Photo courtesy of Feld Entertainment, Inc.
For some odd reason or another, it feels like it has been a long time coming. But we can officially say that Jett Lawrence is now a Supercross winner, claiming his first career Eastern Regional 250SX AMA Supercross main event at Houston 2.
“I’ve known I had it in me for a while,” Lawrence said. “But they say ‘when is it going to happen? Is it going to click together tonight?’ And tonight was that night.”
In only his eighth Supercross start, 17-year-old Team Honda HRC rider put all his training together and led all 22 laps. He also snatched his first career heat race win earlier on Tuesday night, which seemed to set the tone for the evening.
“It didn’t really click in that I won the heat race when I hit the jump,” Lawrence shared after his heat win. “I looked at the crowd and was like, ‘what do I do?’.”
It has been one year and one day since his last near-win back in Anaheim when the Australian crashed hard and broke his collarbone. That ended his championship hopes early, but due to the delayed races from COVID-19, Lawrence was able to return for the final races of the season.
“[The A2 accident] showed that I had to make sure I focused a lot more,” Lawrence said. “It definitely was a slap in the face. It just made sure that I was more careful and didn’t take anything for granted. In the whoops, I relaxed too much and it ended up biting me. It definitely woke me up. It made sure I stayed focused on a lot more things that I normally relax on.”
Lawrence has handled the pressure well. Many expected great things last year before his injury, and Lawrence stayed humble yet hungry for his first win.
“I’ve tried to keep away from that since it can blow your head up,” “When you don’t do what they expect you to do, it can mess with you mentally.”
Houston 3 is set for this Saturday, January 23, the last round at NRG Stadium before the 250SX East Division moves to Indianapolis.