FORT WORTH, Texas – A mistake in Moto 1 and a poorly timed start in Moto 2 kept Jett Lawrence from defending his win last weekend in Concord, N.C.
Now, the 21-year-old sits nine points behind the championship lead heading into the final round of the SuperMotocross World Championship Finals Fueled by Monster Energy.
Good news for his team is that he holds the tie breaker, which is enough to put himself into a winner-takes-all scenario.
“It’s pretty simple for me, dumbs it down a bit for me a little bit more,” shared Lawrence during post-race interviews discussing the points position heading into Las Vegas. “First (moto) after a little mistake, I had to kinda push and try to make a move on Eli (Tomac) but wasn’t able to do it. The second (moto), once I got into second, Chase (Sexton) was already gone.”
Toward the end of Moto 1, a miss-shift stalled his bike just a couple turns before the finish jump. He dropped from the lead back to third, and could not regain those positions by the checkered flag. At the start of the second moto, a slight distraction mistimed the gate drop relegating Lawrence to seventh when he crossed the finish jump.
He was able to climb back up to second, but his 3-2 overall was only good enough for third on the podium.
“It’s a winner-takes-all,” Lawrence stated. “We just gotta make sure we don’t make any mistakes. Just send it.”
Even though Lawrence sits nine points behind the championship lead, he will take the number one plate to the final round in Las Vegas next Saturday to defend his title against a hard charging Chase Sexton and the overall winner in Fort Worth, brother Hunter Lawrence.
But if he can’t get the job done, he’s hoping someone else will.
“If it’s not me as a Lawrence winning it, at least Hunter got it (the overall win in Texas).”
The final round of the SuperMotocross World Championship will be on The Strip in Las Vegas on Saturday, September 21. Coverage begins live streaming on Peacock with Race Day Live at 4:30 p.m. ET with opening ceremonies starting at 9:30 p.m. ET. The first rerun will air on NBC, Sunday at 1 p.m. ET with an encore on CNBC on Monday at 1 a.m. ET.