Image: Octopi Media.

Defending 450SMX champion Jett Lawrence has declared his winning intentions ahead of Charlotte’s opening playoff round this weekend, the Team Honda HRC rider to make his return to competition after being sidelined with injury.

Lawrence, who earned a maiden Monster Energy Supercross 450SX title earlier this year, saw his Pro Motocross title defence come to a premature end after injuring his thumb in a practice crash at the mid-point of the season.

Despite only recently returning to riding and with limited preparation ahead of the post-season opener at ZMax Dragway, the 21-year-old isn’t lowering his standards as he aims to successfully defend the SMX crown.

“I always try and set my standard up high,” Lawrence declared on SMX Insider. “I’ve been telling my dad and [the team] that I want to come back and I want to win every single [round of] SMX. Is that going to happen? If the stars align, maybe.

“Chase [Sexton] is looking really good and I could lose a lot… I could lose SMX, but I’m already going to lose SMX if I [go] there thinking that, so I need to make sure I think confidently. I’ve been working hard, I feel strong and fit, we just need to get the bike side there again.”

Not only will Saturday’s first playoff mark his racing return, it will see the number one rollout on the all-new 2025 Honda CRF450R for the first time in competition, the updated model debuted by brother and teammate Hunter Lawrence during the outdoors.

“I’m just so glad to be back on the bike and have a regular schedule again,” he added. “It’s nice to be back on the bike and riding this new ’25 Honda, it’s been awesome. Hunter’s been doing good on it, and I’m going to be doing some testing on it. Hopefully we go into SMX going crazy.”

The SuperMotocross World Championship will see two playoffs and a final round staged across three successive weeks, where Texas Motor Speedway will host Playoff 2 on September 14, before the title decider at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on September 21.