Image: Octopi Media.

An elusive first Triple Crown win didn’t eventuate for Jett Lawrence at Anaheim 2, unable to maintain his perfect 250SX West points-haul following the drama that ensued across the three-race format.

The second visit to Angel Stadium this year proved to be an unpredictable one for the points-leader, with mediocre starts in the opening two races leaving him battling from the middle of the pack and finding himself on the ground on more than one occasion.

While sitting in second place during the opening encounter, a crash at the beginning of lap four would see the Team Honda HRC rider fall down the order to sixth. Ultimately, Lawrence found his way back to third by the time the chequered flag flew.

“The first main I didn’t have a bad start – I think I was third or fourth, I think I had Levi [Kitchen] and RJ [Hampshire] in front,” said Lawrence. “I felt good, the guys were going fast, the track was pretty smooth, we were all going mach 10 everywhere [laughs]. I was going to go after RJ and I’d just caught him, and that little dragon’s back, surprisingly, I just washed a little bit up it. I wasn’t too fazed, but it ended up biting and kind of, ejecting me up the dragons back, which I was a little surprised with.”

Main event number two was again a tough one for Lawrence. An opening lap altercation saw the red plate-holder picking himself up off the ground in 20th position, before fighting his way back through the field during the 11-minute-long race to end in sixth.

“Just not a good start again, I was kind of leaning a little bit on RJ and got tangled up, and [Cameron] McAdoo got a really good start, so I got closed out there,” Lawrence recalls. “Then someone decided to go straight in a 90-degree turn, so I got messed up.

“I ended up getting a fork leg to the sphincter [laughs], so that wasn’t nice. And then from there was kind of just trying to get up with the pack, but had to roll the double before the finish line twice cause two guys went down right in front of me, so I was like ‘yeah okay this is where we’re at right now’ [laughs]. I was at an all-time low there, I just didn’t top the ball, I missed it by a lot, so that one was definitely a wild one.”

Lawrence was able to holeshot and cruise to victory in the final race of the night, landing second overall for the Triple Crown at A2 as the 250SX West riders now have a three-week break before their action resumes in Oakland.

“I think I just ain’t a Triple Crown guy [laughs] – I guess that’s just not my best thing,” Lawrence added. “But, luckily I got that last one, I finally had a good run up the front again, but no, I can definitely say Triple Crowns are not my thing. We have one left to try and fix this, so hopefully, I can get that done.”