Posted: Thursday, 31st July, 2008 : 2:12 PM - - 5,130 Reads

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Lawrence, who’s serving a suspension from the AMA Outdoor, will run his Yamaha of Troy YZ250F - the same bike that got him a moto win at the Glen Helen (Calif.) MX opener - for the X Games. In addition, ALL of Lawrence’s sponsors have his back and are pumped to see him racing again.

Monster Energy’s PR machine had a chat with Lawrence, he’s ready to give answers to some of the more pressing questions – between burning some mind-blowing fast laps out at Glen Helen.

Monster Energy: What’s been happening?

JLaw: “Just been working on sorting out some issues, man. I’m back training with Ryno, which is cool. Riding as much as I can, getting ready for X Games this week.

ME: We read somewhere on the Internet that you’re racing in Australia.

JLaw: “Yeah, I’m told you can read a lot of stuff on the Internet lately (laughter). Naw, I’m not planning on racing in Australia. Just working on putting the pieces back together here.”

ME: What have you done in the last couple weeks to move forward with things after what went down at RedBud.

JLaw: “There’s a short list of people I’ve surrounded myself with that are giving me advice. The main thing is I’ve got to avoid the situations that have gotten me in trouble in the past. I think the best piece of advice I’ve got is that ‘you’ve got to pick your spots.’

I mean, I’m 21 and like to have a good time. But I’m also realizing now that there’s a difference between going out and having a good time and going out and having things get out of hand.

“So that’s the immediate thing I’m working on – avoiding the situations that have got me in trouble. (pause) But at the same time I’m not going to quit enjoying the fact that I race dirt bikes for a living and, until I gotta get a desk job or something, I plan on having fun doing what I’m doing.”

ME: What have your sponsors said to you?

JLaw: “Man, that’s the best part. Everybody – and I mean EVERYBODY – has got my back. Yamaha of Troy, Monster – I couldn’t have asked for better sponsors. And yeah, I’ve been smacked around a bit in a couple meetings, but hell, what do you expect? I let a lot of people down, so now I want to prove to them that I can rally, make it back to where I was feeling the greatest – like after winning the title – everybody’s saying ‘Dude, we’re proud of you.’”

ME: What’s next?

JLaw: “X Games. I plan on showing up and killing it. I’ll have about a month of frustration to release and I’m either going to win or crash big trying again.”

ME: Any parting words?

JLaw: “Yeah, you know, I just want to let everybody know I’m learning from my mistakes. I’m never going to be the clean cut poster boy some people think I should be, but to the people that are important to me – my friends and family, sponsors and, mostly, my fans – I plan on being the same rowdy, take-no-$%@! racer you can either come to cheer for or hate – I’m good with it either way.

“So I’m all about maintaining that edge I’ve always had – just gotta be sure now to avoid the situations that have got me in some trouble in the past, know what I mean?”

ME: Right on. Thanks for the time, Jason.

JLaw: “Thanks for coming out. And hey, tell everybody to keep an eye on the No. 338 bike at the X Games because it’s going to be insane.”

Main Photo By Cameron Baird

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