We asked James Stewart and Ricky Carmichael during the SMX press conference to put themselves in Chase Sexton’s shoes coming into the new SMX series. With Jett Lawrence taking the spotlight away so quickly from the supercross champ with his perfect outdoor season – but now Chase has a chance of toppling Lawrence straight away in their last series as Honda teammates, how motivated would they be in his situation?
James said: “For me personally I would be really motivated coming into this, the playoffs, with what happened outdoors. I think the benefit for him is it’s a different format so the scenario changes, you are going to go back to supercross. For me, I would be motivated.
“It’s no secret that I think he’s going to be changing teams, so I don’t know how much this is all in on him. I know he is all in, but I don’t know if he is so motivated he would do whatever it takes to beat him considering that in three or four months he’s going to be on a different team and showing up on a new bike, and then that would be a reason why things have changed – the things that happened in the past only happened because of the equipment, now I’ve new stuff things will be different.
“But yeah, from a mental standpoint, the last race after the first moto was the first time I ever seen Chase, since he has been racing Jett, just kind of looked like he was beat and didn’t have an answer for it. But after the second moto he said he was motivated and not done winning, I think he will be really motivated.
“I think it’s going to help Chase to have Ken Roczen and maybe some other guys step in that Jett will be worried as well. That will take a little bit of pressure off Chase, he will be one of the guys instead of the only guy that could beat. I think he will be motivated and we’ll see how motivated he is in a couple of days.”
While Carmichael said: “I think all these guys want to beat Jett, not just Chase. Ken, Jason Anderson, you name them, they all want to win. I don’t necessarily know how much they want to beat Jett more than they want to win the race, that million dollars and win that inaugural SMX world championship.
“Make no mistake about it, it is the pinnacle of dirt bike racing, of all the other world championships, in my opinion. We have the riders to stand for it, this is the pinnacle of dirt bike racing, so to win here and win this SMX world championship, that should be enough incentive to win not just going out and trying to dethrone Jett Lawrence. It’s going to be exciting. This is the last chance for the year for Chase and a lot of guys to beat him (Jett Lawrence) and win another championship.”
Article: Jonathan McCready
Image: Feld Entertainment Inc.
