Motocross
Double Trouble: Hunter and Jett Lawrence
Motocross superstars Jett and Hunter Lawrence aren’t chasing each other—they’re chasing history.
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It’s a late October morning, and the Florida sun is already bearing down as Hunter and Jett Lawrence prepare to take their bikes out to practice. They’re at the 63-acre compound near Dade City where they hone the technique that has made them two of the best (if not the two best) motocross riders in the world. Later tonight, they’ll fly to England, where they’ll represent Australia in the annual Motocross of Nations competition. The forecast says rain is likely in England, so the boys—alongside their mechanic, Rene Ebert, and dad and coach, Darren, or “Dazzy” as they call him—are preparing to wet rubber mats to simulate accelerating out of a slippery start gate. Two other riders and friends, Ayden and Blake, plan to join them. Hunter playfully offers Blake a wager: If he can beat him off the line, Hunter will gift Blake a pair of taxidermied kangaroo testicles on a keychain.
This is how it goes at the compound (the boys call it “the farm”): a lot of work, but also a lot of play. This is by design. The boys have been racing for most of their lives—Hunter is 25 and Jett is 21—and though Dazzy has instilled in them a strict work ethic, he tries to keep the training atmosphere light. (To wit: The ratio of humans to animals is about 1:1, with five dogs and two recently acquired donkeys, Clyde and Cowboy, milling around.) After riding their bikes onto the dirt, Blake and Hunter ready themselves, pushing their weight forward onto their toes, hands primed on the throttle. Dazzy prepares to drop a rock as a starting signal. As it falls, engines race and back tires spin violently, flinging wet mud backwards and shooting both riders forward, Hunter clearly in the lead. The precious jewels will remain with the Lawrences.
That’s usually how it goes these days. When a race is for any vor all the marbles—even those of the marsupial variety—the Lawrence brothers usually come home with the hardware. Just 11 days before this training session, Jett and Hunter finished first and second, respectively, in the SuperMotocross (SMX) World Championship Final in Las Vegas—basically the Super Bowl of motocross. To add to the drama, they finished tied in points, with Jett winning on a tiebreaker. Jett was also the 2024 Supercross (SX) champion, and Hunter finished second in 2024’s Motocross (MX) series. (For the uninitiated: Supercross happens indoors January to May, followed by Motocross outdoors May to August, and then three SuperMotocross races to close out the year.)
This sibling dominance is bested in contemporary American sports perhaps only by Venus and Serena Williams—and an ascension burnished by what came before: a long journey that began in Australia and took the Lawrences across Europe and through financial hardship. Even when they made it to America, nothing was certain. Hunter battled health issues, then COVID hit, and though both brothers showed promise in the 250cc class,
it didn’t guarantee they’d make it on the premier 450cc level. (Think of it as motocross’s minor and major leagues.) These obstacles have defined their stunning rise—and their character.
If they keep it up, and most insiders think they will, they could form a historically dominant dynasty. Now, with their one-two SMX finish—pocketing $1.5 million from that series alone—a few choice sponsorships and years of success looming, it might seem like the brothers’ saga has reached critical mass. (Fittingly, a few days later, they will win the Motocross of Nations as teammates, earning Australia its first win in the event since it began in 1947.)
But the reality is that despite this string of championships, things are just starting to get interesting for the brothers. First of all, there’s more on the line, and less room for error, in the 450 racing class. Off the track, the boys’ charisma and good looks have granted them a popularity—over 1 million combined followers on Instagram, with Jett adding another 300K+ on TikTok—that puts them in the best position to grow motocross since Travis Pastrana jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. And then there’s a touchy question that hovers around the boys: What happens if a sibling rivalry is doused with the high-octane fuel of celebrity and fame amid 30-plus head-to-head races a year?
To complicate matters, the younger brother’s career has proved more dominant so far. In his 2023 rookie season in the 450 premier class, Jett didn’t just win the MX title; he went 22-0, something no rookie had ever done before, and won the SMX title for good measure. (Hunter was still riding in the 250 class, winning the MX and SX titles.) Jett has said that he hopes to break Jeremy McGrath’s record of 72 all-time supercross wins. On top of that, he’s become the face of the sport, and for good reason: He’s an Australian named Jett who quite literally jets around everyone else and has a jaw structure that Simon Cowell would build a pop group around. Hunter, meanwhile, came into the 450 class one year after Jett and is in the odd position of playing underdog—but doesn’t look far behind. As a rookie, he finished second in MX and was seconds away from taking his brother’s SMX title.
It sounds like something out of a movie: one guy trying to become the greatest motocross racer of all-time. And the rider most likely to beat him is family, the older brother he grew up learning from. But this is no fiction: It’s the reality Jett and Hunter Lawrence have always been working toward.
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