Australian Jett Lawrence continued his dominance of the 250 class this weekend in 2022 AMA Pro Motocross, notching his second 1-1 performance in a row, this time at Millville, Minnesota’s Spring Creek National.
The young Australian was the class of the field, although brother and teammate and brother Hunter Lawrence nearly bested him in moto 1 before finishing third overall with 2-5 results.
Jett took the first 250 holeshot, then was overtaken by Justin Cooper on lap 1. Cooper fell, delaying Jett long enough for Hunter to take over at the front. From there, a brotherly battle ensued for the remainder of the moto, the Lawrences establishing a big margin over third place. Hunter led the majority of the distance, but Jett took advantage of lapped riders to move by his brother two laps from the end and take the win. His advantage was just over half a second, and third place was 35 seconds back!
Following a moto 2 red flag, Jett got a third-place start and was to the front by the second lap. While Hunter recovered from a poor start, Jett rode to the win with an advantage of just under 8 seconds on second place. Hunter climbed to fifth by the finish, for third overall.
“It was good—another 1-1. The first one I got the holeshot but really had to work for; I had Hunter in front, and I made a couple mistakes, which made me drop two positions,” Jett said. “I was able to get him at the end, with some lappers. The second one was a lot easier; I got a good start, and Hunter was a bit back. I got that gap and was able to maintain. I had a lot better flow, so it was a lot smoother.”
It was a bit of a tougher round for Hunter Lawrence having to do some extra work coming through the field but in the end, another podium keeps him in reach of his brother with third place.
“Moto 1 was tough,” Hunter declared. “I was leading for the majority of the race, and then just an unfortunate deal when the lappers let Jett get through. Then he was trying to win, and I was giving it everything to try and get close enough to have that window of opportunity, to make a pass. Those ones are interesting—just like Eli and Chase in the 450s, sending it the last three laps; we pretty much emptied the tank. The second moto was looking pretty good before the restart, I must say. We were in first, ticking the boxes toward an overall, and unfortunately, the accident happened. I used up all my good starts and sucked on the third one. [laughs] It was a rough one, coming through the pack, expending a lot of energy trying to bridge up. I was just hanging on until the end of the moto.”
The Lawrence brother will be back in action next weekend as the 2022 AMA Pro Motocross series hits the three-quarter mark, with the Washougal National in Washington state.
