Jett Lawrence on staying relaxed despite title pressure
Tomorrow will be a big day in the life young 18 year old, Jett Lawrence. The super-talented Aussie will go into Hangtown with a 23 point lead over Justin Cooper in the final round of the 250 US National championship and should he win the title, it will validate the all-in, all around the world journey the entire family have been on to find success, and with Hunter lying third in the series, it would be a remarkable achievement for both brothers to be to be 1-3 in the US motocross championship.
Following his brilliant 1-1 performance at Pala Jett spoke about the improvement with the bike, his starts and how he stays relaxed despite the pressure of a title on the line.
Jett on…
Finding improvements with the bike and starts…
The funny thing is on our starts, we changed our gate prep a little bit, but realistically technique-wise I actually haven’t really changed much, to be honest. It’s kind of been more the not stressing so much about it. Halfway through the season when I started to get those bad starts, I started to almost mentally screw myself before I even did the start. I really wanted to get a good one because I know Cooper is very good at starts and my only chance of trying to battle with him is to actually get up there on the start. I think I was just overthinking them way too much to try to get them perfect. I think I was just digging myself a deeper hole. Coming to Unadilla, I just finally did a few starts, not many leading up to it, and just didn’t worry so much about it. Just kind of pictured what I needed to do in my head and then just made sure I executed that and not make it such a big thing. I felt like that has really helped me in the past few days. Plus, the boys have been at it with the bike and improving it. So, I think it’s just an all-great mix with the team and my mental state with my starts, not overthinking it so much.
The team and I have been working pretty hard to try and always improve? They found a little step and we found confidence-wise another step and speed. I think it’s just a mixture. Thankfully, we’ve been actually seeing the results because we’ve been looking for quite a while to try and improve. Obviously, the Star bikes are the top power of the 250 guys and we’re always trying to get close to them. So, we found something. It was really good to visually see it on the weekend, today really that we’ve actually closed the gap I felt like a bit power-wise. It was really good to see that because the boys have been putting in some hard hours at the factory and just searching for some better things. I think it’s just been a mixture with what has been helping me lately. Obviously just getting those 1-1’s and good starts, I think it’s just been helpful. Obviously, confidence-wise it’s been really nice. It’s been helping me get into a better position early and not have to fight out of tenth or something.
Title pressure of the final round and being relaxed…
Next week is going to be exactly the same, me wanting to go play golf and Dazzy [Darren Lawrence, his father] and Johnny [O’Mara, trainer] turning it down because I’ve got to race this next weekend. So, nothing is going to change. I’m going to go into this next weekend like I just sucked the weekend before and try and ride at 100 percent. Nothing is going to change. I still have to go there and do a job, and I think that’s really it. Mentally I’m not going to change anything, because I feel like I’ve been doing pretty good lately, so I’m not going to change my mental state where I am right now.
I think I’ve always been pretty relaxed, even like you said in amateurs and first year of pro. It’s not I don’t go into it scared. I come in and I’m going out there to have fun and race and do what I love, really. So, I don’t really put much pressure on myself because I get to go out and do what I love every day. I think that’s what kind of helps me to stay more relaxed in more pressure spots. I obviously feel like I have some hiccups, but I feel like most of the time I’m pretty relaxed in those and pretty stress-free, I would say.
Images: Align media
