Geico Honda’s Jett Lawrence saw his Monster Energy Supercross 250SX West debut hindered by a bout of food poisoning at Anaheim’s season-opener on Saturday night.

The 16-year-old Australian battled the illness as landed a heat race finish of sixth, granting him a direct transfer spot to the main event.

An inability to consume food and liquids throughout the day eventually caught up with Lawrence in the 17-lap final, where he admits fatigue set in halfway through before salvaging a respectable ninth place result.

“Well, Friday started off with getting food poisoning from a Chick-fil-A sandwich!” said Lawrence. “I ended up waking up at one in the morning throwing up and having diarrhea and really bad stomach cramps so I couldn’t make it to press day.

“Saturday morning I was feeling a little bit better but I didn’t get very good sleep. I was pretty tired plus couldn’t eat anything – just a rice cracker and some sips of water so my energy was pretty low.

“By the time it came to the main event I was starting to feel a little bit better but halfway through I started to get some belly cramps and started to feel a little bit lightheaded. At the end of the day it was not the result I was wanting, but I guess it is not such a bad result for my first race.”

The Monster Energy Supercross series visits St. Louis in Missouri this Saturday night for round two of the 17-stop championship.