The 80s and 90s were the golden years for HRC Honda in the USA but those days are now being lived again in the 2020s with Lars Lindstrom at the helm of what is becoming a dynasty for Honda with the success of the Sexton, the Lawrence brothers and now Jo Shimoda all bringing home titles in the last five years.
Even with injuries disrupting supercross, Honda still came away with the US 450 outdoors championship, both SMX titles and the MXoN win! With testing happening this week for supercross, it is a never ending cycle, but Lars Lindstrom was kind enough to give us some of his time after the MXoN win to discuss the success for Hunter, Jett and Jo Shimoda.
Watch or read below:
GateDrop: Lars Lindstrom, another motocross of nations, another win, are you getting a bit used to this now?!
Lindstrom: Yeah, a bit, I guess. Super lucky to have the guys on the team. Super lucky to win with Team USA with Chase Sexton on the team in 22. Then in all the times that we’ve had before with Chad Reed and getting the first podium for Australia in 2011. Then the last couple years with the Lawrence brothers and then today, Jo Shimoda too, you know, was really, really special.
GateDrop: Even in the behind the scenes videos and stuff, both Jett and Hunter seemed so loose at an event like this. Do they even get stressed because they just seem to be able to switch on from being really relaxed and perform, but never seem to get nervous. Do you ever see them like that or are they just always pretty relaxed?
Lindstrom: Today, it seemed a little bit more stressful at certain points. I mean, I think there were some people here that he really wanted to prove wrong. And some other riders that he doesn’t get to race very often that he wanted to beat as far as that goes. And then Hunter too, I mean, you know, sometimes maybe Hunter doesn’t get all the credit that he deserves. And I think today he earned all of it, you know, 1-1. So I think a huge weight was lifted off their shoulders last year. If they hadn’t won this whole event one time, maybe there was more pressure on them. So today I felt like, and maybe it’s just me, but I felt like there was less pressure on them to win since they already did it. They were the favourites, but I think that this race is so crazy. You know, anything can happen. I mean, look at, Sacha Coenen, right? In the first moto he was doing great until he threw it away and then had that bike issue when he got hit or whatever. But those kind of things can happen. They do happen all the time.
So for us to have two events in a row, you know, to win it with them, I think took a lot of the pressure off them.
GateDrop: What would you say Jett’s biggest strength is being around him? Race day, practice day, seeing him ride. What was his biggest strength that he has over everyone else?
Lindstrom: Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s just one big strength that he has, you know. It’s a combination of strengths that are all pretty damn good. You know, he’s obviously got the skill, the bike skill – that’s incredible. He’s got the mindset where he doesn’t show stress or feel stress as much as other guys. He’s kind of carefree and he’s got the fitness. He’s a freak of nature physically so he’s got all of these things that you need. It’s just a really, really tough combination to beat.
GateDrop: Hunter is an elite rider as well, he might be the second best guy in the world right now behind Jett. He was so close to an SMX title a couple of weeks ago, but rebounded here today and led Australia to the victory in that last moto. Was it difficult for him to bounce back after Vegas, or is he able just to flick a switch because it’s always, Jett, just always that wee bit ahead?
Lindstrom: I guess, I wouldn’t really know exactly. It doesn’t seem like that. It’s hard for him, you know. For me, he’s always been the best at keeping it really level, you know. He doesn’t get too high, doesn’t get too low. I joke with him sometimes that he wins this big race and he’s just like, what happened? He’s very cool like that, he’s a cool customer. So that is one of the reasons why he doesn’t get too down, I believe, and let something like that affect him and drag on into the next race. He’s able to switch that off and do what he is needed to do, especially in that second moto. H needed to get a start and he got the start. He was able to ride exactly the way he needed to ride and make it happen so he’s one of the most mentally strongest guys I’ve ever met.
GateDrop: To go from Supercross where both guys got hurt, today, victory again, SMX now the nations. How difficult was that for you as a team manager? Just even from a sponsor keeping everybody happy point of view with the two stars. Even after winning A1, Jo had the broken finger. I thought it was an unusually difficult period and that sort of period of success for you as the main man.
Lindstrom: Yeah, I guess I would have to say that, luckily, we have just an incredible amount of awesome sponsors that didn’t put any pressure on us to do anything special. It’s not like we had someone saying, you better get a guy out on that track, or we’re going to pull this money, or we’re going to do this. All of our sponsors are fantastic and supportive and all those things, and we’re stoked when we did this stuff but at the same time, no pressure. Maybe we’ve gotten a little bit of currency from the winning that we’ve done the last couple of years and all of that. But yeah, I just feel lucky that we have them.
So when we got through that low point in our team, I think the funniest thing was that it just felt normal. We lost for 20 years straight. I’m pretty used to it. I never really felt like I’m the man, and now I’m not the man. Even when we’re winning all that much, it’s like, hey, it could end tomorrow because we’ve been there. It was a different type of feeling in Supercross, but we had some really, really high points.
We had Dean (Wilson) getting some really good results for where he was at and the little amount of prep that he had. And then we had Chance Hymas win his first race, too. So there was some really, really cool stuff, and we had a really good little break for the team and a good amount of time to prep going into outdoors, which you probably needed. So yeah, we made the most out of it. We made lemonade out of lemons.
GateDrop: Jo Shimoda has been especially the last… well, guess at Anaheim 1, he was really good. He got the injury, but after he’s recovered from that, he’s been a revelation this year, winning the SMX, pushing Haiden Deegan at times outdoors, and then impressive again on the 450. Has there been a change that you’ve noticed in him?
Lindstrom: Yeah, there has been a change for sure. I think probably the change is that our relationship with him, he’s gotten more comfortable with us and maybe trusted us a little bit more on our judgment, and we’ve learned a little bit more about him on what he actually wants. I think the biggest thing was… I mean, I have to give a lot of credit to Shane Drew, our 250 crew chief, who went testing with Jo going into outdoors, and got him comfortable in like a day and a half.
And in saying that, it’s not like it was just Shane. It was Brandon Sharer with Showa and Kaz with Showa, and all of those guys to help us. I mean, we got him comfortable. He was able to get great results right away. And then another point in the season when we had our 450 crew chief, Grant Hutchinson, help him with the start map and get him really, really confident with that. That’s when he really got happy and was able to have the confidence to get great starts every weekend. And then the last part of the season, I mean, he crushed it. So I think that’s probably… Those things together was what really turned the ship around.
GateDrop: And he was under a lot of stress in SMX with Deegan, because everybody knew he’s pretty much said himself something was going to happen. He was trying mind games with Jo. From your side, were you trying to keep him calm as a team, or was he calm himself? Because he handled it really well, about as best as he can.
Lindstrom: Yeah, we definitely did our part in trying to keep that controlled, the environment and everything like that, and trying not to have too many people in his ear and just try to keep it really, really consistent to what we had been doing in the summer, which I think we did well as a team. You know, we just didn’t really do anything different, other than we talked about a little bit of strategy as far as, this might happen. If this happens, this is what we think you should do. This is what we think you should say. Those kind of things. He did a lot of those things, and then he had a lot of things on his own that he was able to do and keep calm and all that. So it was really, really cool.
GateDrop: Finally, do you get any break now, or when do you start Supercross testing again?
Lindstrom: We’re going to test Supercross on Tuesday. But luckily, hopefully, it’s not too long, and then we get a couple of things out of the way, and then we’ll take some time off. But yeah, I know definitely the team’s going to get a little bit of a break. They’re going to race Paris and Australia right after. But other than that, hopefully they get a little bit of time at home and get to do their thing and get some chance to relax.
GateDrop: Do you feel you just need that mental break yourself after such a long season, like a couple of weeks of just no motocross anything, or?
Lindstrom: I mean, I’m definitely looking forward to weekends at home. I’ll be spending that time with my family and going to my son’s hockey games and basketball. But other than that, you know, I don’t feel really burned from this year, you know, like a burned out feeling.
And probably because we ended on such a high note. But yeah, I’m definitely looking forward to having a little bit more free time.
GateDrop: Team Sweden with Your Swedish connections. Isak Gifting this season, you probably saw a bit of the Swedish GP. And again, how he rode today. What are your thoughts on the Viking?
Lindstrom: Yeah, my dad actually helped out with team Sweden quite a bit. So yeah, that was cool. I don’t really know Gifting very much at all. You know, I briefly met him yesterday. It’s cool to see someone from Sweden going fast and being able to be up front. I think, you know, hopefully he, I’m not sure exactly what happened in that third moto with him and Jett, but he sends it. So hopefully he can kind of clean that up and be a front runner more consistently.
Congratulations on the year, on the dynasty!
Jett’s incident in race 3 with Gifting. Jett did pretty well to bull dozer Gifting, he’s a big dude.
— Jordan Barber (@MotoPsyOps101) October 5, 2025
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