The second round of Monster Energy Supercross was full of action, but in the end a new winner emerged at NRG Stadium as Team Honda HRC’s teenage sensation Jett Lawrence took his first-career victory in 250SX East class. He was available to the media post-race for this Conversation interview feature.

Image: Octopi Media.

Jett, everybody’s been really hyping you up, obviously just your personality and the way you ride the bike. Have you been feeling any of that at all before tonight? I mean, I know you like to keep things kind of loose, but have you felt any of that pressure just knowing that the industry has been kind of hyping you up and kind of waiting for this moment, have you felt that at all before tonight?

I’ve kind of tried to keep away from that because obviously you can blow your head up pretty big. And obviously when you don’t do what they expect you to it kind of can mess with the mental a bit. But, no, I’ve known I kind of had it in me for a while, but it’s just like they say, it’s just when’s it going to happen? When is the night gonna all click together? And yeah, tonight was just that night.

I have heard of a heel clicker, one hander, fist-pump, all these things. What was that called when you did after your heat race?

That move’s called the ‘I don’t know what to do move’. It didn’t really click in that I won the heat race until I hit the jump. I looked at the crowd and I’m like, ‘what do I do?, I don’t feel like I should fist pump because it’s a heat race’. I just did like this bar hump, so let’s just go with that for right now. The Jett Bar Hump.

Obviously you have huge support from Australia. Can you believe that you’re a winner in Supercross and where to from here? Obviously more wins is the goal, but can you challenge for the title?

Yeah, it’s definitely a good to get this first win. I think I’m third in the championship now, which is good, going from sixth in the first round and I think I’m four points off. I’m not 100 percent sure. Yeah, it’s really good to get this first win win out of the way. They always say the first one’s the hardest one to get, the rest are definitely not going to be as easy, but they’re definitely going to be not as hard as at first or not much of a long wait. It’s really cool. It’s special because obviously A2 was 366 days ago, so it was really cool to kind of do it around the same time as there and it definitely meant a lot.

Image: Octopi Media.

I was trying to get a look at the bikes in the pits with you guys rolling by and I noticed what looked like maybe a sensor or some lights on a thing. Are you guys running kind of traction control or anything new you’re testing on the rear?

Yeah… That’s still under the radar. You know, that’s some HRC stuff that we didn’t really get it at Geico. I got no idea, you’re asking the wrong guy for the for the testing part. I just go and ride the bike – all I got to know is that it has two wheels and they’re a circle.

Did you change anything major on the bike or was it just a mental thing?

Yeah, last Saturday, the bike setting was still not there. The rear was really overpowering the front-end, so we made a few changes today and were still kind of changing the clickers until the last practice. We ended up finding the right setting when they brought the red flag out. From there, I just felt like I was just at the practice track, felt like I was flowing really good. Honestly, to get the heat race win, it obviously does change your mental a lot more than getting a second or third. But no, I just came in with the same mental as Saturday, just confident in my setting on the bike and just thought, no matter what I do, and I know I’ll do good. Just the same old me, nothing really has changed, I just really gelled with the track today and yeah, just clicked off my laps.