Round seven of the 2023 Pro Motocross Championship at Spring Creek saw Team Honda HRC’s Jett Lawrence take his 14th consecutive 450MX race win and the overall victory to continue his unbeaten streak. Meanwhile, in 250MX, teammate Hunter Lawrence was back to his winning ways, riding to 1-2 in the motos to take his fifth round win of the season. Both riders were available to the media after the races for this Debrief feature.

450MX

Image: Octopi Media.

Jett, same story again this weekend. 1-1 today, 14-straight moto wins to start off the year and now an 81-point championship lead. Tell us about your day and your thoughts on the track. It seemed to be prepped a little differently?

Yeah, the track was definitely a lot different from the previous years. I feel like it kind of favored a lot more in Chase’s technique, that more muscle and bulldog kind of style. He just has a bit of extra strength and can push through things a little more than I can. I have to time it. But yeah, another good day, qualifying was good. Qualifying is always fun for me because that’s when the track is at its best. Then, first moto with Chase, I didn’t have much for him… I just kind of like was just keeping it at my pace and I’m like, maybe we can flow a bit and keep him behind. And then second moto, I was looking forward to it, he got the start on me. We kind of went, not back and forth, but we were battling for those first few turns and that was fun and after we got through the rollers, it was kind of set like I was second. I’m like, alright, this one’s going to be an all-out battle the whole time. So I was looking forward to it. He ended up just sliding it and losing traction in that one turn. I was able to capitalize on that and he ended up going down. So, I mean, I’m not mad about it, [laughs]. It made it a little bit easier for me. I didn’t have to go all the way to the end, but another good weekend. Looking forward to Washougal, it’s another kind of first race for me on a 450, so it’s going to be a fun one.

Next week we go to Washougal, another track that has some high-speed sections on it and it’s a different style of dirt. Where does Washougal rank in favorite tracks in the US for you?

Um, it’s a hard one because racing it kind of sucks. If you get a good start, it’s sick. But, if you get a bad start, my gosh. I haven’t been there on a 450 yet, but I know that roost really hurts. So, we’re definitely going to try to get the starts at Washougal, because I don’t want to feel that 450 roost going up that next hill. But, just riding it, I feel like it’s one of the prettiest ones with all the trees, but racing it, I feel like it’s pretty low, [laughs].

After Washougal have a couple of weeks to relax. Do you have to go to Loretta Lynns at all? What are you going to do with your couple of weeks off Jett?

I know after Washougal, Lucas [Mirtl], Hunter and I are going to play some golf for his birthday. Maybe we’ll bring our friend Dylan [Ferrandis] here to play golf. He says he doesn’t like it. But, I reckon deep down, he practices. But, who knows? If our mate Jacob starts doing good at Lorretas and has a chance at a championship, Hunter and I might go down and support our boy on the last day. Maybe get a quick LL championship. We’ll see. Besides that, still training and maybe a few days off.

Jett, in moto two I think you said in the podium after moto one you were going to make some changes, maybe get better for the second moto. Do you feel it worked? Do you feel you were better in moto two?

Yeah, we ended up just going with a tire change and on the track it was really good. I felt like on the start I lost just that little bit, because Chase ran a paddle and you could just see on just those few spots where he just got that extra bit on that straight, like on the start. Things were pretty even but then, this extra bit where he just was able to get that extra wheel. But, just tire, and then Dazzy told me to let go of the brakes earlier, that’s why the suspension wasn’t working as good, [laughs].

And it worked?

Definitely. I felt a lot better in the second moto than the first one. I felt like I had some better lines in moto two, so I think that helped also.

250MX

Image: Octopi Media.

Hunter, you almost had a 1-1 result. You’ve taken over the points lead. You gained 18 points today on Haiden Deegan. Run us through your day and that little tip over at the end.

Yeah, it was a good day. Obviously, second moto, yeah I was tired at the end and then, jeez, I think I had four lappers in front of me. There were a few on the downhill and around that corner. They’ve got their own race going on, as I do. I made a last-minute split decision to miss them and I just pushed the front, washed the front into the face of the wall jump. So, it wasn’t ideal, then it kind of took me a bit to get up and going. I almost winded myself a bit and then I was trying to see where third place was and I didn’t know Jo [Shimoda] was there, and then I kind of heard him on the last section. I’m like, ‘alright crap, I gotta dig again’. So, it was close. But, all in all, a pretty good day.

We know you’ve been struggling with some rib injuries. That couldn’t have felt good falling on them. Did it reinjure your ribs?

Yeah, I’ve had pretty bad luck lately with always falling onto my left side. They always get a little bit better, and then you just reinjure them. So yeah, I gave them a good hit. Of course, we couldn’t land on the other side. But, all good we got Doctor G.

Today the track was prepped a little differently. It wasn’t quite as deep as it has been in the past. Going up for race two it looked like you had a more traditional style rear tyre on, then you changed back to the scoop after the sighting lap. Run us through your decision to change back.

Yeah, we went with the half-cut rear tyre for the sighting lap. We thought the track was getting really dry and hard with a lot of square edge bumps ina lot of places. So, we thought we had a pretty good plan with that. But then the sighting lap, they did enough dozer work and flattened a lot of things that made it softer than what it was. So, it was like, ‘alright, we don’t want to sacrifice the start’. So yeah, I went back to the scoop.

The sand section out there, what does it take to get through those whoops? Is it more technique based?

Yeah, good technique is obviously a huge part of getting through them well. That, combined with throttle control and gripping with your knees. Because, they got really gnarly at the end of the day, like super short faces and they were really steep. So, you don’t just want to hit it wide open, because you’re just going to get kicked sideways.