The rare inter-sibling match-up shaping 450MX

 Motoonline Competition Post: Kane Taylor

Lawrence brothers vying for the top position in the Pro Motocross Championship.

The inter-sibling rivalry we have at the top of the Pro Motocross Championship this year is about as rare as it gets, with brothers Jett and Hunter Lawrence holding positions one and two at the top of the premier class standings. Fierce competitors, while also maintaining a close-knit family, is a scenario that is not commonplace in elite sports, creating a unique dynamic in their careers.

First off, though they likely don’t care for the credit due to their humble approach, both parents Darren and Emma Lawrence deserve a lot of praise for having raised not only two phenomenal motorcycle riders, but two role model athletes who are a great inspiration for the next generation of talent.

Hunter and Jett carry themselves with class at all times, which, under the microscope of the entire sport and more at such relatively young ages, would be a very difficult thing to maintain, and is a testament to the genuineness of their character.

Beyond their behavior, it’s no stretch to say they are freaks when it comes to motocross and supercross, and although Hunter undoubtedly holds his own at the very front of the field, this point must be emphasized about the 2023 Pro Motocross 450MX Champion Jett, who currently stands in a league of his own.

Select people just find what they were destined to do in this life – think Tiger Woods with a golf club, or Max Verstappen with a race car – and it’s sufficient to say that Jett Lawrence was destined to race a dirt bike, there are no two ways about that. For whatever reason, the Australian has clicked into another gear over the last two 450MX rounds, showcasing a little more of what’s under the hood when it comes to potential pace that he has on demand.

He clicked off a 1-1 performance at Southwick, opening a 20-second deficit to Hunter in moto two, and RedBud’s race two charge is one to be studied for a long time, as the 21-year-old not only recovered from 18th to first but cruised to an eight-second win over Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Justin Cooper in the process.

Put simply, it’s pure domination at this point, and the days of Jett dangling a carrot for the rest of the field seem a thing of the past. Even if he was perfect on his way to the crown as a rookie two seasons ago.

Where does this leave Hunter, then? Honestly, the number 96 has been impressive in his own right this year, and if it weren’t for Jett, he’d be the series leader by almost 20 points over Cooper. He’s inched away from the likes of Eli Tomac (Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing) and Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Aaron Plessinger to appear as the number two rider at this stage in the series.

The contenders – Hunter included – are keeping Jett in their sights, as they should, because they too are some of the very best riders in the world, although it’s looking like when the gates drop, reality sets in, and the number 18 drifts off into the distance at whatever pace and margin he feels necessary on a given weekend.

What perhaps is the case at the top echelons of any sport, an unwavering self-belief may be necessary from here on out, which likely runs in opposition with reality. It’s similar to how the great Australian Chad Reed never faltered in his desire to beat the Greatest of All Time, Ricky Carmichael, even though RC came out on top in the vast majority of their encounters.

It’s an admirable position and a difficult one at that, but what is the alternative? The current contenders are up against a generational talent who appears to have few – if any – weaknesses. And given the bond Hunter and Jett share as brothers, it no doubt adds another layer of complexity to the overall picture, but from a pure racer point of view, Hunter is adopting the same approach as reigning champion Chase Sexton, Plessinger, Tomac, or anyone else would, and that’s that he wants to knock Jett off the top spot.

“I’m getting sick of the number 18 up on the top step,” the elder Lawrence confessed after Southwick. “It’d be nice to try and nab that position from him one time soon. We’re all at such a high level now, which makes it tough, but the plan is to keep pushing forward.”

“First moto [at RedBud], there was a moment at the Talladega turn where I squared [Jett] up, and I was like, ‘I wonder if he could still win if I put him up into the VIP tent on the left’, but I pulled out of that one,” Hunter joked after the RedBud National. “But I thought that [move] could’ve made the race interesting… Kept it clean in the end, but it was good fun.”

The Jett Lawrence effect is a puzzle that continues to increase in complexity as his career develops, with a lot of people – myself included – forgetting that he is only in his first chapter of what is set to be a long, decorated career at the top of the sport. His skillset will further develop, as will he as a person, which is only going to result in increased form.

What is Hunter’s play in that case? The same as the others, and that’s to work at trying to solve the riddle, whilst maintaining the family connection, which seems to be unshakeable despite what happens on the race-track.

A footnote on how this connection can manifest itself on the circuit is when Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jason Anderson knocked Hunter down at the Supercross Salt Lake City finale in 2024, where Jett retaliated moments after witnessing firsthand the incident. His commentary on the matter was proof that his response was no coincidence.

“I think he must’ve forgotten that there were two Lawrences out on the track,” responded Jett at that time.

It’s a unique arrangement, and one that we’ve not seen before with two siblings competing at the highest level of the SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX), and perhaps being the main adversary of each other over the ensuing years. How will it unfold? The only way to find out is to keep watching the show.

Light at End of Tunnel...Maybe?

Jorge Prado positive after leading at RedBud

A 7-5 in paper isn’t anything to write home about for a rider as good as Jorge Prado but, for the first ten minutes of moto two, Prado looked more like himself, finally leading in America and setting a good pace. The pace didn’t last and eventually Prado would finish fifth but it was another learning day with Prado finally getting to feel what it is like out front in the States.

A more positive Prado said: “This was a step in the right direction for me. This week we did a lot of work on the bike, and we will keep building on that. I’ve been out riding on the East Coast and testing different things, and the team has been very supportive with making all the changes back in California. Being up front today was a very comfortable feeling for me. It helped me understand the bike more and the areas we can work on. I just need to keep training and testing, and I know we can be on the podium soon.”

After two weeks of seeing flashes of the real Jorge Prado, let’s hope the progress continues at Millville.

Empty' Plessinger explains decision to sit out at RedBud

Illness intensified for 450MX contender during the opening moto.

Image: Octopi Media.

A depleted Aaron Plessinger has explained his absence from 450MX moto two at RedBud, left ‘empty’ during the middle stages of the opening race while battling illness, and ultimately opting out of the final moto altogether.

Plessinger was up front during the early stages of moto one, on the rear tire of race leaders Hunter and Jett Lawrence (Honda HRC Progressive), before losing touch and battling RJ Hampshire (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing) for the final step on the race podium.

With six minutes plus one lap remaining on the clock, it was then that the 29-year-old would begin to labor, conceding positions to Hampshire, Justin Cooper (Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing), and teammate Chase Sexton in the closing stages for P6.

“Obviously I didn’t make the second moto at RedBud and that sucked,” recounted Plessinger. “I was doing really well in the first moto, keeping up with Hunter and Jett, and then about 15 to 20 minutes in, my energy levels were just gone.

“I think I have been dealing with a sickness that I tried to keep telling myself wasn’t happening, and it finally caught up to me. I came off the first moto and couldn’t recover. I was sitting there, and my body was just empty – I felt like I would’ve been a danger out on the track if I went back out there, I just had nothing.”

Despite the challenge, Plessinger said that both he and the team will take time to determine the prognosis during the week, however, the number seven confirmed he intends to be back behind the gates at this weekend’s Spring Creek National at Millville.

“Like I said, I think I have been dealing with something that I didn’t want to believe, and I think it’s just caught up to me,” he added. “I don’t know what it is, but we are going to get it figured out, and I will be back on track in Minnesota.”

Chase on Red Bud

“I heard gnarly conspiracies about why I wasn’t racing.”

Antonio Cairoli discusses Ducati’s American debut at RedBud

Located on the shores of Lake Michigan, on the opposite side to Chicago, the legendary RedBud track hosted the American debut of the Ducati Desmo450 MX. The bike, entered with the support of Factory Connection, was piloted by nine-time World Champion Antonio Cairoli in the sixth round of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship.

After serving as Grand Marshal at the Southwick round the previous weekend and completing some valuable testing sessions, Cairoli lined up for qualifying at RedBud eager to begin his day in fine style.

Despite scorching temperatures and just two 20-minute timed practice sessions to get up to speed, Tony posted the 10th fastest time out of 80 riders – showcasing his ability to quickly adapt to the unique format and intensity of AMA motocross compared to the MXGP series.

In the opening moto, the Sicilian rider got off to a rapid start, exiting the first turn in fifth place. However, with the blistering intensity early on, Cairoli slipped back to 12th by the end of lap two. Admirably regaining his rhythm, Tony found a solid pace and began to climb back through the field, eventually taking the chequered flag in ninth after a close battle with the two riders ahead of him.

In the second moto, despite a last-minute gate position change, Cairoli launched to an even better start to propel himself into fourth and into the top-five fight for the first four laps. He even challenged for third place before an electrical issue forced him to retire early, ending what had been a promising run on the Desmo450 MX.

Image: Ducati

The testing and development effort for Borgo Panigale’s first motocross bike will now continue ahead of the next round at Spring Creek in Millville, Minnesota.

Antonio Cairoli: “It was an amazing experience to ride here in RedBud. In the first moto, I had some trouble during the first laps. I had a good start in P5, but my starting hook got stuck, and I lost a few positions. Then I was able to find a nice flow, and I came back to P9. I was happy with my pace. In the second moto, my plan was to get another fast start and manage the opening laps better, but after a strong launch into fourth and while pushing for third, we had a small issue with the bike, and I was forced to pull out. Overall, it was still a positive day. We’re here to test and develop the bike, and these things can happen. Now we’re looking forward to a solid week of training and coming back ready to battle for another top 10 in Millville.

Jett Goes 1-1 Again

BUCHANAN, Mich. – The 2025 Pro Motocross Championship, sanctioned by AMA Pro Racing, officially reached its halfway point at the crown jewel event on the calendar from Michigan’s legendary RedBud MX. The Honda RedBud National Presented by Dixxon Flannel Co. signified Race 6 of the summer campaign and Round 23 of the SMX World Championship regular season in a showcase of American motocross’ own Independence Day tradition. In the 450 Class, Honda HRC Progressive rider and championship point leader Jett Lawrence put forth one of his most impressive single-moto performances to complete a 1-1 sweep and capture a sixth straight victory. In the 250 Class, Honda HRC Progressive’s Jo Shimoda completed a dominant afternoon for the brand with a 1-1 performance of his own to put the “Red Riders” atop both classes at Honda’s title event.

450 Class

Moto 1

The opening moto of the afternoon began with Honda HRC Progressive’s Hunter Lawrence and Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing’s RJ Hampshire side-by-side exiting the first turn, with Lawrence narrowly securing the Pro Motocross Holeshot and control of the lead. Hampshire went on the attack, nearly making the pass, but the Australian fended him off. As this unfolded, Jett Lawrence closed in on Hampshire from third. The top three then settled in briefly, but Jett Lawrence pushed to make the move on Hampshire for second and gave chase to his older brother out front. Behind them, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Aaron Plessinger made the pass for third and was able to close in on the lead duo.

Just before the completion of the opening 10 minutes Jett Lawrence made his move on Hunter, briefly making the pass before Hunter responded to retake the position. Jett persisted and after a brief side-by-side battle eventually took hold of the lead. The increased pace allowed the Lawrences to pull away from Plessinger and the rest of the field, as the KTM rider was then forced to deal with a hard-charging Eli Tomac and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing machine. Once he got to Plessinger’s rear fender, Tomac made quick work to move into third.

The top three settled in through the middle of the moto, with Jett Lawrence moving out to a lead of about five seconds. However, as the moto entered its final 10 minutes considerable smoke started to come out of Tomac’s Yamaha. He eventually came to a stop, which ultimately brought his moto to a premature end. That misfortune left the battle for third to be settled between Plessinger and Hampshire, with the Husqvarna rider able to make the move in the closing stages of the moto.

Out front, Jett Lawrence’s lead eventually surpassed 10 seconds as he surged to his ninth moto win of the season by 16.1 seconds over Hunter Lawrence. Hampshire captured his first career moto podium in third, followed by Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Justin Cooper in fourth. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Chase Sexton finished fifth, as the reigning series champion and defending RedBud winner made his anticipated return to action following a crash at the opening race of the season.

Moto 2

The deciding moto got underway with Muc-Off/FXR/ClubMX Yamaha’s Coty Schock out front with the Pro Motocross Holeshot, just ahead of Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jorge Prado, the back-to-back FIM Motocross World Champion. The Spaniard pressured Schock and eventually made his move into the lead halfway through the opening lap. Behind him, both Lawrences started from deep in the top 10. As he looked to make passes, Jett Lawrence went down and remounted in 18th place. Hunter Lawrence, meanwhile, looked to move forward from seventh.

After a wild opening five minutes the field settled in with Prado leading Cooper and Hunter Lawrence, while Hampshire, Sexton, and Jett Lawrence ran in sixth, seventh, and eighth, respectively. Jett Lawrence was on the move and passed both Sexton and Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jason Anderson to break into the top five. He then passed Hampshire for fourth just over 10 minutes into the moto. The march continued past his brother, as Jett broke into the top three before the halfway point.

Out front, a patient Cooper waited for an opening to attempt a pass on Prado and successfully made his way into the lead with just over half the moto to go. That left Prado to fend with Jett Lawrence, who made quick work of the Spaniard to move into second. Prado then lost hold of third to Sexton, who was following Lawrence’s path to the front. As the fastest rider on the track Jett gained chunks of time on Cooper and easily took over the lead with less than five minutes remaining. Sexton was then able to make his way around Cooper for second but went down. He remounted in fourth as Cooper and Hunter Lawrence made their way past.

In arguably the most impressive single-moto performance of his young career, Jett Lawrence passed 17 riders to complete the sweep of the motos by 8.3 seconds over Cooper, who equaled his career-best moto result in second. Hunter Lawrence followed in third.

Overall

Jett Lawrence’s 16th career 1-1 performance netted him the 21st victory in the 450 Class, which equaled two-time champion Ken Roczen for sixth all-time. With 21 victories in 22 career starts, his career winning percentage stands at an incredible 95%. Hunter Lawrence completed the third straight 1-2 finish for the siblings in second (2-3), while Cooper earned his second overall podium result of the season in third (4-2).

Jett Lawrence’s lead in the championship standings now sits at just over an entire race, 51 points over Hunter Lawrence, who moved into second. Cooper’s podium result allowed him to move from fifth to third, 69 points out of the lead.

The podium result also helped Cooper close to within 14 points of the top seed in the SMX World Championship standings, as he continued to gain ground on his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Cooper Webb, who finished ninth (15-8).

Jett Rolls

Sexton Ready to Rumble

Red Bull KTM's Chase Sexton disappeared, suddenly, at round one of the Pro Motocross Championship. The 2024 450 National Motocross Champion had a goggle malfunction immediately in moto one, then crashed, then left the race track. He's finally back now, for round six at RedBud. Was Sexton hurt, burned out or both?

We spoke to him at press day today.

Racer X: How much of this was a physical break or a mental break? Both? What's the percentage?
Chase Sexton: I would say it's both. I was dealing with some lingering stuff, not like an injury, but more like with my body, probably even before supercross. Then going through 17 rounds you kind of like you get worn down and nothing seems to get fixed and it gets a little bit worse and then going outdoors it was worse. I had that crash and then I'm like, well, I'm 50 points out now at this point, I might as well just take the time off and. People don't really realize they only get a month off really after the season's over, so it's not that much time to really digest and like fix some problems. So I was able to use that to my advantage and take that time off and now we're back. Trying to get some SMX points.

Okay. So you weren’t like “Bro, I just want a break”?
No! I want to race dirt bike. I didn't miss one race, watching. I watched every one of them, all day.

Nobody does that! Nobody watches when they’re out!
I mean I'm still super motivated. I'm not over racing by any means. I love riding my dirt bike and when I got back on the bike, I feel like…not that I was not missing it, but I kind of forgot how much fun I had riding. When I got back on the bike, I'm like, yeah, this is where I like to be.

And I've heard there's been some testing. This bike is not what it was at round one.
Yeah totally different from round one. So now we're kind of back to where we were last year.

Well, okay then, everyone on earth is gonna say, ‘Why didn't you just do that in the first place?”
[Laughs] I was asking myself the same question. Me and Tom [Vialle]. Tom and I both changed complete setups from last year. I was watching his bike on TV, and I'm like "Dude, we gotta go back to our old stuff. It ain't working.”  And he went back last weekend and it was way better.

Yeah that first moto last week, he was hauling, his best ride of the year probably. Okay, so you're back to more the title year set up. Also, you mentioned SMX points. So you do think about this?
Yeah, I mean, I don't want to go back too far. I’d like to be top five, and if I would have taken more time off, I would have been back farther. I mean, it's kind of a little sneaky move by MX Sports and them. I think they thought about this when they did this whole SMX thing, like, let's get the guys [riders to come] back. Because a lot of the times people in my position probably wouldn't have came back. So it's kind of a smart move by them to get people back. The outdoor series has been strong since they brought in SMX.

Compare yourself now to when you came back here in 2023. Are you in a better spot? Back then, you were rebuilding more, physically, from a concussion and stuff.
Yeah, and I kind of underestimated the last time I came back. For tomorrow, I don't really have any high expectations. I mean, yeah, I think my riding's been good and I know I'm what I'm capable of, but it's gonna take some time to kind of build back. I think in ‘23 I kind of expected to be like right back to normal, automatically. I’ve got to get off to good starts. That’s what I’ve been really focusing on. Just from watching the races, it's crazy the difference when you watch a race and you can really see the difference between being out front. When you're in it, you don't really know. So, I was trying to work on some small stuff and the bike, obviously, but I've been riding a lot, too. I rode a lot last week, a lot of motos, so I think I'm ready to go.

But you're aware that coming back five races in, it might not be perfect.
It's not easy. I haven’t been racing. But that being said, I think if I can get a good start and put myself out front, I'll pick it up pretty quick, I think. I think I'll be back to normal. But we'll see.

Happy 4th...Go Ride

Enjoy the day, salute the warriors that give us this day.

Herlings Hurt...Again!

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jeffrey Herlings, winner of the German and Latvian Grands Prix this season with his works KTM 450 SX-F, will miss round 13 of 20 of 2025 MXGP at the KymiRing and for the Finnish Grand Prix on 12-13 July.

The 30-year-old suffered a broken right collarbone while completing a team training session at Arnhem earlier this week - the sandy circuit that will host the Dutch GP on 24 August.

After careful checks and diagnosis in the Netherlands, Herlings was advised to initially try a natural healing process, as opposed to surgery, which will be analyzed further next week.

Herlings has won three motos, scored two Pole Positions and walked the MXGP podium twice for his respective overall victories this season. The Dutchman entered the campaign late after recovering from a right knee reconstruction during the winter but has already gathered enough points to sit 6th in the championship standings.

Jeffrey’s convalescence means he will not travel to Finland. He and the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team will then assess the state of his recovery on a daily basis to plan a return to action