Darren Lawrence, father to Jett and Hunter Lawrence went on the PulpMX show on Monday night to talk bike set up, his son’s return to racing, and more. Both Jett and Hunter were injured earlier in the season, and Hunter is already back on the bike. Both riders plan on a return to racing for the start of Pro Motocross at Fox Raceway. Listen to the entire interview or read below to see what else Darren had to say.
Steve Matthes: I think I know the answer to this, but is this the longest you've not been at the races in your whole life?
Darren Lawrence: Yes. It is like the first time ever both boys have been out. It's actually been sort of refreshing. Not that you want it, don't get me wrong. But look at the glass half full all the time and go, "You know what? We're going to get caught up on the 25 trees that got blown down that cyclone last year and get the track up out of the ground for the wet season and just catch up on stuff." So it's still been very, very busy.
So are you taking weekends off and you just you stay home and watch the race. Like are you drinking some beers and hanging out.
No, I'm actually working the farm during the week. And then on the Saturdays and Sundays I've been doing Jett’s Garage Wonder. So I've been stucco on that and then building all the cupboards up, going through putting up new LED lights! I've been keeping busy.
What's your what's your take on the on the 450 class right now?
Yeah. Changers [Chase Sexton] and Cooper [Webb]. Definitely keeps us on the edge of the seat. You know, Cooper's going to be Coop. Love the man. Love racing him. Same with Changers. Good kid, races hard and clean. I love watching them race, but sadly, I don't watch the races. I can't watch them. I don't want to watch them.
Oh, really?
My wife watches them because she's more of a fan of the sport, I guess! She actually relaxes a little more watching them because she's not stressing and chewing her fingernails off because Hunter and Jett aren’t racing. So she fills me in on bits and pieces. So I sort of just take it as a little bit of a break because it was 2016, I think, we left Australia and we haven't stopped since then. It'd be good, healthy for me just to actually step away from it and just focus on some other stuff for a while, you know?
How’s testing going? And will Jett make the first round, or what are we at for the odds on that?
Yep. Testing was today for the first time. Just going through checking out some of the hard parts and different things that we had at the for the first round of supercross. Just trying to get our head around that stuff. Pala as long as everything goes according to plan. Same as SMX last year, with Jett, it was just like, "Hey, Jett, let's just get in there. Let's just cut our teeth. If we get top five, we're doing well. Let's just find our groove" you know? And he came in there and did what we thought he could do.
We saw that!
So Pala the same thing, same theory, "Hey, mate. Crack a start, ride at your own pace, let's just get some points." Just be blessed that we're actually in there because his body, his numbers are good. The kid just heals fast. He's coming along really, really good. But obviously also still putting the brakes on a little bit. Don't rush it, mate. Because he's determined as ever to get back to, you know?
Yeah. For sure I mean, I remember when Stew [James Stewart] did his ACL and I was like, oh he's going to be it's going to take him a few races to get it, and Stew just whooped everybody at Glen Helen. The real special ones, they don't really know that part about easing into anything.
No they don't. And it's today's technology. Like even, you know, Warren Kramer does all our surgery stuff that Johnny O [O'Mara] hooked us up with. It's normally a three month sort of schedule. Then you go with Doctor G [Dr. H. Rey Gubernick] and you go with the red light therapies and the hyperbarics, and you do all your recovery like Jett does. He goes to California and just does it from seven am in the morning to probably 3:00 in the afternoon. That's all he does. It obviously takes a percentage off of the healing time and your recovery is quicker, for sure.
We saw the success the boys had with the new chassis outdoors last year. From everybody that I talked to, they stiffened the chassis. And so all of us, Dazzy, are like, "Well, shit, supercross is going to be even better!" I know they brought in some new suspension, a few different components that changed things. You guys were figuring it out, it wasn’t terrible, you get another couple races [before the injuries] and you’re back on the board. But looking back on it, Darren, what about the 2025 caught you guys a little behind the eight ball for supercross?
I believe what we did, and we just this afternoon put in the des Nation setup and Hunter cut these cup laps. And he came back and he went “Wow, I messed that up.” So I believe what we did is because you're so used to riding the old frame, it needed to be high. The wheels didn't like being up under the guards, you know, so you naturally set a bike up to what you're used to, not maybe what the frame required. And our eyes ourselves are also used to seeing a bike handle a certain way, so you naturally go towards what you're used to or what you see instead of stopping and going "Alright where do we where do we start?" Our schedule is so tight and so busy. Probably needed more time, to be honest. So Byrner [Michael Byrne] and Trey [Canard], obviously Japan came out and did testing at our farm again. And it's amazing how many days these manufacturers spend just on a stock motorcycle. And we sort of expect, oh yeah, we'll do three days of testing and we'll get pretty close to it! [Laughs]
So I've actually learned a lot this year once again by our mistakes of thinking we're going to do it in three days. Obviously we didn't expect that, but you sort of think you'll get it done pretty quickly. We ended up spending like 12 or 13 days on that stuff before A1 struggling, but still thinking, “Oh, I think we got it.” And then you got guys like Jett that do three laps and he's like, "No, I'll make that work." He's sort of now learnt that he compensates so much for a motorcycle when it's not correct, he can work it out. Do you remember high Point? Back when he won the 22 motos? [The 2023 season]. Remember Kenny [Roczen] gapped him out like with 12 seconds. Yeah. Well, we made a fork change and we stuffed it up. And it took Jett the 10 to 12 minutes to go, "Oh, this is where this fork wants to ride. This is the sweet spot. I just have to ride it this way." And then he reeled Kenny back in.
And that's Jett's positive for racing, but negative for testing because if he does more than one or two laps, he just starts to compensate and goes, "Oh, this is all right." Then Hunter rides it and goes, “Dude, this is crap. What are you talking about?” So Jett sort of learned, he literally only does one lap and then has to give his off the cuff comment. Because the length of his leg and his length of his arms, he can compensate more. Jett could compensate when the bike wasn't right. Hunter couldn't. It took Hunter till Tampa, that final qualifying session, he actually went up on the board for the first time in the year, and he was just like "Boys, this is now I can turn the bike. Now I can carry the momentum." And then doofus goes and hits a Tuff Block! So that was game over. So yeah, it's learning your own self as an individual and, and the faults within yourselves of how you set something up. You’re used to something for so many years, you somehow have got to stop and reset yourself and go, "No, this frame is a little different. How do we set it up?"
For outdoors, will you just run the same as last year or will you put the new Showa stuff on and try some things?
No, it'll be a totally different setup on what the frame likes. Hunter has come back [riding]. Obviously we always start off on the stock motorcycle again after injury, just to check ourselves and have the time to reiterate on what the bike likes and what the frame likes. So we we're hoping we're better hope we've learnt our lesson from last time.
Another big change was putting the GET ECUs on the 450s. Obviously great success on the 250 side of things. You figured that out? It's a better system in your eyes?
Yeah, definitely learning it a little more. The 450s are a finicky bike for sure to set up, but it's just a later model. We ran a great ECU, it's been 20 years I guess at HRC. So it's as good as it's going to get. Whereas the GET has a lot more control abilities on start maps and so forth like that. So we believe that it's only normal, you'll struggle for a little while because it's something new, but in the end you believe it's going to be a better package, because when you go to MotoGP or Formula one and so forth like that, any car racing, our industry is so far behind on electronics and ECU control. I think that's one area our sport can progress. So I'm hoping that we can yeah, be a bit in front of some of the people we're racing.
Seth Hammaker has gone to the Farm there to work with you. He's a really good kid, really nice. He's giving you guys a credit. You know, Michael Byrne yourself, everybody else, he talks about how you've helped him maybe change some riding posture to stay away from crashing. And we were laughing because obviously Chance Hymas is there and he's Honda and we're like, can you imagine Chance being like, "Hey Darren maybe stop helping him! Because I'm trying to race Seth!" But we've been laughing!
[Laughs] Yeah, ole "Chunk Boy" [Hymas] had a baseball bat the other day. I don't know what that was about. He looked at me a little funny out the side of his eye!
No, Byrner is doing an unreal job. The same dude every day. Black and white, let's do the work, lads. And he's done unreal with Seth. But Seth is just a little older, you know, Chunk's got unbelievable speed, but man he's just not quite there yet. He'll put all the pieces of pie together one day and and all of a sudden like, "Oh, wow, where's Chance Hymas come from?" Well, that Chance Hymas has come from the last two years of just working shit out. I look at all these kids. They're all someone's son, you know? I try to treat them all the same as though, hey, if those parents can't be there, I'd like to try to make sure I'm doing the right thing by the parents. And I say it quite often to a couple of kids there, [Laughs] "I like your old man better than you, so shut up and do what you're told!"
Can you change things with Seth? I'm a little skeptical, Darren. Like, I feel like with the millions of hours someone puts in, they kind of are what they are. But tell me, tell you, tell me. Can you change Seth to not crash as much?
Yes. We have!
True. You're right. Yeah. He's not crashed!
He's overachieved. There's no winning championships this year. This year was just stay on the bike set. Let's just get a year under our belt. To change muscle memory, it's 30 times a day for 30 days. Changes muscle memory. Seth just listened. I'd go out there and I'd go out Sundays, obviously, and prep the tracks on Sunday afternoons for Monday and he'd be out there on pit bike doing his circles, doing his rudiments that we did more on 65s and 85s and still do to today. All your basics. I've told every kid at the farm the same stuff, but Seth took it on board and dedicated his time to it. And that's why you love and respect the kid.
And it's awesome to see Chance win. Obviously it was a complete mudder, but hey, a win's a win. I feel like just when Chance gets going outdoors indoors, boom, injury sets him back. I feel like we just got to get him going for a number of races, you know?
So true. His techniques good. His posture's good. Like it's all there. But just sometimes it's going to take them a little while to put all the pieces of pie together. Jett had good success early, you know, but not like young Cole Davies! He has blown me out of the water! Unreal, that kid. I've seen BT [Ben Townley] work with him heaps. And then our old coach from way back in the day, Greg Moss worked with him back when he was a little tacker. It's just good to see a kid achieve goals. You know, there's so much crap in this world and negativity, and it's good to see a kid that put in the work and achieve some goals. It feels good in the heart, you know?
I don't think I've ever asked you this, Darren, but like obviously the boys have been on different teams at different times. But in America, do you see, hey, if Hunter gets a better offer here or Jett gets something down the road, do you see separating them on different teams and letting that happen?
I do. I think we'd be stupid not to entertain it. You know Jett is obviously pretty secured in with HRC.
Yeah I would think Honda's going to throw everything they have. But yeah.
For sure. And Hunter's probably one of the ones that if I can keep building him to what I know he can be, I think he can be a little bit of a threat for Jett. Not as naturally talented as Jett or naturally gifted, but man, he's a gritty bugger, you know? So he will never, never say die. So no, I think we would entertain it, Steve. And then it would just come to that conclusion. Because obviously we're involved with the boys quite on their bikes and so forth. The team that's interested in Hunter, would they be happy to allow me to be involved with them? And it's not like I get in and tell them what I want. I just want to be able to be involved and talk and communicate what I think Hunter likes and just as a team. In essence of the word team: let's work together to be better. Not like these a lot of things have you know it's the riders versus a team. I think that's the wrong mentality. You have to come together and you win together or you lose together.
