Lars Lindstrom sat down with the media to give an inside look at the current state of his riders and team now that the AMA Supercross season has got underway. From updates on Jett Lawrence’s foot recovery and Jo Shimoda’s post-surgery progress, to fine-tuning Hunter’s bike setup and adapting team strategy, Lindstrom offered candid insights on what’s working, what’s next, and the challenges of developing riders at the highest level.
The latest on Jett Lawrence and Jo Shimoda…
“I think I’m pretty confident that we’ll see both of them back in Supercross at some point. Jett’s recovery is going incredible. That bone that he broke in his foot, the talus bone, is a really important bone – that’s your main platform for the first thing that the tib and fib touch. So for that to be really healed is important. He’s been doing everything possible as far as hyperbaric chamber and all the tools and tricks that we have with Doc G and with the doctors that he had. It’s been speeding up the recovery process quite a bit, just like he did with his knee and that’s the cool part. He’s in there every day trying to get better”.
“Jo’s been doing the same thing. Luckily, Jo’s surgery was really well done. We’re really happy with that and I think that he feels so good that I think he’ll be back. I wouldn’t say that he would be back for the first East Coast round. We still don’t have a clear answer from his doctors when they think it’ll be. He had some scans done this week and we should know more pretty soon”.
On Hunter and his bike setup to get him more comfortable…
“I mean, we’ll see about that this weekend. We did have a really good week. We ended up trying some new things on Tuesday. If this tells you anything, we didn’t change anything for Wednesday. We just did moto’s the day after so we’ll see. Saturday is the real test and after that, we’ll find out. I mean, if at 7:30 on Saturday we’re having conversations in the truck with trucks parked around so nobody can come in, you know it didn’t go as well as we thought it would”.
If there are any benefits to just focusing on two riders…
“Yes and no. I mean, I think we do a pretty good job of giving everyone the time that they need. But in a way, it’s kind of, I wouldn’t say beneficial. I would say kind of the opposite, because we only have two guys kind of feeling the motorcycle and going through the motions of developing. So yes, we can maybe give them more focus. But I think having more guys on the track and giving them more feedback and more data is probably more important”.
If Hunter raced the entire 2025 Supercross series if he’d be in a better position now…
“I mean, it’d be hard to say that he wouldn’t be more comfortable if he rode the whole series last year. We would have had a lot more opportunity to go through some things. I mean, last week he had his best Supercross race he’s ever had, where he almost won the race against two of the best guys to ever do it. The things that we’re fine tuning, it’s not like we’re way out in the left field, which was cool. This week we were able to try a couple of key components to try to get him just a little bit happier, get the bike to settle a little bit more, coming into the corners, through the rims. He wants the bike to be super plush and never bottom so that’s our main goal is to try to do that”.
Reaction to the three SMX rounds…
“I mean, the one is right in our backyard in Carson. It’s right where our race shop is in Torrance, California so that is cool. I don’t know if that’s the exact same place that used to be the Home Depot Center, but I have good memories there from the X Games days with McGrath and Ben Bostrom and things. With Branson, I just remember that from people riding amateurs and saying Branson was cool so we’ll see how that goes. I’m interested to see how it’s going to be”.
When the team may get the new prototype Honda being used in MXGP…
“That’s a good question. I mean, the reason why they race it in MXGP is because they’re allowed to ride prototypes and really to test and develop for the future. I don’t know when the timeline is for that motorcycle or if it’s even going to stay that way that they have it right now, or if it’s going to change, but honestly, for that side of things, I’m just not sure I know”
