Slaw
Jett and Hunter Lawrence have been untouchable this summer, combining to win every overall and every moto through the first eight rounds of the Pro Motocross Championship. Washougal was no different.
Jett controlled the opening moto, but the brothers were locked in another battle in moto two. While chasing Hunter early in the race, Jett left the track and accelerated alongside it before re-entering. After reviewing the incident, race officials assessed a one-position penalty for violating the AMA rulebook.
Although Jett eventually passed Hunter on track, the penalty meant a race win wouldn’t have changed the overall outcome. Even if he had crossed the finish first, he would have been scored second, handing Hunter the overall victory with 2-1 moto finishes.
Instead, history repeated itself. Just one week after crashing out of the lead late in moto two at Spring Creek, Jett hit the ground again in the closing stages at Washougal. He crossed the line second, but the penalty dropped him to third in the official moto results, giving him second overall on the day.
The penalty also proved costly in the championship. Rather than scoring 22 points for second, Jett received 20 for third, allowing Hunter to extend his championship lead to 12 points heading into the two-week break.
Following the race, Jett addressed both the penalty and the incident during the post-race press conference.
“It was just kind of get back on the track as quick as possible. I didn’t really gain much time. And that section’s pretty hard you know. Not hard, fast. So, I didn’t want to come on and be going way slower. Probably gave it a bit of gas to get back on and obviously the AMA didn’t like that. So, it is what it is.”
As your guys’ lines kind of came together over that hill, I could see you with your leg off kind of adjusting. And it looked like you were trying to figure out if you could land in that soft stuff and stay on the track or just dart out and be safe. Obviously, you choose wide. What was the reasoning why you didn’t think you could land in that kind of tilled up stuff?
I don’t think I could landed in that area just because the track’s pretty flat, but once you get off the track, it kind of slopes away a little bit. And obviously, they didn’t water that section, so it’s bone dry, loose powdery stuff. I mean, for people that are here, the pits, I mean, it’s just like moon dust here. I went and I got really great traction and trying to turn back on, and I think I would have washed the front. So I just kind of took what I thought was the safest way and going off and going around and trying to get back up the speed before I enter the track in a fast area.
Did they explain that penalty to you at all? Because it says you can’t accelerate back onto the track, but any throttle is acceleration. So, what was the expectation of you? Are you supposed to get off and push it onto the track?
I’m not sure. I think you have to ask AMA on that one because I thought, because obviously in the rulebook as well, you have got to enter back safely. So I was trying to enter back safely and get speed so then I’m not coming on and then get, like I said, get hit from behind. So I mean, yeah, I have to talk to AMA.
Photos: octopi.media
