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Jett Lawrence continues to do things premier-class rookies aren't supposed to be able to do and he's now poised to win his third 450-class championship in three tries. The 20-year-old Australian is going into the Monster Energy AMA Supercross final this Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City with a 20-point lead over Cooper Webb.
The Honda factory rider has been nearly perfect since he moved up to the 450 class last year. Outdoors, he was, in fact, perfect, winning every moto in the 2023 Pro Motocross season. Then he won the inaugural SuperMotocross "playoffs". The last title to add is the 450SX championship, and barring a most uncharacteristic disaster, Lawrence will complete the sweep this weekend.
Lawrence seems anything but disaster-prone, and that's not just because he turned in a perfect scorecard in his outdoor motocross season last year. Even on treacherous Supercross tracks, he usually appears to be riding within himself and calmly dispatching obstacles that challenge other riders. A 16th-place finish in Salt Lake City will ensure the title, but far from dragging to the finish, Lawrence is accelerating toward it. His win Saturday night in Denver was his third in a row.
Lots of racers will tell you they're at their best when they're having fun. Lawrence may be breaking records and breaking down the competition, but he still has that rookie's awe of the bright lights and big attention.
"It's funny, I don't feel like a rookie, to be honest, because I did outdoors, so I got to race all these guys," Lawrence said after his Supercross win in Birmingham, Alabama. "But I definitely got to stop and kind of pinch myself now and then ... I remember not long ago when I was in Europe watching Kenny (Roczen), Cooper, (Eli) Tomac, these guys who are legends in our sport, and looking up to them and going, 'Gosh, it'd be cool just to be at a race and watch them race in person, you know?'
"Now that I'm racing these guys, I kind of forget who I am, sometimes. I'm sitting on the line, I'm sitting next to Tomac, Kenny, or Cooper and I'm like, 'Ah, this is sick.' Then, 'Oh, I've got to do a job!' You've kind of got to pinch yourself. But I'm definitely grateful for where I'm at and to be up with these guys is an awesome accomplishment for myself. Just super pumped to be racing these guys. ... To be up here with these guys, it means the world."
How good is Jett Lawrence?
Answering that question is a new pastime in motocross circles. Of course the final verdict isn't cast until the end of a career, but Lawrence's performance is already kick-starting that discussion. Last June, I wrote about Lawrence breaking an almost-40-year-old record by winning his first six motos in the premier class, surpassing Jeff Ward, who won the first four motos when he stepped up to the premier class. What I didn't know at the time was that Lawrence was just getting started — and would eventually win all the motos.
Lawrence set another record by becoming the first rider to win his first premier-class Supercross race when he won Anaheim One this January. It's way too early to talk about where Lawrence ranks among the sport's greats, but of course it's way too inevitable that it's happening anyway. After Lawrence won the SuperMotocross title, Racer X tweeted that it was now "safe to say that Jett Lawrence was the fastest teenager our sport has ever seen."
It’s now safe to say that Jett Lawrence was the fastest teenager our sport has ever seen. Now 20, he’s also the youngest Racer X Rider of the Year ever‼️ 'The Wonder Year' read this feature and more in the months issue ➡️ #ROTY #Magazine https://t.co/RJ8B4Bvt93
— Racer X (@racerxonline) November 21, 2023
That "fastest teenager" claim led to some pushback on social media and a typically thorough look at Lawrence and the other most outstanding teenager in the sport, James Stewart, by Brett Smith over at We Went Fast. Nobody in motocross crunches the numbers like Smith and Clinton Fowler, and their "What really happened at..." post-race articles (like this one on the Daytona Supercross) often reveal and quantify stats-based nuggets of truth fans would otherwise miss.
Go read the full story on the Lawrence-Stewart comparison for the details, but the evidence suggests that no, Lawrence wasn't the fastest teenager the sport had ever seen. Stewart won a much higher percentage of his pro races as a teen.
Now that he's poised to win the 450SX championship as a rookie, the other inevitable comparison is to Jeremy McGrath's 1993 title-winning premier-class season — another comparison Smith analyzed. McGrath won 10 of 16 races in his debut year and if Lawrence wins the final round at Salt Lake City this weekend, he'll have nine wins in 17 rounds. Beyond that basic number, Smith noted that McGrath began that 1993 season racing against just one former champion and a field that had a total of 37 premier-class wins. Going into Anaheim One this year, Lawrence was going up against four former champions and a field with a lifetime 122 wins.
Slice all that however you want. I'm not going to agree that it's "safe to say" Lawrence is the fastest teenager in the history of the sport or the best rookie in the history of Supercross. But I believe it is safe to say we're seeing something special happen on the motocross and Supercross tracks across the country and we're seeing a rare talent bloom. And that's something to enjoy.
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