Jett Lawrence closed out the year with his 11th sweep of 2023 in Pro Motocross and became the first rookie in history to score a perfect season. He is the third rider to score a perfect season.
“It doesn’t feel real,” Lawrence told NBC Sports’ Jason Thomas. “I started off so nervous in the gate. I don’t know how I ended up leading the first lap but also I saw Dylan (Ferrandis) go down (in Moto 2) and it looked pretty bad.”
James Stewart was the latest rider to achieve perfection in 2008 and he interviewed Lawrence from the booth.
"(Nerves) were through the roof,” Lawrence continued. “I was pushing so hard the whole time because I could see he was there. I had one really scary moment down Godzilla, I got cross-rutted and I had no chance of staying on the track. I had to go off. Heartrate was at least 240.”
Finishing second in both motos, Chase Sexton did all he could to deny his teammate Lawrence from the perfect season. It was not enough.
“I feel like Jet toughed the game a little bit,” Sexton said. “I had to catch up when I came back to RedBud. I feel like I’ve been getting better, but Jett has also gotten better. I’ll go back to work. You haven’t seen the last of me winning.
“We have some exciting things coming up.”
It is widely rumored that Sexton will move to Red Bull KTM in 2023.
Aaron Plessinger, who renewed with KTM earlier this year, rounded out the podium.
“I love these second motos,” Plessinger said after finishing fifth in Moto 1 and third in Moto 2. “I ride way better in the second motos, so I have to figure out the first ones and come back for SuperMotocross.”
In the 250 class, Hunter Lawrence clinched that championship in Moto 1 giving Honda a sweep of 2023 championships.
Despite the 22-point gap to start the round, Hunter and Justin Cooper made the 250 championship exciting. Both riders got a terrible start in Moto 1, but Lawrence kept his bike upright and Cooper crashed. Finishing ahead of Cooper. Lawrence clinched the title with one race remaining.
“Congrats to Hunter,” Jett said after wrapping up his perfect season. “I don’t think anyone deserved it more. Those guys with two DNFs went one and two. It was an awesome season. Everything was against him in the 250 season, but he came out on top.”
Jo Shimoda swept the motos and in doing so, gave Kawasaki their first overall win of the season and kept a streak alive of at least one win each year since 1982.
Haiden Deegan was mathematically eliminated from the title a couple of rounds ago after some disappointing motos that included a mechanical failure. He crossed the finish line second.
“I’ll be honest, I woke up this morning sick as a dog,” Deegan said after finishing second. “One of those when you don’t want to get up at all, but you know me: I’ll keep fighting to the end but we were able to get second overall. The first loser, but I’m still happy.”
With a third in Moto 1 and fourth in Moto 2, Tom Vialle takes the last spot on the podium.
Jett Lawrence flinches with the gate drop, but it doesn’t matter. He gets to the lead in the first few turns of Lap 1. Lawrence has nerves of steel.
Dyland Ferrandis got the holeshot, but threw it away and allowed Lawrence and Chase Sexton to get by. Aaron Plessinger follows into third.
Jerry Robin limps into it for observation. Ferrandis retires but is okay.
Lawrence is riding well, but he has not stretched much of a gap. With 24 minutes on the clock, Sexton is within two seconds.
A replay shows that Lawrence made a bold move after flinching at the gate. He shot into a hole that would not have been there if Plessinger had not ridden off course in Turn 2.
At the halfway point, Lawrence holds a four second lead on Sexton. They’ve been the class of the field this season and hold a sizable advantage over Plessinger, who is 16 seconds behind the leader.
Lawrence jumps off course with nine seconds remaining but retains the lead. Sexton is within three seconds.
Just that quickly, Sexton also goes off course.
Sexton can see Lawrence with five minutes remaining. Can he catch him?
A lapped rider currently in the top 20, Bryce Shelly, slows Lawrence. To be fair, he slows Sexton as well.
Two minutes on the clock. Lawrence leads Sexton by 2.7 seconds. Plessinger is third, 38 seconds behind. Jason Anderson and Justin Barcia round out the top five.
Time runs off the clock. They’ll finish this lap and go two more. Lawrence now leads by 4.3 seconds.
White flag. Lawrence is one lap away from perfection with 3.6-second lead.
Lawrence wins and keeps his perfect season alive before ghost-riding his bike across the top of the next jump.
Perfection.
Hunter Lawrence has already clinched the championship, but he wants to go out in style with a Moto 2 win.
Ryder DiFrancesco rockets out of the gate and captures the holeshot for the second time today.
Fellow Kawasaki rider Jo Shimoda follows in second. If Shimoda captures the overall, he keeps the manufacturer’s streak alive of winning a round every season since 1982.
Levi Kitchen, who was the fastest qualifier this morning, battles with Shimoda and takes second. The top three are within a two seconds of each other.
After another poor start, Lawrence runs in 11th with 24 minutes remaining. He has nothing to lose by staying safe and healthy.
Shimoda battles Kitchen and makes the pass on the outside with 23 minutes remaining. Now Shimoda puts his sight on his teammate DiFrancesco.
DiFrancesco and Shimoda continue to battle, they’ve been neck-and-neck for more than a lap.
Shimoda finally makes it past DiFrancesco with 19 minutes remaining and starts to pull away.
DiFrancesco leaves it open and Kitchen moves into second place.
Justin Cooper follows the battle in fourth, trying to make up from his crash in the start of Moto 1.
Rookie Julien Beaumer runs seventh halfway though Moto 2 before falling out of the top 10 quickly. Something must be wrong. Heartbreaking moment after a strong start in one of his first races.
DiFrancesco falls to sixth with Tom Vialle and Haiden Deegan passing him.
Kitchen goes down while running in third. The rider is slow to get up but medics are there.
With Kitchen’s crash Vialle moves into third.
Kawasaki team manager Mitch Payton was interviewed midrace about the team’s late-season turn around: “We found something around Southwick that is quite a bit better, they’ve all got to ride it, they like and that’s what we’re running. (it’s) definitely better on starts.”
With four minutes remaining they run: Shimoda, Cooper, Vialle, Deegan and DiFrancesco to round out the top five.
Aaron Forkner, whose first race of the combined SuperMotocross season was in Round 6 at Millville, runs in 12th and has worked his way into the top 30 of combined points to put him into the LCQ during the SuperMotocross Playoffs.
And just like that, Forkner hits a bump and endoes off the bike landing on his stomach. It’s taking a moment for Forkner to catch his breath and return to his bike, falling out of a points-paying position. He’ll have to wait until Monday to see if some of the riders between 21st and 30th cannot make the playoffs. If they cannot, he still has a shot at the playoffs.
Shimoda continues to lead as the clock expires. Cooper and Deegan follow.
Lawrence continues to run back in the ninth position on his way to claim his No. 1 plate.
Shimoda is only the second rider in the 250s this season to go 1-1 and gets Kawasaki its first overall of the season.
Cooper follows in second and Deegan in third. Deegan takes second overall with his third-place finish.
Crossing the finish line ninth, Lawrence officially claims his title, winning seven of eleven rounds of the outdoor campaign.
“First off, I’m tired,” Lawrence said after collecting his plate, “I’m looking forward to going back and relaxing.
“I’m so stooked, so honored to thank the team with five championships and the year’s not done. It’s unreal, everyone, Honda, Australia, my crew... this is ours we did it!”
Now Lawrence will join us all waiting to see if his brother can pull off the perfect season.
Now that Hunter Lawrence has clinched the 250 title, there’s one more thing for Honda to accomplish in the 2023 regular season: Jett Lawrence’s perfection. But first he has to win Moto 1.
Chase Sexton choses to start directly next to Jett Lawrence at the gate drop. Head games?
Lawrence pulls out to the lead with a huge jump at the gate and captures the holeshot; Adam Cianciarulo follows. Sexton is slow out of the gate and has to work from fifth.
Sexton finds his line and quickly makes it into the top three behind Aaron Plessinger as Cianciarulo falls to fourth.
At the end of the opening lap, Lawrence leads Plessinger by 1.5 second and Sexton is another half second behind.
With 27 minutes remaining, Sexton passes Plessinger for second. Sexton was faster than Lawrence on the opening lap by a hair, but Lawrence finds the speed on the second lap.
Dylan Ferrandis passes Garrett Marchbanks on the inside for sixth with 23 minutes remaining.
A third of the way through and Lawrence is still comfortably leading. Sexton had it down to almost a second before Lawrence stretches it out to 2.775.
Ferrandis passes Cianciarulo to move into the top five.
Halfway mark and Lawrence leads by more than five seconds. The closest battle is between Ferrandis and Plessinger and after about three fourths of a lap, Ferrandis finally finds his way around Plessinger for fourth.
With 13 minutes remaining Lawrence catches lapped traffic.
Ferrandis makes a huge leap off of Godzilla and lands hard but is able to keep the pace and make a pass on Jason Anderson for third place.
The clock expires, (two laps remain), and Lawrence leads 9.186 seconds over Sexton. Ferrandis follows in third. Anderson and Plessinger round out the top five.
Lawrence stays perfect!
We’re one race away from history for the young Australian rider. Sexton follows crossing the line 5.88 seconds behind. Ferrandis holds on to the final podium position followed by Anderson and Plessinger.
“You don’t usually get teammates lining up next to each other,” Lawrence responded when asked if Sexton’s gate pick affected him, “I just didn’t want to mess his start up.
“We’re both trying to go for a win he’s going to try to do whatever he can and I’m the same. We live for this. We want to finish on top but it puts the extra bit of pressure because if you don’t these guys close you out real fast.”
Ryder DiFrancesco holeshots and takes the early lead over Tom Vialle and Seth Hammaker.
Hunter Lawrence and Justin Cooper each get off to a slow start. Lawrence was slow out of the gate and behind Cooper when he crashed in Turn 2.
Lawrence was 17th during Lap 1; Cooper is at the back of the field.
On Lap 4, Cooper climbs into the points’ paying top 20, but as they run Lawrence in 14th has the points needed to clinch the 250 title.
With 20 to go, the fast Frenchman Tom Vialle takes the lead from DiFrancesco. Jo Shimoda climbs to third. One lap later, he’s up to second and has Vialle in sight.
Closing in on the halfway point, Lawrence is in the top 10 (25 seconds back); Cooper in 16th.
Haiden Deegan is now in third, Seth Hammaker and DiFrancesco round out the top five. Hammaker is battling to be in the top 20 in points and as they run, he’s there.
Shimoda takes the lead at the halfway point.
Deegan gets second with 11 minutes on the clock.
Lawrence gets another couple of positions with nine minutes remaining. He’s eighth to Cooper’s 14th.
At five minutes to go, Shimoda leads Deegan and Vialle. Lawrence is seventh.
With time running off the clock, Lawrence is up to sixth.
Shimoda holds onto the lead to win Moto 1. Deegan and Vialle take the other podium spots.
With a fifth-place finish, Lawrence clinches the 250 title.
“I saw the chaos in the second turn and I saw blue bikes and the 32,” Lawrence said. “And I was like, ‘damn that sucks’. I was laying back and being patient, trying not to rush anything. What a year. Never say die; never give up.”
Forkner finishes fourth and is a good spot to get his top 30 spot and an invitation to the SMX playoffs LCQ.
Lawrence earned enough points to clinch the title with one race remaining in the regular season.
Can Chase Sexton (1:47.774) finally put an end to Jett Lawrence’s (1:47.774) perfect season? He has a slight edge in Qualification 1. In only his second 450 Pro Motocross National, Dylan Wright (1:51.379) gets into the top 10 in this session.
Levi Kitchen (1:49.119) lays down the fastest lap in the first session for the 250 class as the fog starts to burn off at the Ironman National. Haiden Deegan (1:49.821), Seth Hammaker (1:49.982), Justin Cooper (1:50.042) and Jo Shimoda (1:50.692) round out the top five. Hunter Lawrence could clinch the 250 title in Moto 1 if he wins. He is sixth Qualification 1.
Kitchen’s time from the first qualification stands up and he is the fast qualifier.
Austin Forkner was 13th fastest in practice. Daxton Bennick was 14th. These two riders are fighting to be in the top 30 in points and get an invitation to the Last Chance Qualifiers in the playoffs.
For much of Qualification 2, it appeared Sexton might have the fastest overall lap, but Lawrence nips him at the end with a lap of 1:46.131 over Sexton’s 1:47.163.
Wright continued to be fast in Moto 2 with the seventh fastest time.
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