One month after a historic perfect rookie season in the Pro Motocross series, Jett Lawrence put his name in the record books once more with another slice of perfection. He swept the three 2023 championships available to him with a 250 SX West title, his 450 Pro Motocross title and was crowned the inaugural SuperMotocross World Champion after winning two of the three rounds.
It’s difficult to project back to his debut on a 450 bike at Fox Raceway in Pala, California when there was an open question about how he would compete against with the biggest names in the sport. It was quickly answered with a sweep of the motos. Lawrence then had four months to watch his confidence grow. He went most of the season with very minor challenges from the competition.
And then the clock reset.
The beginning of the SuperMotocross season is much fresher in everyone’s mind. There was uncertainty again because the three track layouts at zMax Dragway, Chicagoland Speedway and the Los Angeles Coliseum were unique to the sport and one another. But they each had major supercross elements and Lawrence was unproven in the 450 class in stadium racing.
“Each championship has their special moments, special feeling and what you learn,” Lawrence said after sweeping the motos at the Coliseum to take the overall victory and million-dollar championship. “Coming into the first (moto of Round 1), I got curb stomped to the teeth. I had nothing for the guys; the first one I missed the setup by a lot. The second (moto) I was able to figure it out, but it still wasn’t good enough. Chase (Sexton) was riding really well that day.”
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The competition closed in. Lawrence had a weakness; Sexton and Ken Roczen saw it and capitalized. For the first time since the 2023 Supercross finale at Salt Lake City, Lawrence was beaten at zMax and coupled with fewer bonus points for his combined SMX standing than Sexton, he was at a noticeable disadvantage.
The unique points system for SuperMotocross played into his favor. Lawrence won the overall despite a controversial decision to wave Roczen into first during the second moto.
Of the three tracks, Chicagoland was the most similar to a motocross-style track. Lawrence was almost in his element.
“Going into Chicago, it was a bit more outdoor-like,” Lawrence said. “One thing I found was (stadium racing is) so limiting for me. Outdoors you have a lot more room - there’s a lot more things I can get creative with where the last three rounds, everyone is doing the same stuff. It’s pretty basic; everyone is going fast so it’s hard to make up that big time.
“Small things like coming out of the turn and hitting a bump and it spins out a smidge, that’s a tenth or something. It might not be a massive mistake but that little less bit of traction going down a long straight makes a big difference. For us to just be up there you had to be perfect, hit your marks as best you can and when you make a mistake try and make that time back up.
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Lawrence remembers a time when he struggled, however. In his first Supercross season, he scored only podium. In the 2020 Motocross season he also scored just on podium, but it would set the tone for the remainder of his career. Lawrence won the season finale at Fox Raceway.
Lawrence won three times in 2021 SX East and finished third in the standings. Since then, he’s never failed to visit Victory Lane fewer than four times a season in Supercross or Motocross and has won every championship he’s attempted.
“But this (championship) definitely was a little bit better than outdoor because I got to learn how the guys race in stadiums, more so because I haven’t raced these guys in stadiums at all,” Lawrence said. “It was a learning curve for me next year in Supercross. I haven’t done a lot of Supercross stuff, even this was SuperMotocross, but it was pretty supercrossy and I haven’t done a lot of supercross testing - maybe a max of two weeks so I was excited to see how it was going to go and definitely thankful to leave on top.”