that Sexton is running with less pressure and more clarity in the absence of Jett Lawrence (Sexton has won all four motos run without last year’s 450MX Champion), but whatever it is, he’s rolling, and he’s enjoying it.
Is it coincidence that his bike and riding are dialed at the same moment when Lawrence went out? We’ll likely never know, as Sexton will likely never tell. Furthermore, that question probably has multiple answers. Sexton has been talking all season of a building process with his Red Bull KTM and himself and was probably going to continue getting better, Jett in the mix or not.
“Definitely more comfortable on the bike," said Sexton. "I think since probably like Southwick, I got a lot more comfortable and I think after that week after Southwick, I made a big improvement just with my riding,” Sexton said. “We didn't really change much on the bike, but I started to pick apart the tracks more, and with confidence comes just more belief and you trust it more and for me last weekend in RedBud, I had a really good second moto and it just kind of continued to build for me. Honestly, just with my riding, not so much the bike setup, but just trying to pick apart the track and not make it so difficult.”
The RedBud and Spring Creek wins check two boxes for Sexton, who had not won at either track before. At RedBud, he liked the track better this year because it had less sand and reminded him more of the way the track was when he grew up racing there. For Spring Creek the key was simply not making mistakes. He has been fast there multiple times but crashes have proven costly.
“It's just a confidence thing for me, it's not really a riding thing, but with confidence comes more like I said, belief, and you're able to move around on the track and trust it a little bit more. This track I've always had good speed at, made too many mistakes in the last two years. It's cost me the win. So this, this one, my plan was not to throw it away and just go out there and ride two solid motos.”
The season sure has changed, and quickly, for Sexton, who spent so much of the year struggling through ups and downs, but now finds himself not only leading the 450 Pro Motocross standings, but the combined SMX Standings as well. Now his goal is to really not think too much about any of that and stay locked in on each race, and to avoid the troubles his competitors have suffered this year.
“I'm just focused on week in week out,” he says. “I don't let my mind get too far ahead because that's when stuff can go wrong. I was trying to have fun and be present. This might sound a little weird but after second practice, I went into the motorhome and just kind of turned lights off, took a nap, and I woke up and meditated for about 10 minutes. Just to try and calm down and really just center myself and get ready for the motos. The mistakes seem to come when I get too riled up. It's not really a problem of a lack of focus, it's more just me kinda getting too into it and too antsy, honestly. So I just trying to calm myself down and be more present.”
