Features 12 May 2023

Input: The Supercross finals

Contenders share their thoughts ahead of Salt Lake City 2023.

Featuring the second 250SX East/West Showdown of the year and with a new 450SX champion due to be crowned, all eyes are on Salt Lake City for the final round of the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross Championship. In what has become a season of survival, Team Honda HRC riders provide their Input ahead of the final round this Saturday night. 

Image: Octopi Media.

Jett Lawrence (Team Honda HRC): 
I mean, it’d be great to beat [Hunter] in my last 250 race, but I’m not going to go over my head and injure myself because I have a lot bigger picture ahead of me, a bigger story for me in 450s. That’s what I’m mostly set on… plus, I got told by Dazzy we’re not doing anything stupid this weekend, just go and have some fun on the last 250 race. I didn’t really think of it until this week, Michael Byrne said to me, ‘how’s it feel to have your last 250 practice laps before you go racing on it?’. I didn’t really think of it that way, it just felt like normal practice, so it was kind of cool to get my last practice day out of the way on Supercross riding the 250. But no, there’s no need to do anything stupid, we don’t need to worry about our championships – we’ve already done our jobs – so this one is kind of a fun race for us.

Hunter Lawrence (Team Honda HRC): 
For those of you that thought RJ [Hampshire’s] move on [Jett] in New York was gnarly, get ready ready cos I’m gonna make that look like an amateur move… I’m gonna scrub that 1W off, so I’m going to have 1EW on my bike. This is an important race for me, we’ve gotta break the wins, we can’t be tied – he’s got more titles, so I’ve gotta etch him up on something. This is do or die for me [laughs].

Image: Foremost Media.

Chase Sexton (Team Honda HRC):
My theme this year is just never give up and keep trusting what I can do. It’s been a little bit difficult because last weekend I got pretty sick on Saturday and Sunday it really hit me. The beginning of this week, I pretty much took off, and I got to ride outdoors on Wednesday. It was a little bit different because I was under the weather a little bit, but it’s just a normal week… my goal was to come in here and win this final race, just add another win to my season. I guess my goal stays the same, but it’s obviously it’s a little bit different circumstances with having Eli [Tomac] out, coming in here with the unknown [laughs], is he gonna show up or what’s gonna happen? But yeah, my mindset stays the same and my goal is to win this final race.

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