SUPERMOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYOFFS

September 13, 2025

Hunter Lawrence

Jett Lawrence

Eli Tomac

The Dome at America’s Center

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: Now we'll welcome up to the stage Hunter Lawrence, Jett Lawrence, Eli Tomac.

Hunter, I know we have plenty of questions queued up from our media for you. So we're going to dive right in. Playoff 2, these have been special for you. What kind of tone did you start this day with that ultimately got you here?

HUNTER LAWRENCE: That's a great question. I don't even know. I couldn't even -- it's not even that deep. Like I just -- I'm racing, just trying to do the best I can, just trying to make ends meet, just working away.

THE MODERATOR: How special was this to celebrate this day? Not just your win, but with your brother's success today in Moto 2 in Jo Shimoda, that had to have been quite the celebration at the end of the race today.

HUNTER LAWRENCE: Yeah, I don't care about Jett's success in the second moto, more pumped for Jo. Happy to get the overall. Jett's had enough wins, so we can just overlook that one.

Yeah, it was good. The week actually got off to a pretty weird Thursday night dinner at a local restaurant that was the most weirdest experience ever. So it was good to turn it out, finish on a good high note.

THE MODERATOR: That's good to hear. We'll welcome Eli into the conversation as well.

Q. For both of you guys, can you take us through the last few moments of race 2? Jett's there, you guys are reeling in on that, lap traffic and everything is playing a part into it. How was that battle for you guys to go through especially on a track like this?

HUNTER LAWRENCE: It was tricky because I think all of us think the same thing when we're coming up on lappers on a track where it's so tough to gain time, and I think it's pretty like, oh, shit, oh, shit, like get out of the way because, yeah, the slightest bobble can cost you time or maybe have you lose a position.

It was cool. I can only imagine it would have been pretty sweet to watch from a fan point of view. It was a sweet race.

ELI TOMAC: I would say I had better luck with the lappers in Moto 2 than Moto 1. Like Moto 1 I had more moments. I was getting balled up. But it seemed like they were giving Jett a heck of a time, and of course it was close there on the sand section. Then Hunter was just right on my rear wheel basically the whole time also.

Yeah, it was close there at the end.

Q. Hunter, two questions about the track. First up, what do you think of this one? It's the first one we've done in a dome. It's kind of a tame Supercross track, different than SMX is used to. In that split lane, if I looked right in qualifying, everyone had their fastest lap, most people did, maybe not your brother, on the inside. The inside was the first main. Then on the second main it looked like you figured out the outside was faster. Take us through that switch a little bit. It's funny how you guys all figured that out right away for the second main.

HUNTER LAWRENCE: The biggest thing is it's the same reason you see us cutting down in the berms more. The top right gets too bumpy. We're running pretty close to a Supercross setup bike, and you can do that for a qualifying lap, but every lap hitting those really harsh bumps, it kind of beats you up a little bit.

Same thing, hit that drive, go through the next bubble a little flatter as well. It's funny how something doesn't work all day. Even yesterday it wasn't working, and by the second moto it comes around, but it's cool.

Q. Hunter, obviously on a different level, I rode Supercross with my brother as well, and one of the things is you grow up together, you know everything about your brother. I feel like one of the hardest things was to beat my brother, and that's the situation you're coming into Las Vegas. What is going to be the hardest thing for you to be able to beat your brother?

HUNTER LAWRENCE: I think it's the same as everyone else who's racing. When he's out there on the track, obviously the guy is good, and I'm doing everything I can. Yeah, I know how to push his buttons better than anyone else. I know when he's feeling good, when he's not feeling good.

Yeah, I definitely don't try to push those buttons when it's not to maybe my advantage on a race day or something. I just couldn't really live with myself as a brother to do that.

I want to beat him at his best. Actually, you know what, last night at dinner I wanted to bash him. He really was pushing buttons, but we got him tonight. (Laughter).

Q. Jett, that off-camber doubling out from the inside, you stood it maybe halfway through the first race. What goes into figuring out a line like that? Because it seemed to really kind of push you forward towards the end of that first race, and you used it in the second race to even get away from Eli.

JETT LAWRENCE: Not sure really. After doing it more and more and kind of realizing roll, roll sucked for me and I couldn't do it good. So I kind of started getting a kicker halfway through on the 450, it really helps with the torque a lot. I was able to get it clean in the first moto a lot when there was no one in front of me.

Then that second moto, it was a little more difficult because kind of the route was a little different. It didn't hook back as much like the first one. The first one, you came out pretty straight, where this one you're still kind of turning off of it. It would make it really more difficult.

Obviously with the (indiscernible) as well doesn't help. So I was able to get those few times, but I just kept -- there was other times I was framing it and almost losing time. It was kind of almost like got to eat my medicine and just get roll, roll as best I can.

Q. A general question for all three of you. Anstie was able to quite consistently quad into the sand to come out of the rhythm section. Was that something you guys did throughout the day at all? Why was that not like a racing line?

JETT LAWRENCE: I guess he just had bigger balls than us. Like we half did it every now and then. I mean, I faced it a lot. I think -- I don't know. Like I thought of it in the second one, but I also didn't want to frame it and crash. I mean, it was just like a risk play, I guess.

ELI TOMAC: I would say the outside never really was great, it seemed like, in the race. It was more important just to nail the inside. Also, if you could get the triple and then sometimes you could get a double into the sand. So going quad straight into the sand in my opinion was too much risk.

HUNTER LAWRENCE: Yeah, it was, like you said, get triple and then jump off the last rhythm over the first sand, roller on the inside, which was kind of seemed to be a good flow. If you landed quad, bike compresses and then uncompressed when you want to be light and stuff. So kind of just had to be patient in that first bit of the sand.

The outside didn't really come around all day, it didn't seem like.

Q. Eli, in those closing laps when Jett got hung behind the lappers, were you aware of the point situation that beating him would give you the win overall? And did that add any sense of urgency, or were you already just on the limit regardless?

ELI TOMAC: Actually, I did know that, and there's really nothing I could do other than hope for maybe a couple more lappers, but that wasn't the case. Of course it got close, really close in that sand, and then I was able to get that triple double into the sand really close.

So got close but not close enough. That was it. Like the lappers really kind of gave me the one shot. Yeah, didn't make it happen.

Q. Hunter, when you think of SMX and since 2023 from Chicagoland and what that layout was, and then when you think of a stadium like tonight, what is the ideal track for SMX in your opinion? I know that the bigger series makes up the hybrid-type scenario, but for you, what's the ideal layout?

HUNTER LAWRENCE: I don't really know actually. Last year Texas was a cool layout, I thought, but the dirt was super, super hard. Charlotte, I thought, was a pretty good layout, just obviously the rain made the track really soft, the dirt. So it was really tricky. But I thought that layout was good.

I don't know, I think like ideal layout would be something that probably wouldn't be real good to race, but it's just fun, you know. It's kind of tough. I couldn't really put a pen to paper on what I think the perfect ideal layout would be for the SMX series.

Dome works crew do their best job, and they do a good job of it.

Q. Eli, I'll go to you with this. Triple points format coming up next week. I know you guys have a lot of respect for each other, but does it lean into being a little more aggressive next weekend if the opportunity is there?

ELI TOMAC: I mean, I wish I was within, I guess, nine points, then I think the torpedos would really come out.

Yeah, you never know. It's Vegas, you roll the dice, see what happens. Yeah, we've got a big prize on the line, but unfortunately for me, I'm not within that nine. Like I said, you never know what happens.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen. That's all we have time for this evening. Hunter Lawrence, Jett Lawrence, Eli Tomac, your 450 SMX top three.