Round 10 of the 2023 Pro Motocross Championship at Budds Creek saw Team Honda HRC’s Jett and Hunter Lawrence claim 450MX and 250MX victories once again. However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing, with the brothers tested throughout the day’s two motos. Both riders were available to the media after the races for this Debrief feature.

450MX

Image: Octopi Media.

You answered the question for everybody. What if he doesn’t get a start? Can he come through the pack? It seems like you were very calculated about it, of course. The big thing right now, the championship is put away, the focus is SuperMotocross championship, I’m sure, but in the back of your mind that perfect season, now that has to be a little bit more on the table than it was?

Yeah, I’ve been fortunate with my starts this year. We’ve been starting up there. I’ve never had good starts here. In that first one, I was on a knobby tire and a lot of guys were on the paddle, so I was at a bit of a disadvantage if my start wasn’t good, so I made it worse. But it was fun. Something different. Just had to be, like you said, more calculated. This track is pretty hard to pass on, so it was more just actually planning out a pass and executing it and make sure you’re in the right spot. It was fun, something different for me, luckily I was able to get both of my main guys I had to get around, obviously Chase and Dylan. I got them on the first few laps. So, I was able to capitalize on that. Obviously, the perfect season is there, but it doesn’t change. Even during this week, I’m almost more motivated than I was before the championship. So, we’re feeling good, we’re going to try our best. If we get a perfect season that’s great. If not, it’s cool we came close. We have a lot more years to do it, I’m only 20. I’m going to be looking forward to them.

So as we move into next week, two more legit motos on the table. Just go back to work this week and stick with the program?

Yeah, exactly. Just stick to that same program that’s been working. We might even make more tweaks on the bike. We’re always trying to be better on the bike and off the bike myself. Always trying to improve.

Talk about that big uphill jump after the finish line, it had the knuckle in it. You were kind of floating up over that. Was that just the most efficient thing? Some guys were hitting into it. You were bouncing over it. Just talk through managing that situation.

I don’t know, I just do it at this stage. That bump was kind of there all day. It just got bigger and bigger and was easier to get at the end of the day. We didn’t quite get it as good as we wanted, but we got it good a few times. It was kind of just all in that run on that off-camber to see how good you would get it. But, it was kind of tricky with a few sections trying to pop some stuff, just because it was so hard-pack, I didn’t want to pop the clutch and lose traction because it was pretty much like concrete. It wasn’t even dirt, it was concrete out there. So, at this point it just comes natural. I don’t really know, I don’t think of it much, [laughs].

Obviously, Chase was there and then had a mistake I believe and dropped back a little bit, and then he caught up to the back of you again. When did you realize he was back on your rear wheel?

Those last two laps I knew he got close, I heard he ended up getting the red cross flag also. I thought I got unlucky and I thought I was the only one. It’s funny, it’s always the few lapped riders that we lapped that they never, not so much move, the just don’t get out of the way at all. They stay in their main line the whole time and race you, and it’s annoying because their pace is so much slower than ours. It affects my gap, and when Chase gets close, then he knows, especially when you’re leading out front. That’s the hard thing about when you’re leading is if someone is close, you’re the first one they have to go through and sometimes they don’t know that you’re lapping them. But, then once they do, for the rest of the guys I feel like they’re a little bit aware of it. Some aren’t. Some just go straight back to it, it is what it is. We ended up feeling that last lap and I think I missed all my lines, after I looked back and kind of half slid around. So, we put our head down and we were trying to execute everything, but we executed like 40 percent of what we were trying to do, what we normally do. So, we were happy to get away with it.

The scoop tire, you didn’t have it in moto one and it did hurt the start. Do you think it helped to have the regular knobby to be able to take different lines and make the passes, though?

I think definitely. As I said before, it wasn’t even dirt it was basically support that was soft and muddy, and then concrete straight after. So you’d have to be light in the soft support but then also light again on the hard stuff, because otherwise you’d just be spinning. So, it was a bit of a mix. At the start you could get away with it because the supports were that soft, but the first moto one was kind of a bit of an “if” thing. After I did the sighting lap, it was like, we might lose quite a bit on the start, but hopefully if we can get just a decent enough start then just kind of gain a little bit more on the track and thankfully enough we did. Then, for the second one I think everyone was on the knobby tire. So we were happy about that.

Let’s talk about that second moto start. Is that one of your best starts ever? That was unbelievable out of the gate.

Yeah, it was good. I had to kind of go off of AP’s [Aaron Plessinger] first start. He kind of made me look silly in the first one, so I’m like, I can’t make that. He made me look silly that first one. So I’m like, gosh damn it, AP. I’m like, I don’t want to do this but I got to do this. And we did it. That second one, it was weird because once we got out of the gate I didn’t feel like it was a great jump or anything fantastic, but once we hit the dirt, I think just a bit lighter weight helps quite a bit.

When you realized Chase was there, how hard was it to ramp it back up and get your pace back to what you were doing four or five laps earlier? Is that tough, especially with a little pressure there?

On this track yes, just because there’s not much room for error. If you miss that support and you start leaning too early, it can go away pretty quickly. So here it is a little difficult, it also doesn’t help, like I said, when you miss your ruts, because when you miss them, you’re in no-man’s land. So, there was a bit of, ‘Get going, get going, get going’ out of those last few turns. But it definitely is a little difficult on this track just for how the track conditions were.

250MX

Image: Octopi Media.

Congratulations. It was a good day for you. Had yourself a win here. A traditional Budds Creek race. It was warm, but not overly warm. A hard-pack track in some cases, soft in other cases. Tell us about your day.

I think we got treated to a very friendly Budds Creek this year, in comparison to previous Budds Creeks where it’s just hot, humid and down the start line you feel like you’re going to die, it’s so hot. Today was beautiful, honestly. A little breeze and stuff, it was really nice. Don’t know where it came from, because it’s normally hot as hell here. So, the day was good.

That first moto with the red flag, we were fifteen minutes or so in and the red flag comes out, a little bit of chaos. We line you back up. Another start, really two half-motos. Did that affect your day at all?

It was weird because you want to do the full duration. When you break it up like that, it’s kind of two short sprints. So, obviously you’ve got to get a good start again, first and foremost, but it was just whatever.

One more to go. Heading over to Indiana. Any special training? Any anxiety heading to Ironman? Do you like Ironman?

Yeah, Ironman is sick. It should be a good weekend, one more down, really looking forward to it. Finish off this Pro Motocross championship strong, and then onto SMX.

Obviously, you’ve battled with Justin [Cooper] here a handful of times. You guys kind of banged bars a little bit today. Usually it’s pretty respectful between both you guys. Just talk a bit about racing him and what to expect and the battles you guys have had.

Yeah. It’s nothing out of the ordinary, he was in the first moto 22 or 23 points down, one round to go. There’s going to be stuff like that happen. Can’t say I would have done anything different if I was in his position. So it just is what it is.

He’s a pretty good starter and qualifier. Obviously, you’re going to worry about yourself, but does that play anything into your approach next weekend, or just same thing and hopefully it works out?

Yeah, just same thing, same thing as always. Qualifying doesn’t really make or break your day as such for me. The starts, obviously we put a lot of emphasis on and do the best we can to get up there.

You got a comfortable enough lead. Are you going to go golfing this week and kind of take your mind off it, or what’s your approach to just not trying to overthink it and make it worse than it could be?

Tell you what. If it’s in the 70s in Tampa, I’ll be golfing. But I don’t think that’s the case. So, no golf.

In this class the start is the key to be on the podium. The first moto you had a bad start, but you reached Justin Cooper. What was the plan for the second moto, because you picked a better gate? Still fighting for the championship. Did you know that Justin Cooper was getting close the last lap, did you know that he was getting close?

Yeah, I knew where he was, absolutely. The last lap I tried a new line before the uphill triple and didn’t have enough run-up to get it. Obviously, I’ve got to be perfect off the starts. It’s no secret how fast the Yamahas are, so I have to be absolutely perfect every time to be close on the start. So, it was really good, I just put emphasis on a really important day today to give myself an easier run into Ironman.

What would your advice be to a young rider from overseas coming to race in America for the first time?

You’ve got to adapt to it, it’s just plain and simple. When we went to Europe, the culture shock was crazy. For us, going from Europe to America was easier because our cultures are similar. But, you’ve got to get there and you’ve got to have a complete open mindset and go, okay, this is new the normal and this is what we’ve got to do.