Following his first win of Monster Energy Supercross 2025 at A2, defending 450SX champion Jett Lawrence has clawed his way back to within five points of the series lead after a sub-par opening round saw him finish 12th. Media had the opportunity to speak to him after the chequered flag for these Five Questions.

Image: Octopi Media.

Jett, you were having to fight tooth and nail with Jason Anderson throughout that one. So just talk to me about that moment where you saw that opportunity and capitalised for the lead.

Yeah, I was behind Jason [Anderson] in both the heat and main, and I got to learn his lines, and obviously the main was completely different to the heat, we know. We were pushing the pace in the heat race because we had traction, but once we got to the main, it was like, once it was Jason and I one, two, I’m like, all right, let’s just try and find the safe lines and not throw it away, because it would be worse to not get a podium after crashing or something. But yeah, I just tried staying there, staying there, and this one lap I couldn’t really find anywhere, so I’m just like, gosh, I guess I just gotta balls up and just send it through the whoops, and I think we both got sketched through that lap and through that line, but was able to make a pass and get through the second set too, but no, we’re happy. Another good rebound, I guess, from A1, which is also nice, so yeah, just trying to get that points gap just less and less, but heading in the right direction, thankfully.

The track seemed very technical tonight. I believe you were the only one going over the table in that short rhythm. What was the choice to make that line?

Well, I didn’t really like tripling out because I’d go so high and it was pretty easy, like I would over jump it very easily, so I thought, I think if it didn’t rain, I kind of, after the heat race, I was seeing him going over quad, because I felt like I could get it, so I over jumped that triple into the single, but with the rain, I’m like, oh, we’ll just play it safe, and I hit it for a few laps, but then, I mean, it wasn’t like it was a break where I was making up an immense amount of time on Jason, so I’m like, oh, I’ll just hit the same and try and get it pretty good, like the off and up getting nice so you can kind of go through that triple better, so I ended up just going back, but originally I was just trying not to go off that big one and go to the sky, but yeah.

Image: Octopi Media.

This week there was a bit of adversity on a personal level for you [and Hunter], and then I think through A1, a bit of adversity in terms of the motorcycle, so there’s some on-track adversity and some off-track adversity, but this weekend, probably when you needed to win the most in your 450 career, you were able to win. Have you learned anything about yourself as a person and as an athlete and the people that you have around you after what’s gone on in these first three weeks of this championship and how important was this win?

Yeah. Honestly, I just focus on myself with the bike. That’s all I’ve been doing for the past few weeks. I think going back to Florida and having a nice reset, seeing my dog, my two lizards, and just some friends and family again to kind of reset, you know, I’m, sadly, I’m not a big fan of California with driving hours to the test track and back. You kind of lose your whole day. So, it was just nice to get a reset. I only got to ride one time, but just that going back and kind of being in your own bed and that stuff just helped me just kind of focus back on myself and, you know, I got to focus on the championship. I don’t really have time to try and focus on during the week drama. I have a very good agency with Wasserman and my managers, Jacob Hayes and Travis Clarke. So they handle that stuff for me. I don’t need to worry about that. I’m focused on racing dirt bikes which I get paid to do and I’m going to do that the best I can. You know, I don’t need any other drama outside, you know, so I just focus on riding my bike, getting that better, getting myself better and just keep my head down. But, it was just good to know I can win a main event again, honestly. So, yeah, it was just good to get back on that track and just kind of keep that momentum going.

This year I feel like the track crew, like leaving the quad in last week, we’ve had some variations in whoops. I personally think that the whoops have made for great racing at all three rounds. What’s your take on, not just the builds of the track, but maybe Feld and Dirt Works taking on some of the criticism or advice?

Yeah, I’m a fan of having the harder whoops, you know, like a lot of us, like top guys, we practice and we train a lot on whoops to try and become better. You can gain a lot, but you can also lose a lot there. So I think when we had the nine whoops where if you weren’t as good at a skimmer, you could just go jump to them three times and get out of it, it’s kind of like unfair in a way, like because the guys who have worked their butt off to try and skim better and get the bike where it works better and that’s tough because it is hard to skim. It’s a lot more of a technical thing. You have to put it on this much of the whoop, even though the whoops is big, you’re still only hitting like just a small spot. So I think having the more whoops is better and having them steamroll to make sure they kind of stay a little bit more skimmers. I think for better Supercross skimmer whoops like Kenny [Roczen], Jason, Eli [Tomac], myself, Chase [Sexton], like we have a bit of an upper hand because we took that time to work on that. So I think I’m a fan of having more whoops and more difficult ones. Like I mean, I struggle in these whoops today, even like I got by sideways a few times, like, but it kind of creates good racing.

Racing against Jason, is it a case of knowing your past with him? There seemed to be a little bit more caution behind setting that pass up to make sure there was no rebound.

It’s more so like just trying to find where a good place to pass them without making contact. I don’t always want to come in and just hit someone. Like we were talking last weekend with Eli, we had really, really good racing because we got close multiple times. I mean, Jason and I got close on the three-on. Like I was looking above his helmet on the 3-on. Like we got close but we never touched. So I feel like again, that’s fun racing to me. You know, I love racing when it’s close and Jason’s really good at defending, you know, like going right after, going like across and stand low in the berm where I couldn’t do anything. Like it’s fun racing and it’s learning for me. And mainly that whole main is just trying to make sure I can find a rhythm and like safe lines everywhere because it was so greasy. So you couldn’t really sprint at all, you know, because you’re most likely going to end up on your head. So it’s kind of just trying to be smart. And I finally got close enough in the whoops and I was just trying to make something happen and try and get past and was able to do it. I mean, we both got sketchy through the whoops that lap. I’m pretty sure like it was those whoops were pretty, yeah, very edgy and slippery but yeah, it was just more so trying to be patient and not try and force anything or push anything where it’s gonna make a mistake further on, you know.