Just one week after Honda earned its 19th AMA Supercross support-class championship at the hands of Hunter Lawrence, Jett Lawrence delivered the 20th. The Team Honda HRC rider took his CRF250R to a safe third-place finish at the Denver round of the 250SX West Region Championship, raising his points lead to an insurmountable 34, with one round still remaining.
A native of Landsborough, Queensland, Australia, Lawrence enjoyed a successful amateur career at home and in Europe before moving to the U.S. with his family in 2019 to ride for the Factory Connection Honda satellite team (initially as an amateur). Lawrence turned pro in 2020 and moved to Honda’s factory squad for 2021, and in his three years with Team Honda HRC, he has enjoyed an incredibly successful 250 four-stroke career, establishing himself as the winningest AMA 125/250 Supercross/Motocross rider in Honda’s history, with 26 victories across the two series. (The class, which is currently for 250cc four-stroke machines, used to be campaigned by 125cc two-strokes motorcycles.)
Lawrence earned the AMA Pro Motocross 250 Championship in 2021 and 2022, as well as the 2022 250SX East title, and this new West crown makes him only the fourth rider to have earned both regions’ 125/250SX championships. Lawrence also joins James Stewart as the only riders to win both regions and two AMA Pro Motocross crowns. In addition, he is only the fourth rider to win four AMA 125/250 professional titles.
“That bike has just treated me so well,” Jett Lawrence said on the podium following the race. “The team is unreal. We could be pitted out of a tent, to be honest with you — I wouldn’t care. It’s not even a team — it’s a family. They’ve done [everything] for me and my brother.”
The Lawrence brothers’ performance this season has been nothing short of dominant. Jett has won five of the eight 250SX West rounds completed thus far, while Hunter has topped seven of the nine East rounds run to this point. (The series finale, a combined 250SX East-West Showdown, will run next week in Salt Lake City.) This marks the first time that siblings have won the East and West Region crowns in the same season.
Lawrence’s latest championship is the sixth West Region title for Honda, with others having come with Ty Davis, Jeremy McGrath, Travis Preston and Eli Tomac. Including its 14 East Region crowns, Honda has a total of 20 across both regions. Eleven of those have come since 2010, the most of any manufacturer during that period. This is only the ninth time that a manufacturer has taken both regions’ titles in the same year. (Of those, three were accomplished by Honda in 1991, 2012 and 2023).
Still only 19, Jett will kick off his 450 career aboard the factory Team Honda HRC CRF450RWE on May 27, when the AMA Pro Motocross series commences in Pala, California.
“What an incredible AMA Supercross 250 season for Honda, and what a 250 career for Jett!” said Brandon Wilson, manager of sports and experiential at American Honda. “We knew when we hired Jett ahead of the 2021 season that he was going to be special, but I don’t think anyone could have predicted the success that he has already enjoyed; of the five championships that were on the table since he joined our team, he has earned four, and this one was the most dominant yet. It’s been an amazing run aboard the CRF250R, and we can’t wait to see what he does with the CRF450RWE.”
Lawrence’s 2023 250SX West Championship continues a successful season in which Honda marks the 50th anniversary of its first production motocross bike, the CR250M Elsinore, which Gary Jones rode to Honda’s first AMA Motocross Championship in 1973.
NOTE: Statistics compiled with assistance from Fowler’s Facts.
