On the opening lap of Race 3 in the Triple Crown format in St. Louis Missouri, Justin Barcia made hard contact with Jett Lawrence, sending the points’ leader to the ground and contributing to his first Monster Energy Supercross loss in four weeks.
On Monday, Barcia took to Instagram to describe the incident from his perspective.
“Just wanted to touch back on Saturday night real quick,” Barcia said. “I’m sure everyone has seen the crash already. Anyone who knows dirt bikes knows that was a racing incident — not intentional by any means. It was such a bummer.”
Lawrence made a sharp left hand turn and was sitting directly in front of the charging Barcia, who was apparently aiming for the far end of the berm in an effort to bank of it.
“Early on in the laps, you’re just racing hard and I came in super-hot; Jett came down and it was a wrong place, wrong time situation,” Barcia continued.
A visibly upset Barcia stopped momentarily to look over to where Lawrence lay on the course before firing his bike and resuming the race. Barcia went on to finish 10th in Race 3 and sixth overall. Lawrence remounted but lost laps in the process and finished 21st — the last rider in the race after Adam Cianciarulo scratched because of an earlier incident.
Jett Lawrence down hard 😱
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After the race, Barcia was seen talking to Lawrence. Neither rider was agitated.
Barcia then went to the hauler to speak to the crew.
“I spoke to Jett after the race,” Barcia said. “He completely understood what happened. He knew I didn’t do that intentionally, but I felt like I wanted to go over to the Honda truck and talk to the whole crew. And yes, everyone was obviously really upset — on our crew as well. It was just a bummer.
“It took us all out of the race so that was absolutely disappointing, but everyone is understanding and knew it wasn’t intentional and that’s not my style so I’m glad we can move on from this. Jett’s okay—healthy. I’m okay and healthy. Luckily Jett’s a grown man and a great racer and understood the situation and we can put it beside us and go racing in a couple of weeks.”
In a post-race recap of Round 12, Jett Lawrence also addressed the situation.
“It’s just a sucky situation,” Lawrence said. “I just cut down under Hunter [Lawrence], and obviously Barcia was defending his line from someone else on the inside of him—just wrong place, wrong time.
“He kind of hit my arm pretty good; I got a gnarly Charlie horse. He hit some nerve in my arm, where I kind of lost feeling and strength in my hands. That’s why I was trying to get up and get going early, but I physically couldn’t—I had no strength. It is what it is.”
With the crash and 21st-place finish, Lawrence was credited with eighth-place overall. He finished second and third in the first two races.
The incident allowed Cooper Webb, who finished second overall in the Triple Crown format, to cut Lawrence’s points’ lead to eight.
“Thankfully we had a bit of a buffer on second,” Lawrence continued. “We’ve got a break, we’ll come back stronger. We’ve got five races to go.”
Team manager Lars Lindstrom added a further perspective.
“It was a crazy night, but all in all, coming away without serious injuries, a season-best second-place finish for Jo, and a career-first podium for Hunter was something to be happy about” Lindstrom said. “We’ll take this next weekend off to recover and come back ready to finish the season off even stronger.”
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