Jett Lawrence will not defend his SuperMotocross title this fall. American Honda confirmed Tuesday that the Australian rider will sit out all three SMX Playoff rounds to address a right ankle that has gone from a chronic problem into something that can no longer wait.
The injury dates to December 2025, when Lawrence fractured his ankle at his family’s training facility. He fought through the entire AMA Pro Motocross outdoor series on that ankle, winning four rounds and finishing second in the final standings to his teammate Hunter Lawrence. That was a credible result by any measure, but it came at a cost. When Lawrence aggravated the ankle during the opening moto at Ironman Raceway, he and the team had seen enough.
Surgery is scheduled for September 9 at the Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colorado, a facility that has handled Lawrence’s ankle care since the original injury. Steadman specialists will oversee his recovery from this latest procedure.
“I’ve made the decision with my team to sit out the SMX series to get my ankle back to 100% for the longevity of my career,” Lawrence said. “I suffered through the summer and did everything I could to win the outdoor championship, but my ankle hasn’t felt right since the start of the season, and it’s even worse now after Ironman. I want to do everything I can to get back to being me. The most important thing is that I get back to being pain-free as I work towards next year.”
Lawrence would have been chasing his fourth consecutive SMX Championship. That run will have to wait. This is also the second consecutive season in which injury has complicated his title campaign, a pattern that makes the September 9 surgery feel less like a detour and more like something the team should have addressed sooner. Lawrence’s own framing, about career longevity rather than this particular series, suggests the conversation inside Honda HRC ran in exactly that direction.
The SMX Playoffs open September 12 in Columbus, Ohio. Honda HRC Progressive will run Hunter Lawrence in the premier 450 class. Hunter enters the playoffs as the newly crowned 450 AMA Pro Motocross Champion, a title he earned by finishing ahead of his brother in the outdoor standings. He came close in SMX last year, finishing second to Jett in the final standings. Jo Shimoda and Chance Hymas will represent the team in the support class. Shimoda arrives as the reigning 250 Champion.
“We’re sorry that Jett won’t be able to go for his fourth consecutive SMX Championship, but the entire team supports him in this decision,” said Brandon Wilson, Manager of Racing and Experiential at American Honda. “He has a long career ahead of him, and we’re in full support of doing what’s necessary to get back as close to 100% as possible.”
The timing is awkward for Honda but not disastrous. Hunter Lawrence is the outdoor champion, Shimoda is the 250 titleholder, and Hymas gives the team a third competitive entry in the support class. The SMX series has been building momentum as a property, with streaming consumption exceeding one billion minutes faster than in any previous season and viewership on NBC and Peacock averaging 468,000 viewers per event, up 8 percent over 2025. Honda arrives with strong results and without its biggest name, which is an unusual position for a team accustomed to having both.
Jett Lawrence has raced through more than one injury that would have benched most riders. This time, he and his team decided the ankle could not wait until the offseason. If the surgery goes well, he returns to 2027 Supercross healthy for the first time in two years. That is the only timeline that matters to Honda right now.
Source: Honda. Images courtesy of Honda.
