Jett Lawrence – I ended up just playing safe
US 250 motocross championship leader, Jett Lawrence, had a decent day at High Point getting on the podium and showed he can use his head when it matters and not ride beyond himself when going for the win might be too risky. At just 17 , Jett is thinking big picture as he explained to the media in the zoom press conference.
Jett, on the podium you talked about being behind Justin Cooper in the second moto and kind of realizing you maybe didn’t have the pace to run him down. How do you feel, in this second year, you’ve mentally developed to be able to kind of realize that, in the moto, where you could settle into a pace and take what’s given to you instead of kind of winging it for a win every time?
We always have another eye on a rider, and obviously Cooper was out front. He had a bit of a gap. [I thought] It is possible if I can get some good lap times and maybe close that gap to at least put some pressure onto him. Each lap I just kept looking and looking once I got into second. I was taking some chunks out, but it wasn’t major. I was pushing quite a bit because he was on it in that second one and had a really good flow. I had a little bit of a flow but wasn’t the best. I was in a little bit of a weird spot. I was in no man’s land. The gap away was like, I could try and push it to get to him or I could relax and stay where I am. I ended up just playing the safe route and took second. At least I still gained some points on him [for the day], so I’m going to take second. If I try and keep pushing, I’m going to end up on the dirt. So, I ended up going with that decision. I felt like that was the right one this weekend.
First time at High Point for yourself. That first moto the rain sort of started coming down. It looked like the track was kind of greasy early on and then it sort of turned around at the end of the day. How did you find High Point for your first time?
It was a really sick track. It felt more like a Euro track with all the elevation. It was a tricky track, I felt like, especially with the rain. You had to find out what was slippery and what was tacky, especially with the sawdust they added in this week. It was a fun track, though. I really liked it. It just brought out a skill level that if you weren’t on it and have your balance correct, it would be a nightmare. All around, it was a really cool track, I felt like.
Awesome competition today, giving away a jersey. I just want to know, what’s the craziest sign or the best sign you’ve actually seen today? Is that why you had Jacob [Hayes, who assisted Lawrence in checking out the signs] going around the track looking at these things, or were you getting DMs about it? How did you pick that?
There were some pretty wild signs out there today. I had Jacob [Hayes] out there today and Kayla [Mead, Honda PR] taking photos of the signs to make sure we get a really good one. There were some pretty cool ones. There were ones with LED lights, and some really crazy ones. It was really cool to see that. It was a hard pick to try and pick who should get the jersey, but we ended up coming to a decision with the one we went with today and I felt like that was a really good decision.
Image: Honda
