Jett Lawrence took a big step towards the 450SX crown with his seventh win of the season in Philadelphia while Max Anstie broke through for his first 250SX win of 2024. Both riders spoke with the media following the race in this Debrief feature.

450SX

Image: Octopi Media.

Jett, we were saying that track was hard to pass on but in the heat race you went down and made quite a few passes. Take us through that ride in the heat race and you’re wire-to-wire win in the main event.

The start in the heat wasn’t ideal. I was wanting to turn; I could see a little window I maybe wanted to sneak into, and I went to go turn and my body turned but the front wheel just pushed out and I couldn’t save it. I had to start from behind and I was able to find some places to pass and get through quite quickly. I had some close moments with other riders, but we were able to find our way through. Obviously in the main, we didn’t want to start that the same way, so we made sure to execute a good start. That Honda hooked up mint and it definitely made it a lot easier in that main.

Not only do you control your own fate, but you put Webb in a position where he doesn’t control his. Does that change anything for you in the last two rounds?

In my mind, the job still isn’t done. I’m going to try to focus each race like he is right there. I think that’s the better way to put it. If you go conservative, it’s probably not the best. We’re going to take it race by race. We could get dealt with situations that could be bad or it could go my way. We’ll see.

You were by yourself most of the race. What changed about the track and what lines did you have to switch up?

I was kind of able to take the same lines for most of it, more so in the rhythms. It kind of stayed the same. In the turns, I had to switch it up a bit because some of the lines blew out, other lines got too deep. Near the finish line, there were deep ruts there that had no traction, so I had to switch it up a bit to get that three-in. So, there was that, because obviously you could lose a lot of time there if you didn’t get that three before the sand turn. Not too many lines changed, it was more just lines blowing out, but you’d still end up taking mostly the same rut.

Jeffrey Herlings a few weeks ago said you’re now the fastest rider on the planet indoors and out and he’s glad you race in America and not GP’s. What is it like to hear that from him as he’s been one of the fastest riders on the planet for most of his career and he says that about you while he’s still racing?

It’s definitely cool to hear that out of an all-time rider like Jeffrey who has won a lot in Europe in MXGP. It’s cool that he says that, but I still don’t think that. I feel like I need to earn my spot there and there’s still a lot of fast guys that can come out with raw speed. But I’ll take that from him because you don’t get that every day. So, it’s cool to hear.

What changed for you on the starts from the heat to the main? Obviously, you didn’t have as great of a gate pick in the main and still got out of the gate much faster.

Well, there wasn’t really an option of getting a bad start, so we just had to go with plan A and get a good one.

250SX

Image: Octopi Media.

Max, fastest qualifier again, this time you backed it up in the main event. It wasn’t easy, you had to work on that track to get around Seth Hammaker. Just take us through that main event and how it felt to be out in front with all the mayhem behind you.

Well, it was nice to get a pretty good start. I came around and managed to get into second place pretty quick. The crowd were going wild for Seth obviously with him being a Philly guy. I was trying to set him up for a pass early on, but it was a little sketchy in the sand. I was trying in the whoops but then I was on the outside of him. I eventually made it work with a few cross-back lines and it was a great race. Obviously, it was good fun to get out front. I could hear the crowd going wild behind, so I figured there was some carnage going on. As far as it’s gone this season, I haven’t had a decent start. I’ve been fast the whole time, it’s just been hard to get out of the gate. This time to get a decent start and make life easy for myself, it was great. Happy days!

You mentioned that line of tripling into the whoops and blitzing them. It seemed like that’s where you were gaining time on Seth. When did you figure out that line?

I did it in warmup. I think I saw Benny Bloss do it in 450SX practice and I picked it up and it worked. I’ve felt pretty comfortable skimming the whoops all year. We haven’t had whoops that were, let’s say “skimmers”. Even today, they were kind of 50-50. You could pretty much go the same speed doing both, I was just able to do something different. If I was following him, I wasn’t hassling him, whereas if I tripled it and started sending it in there, it made it look like I was going to make a pass there. Then when he was going to the inside, he started to skim and was messing it up a little bit. It was more of just trying to hassle him and do something a little bit different. I just felt comfortable that I could do both. I could jump them, and I could skim.

It seemed like a tight 90-degree turn. Did you have to rail the wall perfectly before to hit the triple on your 250?

No, the way we’ve got the bike setup now. Earlier in the year, I wouldn’t have been able to do that. It would have been a first gear section for me. The bike was quite smooth, whereas now we’ve changed some primary gear stuff. It’s a whole load of stuff, but the bike is really snappy now off of the bottom. So, for me doing that in second [gear] wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t too bad on my bike, and it felt pretty good there.

To the fans who saw you in the stadium and saw you come off the podium, I don’t know how anyone who could see that would not be emotional. Your team owner [Yarrive Konsky] was in tears. Can you share some words of what that first interaction was like when you came off the podium?

Yeah, my team boss, he doesn’t come over from Australia very often. He’s had a rough few weeks. His dad actually died only a couple of weeks ago. He’s been pretty down in the dumps, so this was nice to give back to him and to the whole crew because they’ve all put a lot of work in. To give back to them and the guys, and yeah, he was a bit emotional. He gets emotional over everything, but today was very emotional for Yarrive. It was nice and they needed it. It’s been a rough week for him.

Were you aware of all the chaos that was happening behind you and was it hard to stay focused?

No. I could hear the crowd going a little bit wild but as soon as I realized Seth wasn’t behind me and I had a little bit of a gap, I started taking safer lines. I went back to jumping the whoops. I didn’t send the sand as hard. I only had like three minutes left so I thought, “Okay, it’s not too hard.” I don’t know, it was quite a nice race. I actually felt like it wasn’t too difficult for me. That’s always the way it is when you get out front, like it’s just a training race. It was nice to click off my laps and I felt like I was hitting my marks. I felt like if I needed to step up again, I still had some energy, and I could push harder if I needed to. It was tricky. It was one of those where there were a lot of little rocks, and I didn’t want to do something stupid like slide out going into the first turn. Or even after the whoops. That turn up the face of the finish jump. I started to, once I had a bit of a gap, to search for some easier lines. I was going outside to inside on the smooth stuff. It might have been a little bit slower, but it was quite easy to do. It was nicer to do. I was just trying to manage it like that because I didn’t want to do anything silly, and I wanted that bonus check!