Image: Octopi Media.

Brothers Jett and Hunter Lawrence have recalled their second moto showdown in 250MX moto two at High Point, which was pivotal in determining the overall winner at round four of 2022 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross.

The Australian Team Honda HRC riders went 1-2 in the opening moto, in favour of Hunter, before the pair were locked in thrilling combat for the majority of the second bout.

“We literally sprinted for the whole 35-minute moto, there wasn’t a moto where we are like oh let’s preserve a little energy, it’s the last moto of the day we are going to leave everything out there,” Hunter Lawrence explained.

“But at the same time, I think you see better racing when we’re using passing, racecraft to make passes and mental decisions and stuff like that. I think that is better to watch than, ‘there is a guy behind me, I’m going to clean him out’. It’s not really what the fans want to see.

“One take out for one lap, they would rather take a 35-minute battle, you know we finished point zero-five behind each other at the finish line, and it was like that for the whole race. I think that is what is cool because we are not going to clean each other out or do anything stupid because we have never really been into that and it’s more fun to race clean.”

After multiple overtakes back and forth, Jett withstood a late charge from his older brother to take a slim 0.5-second victory and, with that, the overall on Saturday.

“Most of what Hunter said is pretty correct – the biggest thing with us is that we know we are not ever going to back down,” Jett Lawrence said. “Even those last laps, I got a bit of a gap on him through lappers, but then like he said he finished half a second behind because he is always coming.”

“I think if it was vice-versa, it would be the same, we are always coming because the track this weekend it was kind of… like the racecraft he said, we had to use racecraft a lot and kind of almost relying on a few mistakes somewhere just to get next to them, so you can maybe put a front wheel and put him off a bit.

“It was fun. I would much rather that racing than racing some other guys that just go in to try and take you out, I mean that just shows how much they know they don’t want you to get past them.

“With us, we know that we don’t want to let each other pass, but we do it in a respectful way where it’s never we are going to be coming off going ‘why the hell did you do this?’ or you end up getting into a fist-fight, because one, I would get my ass knocked down because I know not to go there, we just like having fun racing being close.

“We got close a couple of times, but it was never like a ‘ooh we are close’, but we are comfortable and we know how good we are on a bike and technical wise we know we are not going to take each other out on purpose.”

With four of the 12 rounds of this year’s series complete, Jett holds a 12-point red plate advantage in the 250MX standings ahead of Hunter as the championship resumes at RedBud on 2 July.