Chase Sexton is on a five-race win streak at the moment, the longest one of his career. He hasn’t gained a single point on Hunter Lawrence in the last two rounds, as the two have swapped moto scores with Chase besting him in the second moto and coming away with the overall both times. To Chase it is the overall win that matters.
This plan may even be strategic as he pointed out in the post-race press conference on Saturday that he knows his fitness will help him at the end of the second moto when it counts the most.
“As a racer I just want to win, I don't really care how I do it," Sexton said. "And going 1-1 is nice and you can gain a lot of points that way. But if I'm not all there in the first moto I'm not gonna push it over my head and force something that doesn’t need to be forced. So, I just kind of, I don’t hold back, I give it a good effort, but second moto is kind of when I shine and come into my own. And that’s a big thanks to my trainer, Peter [Park]. He's, been with me since 2021 and my fitness, I feel like every year it's better and better starting in ‘22. And now, I feel like I really out last a lot of guys on the track. So that's a big shout out to him. So, yeah, second moto has really been my friend.”
It shows a lot of maturity to know when to push and when to back down and take a second in a moto. This is a lesson that Chase had to learn through trial and error. Chase has been known to push his limit even while leading and throw away the win. Even this weekend he probably could have walked away with a 1-1 but he had tip overs in both motos. He couldn't overcome that in the first moto. In the second moto, though, he pushed really hard to salvage the win.
“Yeah, first motos, I don't know," he said on his issues in first motos recently. "I don't know if I’m just too tight or I don’t know what it is. But the first motos haven’t been the greatest but the second motos have been kind to me. As soon as I did the sight lap, I knew I felt even better than the first one which I don’t know why. I knew I had to speed in the second one and then I fell over. Both my crashes today they were just stupid mistakes. Not mental mistakes but just me focusing on a lapper and not paying attention to the line I am in and tipping over. So, I was pretty bummed out and honestly it kind of pissed me off and I just dropped the hammer after that.”
A pissed off Chase Sexton is a fast Chase Sexton. But even though Chase is looking to wrap up his first ever 450 Pro Motocross title this weekend at Ironman Raceway, he won’t back down and settle for second if he doesn’t have to. He wants to show everyone just how good he is as the playoffs loom.
“I just kind of wanted to put a stamp on today, honestly, and kind of set the tone for the coming week and SMX," he said. "Every race you’re out there to prove something and I'm not one of those guys that just rolls over. I'll push to the end, and I know anything's possible. So, I was just stoked, I knew my speed was good. And I feel like last weekend my second one was really, for me, one of my cleanest races, but this one today felt like my speed was even better and I had to do it for the whole race, which was a more difficult task, but it made it interesting, I guess.”
Sexton is finally starting to find that fine line between being both fast and consistent, just in time to head into the SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) playoffs. In the SMX Playoffs, all of his main competitors, even those who were out with injury, will be lining up.
“Yeah, I mean, outdoors and SMX are quite a bit different," he said. "It's gonna be interesting, I’m happy to have Jett [Lawrence] back. Obviously, I feel like the outdoors this year have been, I don't know, there's a lot of guys that go really fast and everyone seemed to have stepped up their game since last year, which is gonna be exciting. So, I don't know, it could be a two-horse race or AP could come out here and just smoke us both. [Laughs] So, we'll see.”
So, will he be able to keep this momentum going and carry it into SMX to finish the year with two championships? First things first, he needs to wrap this Pro Motocross title. He would like to win while doing it.
