Jett Lawrence Fires Back from Injury to Victory at SMX Playoff 1

Jett Lawrence is back, and it doesn’t look like he has skipped a beat! The 2024 Monster Energy 450SX Supercross Champion on Team Honda HRC Progressive claimed the first SuperMotocross World Championship Playoff 1 round from Charlotte’s zMax Dragway. The reigning 450MX Champion departed from the AMA Pro Motocross Championship after Southwick, out with a thumb injury, and 66 days later, in his first race back, he is on top. He speaks on his motos, victory, and battling Beast Mode during the post-race press conference:

In the first 450SMX moto, Jett was close to the leader on the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing machine, multi-time champion Eli Tomac, off the start and during the opening laps. He ultimately fell back, getting passed by his older brother Hunter, but he claimed the position back in the later stages. Tomac's speed was too much out front to a 5+ second advantage for Lawrence to finish 2nd. "Yeah, I like getting past the first few laps (laughing). No, I’m trying to go for sure, but it’s kind of my first race back, and it’s a different angle for me. I haven’t had any time off in the past, and it’s a learning stage for me. There, just those first few laps, I just got to get that race pace back in me and get used to sparking straight away. It’s been a while, so it’s just learning that. I was dealing with my own stuff, obviously, the first one trying to get back in my flow, and I lost that time in the first part."

The second moto was precisely the showdown we have been waiting for and looking forward to for some time now—Jett vs Tomac. Young Gun vs Beast Mode, going wire to wire down to the end of a race and his first experience with the “Beast Mode” of Tomac. “That second one, it was fun! I mean we’re going hard. I mean that Yamaha is really loud and our bikes are quite opposite, it’s very quiet. So once I got around, I still couldn’t hear my bike. But, I think, yeah, obviously, the big thing with the engine and the air intake where it’s compared to the Yamaha is that it’s a lot quieter than that. It’s cool to experience it, and I hope it stays around (Beast Mode). It’s always fun racing someone with such knowledge and speed obviously too."

Having a chance to race with the best and real first full-race battle, he acknowledges racing one of the greats in the sport."Yeah, It was a really cool thing. I think if, in Eli’s standpoint, I think it’s like him wanting to race Ricky Carmichael or one of those guys, you want to race the best at the time and you want to battle with him. Right now, Eli is probably the biggest name and has the most championships for sure in this class. It was an awesome race. The one cool thing is with racing against another great and a champion is, there’s no quit. There’s always fighting until the checkered flag, so I think it’s always cool. Yeah, it’s definitely a bucket list kind of checked off whether I won it or not. I think it’s just getting a battle with him. I think it’s just a really cool thing and an honor."

The tire choice was vital and different from the two riders, "I think the key thing I saw is that he had the paddle (tire) on, and in the sand, if I get to stay close, I can, or even I could maybe gain a little bit everywhere else where it’s a bit harder pack side. The knoby tire a lot of people else had it too, so I was just trying to make sure if I can be close and put pressure more on the slick spots (it) would kind of help."

The shoulder injury from his gnarly Hangtwon crash at round 2 of the Pro Motocross Championship and recent thumb injury seems to have no effect now on his racing moving forward. “The shoulder was bugging me quite a lot during the outdoor season, and surprised to get some rest. I didn’t need to do too much on it, after a week or two, it was fine again. Thumb good.”

Jett heads to Texas this weekend, climbing the ladder to second in the SMX points.