Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Eli Tomac made it three 450MX overall wins in a row during the sixth round of the 2022 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship at Southwick, as Team Honda HRC’s Jett Lawrence bounced back in 250MX with a double victory to retake the red plate. Both riders were available to the media after the races for this Debrief feature.

450MX

Image: Octopi Media.

Four straight moto wins, now you’ve closed it down within one point of the red plate. What is it about the middle of the season that gets you going?

Well, for me, early on, I’m usually, well at least this year, first race, it’s the first race on the Yamaha. Of course I was off from where I felt comfortable and then we figured it out as a team, getting into a comfortable position. Now it’s just working on all conditions for the motorcycle and having that trust is so important, just to make everything go the right way. I’m in the meat of the season of these tracks that I really enjoy riding, so mentally it’s like, if you’re looking forward to something it usually goes in a better direction. We’re just in a couple of rounds I really enjoy riding.

You seem very confident and have secured the problem with your knee. You obviously train a lot, how much of your training is on bicycles? 

Well for me, the knee problem is pretty much in the past, it’s not on my mind, I don’t really think about it and it’s not bothering me riding. So that is that. Then on bicycles, I only spend time on my MTB, I’m afraid to ride the road.

How are the bike setups different from say a Hangtown to Southwick?

Well, first off, everyone goes with the paddle tire. Tire is a big deal, and then you just relax the motorcycle a little bit. I think most guys do that and I relaxed it a little bit, take a little bit out of the shock. I actually even played around with fork height in the practice and it didn’t work and I went back to my base. Some years I slide my forks here, some years I don’t. But today most important was a little bit out on the shock and the paddle tire.

Little out of it, you actually took some compression out of it?

Yeah, I did.

I asked a lot of people both in the industry and just fans, who would their picks be for the Nations (MXoN). Chase and Eli were the top two for 450. Now, with you guys being so close in points, is that on your mind at all? Or are you focused on the season first?

Yeah, we know it’s going to come, right? The question is going to come if we can race it, so at this point, we’re the two best guys and I think we should assume we’re going to get chosen for it.

Let’s say you two [Tomac and Sexton] are picked, who would you want as the 250 rider?

That’s hard, I think we wait a couple of races and see what happens with that 250 class. It’s all we can do.

450’s running first. Normally you guys are the last couple races with the NBC show. You guys have run first, 250 is last. Do you notice a difference in the track and how rough it gets?

Yeah, maybe moto one is a little bit smoother. Moto two, it’s a little bit. It’s not a huge deal, in my opinion.

250MX

Image: Octopi Media.

Jett, you had a great day. Tell us about your day a little bit.

It started off pretty well, qualifying was funny, before I even went out, I already had a flow in my mind, you could say. I already felt like I knew the flow and I went out and just flowed with the track straight away and I was just having a lot of fun. I was pretty amped to get into the racing, it looked like it was going to form up pretty nice, I was excited for that and getting both really good starts. The second one had a really good reaction butI got a bit excited and ended up coming across a bit too early and I was in at least more than half of the straight in the really soft stuff. I ended up screwing myself a bit. But I cut under and was able to get another holeshot, I think that’s the most holeshots I’ve ever gotten in a day, or in my career being pro. So, I’m pumped, and yeah, I just gelled with the track today. Just felt like at home when I was in Lommel really, just kind of flowing, just trying to keep the bike light and just having a good time.

What was the deal with that start? I watched you, you got shot out of a cannon, you were way out like it almost surprised you. Something happened, about ten bike lengths out of the gate. You had a clear holeshot and went sideways from there. You were able to salvage it, but tell us what happened.

I was talking to Jo [Shimoda] after in the little tent behind the podium. I’m like, ‘did you flinch or something?’ I swear something moved that made me flinch, and when I released the clutch a little bit, I had seen the gate actually drop. So, I just stayed committed, I don’t think if you asked me to do it again, I bet you 100 bucks I couldn’t. I ended up getting a really good jump. I’m like, ‘yeah, sweet!’ But because I surprised myself a little bit, I was a smidge off balance. I’m like, ‘well, I at least better stay committed with it.’ I started going a bit right, but Justin [Cooper], he got out and stayed in that rut. That’s why it’s a very important thing to get practice starts and to get a good jump and stay straight. In the actual start it’s very important to stay in that rut, because it’s not as soft. I ended up getting out of it, so, I got a bit excited and Justin ended up pulling back past me. But I was able to cut under in the first turn and remake that position back, you could almost say. Then it was not smooth sailing from there, but it was definitely nice not to get roosted on the first lap.

With the 450s going first, the second moto for you guys was probably a pretty beat track. Did you guys notice a big difference there or was it just a little bit of lines differently formed up from the guys before you?

Yeah, sand track is not the funnest to go after 450s. In sand, their lines are so much different to ours, for a 250, we’re trying to carry as much speed as we can in and around turns. For them, they come in kind of point, shoot, and go. So, it creates a real massive hook, where for us 250s, we’re like off the back, clutching it, trying to get out of the sand. So, it definitely made it difficult for sure.

Your formidable years of riding, you were living in Europe, based in Belgium, riding Lommel with the world’s best sand riders. Do you feel like that’s an advantage for you? That growing up, every day you probably saw everybody from [Jeffrey] Herlings to [Tony] Cairoli to whoever was based near the Lommel tracks. You got to ride with those guys, do you feel like that’s an advantage for you?

Yeah, 100 percent. The biggest thing is, it’s still such different sand, in a way. In Europe, the sand is a lot bigger grain, it’s a lot heavier, so you can hit it and your bike won’t go through it as much. Where over here, if you hit it, but if you come into a turn hot and bury the bike, you’re most likely to completely destroy the turn. It’s such different sand to Europe, but there’s so many more things that you can take away from Europe. I was riding since like 85s there at Lommel, I had seen Jeffrey a lot riding a lot there, Max Anstie, he’s a really good sand rider. Like you said, Antonio Cairoli. So, as a young kid, especially watching them, you just can pick up so much small things and so much information from it. Them being nice guys they were able to kind of help a little bit every now and then, or they’d say, ‘you’re on the same path as I was when I was younger’? So, it was nice to have that as your backyard in Europe, for sure.

The red plate going back on the bike. You got to love that.

The bike definitely looked a bit weird, number one plate with no red background looks kind of weird, for sure. I don’t like it, it looks a little weird. But I wish I could have earned it back a little bit better. Hunter [Lawrence] didn’t have the best day, getting cross jumped again. Almost a similar thing to what I had last year, by another Husqvarna, so it kind of sucks. He looks a bit like me now with the chipped tooth, it’s kind of funny, calling him Lloyd. It’s nice to have it back, like you said. It’s nice to have it back, but I just wish I could’ve earned it back in a bit of a different way, more of a challenge with him being up there and that stuff would’ve been nicer. But it’s good to have it back.

So, your brother has a chipped tooth?

Yeah, he looks a bit like Lloyd now. It’s pretty funny, it’s massive, it’s good.