When speaking after his sparkling victory at Anaheim 2, it was intriguing to hear Team Honda HRC Progressive superstar Jett Lawrence share his thoughts on the whoops and the best way to build them. Words: Live Motocross Editor
“I am a fan of having the harder whoops, like a lot of us top guys. We practice and train a lot on the whoops to try and become better and you can gain a lot, but you can also lose a lot there. When we had the nine whoops, where if you weren’t as good of a skimmer, you could jump through them three times and get out of it. And it’s kind of unfair in a way because the guys who’ve worked their butt off to try and skim better and get the bike where it works better and that stuff [are penalised] because it is hard to skim. It’s a lot more of a technical thing, you have to put it [the bike] on this much [small section] of the whoop even though you’re still only hitting like just a small spot. So I think having more whoops is better and having them steamrolled to make sure they kind of stay a little bit more skimmers [is best]. I think supercross skimmer whoops are better, where like Kenny, Jason. Eli, myself and Chase have a bit of an upper hand because we took that time to work on that. So I think I’m a fan of having more whoops and more difficult ones. I mean I struggled in these whoops today, and even I got bucked sideways a few times, but it kind of creates good racing, as they weren’t just simple whoops that we were doing easy, you know, so I’m a fan of them even if they’re hard for me personally,” Lawrence insisted.
Having clearly made huge improvements on the bike following a tough season opener at A1, the Australian cut a delighted figure when reflecting on his race as a whole too, statung: “You have to be very patient [racing in those conditions]. Jason was riding really well, and I was struggling to find anywhere to gain on him or try to make a pass. He had to get a little risky in the whoops. I think we both got sketchy through them. I was being very patient and trying not to rush anything. Lap by lap I just hit my marks. There was the rain and my goggles were fogging up a little bit, but we’re happy to get that [win]. We’re better than we were at the last round at Anaheim, so that’s good. On to the next round in AZ.”
Fresh from banking his first win of the campaign, watching how he fares at the upcoming Triple Crown in Glendale will be fascinating.
Image: Supercross
