After an uncharacteristic mistake at the previous round saw his Pro Motocross win streak end at 24 motos, Jett Lawrence bounced back at Thunder Valley with a 2-1 result to win the overall, splitting race victories with older brother Hunter. The Australian spoke to the media and reflected on his rebound ride in this Conversation feature.

Image: Octopi Media.

Jett, you gave props to Doc G [Rey Gubernick] today. Everybody saw the crash last week. It wasn’t just a hard crash, you got clipped too. You got punched in the face first, then it threw you down, and then it spiked you afterwards. But you relaxed a little bit and got some therapy this week I’m sure and my goodness, you come out here and you turn the tables 180.

Yeah, it was a rough one last weekend for sure. But during the week, we had what we like to call a stiff kitty throughout the week in therapy. I couldn’t see G too much during the week because I was in Florida. I had to do some testing and try some other things in the suspension. We got here Thursday, and wait until Friday, G landed and came straight to the hotel. He did his magic, got me feeling better. Even Friday before we saw him, we did press, and it was looking rough. I can tell you that. But G has those magic hands, and it helped a lot. I’m super happy and grateful. It could have been way worse, and I got lucky with it, so I’m definitely thankful.

I thought you were going to let the race come to you, but it seemed like you rode the position you were in, and when you were ready you made the typical Jett move.

In the second one more so, my legs were already shot. So, I had a bit of lazy riding at the start. Any outside that was flat, I was just sitting and kind of bouncing on the bumps a bit. I knew I had to keep Hunter close because he was right there in front of me. Chase had a charge at the start and ended up going down, but I just knew I had to stay there. Midway through that second moto, I was like, “Oh do I just stay here for third? But I’ve got to try to make the points up. I’ll just stay in third and see if someone comes up.” Then Hunter made a small mistake, and he relaxed in that section, and I was able to get him there. Then I was like, “Okay I’ve got to get Justin because otherwise Hunter is going to get me back.” I sprinted and ended up getting Cooper with a few laps and it was just head down, keep on charging. It was an all-around pretty good day I’d have to say.

Image: Octopi Media.

How much pain were you still in from last weekend and how did you manage that throughout the day?

I think a lot of riders agree with this, but once you get the adrenaline going, it kind of helps a lot. The biggest problem for me on the riding side of things was my shoulder. I just had no strength. Doctor G taped it up for me to try to hold up a bit, so it doesn’t give out in those impacts. My leg was actually pretty okay, it was more so my hip. It was good enough obviously to ride and I just knew if I could keep my head down and focus on my riding, I can kind of mentally block out that pain. It helped a lot, but we’d much rather be 100% and kind of use all of my skills. It’s a little sucky holding back with a few things. Like not getting back [on the bike] on some stuff and I just bounce on my butt. It’s definitely a lot better than last week, I can say that.

You were obviously riding your own race, but did you know at all what was going on with Sexton in that moto or did you try to keep an eye on him?

Not really, I was more just focused on the people in front of me. Chase was riding hard at the start, and I was thinking in my head, “He’s pushing a little bit, but he might pull it off.” And then he ended up going down. I think he clipped a foot peg when he jumped up. I haven’t seen the crash, but you don’t want to ever see that. It kind of helped not focusing on him then because it would have been another guy I would have had to pass. So then I was just kind of focusing on Hunter and Justin but most of the time I was just more focused on myself where I can try to find the smoothest line and flowing line that I can hit every time. Obviously, the traction wasn’t the best so you’re kind of looking for the easiest spot to take that’s going to make sure you’re not going to wash the front or wash the rear out.