Justin Barcia immediately apologised to Jett Lawrence after wiping the championship leader put in lap one of race three in St.Louis.
You could see the disbelief in Barcia as soon as it happened and, fair play to the Gas Gas rider, he immediately went up and spoke to a sore Jett after the race, with Jett appearing to accept it wasn’t intentional.
See the video from @wildthang_44 on Instagram below:
Of course Barcia has a reputation of being a take-out expert, but he usually does not react like this…so how did it all unfold?
Jett Lawrence down hard 😱
— Supercross LIVE! (@SupercrossLIVE) March 31, 2024
🎥 Monster Energy 450 Race 3 LIVE fueled by @SchnuckMarkets #SupercrossLIVE #SMX pic.twitter.com/gz9DyKBgC2
It appears Barcia was trying to cover off Vince Friese who was cominh up the inside, and that’s enough to make anyone, even Barcia!
Barcia was wide but then went inside, only came in far too hot and was headed for the outside berm regardless with his back wheel airborne!
Freise was going to have a shot a Barcia regardless but then Jett turned down early to look to pass his brother and Barcia was already on a line that no-one on earth would be expecting and they hit hard!
Some have thought Jett should have been more aware but, when you see the still photo below, Lawrence had a big gap over Barcia when he got to the turn, it wasn’t like Barcia was on on his back wheel and then, yes, Jett should have played it smarter. But Jett had no idea a rider would even think to take such a line.
The invisible and unintentional power of Vince Friese vanquished that Jett Lawrence in St. Louis.
Despite doing nothing wrong all night, it was Friese who was down after the finish to cause the cross flags, costing Jett the second moto win and Friese threatening an inside move on Barcia that looked to create the crazy move from Justin, that impacted Jett Lawrence the most and might have totally changed the 2024 supercross title chase.
Or maybe, Barcia for no reason thought he could pass Jett out of nowhere up the inside…
Article: Jonathan McCready
