US Motocross pre-season press conference quotes – Lawrence, Vialle, Sexton, Ferrandis, Webb
An impressive stage for the opening press conference for the Pro Motocross championship gave the riders the perfect platform to share their views about switching to the outdoors.
450
Chase Sexton: I flew home from Salt Lake on Sunday and it was back to outdoor testing on Tuesday. I think it has made me more motivated to come out here and win. I don’t feel I have a lack of motivation right now. The first week back I tested three days and I think I put seven hours on my bike. It was right back to work and look forward to this championship.
Jett Lawrence: It’s very exciting for me. It’s like starting from the bottom again and get to see where I am in the first round. I was lucky I was on the West coast I got to do quite a bit of 450 testing, so lucky with that and I was feeling good. We have been pretty lucky at this track so we will see how it plays out in qualifying where I stand. Until the gate drops we can’t really tell where I am going to finish but I am more excited to get out there and start a new chapter in my life on a 450. I am going to be here for a while because I am still 19, going to be a lot of years in this class. It’s going be fun to learn off these older guys.
Dylan Ferrandis: I am back, I am back to normal, my health my fitness, all is good. For sure I won this championship before, my goal is only to win. We have this new Yamaha bike and it is very, very different and going to take a little bit to learn the bike and adjust to it. We only practice supercross all winter with it and didn’t do much testing in motocross, we don’t know how the bike will be in race condition but other than that it’s good. I think I will try to be smart and not take any unnecessary risk. I did it in 2021 and when I ride I feel the same and I think I can do the same this season.
Cooper Webb: I got to a point where I was feeling good, saw some neurologists and got cleared. It was definitely last minute, I just wanted to be out here with the line-up right now and with the SMX coming up, I want to better my chances any way possible. The first few rounds, I am not sure how they are going to go definitely not much time on the bike. Good to be back racing and feeling healthy again, it was a bummer how supercross ended, I just want to be on the gate, it was something I didn’t do last year, get back into it and see how we stack up against everyone.
250
Hunter Lawrence: We balanced it pretty good (switching to MX from SX). Hopefully it shows in the first few rounds, it’s obviously tough being so heavily into supercross and one weekend off to really switch over. It’s a happy medium balance, looking forward to a good summer.
Tom Vialle: There’s a lot of new things for me. In Europe we only rode motocross all year, so when you come to the first race you have rode for a few months. It’s pretty weird to switch between supercross and motocross, it’s only been two or three weeks. Just getting used to it is a bit special, those guys are used to it for many years already. I am really looking forward to it, every track will be new and I have to learn those tracks but I am pretty motivated. It’s a new experience for me and I am looking forward to it.
Jeremy Martin: I’m really excited, breath some fresh air and get out of those supercross stadiums. The boys are going fast indoors, with me missing a couple of seasons, I really noticed the pace has elevated and I am expecting the same thing outdoors this year. Excited to mix it up. I think it’s going to be exciting to mix it up with the factory boys here.
Haiden Deegan: I’m super excited for outdoors, especially this year. Last year when I did those two rounds it wasn’t the greatest. In supercross I was mixing it up with some faster dudes and got comfortable racing those guys so I think it’s going to be good for outdoors.
Justin Cooper: A lot more outdoors for me. I got a little bit the same last year when I came back from injury, but not as intense. with that much time off the bike it was really tough. This year we are healthy coming in, a lot of time to work on the bike and get set-up for this series. It has been quite a grind but now we are here it comes fast. We are here to enjoy this.
Michael Mosiman: I had a crash at Daytona, hurt my head and was dealing with concussion symptoms. Sought specialist help which was really eye-opening and learnt a lot. My brain functions better than it ever has in my life, just working on cognitive rehabilitation and performance enhancement. I am really excited for the season, I feel I have found some answers to problems I was dealing with.
Image: Honda
