Jett Lawrence roars to Supercross history

Lawrence became the first rookie in Supercross’ 50-year history to win the opening race in the Premier Class. This was done against the best of the best. Any argument made that he and the media needed to sit down is currently silenced as Jett entered Anaheim 1 (A1) topped practice, and won qualifying before finishing third in his heat behind Webb and Jason Anderson.

Lawrence bobbled on an attempted pass for the lead on Webb and was passed by Anderson as he regrouped. Which was all that stood between him and a perfect Supercross Debut.

450 Heats

The energy of Anaheim is one of the most electric events of every season as riders enter their campaigns refreshed and ready for the new season. Some are there to bounce back from injuries and disappointing results, some to defend past championships, and some with a lot to prove.

The goal for rookies in the opening class is to make the night show. Both Heats took eight riders with the final four positions being set by a Last Chance Qualifier. Jett and Cooper made it in through finishing in third and seventh in Heat 2, along with Jorge Prado, the MXGP champion, joining the Supercross circuit from Spain in order to get reps in on North American Supercross tracks.

Hunter Lawrence was the lone rookie in the first heat.

In the dreaded right-hand turn after the starting gate, Hunter went down in Heat 1, taking Sexton down with him. Both riders recovered but the elder Lawrence got back into the game at the back of the pack with the hopes of running a solid Last Chance Qualifier and joining the rest of the rookie class in the night show.

Meanwhile, Ken Roczen and his Suzuki got out to a dominant lead in this heat as a reminder to fans that the field is much deeper than the Honda, Yamaha, and KTM Factory riders. Aaron Plessinger and Malcolm Stewart completed the podium of the first heat.

Hunter and the Last Chance Qualifier

Hunter entered the Last Chance Qualifier with the pressure of being the only rookie to not secure his spot in the feature. After his brother Jett, Hunter is the most anticipated call-up from the 250 class.

Last season he secured two of his three possible championships after winning Supercross 250 East and Motocross, and finishing third in the inaugural SMX World Championship, where he was heavily favored to win before a crash at the Los Angeles Coliseum kept him out of the SMX Championship Final.

A bubble and a bad start placed the Honda rider deep in the field at 14th, meaning that he would have to pass 10 riders in order to make the feature. As the riders completed the first five laps in the LCQ, on each lap Lawrence marched towards the front.

Unfortunately, in the end, 10 riders were one too many for the rookie to pass, and on the final lap after passing Jason Clermont and Devin Simonson for sixth and fifth, respectively. In the final three turns he was directly on Cade Clason’s back tire and one pass stood between him and his comeback. A successful block by Clason secured his ticket to the feature and moved Hunter’s hunt for an 450 A-main win one more Saturday down the line.

With the level of success at the top level, one mistake is going to cost a contender a start in the feature every week for the foreseeable future. This week, Hunter was the unlucky one.

Justin Hill easily led the LCQ followed by Kyle Chisholm and Freddie Noren, Clason moved into the feature with the last transfer spot he protected from Hunter.

450 Feature

After the lights of Angels Stadium flashed on and off and the smoke of the pyro show faded, the highly anticipated 450 feature was set to take off. Jett Lawrence narrowly captured the holeshot ahead of Jason Anderson and rode to the lead, while onlookers watched with bated breath to see if the young Aussie would make history again.

Anderson, the 2018 Supercross champion, spent the first half of the race chasing down Lawrence and with seven minutes remaining, had to shift focus to the looming Yamaha YZ450F of Cooper Webb, eating the distance between third and second. As these two battled they lost some time to Lawrence in the lead but he never pulled out to more than a four-second margin throughout the battle.

“Copper was pretty respectful,” Anderson said on their early battles, “He tried to make that pass on the finish line and I’m not saying that it was bad or anything, we just got into that little battle and I was on the inside and I definitely didn't want him to pass me.

"We slowed our pace down trying to have that battle for a second and let Jett get that little three-second gap. At the same time, I had little mistakes and Copper was able to get on me. Me, Coop, and Jett for a good 15 minutes of the moto were pretty even. It was tough to make time, but I made time in the whoops. I had a little bit of a different line than Jett. Then I would hear Cooper and he’s always revving it behind you.”

Webb attempted to pass Anderson after the finish jump and while he was a nose ahead briefly, was not able to sustain second place as the duo entered the triples.

A half-lap later, Webb lost control and crashed while pressuring for second in a forced left jump, costing him three positions and his chance at a podium. Reigning SX champion Sexton inherited third due to this mistake.

The clock expired with Lawrence holding an eight-second lead, all he needed was to run a solid two laps to secure the A1 victory. He did just that and the SMX champion will carry the Red Plate with a Chartreuse 1 into Round 2 at Oracle Park in San Francisco.

While Lawrence sets high goals for himself, the gravity of what he’s doing and attempting is not lost on the young rider.

“The nerves for this, through the roof! I would be lying to say that I wasn’t nervous. You’re actually here,” Lawrence said in Victory Lane, “We’ve made it.”

Later on in the podium press conference, Lawrence was asked about a comment he made about trying for 72 Supercross wins, which is the current record held by Jeremy McGrath. This comment rubbed some the wrong way, since when it was made Lawrence hadn’t had his first win yet.

“Coming in you have to set such a high goal for yourself that’s going to make you go a little crazy for it and makes you work hard,” Lawrence explained his motivation for his goalposts. “It’s not me being like ‘I’m gonna do it.’ It’s more that I want to have a goal. … If I didn’t I would just be happy to be here and ride around in whatever position I wanted to.”

Jason Anderson’s second-place finish matched his best of the 2023 season, where he secured second during Anaheim 2. Last season was a down season for the Kawasaki rider, who dominated the win column in 2022 with seven victories.

In the podium presser when asked about his return to form, the veteran rider touched on bike changes and family life and the personal impact they can have on a season.

“First and foremost we tried to improve our bike last year and we ended up going a little bit in the wrong direction, " Anderson said, “That sent the momentum downhill.”

“Personally, whenever the momentum starts to go downhill and my wife is pregnant with my first daughter, it’s tough. You go to the practice track and I don’t want to get hurt and stress her out.”

Sexton’s third-place finish Saturday was important for the momentum of him and his new team. It’s easy for riders to carry doubts after making a major change and often it takes a few rounds for a bike and rider to meet in the middle and find success.

“A couple of weeks ago, if you had seen me you would’ve gone, ‘Yeah, this guy is not doing very good at A1,'’' Sexton joked at the podium presser. “I feel like the progress that we’ve made in the last couple of weeks is just getting us a lot more comfortable.

"I ride a lot on feel. When I feel connected to the bike and the track, I want to go fast. We’re getting there, it’s just taking some time. The team has been awesome. They’ve thrown everything at it and they’ve worked their butts off. It’s cool to be a part of a program with those guys.”

Aaron Plessinger and Dylan Ferrandis completed the top five, Plessinger on his longtime KTM, and Ferrandis on his new Honda CRF450R due to his team's move this off-season.

Webb finished in sixth after his run in the top three followed by Justin Barcia. Barcia was the most recent rider to finish second in his rookie debut and the closest comparison we have to what Jett just pulled off.

Cooper secured a top ten with his eighth-place finish in his rookie debut and finished one position ahead of Tomac who struggled but pulled out a top ten in his return from injury.

After his dominant heat win, Roczen rounded out the top 10.