Keeping the win streak alive, round eight of the 2023 Pro Motocross Championship at Washougal saw Team Honda HRC’s Jett Lawrence take the overall victory and his 16th consecutive 450MX moto win. In the 250MX category, Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Haiden Deegan grabbed his first career double moto victory and his second career overall win. Both riders were available to the media after the races for this Debrief feature.

450MX

Image: Octopi Media.

Jett, another perfect day. You qualified quickest and got both moto wins. The streak is alive and going strong.

Yeah, on the scorecard it might look easy, but that second one was difficult. My mouth got so dry so fast. I was just trying to get moisture back in my mouth with all the dust. Chase kept me honest for that whole time. And AP just at the start of that second one, I just didn’t know what got into that man. I was like, ‘this guy’s hooking’. He ended up dropping us the first few laps. Once we got around him, I’m like, ‘come on just give me this little bit of a gap, just a safety bumper’. I look back a few turns later and Chase is already there. I’m like, ‘alright, I think AP has thrown in the hammer now’. But, it was a good one. That last one was such a different track from the start of the day. The start of the day was tacky, it had heaps of ruts. That one, it was just literally almost powder berms. So, it was kind of a mixture of being just patient and trying to keep the roll speed up. We were kind of pushing that limit a little bit. Sadly Chase just got bit, which sucks for him. I was happy he gave me that bit of an extra safety bumper so I could relax. But another good day. This track, normally I’m not the best here. So, it was good to get this one out of the way, get a good break, go play some golf. So, I’m definitely excited for that.

Who’s going to win between you and Hunter at golf? Do you have a little side bet on the floating green?

Well, Hunter has been sore lately so I think my chances are pretty high.

Coming into Unadilla, it’s kind of an iconic track. But, how does it rank in your eyes? Where does it fit in your favorite tracks in the US?

Last year’s Unadilla didn’t fit up very high with the tracks, but in previous years when it was really rutted and that stuff, I think that’s when it’s pretty high up there. I feel like that’s true Unadilla with the ruts and that stuff. Personally, I feel like that creates better racing because you have more lines. When it’s more flat, which is kind of almost like how it was here today. It was rough but a lot times it just was the one line and obviously it just got kind of blown out. It just funnels to kind of slot car racing, which I feel for fans is not as fun to watch. We get close, but I feel like it’s not as fun for watching, where at least I feel like hopefully Unadilla, it has some more lines where we can at least, the better guy or whatever happens, we’re just all over the track. Whereas this guy is taking this line, and make it more exciting. It’s up there normally. It’s a fun place. The only downside of it is that it’s so far away from all the hotels, so we sadly have to wake up earlier. That’s the only bummer thing. But, I’m looking forward to this break and looking forward to Unadilla.

Jett, are we manufacturing something in the competitive gap, or has the competitive gap narrowed just a little bit? Have the last few victories been maybe a little less easy than some of the ones before them?

Yeah, obviously since Chase being back, it obviously makes it a lot harder than normal just because Chase has that never give up. He’s always going to give it 100 percent. So it makes it exciting. I like it because it makes me a better rider, and makes sure I stay focused instead of just going out there and kind of shutting off before and just doing whatever, where it could kind of create more of a bigger mistake. Where with Chase being there, it just makes sure I get my start good, make sure I hit my marks, make sure I hit my laps. So for me, it ends up making me a better rider mentally and physically. It’s definitely a lot tougher these last ones because Chase has been there in those second motos, so I’m looking forward to these last ones.

I know every week is a little bit different, but there have been circumstances towards the end of each race where you haven’t had to just have someone chase you across the line. Are you managing that gap? How much do you have left in your tank at the end of a given week?

It kind of just all depends on the situation. If we’re going down to the line, if I feel comfortable on the track and I feel I can go fast, I’ll go faster and push. But if not and Chase is going faster, or whoever it is at that point, the perfect season would be lovely, but at the end of the day, the perfect season you would still get the championship. I would rather focus on the championship than push over my head and end up injuring myself and not win the championship. So, I’m just focused on my championship. If a win is there, a win is there. If not, and if Chase, or whoever else is going just faster that weekend, I’m going to try my best to hold them off and try and last with them as long as I can. If not, if he’s better that day, then have it. I’m not going to be silly about it. Not going to risk my chance of crashing and making a silly mistake.

I wanted to ask about that second moto battle. Jett, you saw him back there. I don’t think there was a safety gap, right? Were you on the edge or pushing really hard at that point? Were you guys really pushing each other for most of that second moto?

Yes and no. It kind of was just whatever the track would give you. I didn’t have as good of a flow in that second one as I did in the first one. The first one, I had a lot of good lines and I felt my balance was on. Then I slipped out. I was kind of struggling a little bit trying to keep that rear wheel under me. A few times I spun out a little bit, but I was kind of just focusing on just rolling, but it was close. Nah, I could definitely tell you that. Just that gap, it gets close where if you make a mistake it can lead to him getting close enough for a pass. So, it definitely puts a little more pressure on you just to make sure you hit your marks and that stuff, but I like that. It’s fun for me. I’d rather know about him being there than him just coming out of nowhere and surprising and make a pass. I feel like that’s always the worst when you’re like, ‘What? Where did he come from?. That one I’d rather him be right there, knowing he’s there, so then it just makes you focus a lot more, and I like that. It was kind of similar last weekend. Last weekend, he was running that bit faster pace and I didn’t want him to kind of have a surprise attack on me, so I just used those few laps where he could just catch up a bit and I could recover. Then when I know he’s there, then we can go to war. But, this one was like going to war. It was a tough one. The track was at the end of the day, it’s the roughest, it doesn’t have much traction at all. So it was challenging, but fun.

250MX

Image: Octopi Media.

Haiden, pretty amazing weekend for you and Yamaha. The 50th-anniversary celebration of the YZ and you went 1-1. You’re the first 250 rider to do that this season. How does that feel?

Yeah, definitely. To go 1-1, it feels good. It’s nice though being a rookie with no pressure on you. You just go have fun every weekend, and that’s kind of paying off. We had fun, got some good starts. The second moto wasn’t the greatest start. Top five still though, so I knew I could do some work and yeah, we got to the lead. I’m excited.

Haiden, yourself, are you going to be called down to Loretta Lynn’s or anything for the next couple weeks, or what are your plans?

I don’t know exactly what they want me to do yet, but I’ll just get back to work. It’s close now, the nerves are running, so we got to go.

Last week Hunter [Lawrence] made a statement going 1-2 for the overall win. But, you’re the first 250 rider to go 1-1 this season. Do you feel like your statement might have been a little bit louder?

I mean, yeah. Going 1-1, you’ve got to overcome pressure. So, I was able to do that and ride smooth the whole race and that’s a big key to win. So, definitely going 1-1 was good.

Going 1-1, I was kind of expecting you to ghost-ride it off the finish line there. Were you thinking about that at all?

No, I’m saving that one for supercross, [laughs]. We got to manifest that one and wait until we get a supercross win. Hopefully, that comes soon. When it comes time, we’ll decide that in supercross.

Haiden, you ran a 2:15 with around two laps to go. The pace was kind 2:18 – 2:19 at that point in the race. What was going on there?

Yeah, I got that kid energy, you know? Since you spend some time recovering, two 35’s are easy to me now. So at the end of that 35 I was like, ‘I got energy, why not? Let’s lay down some heaters.’ We did that and we’re just really trying to show that I can lay down those fast laps.

Do you feel you were saving something at one point? Were you not quite at your limit and then you decided to drop the hammer? Is that how it turned out?

Yeah, on the start, Hunter was right behind me. He was about fifth, right there with me. So I was like, ‘I got to get going.’ It took a few laps, just finding lines. Then, at about halfway is when I really set off and just tried to prove my point and lay down those fast laps.

You guys share a trainer there with Gareth Swanepoel. He’s done great work through the years. But your fitness has been really good this year which normally for rookies, it’s tough to do 35’s for the first time. Are you doing extra? Are you doing more? Do you feel like you just adapted to it quickly? How were you able to learn this pro thing? Because really, fitness has been an asset for you.

Yeah. Swanny is an awesome trainer. He’s proven that his stuff works with the championships Star has won. There could be extra stuff that I do. I’ll keep that one to myself. You’ve just got to work hard. In this sport, it’s rare to find some guys that never want to give up and I feel like I have that in me, so that’s kind of what I feed off.

At any point, did you feel you were wearing down? You’re racing week to week for the first time ever. Did you feel that at all these last couple of weeks?

Yeah, in your rookie season, you’ve got to learn this type of stuff. After Southwick was my first like, ‘Yo, I got to spend a lot more time recovering.’ So, that’s what we did these last two weeks. Just keep building myself back up. This weekend we were really able to fire off.