Round 15 of the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross Championship took place at Nissan Stadium in Nashville on Saturday and it was Team Honda HRC’s Chase Sexton who reigned supreme in 450SX, keeping his championship hopes alive. In 250SX East, Hunter Lawrence had a dream weekend, wrapping up both the round win and the championship. Both riders were available to the media following the races for this Debrief feature.

450SX

Image: Octopi Media.

Chase, congrats on the win. It was a day race again today, how do you deal with the early start time and how did you feel throughout the day?

It’s super cool to be here, we haven’t been here since 2019. For me, the day races have been working out. But again I felt tired all day, but by the main event, I felt solid. The track was really gnarly and I felt like I rode a solid main event. It’s awesome. I felt like the crowd was pretty loud, especially toward the last couple of laps when Eli [Tomac] and I were kind of going back and forth a bit. The crowd was pretty vocal and I feel like we have a pretty good turnout.

What’s the process like for the next couple of weeks, while you’re still mathematically in this championship? But you also know the Pro Motocross Championship is coming. How do you balance that?

I’ve actually been riding outdoors once a week for the last couple weeks. I’m not fully shifting my mindset for outdoors, but definitely starting to prepare. I’m still on the same setup I was last year, so it’s a pretty smooth transition. It’s been fun switching it up, it helps with supercross, corner speed comes back. I think it also helped for this race. Outdoors you have to pick lines and the tracks get torn up. A track like this, it was torn up. outdoors just kind of opens up your mind a little bit.

Talk about the track conditions. It was really beat up.

Yeah, I think we had kind of similar conditions the last two weekends. Obviously, last week it rained, but before that, it was really hard-packed, but it had soft pockets as well. Today started out a little wet in practice, just from watering and the rain the last few days. It got dry and you had those soft pockets and the dragon back got really chewed, the last whoop was like a wall, you had to get good speed going off it and you couldn’t back it down at all. As far as the whoops, they’ve been small the last two weeks, but I think they get sketchier like that, they get like these inverted cups at the top. I had a good line in the main event that saved me, I was skimming and then I would triple out. All day I was not super comfortable in those.

You’re now up to second in points. So what’s your mindset from here forward?

Yeah, my mindset remains the same, like Eli said, a lot of things can happen, but he’s got a big points gap. Now that Cooper didn’t race tonight it moved me into second. I just want to go out there and put my best foot forward and try to win these last three races. That’s the goal. We’ll see what happens. My riding has been good and I’m just stoked with how I’m riding these rougher tracks these last few weeks. It’s been a struggle I guess the middle part of the season just making mistakes. I’m just riding better in the second half of the moto. Just stoked on that.

You’ve just won the fifth main event of your career. How does that feel?

Yeah, five wins doesn’t feel like a lot when you’re sitting next to [Eli Tomac and Ken Roczen].

When we have a race like today and you see riders dropping out and getting injured, does that creep into your mind a little bit?

Yeah it’s tough, losing guys, especially this late in the series. You have to be on your game on tracks like that. It makes it more of a prize to be focused on. That’s how I try to look at it, you try to look at the positives and not the negatives.

How do you feel about the upcoming Pro Motocross Championship? And how do you compare that to Supercross?

I’m definitely excited, I had a good outdoor season last year and the confidence is higher than it was last year. As far as Supercross, I’m definitely getting more confidence. It was definitely a learning curve, but I feel we’re getting closer and closer to where we need to be. Outdoors, I rode it two weeks ago and I felt like a fish out of water. On Tuesday I had a really good day, I rode two motos and I got my confidence back, it didn’t take too long, it was fun. You’re riding in Florida and it’s sandy and when you come back to the house you’re covered in sand, so it’s fun and I’m looking forward to a good summer.

There are only two races to go and the points gap is pretty big, do you find it hard to find the motivation to push beyond your limits?

I would actually say it’s the opposite. I don’t want to ride over my head by any means, but if I have an opportunity in front of me to win, that’s what I’m going to do. With Eli, with the way this track was, with how sketchy it was, I knew he wasn’t going to push to where if I pushed him he wasn’t going to fight back. I started just clicking off my laps and I had a good flow, I didn’t feel sketchy at all. I’m offensive on the mentality side right now, that’s the position I am in, where he has 18 points to play with.

250SX

Image: Octopi Media.

Congratulations! It’s got to be cool for you to be here right now. You said on the podium that you didn’t think this was possible, you couldn’t even dream it. Did you really not think this was possible, because a lot of kids grow up and think they can get there? Was it that hard for you to realise at all points until now? 

Yeah, I mean I said that as a kid growing up, I can’t say I dreamed of it as a kid because it was something I just watched on TV when you are a kid. Especially in Australia, the sport is not that big. You kind of don’t realise that you could have a career doing this. Dad works and you just have to get a normal job, that is kind of like how life is. It’s only really since I left Australia to go to Europe that I was like ‘oh man, I’d love to do this one day or achieve it’. As a kid growing up, it was never like ‘oh dude I want to be an AMA Supercross champion, it was just like the guys you watch on TV, get friends over on a Saturday night, it was just like so far away. So yeah, it’s crazy.

At some point you are in Europe, you get the phone call that it’s happening, you are coming here. Do you remember that day, what it was like, and just maybe what the emotions were like realising that a new chapter was about to begin, and it would possibly lead to this? 

It wasn’t like the emotions that you maybe thought, it was like… I was really happy in the GPs, the stage and everything was crazy good. I was happy to spend more time there, because I wanted to become world champ there. When we got it [the call], it was kind of like ahh yeah we need to stay one more year, we signed the year before we left. It was just like… when you think you’re not ready to jump, jump, because I just feel like it always seems to work out in the end, whether it is business or life stuff or sport. When you don’t feel 100 percent ready to jump into something, I think that’s the perfect time to do it.

You had some injuries, didn’t even get into Supercross. Thought you were healthy, 2020, outdoors opener about an hour from here at Loretta’s and then you thought that may be the end. Can you share that story? 

Yeah, Wes actually pointed out, he goes ‘it’s funny dude, Tennessee’, I completely forgot it was even in Tennessee. Yeah, 2020 I was done, it was Cynthia, my Dad and Johnny in the Geico truck, and I had dislocated my shoulder for the second time, needed a fourth surgery within gee, seven months, and I was like done. You know every time you get injured, you work so hard, you do extra to get back to where you believe, and where you should be, and to just over and over again get knocked down with injuries, sometimes not even crashing, I was in such a bad spot and it was like I’m done, we will just support Jett. He’s got what it takes and I’ll just support Jett. It was probably two or three days after I was like ‘no okay, I’m going to come back and keep doing this’. So a little bittersweet, this Tennessee, Nashville, not far from here was the place that almost broke me and today I win my first championship, so it’s cool.

Seems like a long journey watching you in EMX250 to get to where you are now. Does this feel like the culmination of your journey or the beginning of you collecting championships? 

I’d like to say both. Obviously, I have been the guinea pig of Jett and I through Europe and stuff and getting to here, I’d like to think it’s the start of a great career and absolutely, you can’t help but think of all of the sacrifice and everything we went through in Europe. It sucked, but there were core people that stuck by us, and then you know, our circle and crew here. I think that is what makes it so special for everyone, because I was kind of the crash test dummy to come through, so I had a lot of ups and downs and the same crew of people that we have with us are the ones who were with us when we were at rock bottom. I think that makes it that much sweeter for everyone.

Elaborating on what Jason Weigandt said earlier, was that the closest point of your career to walking away from it. Secondly, just talk about the Gibson collaboration, how that came about and what it means to you on such a special day. 

It was, absolutely. Like I said, I was done. In Europe, we kind of got screwed over by some teams, and Mum and Dad went through all of the money that they had left from selling the house. Nan and Pop sent us money to support us staying over there, obviously, we went through that just because of living costs and travel and stuff like that. So a lot of that stuff, it doesn’t wear on you, but it kind of does in the back of your mind. Then they are supporting you and we are chasing this dream, and you get beat down so many times, you finally think maybe it’s not for me. Like I said, support Jett, get a normal job and just work through that, but it wasn’t long after, thankfully, I can say that I got back to it. The Gibson collab this weekend was rad, Nashville Gibson is located here and Tool is my favourite band and I don’t even think they are real human beings, I think they are aliens. Everything they do is just so inspiring and honestly makes my life better. I never wanted anything in return, just wanted them to know I’m thankful for what they put out to the world and to do the collab with a hero is something that no one has ever really done in the sport with a brand, a company like Gibson. From the moment we touched down in Nashville, it has just been magical, with Caesar and his family, the hospitality has been amazing and yeah, it’s cool to wrap it up like this.

On the broadcast there, it looked like you almost tagged the start gate. Do you remember that, and can you just take us through it? 

[Laughs] Yeah I did. It went back right to the second qualifying session, they dropped the gate so fast, so heat race and the main, normally I’m not ready to go as soon as the five board is turned, but for the main I was. It’s tough, because when you are like concentrating at one small bar, for like the full five seconds, you get like ansty and you are like ‘did it move?’ I was surprised my start was as good as it was with jumping that hard.

What was the key to becoming a champion this year, compared to say last year, and coming up to the motocross championship, how do you feel? 

Last year, the start of the season I think is where I let it go away. Obviously the end, I won a lot, and the starts we really, really worked on it, a lot. Same with outdoors last year, my starts put me in some bad positions, you know, and that is the same thing we are going into this year. Obviously, looking forward to the outdoors. We’ve been doing a lot of training and stuff on the outdoors, haven’t really been riding Supercross at all. Just kind of trying to stay in the moment, enjoy it a little bit because come to Monday it will be focus on outdoors.

You talked about your inner circle and the people that have been with you the whole time. We talk about your Dad, Dazzy, here and there. Can you take us through his influence on you and how detailed he is with your program, and how much it means for you to have him here as involved as he is, and of course probably how important it is to him and how it feels to him knowing that you have accomplished this? 

Yeah it’s tough. He is a pretty tough guy, so he doesn’t really show emotion, unless he is pissed off. He does that one really well, but like obviously we have earnt it, it’s not like abuse or anything so you can chill [laughs]. But yeah emotional stuff, he doesn’t wear it too much. I think that rubs off on Jett and I, just being such a rock. If I didn’t have my Dad, I don’t think I would have come back to the sport. Like in 2020, when I wanted to quit, if my Dad wasn’t such a rock and how he raised us, and how he brought me and Jett up to be the men we are now, it transfers over into everything we do. Every aspect of life is from that, and I think it is… I think we are pretty good guys. I’d like to say that we wouldn’t be who we are without our Dad. I mean I hope he is happy [laughs], I know Jett has three more titles to my one but I hope he is still happy for my first one. But yeah we are just trying to see him get a little wild tonight.