For the second round in a row, it was Jett Lawrence and Haiden Deegan standing atop the 450MX and 250MX podiums. Lawrence had to work for it at Hangtown, taking the overall with a 3-1 scorecard, while Deegan kept his perfect season alive and remains unbeaten in Pro Motocross 2025. Both riders spoke to the media following the final motos for this Debrief feature.

450MX

Image: Octopi Media.

Jett, we know Hangtown isn’t usually your strongest round. In addition to the added stress that you mentioned on the broadcast regarding your comfort level on the bike, so what aspects of your riding and racing have you focused on to achieve this result?

Nothing special to be honest. It’s the same every weekend, I’ve just had bad rounds here previously. 2023 was still good, I went 1-1, so it’s not all bad. We just had to be smart and get good starts, I actually missed my shift in the first race and didn’t get third gear early enough, so I hit rev limiter and lost drive. I got behind Eli [Tomac] and he got around Justin [Cooper] pretty quickly and put a gap on both of us, so once I got around JCoop, I kind of [reserved myself for moto two]. I put a few good laps together, but then I just decided to save energy for the next one. Once I found out they cut five minutes off, I just knew I had to put my head down. So I got the start and tried sprinting as hard as I could without using too much energy, thankfully it worked out.

Can you take us through those two motos, and I know you did already, but what was it like adjusting your expectation for moto one, then knowing you have to push hard in moto two? I think everyone that knows you thinks you just want to go out and dominate. That was a really good show of race craft and maturity today.

I think if it wasn’t so hot, I would’ve definitely been trying to push through it. The heat definitely played a part in it, I didn’t want to blow out and just be done. I just sat for a few laps and if I could’ve pulled them in easily, I would’ve kept at it. But Aaron [Plessinger] and Eli were holding a really good pace, so I made the decision to just stay there. I wish I would’ve got a better start and pushed a little harder and maybe I could’ve had AP. In the second one, I ended up going back to a paddle tire for the start, just to make sure we got the start. I’m good enough to manage it around the track, but that start is just so important, so we went with that and nailed the start, Hunter [Lawrence] and I did actually. I stayed committed around that outside and ended up getting it from him, from there I just tried going as fast as I could to get a decent gap, and managed from there.

I’ve heard a few of you mention sprinting, but how much of a difference does the five minutes less really make?

In our heads, I think we can sprint a little harder at the start, so then you don’t suffer for as long in the end. I think that’s how we think, [laughs]. SI just tried working hard to get a gap, then go off that and yeah, I don’t know.

I heard you did some extensive testing this week leading into the race. If that’s true, were you able to make the changes that you wanted?

Yeah, we tested both Tuesday and Wednesday, we didn’t really get any motos in at all. We’re just trying to figure this bike out some more, we made some adjustments to the frame and added some pieces to it to try and see if we could strengthen it up a little. We’re trying to stop that side-to-side that we’re getting – that’s our biggest problem. We’re still trying to figure out some more things about this bike, we’re wanting that perfect setting that we haven’t quite found yet. So we’ll probably do some more testing, we’ll stay another week in California with the team and try make it better before Colorado.

250MX

Image: Octopi Media.

Haiden, overall the heat didn’t seem to affect you that much today, seeing as though you did let us know you were feeling under the weather too. What did you do to prepare for today’s heat?

Yeah, I knew it was going to be hot. It was a suffer fest out there, it was just mental in those last few laps. I had to go into that dark place and just keep pushing, but yeah we were chilling. That second moto though, I haven’t been feeling great these last couple of days, and I have really bad allergies too, so that didn’t help. The dirt and dust up here, for some reason my throat was pretty much shut in that second moto – I could barely breathe.

Whipping the 250 around like that, it looks like you’re enjoying your riding. To ride the hell out of a bike like that, is it fun coming into it knowing you’ve only got 11 races to do that?

Yeah, I enjoy outdoors a lot more. That second moto, they told me they were making it shorter, so I was like, ‘I guess I’ll just go balls to the walls for 25 minutes.’ I knew I’d get a little tired, but not too tired, so that’s what I did. I think I got up to 10 or 11 seconds at one point, so that was pretty cool.

We know you’re confident in your ability to win, but what does it do when you come out and go 1-1 when you’ve been sick?

That stuff, you have to just mentally block it out on the day. You just have to be strong, that’s really what it comes down to – no matter what’s going on. I feel like today I was around 85 percent, I still have a lot more in the tank, especially if I’m feeling 100 percent. My bike set up is really good right now, I’m stoked with how the boys have it dialled, so I’m happy.