Team Honda HRC’s Jett Lawrence continued his winning ways in the 450MX class with another 1-1 at Thunder Valley to remain unbeaten to date in the 2023 Pro Motocross Championship, while elder brother Hunter Lawrence managed to extend his 250MX points-lead with a third overall win of the year. Both riders were available to the media after the races for this Debrief feature.

450MX

Image: Octopi Media.

Jett, congratulations on another win. Tell us a little bit about your day… It went pretty well perfect.

It was a really good day. Now I’m just getting more and more confident with my bike and my bike is getting better each week. During the week we keep making small touches to it just to try and get it better and better, so if I do need to go hard, it can handle it, but if I’m just trying to maintain my pace at a slower track kind of like this, it handles great. My first start was a little bit iffy. I just squeezed away with that. Then my second start was even better than that. So, I was pumped with that. I’m just glad I didn’t get roosted, man. That was my biggest motivation on that start. I didn’t want to get roosted, I was yelling at lappers, I was swerving left to right trying not to get roosted by lappers and that, the roost here hurts. I felt like I did not too bad dodging it. Good day.

Speaking of the dirt here, this place started out as a track in the ’80s. They’ve been mixing more woodchips in, and they’ve been mixing horse manure. Do you feel like it’s helping the track conditions, now that you’ve raced here three times?

Where they’ve added it, it actually makes it a lot more slippery, I would say. Then obviously when it gets a little bit of rain, like we got a little bit of a sprinkle in that second moto. It kind of made it even a little slipperier. A little bit is not too bad, it still has that main clay dirt. I think more the top sections besides that very long straight, going up to the Thunder Valley sign. All the little s-bends there are really good because it’s still more mainly dirt, it feels like mostly. But then in spots, it’s nice having the mulch. It just kind of changes it up a bit, something different, instead of just getting a single rut, it kind of changes the feel up a little bit.

Next week, High Point for you. If you had to rate that track in the top 11 of the series tracks that we go to, where does it fit in your favorites?

I would definitely say it’s up in the top five. It’s one of those tracks where they’ve used the elevation there and the mountain side to perfection, almost. The track flows so awesome. It’s almost kind of more like a European track there. There’s not too many big obstacles, there’s obviously a few that makes it more American style, but all the stuff is pretty fun. I haven’t had to ride it on a 450 yet, so I’m so excited to race there. In the past times I’ve been there on a 250, it’s been fun on that. So, I don’t believe it’s not going to be fun for me there. Now we’ve got more horsepower, so it should be good.

Speaking of horsepower, do you feel it? 250s you definitely feel it here at the elevation in Lakewood, but on the 450, did you notice it?

Yeah, I noticed it quite a bit. Normally I’m used to the bike leading me out of turns, whereas here it doesn’t. I could kind of hold my weight a little bit more. The altitude affects it a lot more here than I feel like Salt Lake City. Salt Lake is still high but not as high as here, so I feel like it gets affected a lot more here. Especially with the start, here we start with first gear. Second gear is very rarely even an option, just because we’re so high up here, but I definitely feel it.

250MX

Image: Octopi Media.

Hunter, nice job today! Tell us how your day went and talk about the track a little bit.

It was good, it was a really tricky track compared to last year with how much moisture is underneath the dirt. So, the bumps and all the ruts had a lot of just super soft, spongey areas which made it tough. It just grabbed the bike a lot, but I’m happy to get out of here with a win, can’t complain too much.

Third-straight win overall. When are you going to get that 1-1? Is it even on your mind or do you not actually care how you get the overall?

For sure. Everyone wants a 1-1, right? But we take it, just keep putting ourselves in good positions and it’ll be what it’ll be.

Each year this track seems to be getting softer and softer. What are your thoughts on the direction that the dirt is going at Thunder Valley?

I think it’s good we’ve got so much diversity in our series because a champion should be the best all-rounded rider, so I think it’s good. Pala and Hangtown are similar, but different in their own unique ways, but the woodchips here definitely throw a curveball, especially in the morning when it’s wet. You look at the dirt and you’re like, ‘oh, there’s so much grip’, but it’s actually quite slippery when there’s moisture in it. They’re doing what they can do to keep changing it up and stuff, but I’m sure it’s tough. They said they had a lot of rain the past few months to work the track and have any dry dirt to work the wet stuff into.

Next week we head off to Mt. Morris. How do you feel about the High Point track?

It’s definitely pretty high up there – the country club of motocross, it’s a beautiful place. First east coast race, so it’s good. Someone asked me the other day, ‘what’s your favorite track?’ and it’s tough to pick a favorite track, because the outdoors are such a suffer-fest. A lot of them are like, ‘this track, it’s a cool layout, but it’s always so hot and stuff’… But it’s definitely up there, for sure.