Continuing what has been an immensely successful 2023 campaign for Team Honda HRC, Jett Lawrence was crowned ‘King of Paris’ while brother Hunter Lawrence impressed with second overall in his 450 debut last weekend in France. In the 250 class, Jo Shimoda returned to the CRF250R and won the ‘Prince of Paris’ title, as each of the three riders, plus team manager Lars Lindstrom, share their Input from the 40th edition of the Paris Supercross in this latest feature.

Image: Supplied.

Jett Lawrence (‘King of Paris’):
It was awesome! Obviously, I’m still learning on the big bike in supercross, and it’s nice to have my brother with me learning now, too. The first night was great – the vibes were awesome. The second day I was dealing with being tired and a bit of jetlag, so that was pretty difficult, I wasn’t on my game as much as Saturday, but still so fun. The fans here are so energetic—at least they had energy, because for sure I didn’t! It was my first time in Paris, so it was nice to get in some shopping and be a tourist a bit. I’m definitely excited to come back next year.

Hunter Lawrence (Second overall in 450 class):
The first time coming to Paris is really special. I had a lot of family here and stuff, so it was really cool. It was a busy, busy, long, tiring three days, really. I’m happy it’s done, happy we’re walking away healthy. We’ve got a lot more information on the bike, it definitely doesn’t feel like a 250, with how fast things happen and come at you, especially out of berms, right into something—there’s so much inertia. We’ll keep improving towards the start of the season, and then hopefully keep ramping it up throughout the year.

Image: Supplied.

Jo Shimoda (‘Prince of Paris’):
Overall, we took the win, so I’m stoked. Obviously, I did find some stuff that I need to work on, but I’m super-stoked on how everything is going—smooth, steady progress. I honestly just enjoyed these two days. I was confident with my pace, I feel like my riding was good, and my starts were good too. But with having just five-minute races, once things didn’t go well in the first two laps, it’s hard to regroup and pass all those guys. But winning four out of six motos, I think I had good focus. I’m really happy with my effort.

Lars Lindstrom (Team Honda HRC manager):
This year just keeps getting better, even when I thought it couldn’t! We’ve entered a new generation as a team, and there’s no way our team atmosphere could get any better. I was so proud of our guys this weekend, and they delivered even more than I expected. I was really impressed with Hunter being at such a high level already, with basically only two or three weeks of riding the 450. Jo also doesn’t have a lot of time on the bike, but has adapted super-quick and was dominant. As for Jett, what can you say that hasn’t been said already? He proved that with or without whoops, he’ll be an incredible force to reckon with. I want to say a big thank you to the Paris SX promoters, and also to Honda France for all the support and help – they’re always fantastic to us! And a big thank you to Giacomo Gariboldi and the HRC MXGP team for all their support at MXoN and this race.