Comment sections, feedback loops, and social media are constant reminders that the world can be a cruel place, and that’s the place Jett Lawrence found himself in during his takeover of the top ranks of the sport. The wins on a 450 came early and often and have barely stopped since—but with such success on the track came more criticism off of it. From the boos at Anaheim 2 following his incident with Jason Anderson, to the comments on his social account, he’s taken notice of it all. The old happy go-lucky Jett Lawrence? Well, he might still be happy. But he’s happy with different things now. Performance is where he gets his joy. The rest of the stuff isn’t so nice.
“I think more just the criticism is a big thing,” said Lawrence to the assembled media at the SuperMotocross World Championship media days at Angel Stadium. “Obviously I'm already a person who's fairly hard on myself with some things. It’s really easy for some people to say, 'Hey, don't look at this, don't look into it.' But when it goes from, at first, when I first started I wasn't too bad cause it was like, out of 100 people it’s maybe 10 or 15 out of 100, now it feels like it's more closer to 80 people that are doing it [negative comments out of 100] to where it over weighs the actual proper fans.”
It's an obstacle we’ve seen many top riders in this sport have to cross. The fans loved Ricky Carmichael as the young challenger to Jeremy McGrath, until he started actually beating McGrath, and they turned quickly. They loved the young dancing-after-victories and beating 250Fs on a 125 two stroke kid named James Stewart, but they turned quickly once he started battling Carmichael. The same podium celebration filled with cheers one year is lined with jeers the next. It didn’t help that these phenoms are always young and probably not best prepared for the glaring spotlight that comes with winning in the premier class. Jett thinks social media is only making it worse. Not every first step is perfect, and it’s definitely not going to look as positive compared to a polished veteran who has been at it for awhile. Like McGrath was when RC came up, or like RC was when Bubba graduated. The fans right now absolutely love Eli Tomac. Lawrence has taken the mantle Tomac used to own. It's jarring for some.
So much of this is cyclical. That could be the entire thing right there. Lawrence has some theories of his own, though.
“I think it's, you kind of having a feeling, like if I'm in Australia, I wouldn't want an American winning cause it's Australian and you want an Australian to win," he said today. "I'm a foreigner and I'm winning a lot of the titles that are here. So I kind of understand them all now because at first I'm like, I've always kind of been a nice kid and yes, sometimes not the best with my words. I come across a bit blunt. That's the Australian side of things, and it comes off rude. People who know me get it but people who don't, they take it in a different way.”
The cultural divide he mentions, that Australian bluntness, is probably a bigger factor than just being foreign. Americans often love Australians. But Jett has said some things that were taken more seriously than he intended. From the “baby gift” moto win victory he handed to Ken Roczen in SMX last year, to proclaiming a year ago that his goal was to try to get close to or topple Jeremy McGrath’s all-time supercross win mark of 72, those comments stung. As a matter of fact, his current take on social media negativity is probably rubbing people wrong as they read this.
Now he’s learning to just embrace it.
“I've been able to talk to Ricky [Carmichael] and stuff like that and I've came to like the conclusion of going, well, I'm gonna get hated a lot more if I keep winning more. So I may as well just get used to it.
“I think it's going to in the end make me a better person. There's something I gotta learn there. I'm not a huge church person, but there's obviously a reason why God has me on this plan and path. Whatever it is, I'm gonna go through it. I’ve come to the conclusion, like, hey, I mean, I can't really fix it because the one thing they're getting pissed off about is that I'm winning and beating everyone and being they're Americans, to make them happy I would have to stop winning. But sadly enough, I can't do that.”
Yes, the joy for Jett Lawrence now is with the work during the week, the camaraderie with his family and team, and, of course, in winning. No one doesn’t think a lot more winning is coming.
Remember, Lawrence is merely entering his second season on a 450 in Monster Energy AMA Supercross. He should be better now than he was in his first try. And failing to defend his 450 Pro Motocross Championship due to a thumb injury has only motivated him more.
“I think it adds even more to outdoor [motivation] just because I lost the championship that I knew I could win. I think it just helps add to that fire,” he says.
That happy-go-lucky Jett Lawrence attitude belied how competitive he is. With the helmet on, he only had one goal. You didn’t really know it until he was on the track. Now? Well, it’s clear all the time. He’s making it so.
“I wanted to smash these guys and destroy them [last year] and it's still the same now,” he says. “So I think having that mentality for me is the same as when I first came in, even when I didn't have any numbers to my name or any facts to back it up. It's still the same. That's when I had no facts. So yeah, nothing's changed.”
Yup, on the track is essentially the same. Jett has a 2025 Honda to figure out for supercross, and he mentioned that the adjustment has been harder for the new bike indoors than outdoors. Of course no one thinks the new bike could be a big enough stumbling block to prevent him from more success. He’s still the guy to beat. That part is the same. How he takes to the rest of racing life? Seems like that’s changed quite a bit. It’s the same cycle we saw with Carmichael, Stewart, and more, and the upside is that cycle eventually flipped all the way around to where they became legends and fan favorites again. He might not believe it, but that’s probably coming in Jett Lawrence’s future. For now, he’ll embrace the hate and use it for motivation. For anyone who has to race him, this isn’t making things any easier.
