Supercross sibling rivalry: 250 class champions Hunter and Jett Lawrence to face off at Rice-Eccles Stadium (2024)

The Australian brothers will vie for bragging rights in the East-West Showdown

Not so long ago, Hunter Lawrence rolled his dirt bike into the University of Utah’s Rice Eccles Stadium with little hope he’d roll out with anything other than mud-splattered goggles and a footnote on his racing resume.

So much has changed since 2020, and also so little.

Three years later, after he competes in Saturday’s nationally televised Monster Energy AMA Supercross 250SX Finale, Lawrence will again add a line to his resume. Only this time the goggles will probably be a little cleaner and the line will read “champion.” Also, he’ll also have a trophy in hand.

Lawrence, 23, enters the AMA Supercross championship in Salt Lake City as the 250 East champion. The West champion happens to be his brother — 19-year-old Jett Lawrence. The Australians face off in the East-West Showdown on Saturday night.

Adding to the plot line, this will be the last time the brothers will race one another in the 250SX class. Jett has announced he will move up to the 450SX class next year, and Hunter is considering joining him.

So will sibling rivalry make this Saturday’s event a showdown to remember? It depends on who’s being asked.

“I told my dad I would not do anything stupid this weekend,” he said. “Just go and have some fun on the last 250 races.”

Hunter, mostly in jest, said he’s not buying that. The brothers are tied for race wins this season, and he said he’s not going to let Jett, who has more class titles — more than any Honda rider in the 250SX class in history — add to his bragging rights.

“I’m going to scrub that one ‘W’ off and I’m going to have one ‘E-W,’” he said, referring to the East-West Showdown. “This is an important race for me. I’m gonna break the wins. You know it can’t be tied [because] he’s got more titles. I gotta go up on something.

“So yes, it’s do or die for me.”

Even though he was playing for laughs, Hunter’s bravado stands in stark contrast to the insecurities he felt the first time he competed in Salt Lake City.

Hunter made his AMA debut in 2019 but due to a myriad of injuries, it took him until this year to win his first series title. He made his debut at Rice-Eccles Stadium on June 10, 2020, in the midst of seven races hosted by the stadium while the COVID-19 pandemic brought much of the sporting world to a standstill. An early crash knocked him into last place though he eventually battled back to take 13th.

“Where I was at mentally and physically and everything I was dealing with,” Hunter said. “It was basically like I didn’t even show up, essentially, to race.”

In the three years since, Hunter’s health, standings and outlook have all improved. So while he recognizes the mountaintops riders can glimpse when they soar over jumps at the RES, he barely recognizes himself as the rider who first competed there in 2020.

“It’s funny,” he said. “You come back and you feel like a different person coming back to the same place because it’s hard not to think of how you felt or what was going through your mind when you were at your lowest point at this venue.

“But then I use my mental strength to just block that out. And it’s not even relevant anymore.”

Hunter Lawrence won’t be the only racer treating the finale as something of a victory lap. Fellow Honda rider Chase Sexton will be doing the same while officially claiming his first title in the marquee 450SX class.

Up until two weeks ago, the championship looked as though it would be decided during the finale in Salt Lake City. Then Cooper Webb, who was sitting in second place in the series, collided with and had his helmet run over by another rider during a qualifying heat at a race in Nashville on April 29. After being diagnosed with a concussion, the 2019 and 2021 champion ended his season. A week later — just last Saturday — series leader and Supercross veteran Eli Tomac ruptured an Achilles while racing in Denver. He also had to drop out of the finale, opening the door wide open for Sexton.

Even though he has mathematically already secured the win, Sexton said he’s not going to celebrate until Saturday night — just in case. He joked that he’s a little worried Tomac, who trails by just seven points despite the injury, will show up Saturday with a bionic leg.

Short of that, though, nothing will keep Sexton from hoisting Honda’s first 450SX title in 20 years.

“I told Brandon, the guy that runs the racing team, that I will give you a championship before I leave here,” Sexton said. “That was something I said when I was coming off of 2020 Supercross and that was my goal. They haven’t won since I think Ricky [Carmichael] in 2003. So it’s hopefully going to be a special night tomorrow night, and yeah, hopefully I can hold up to my words.”