Series' best rivalry formed as Lawrence and Ryan Villopoto battle hard

CARLSBAD, Calif., (Feb. 12, 2007) - Monster Energy-backed Jason Lawrence (Yamaha of Troy) is pulling out all the stops in a effort to win the Amp'd Mobile AMA Supercross Series' Western Regional Lites championship, banging bar-to-bar with overall series points leader Ryan Villopoto to created the most exciting rivalry going in supercross racing.

This past weekend in Houston Lawrence got the start he was hoping for, a tight second off the gate behind holeshot winner Villopoto, and raced aggressively with his rival - taking the lead with a rough but legal pass at one point early in the race.

"There's no dirtiness intended," said Lawrence of his pass, which apparently got Villopoto all chapped and caused him to have words with Lawrence following the race. "I'd never been in that position before (2nd, right behind Villopoto) and I'm just trying to win a championship. The kid's super fast, but the next time I'm in that position it'll be different for sure."

Noteworthy: The series' top rivals were going at it so hard they put up lap times faster than everybody - both classes combined - with the exception of AMA Supercross class winner James Stewart!

Lawrence rode extremely well all weekend. He made the main with a podium finish in the first heat race and definitely carried that momentum into the start. And though some small mistakes though out the race kept him from winning, he finished ahead of every other factory-backed racer in his class, including Josh Grant (Honda) and Josh Hansen (KTM).

"The whole Yamaha of Troy team is doing their job and I'm just trying to do mine," said Lawrence.

Mathematically Lawrence is still in it in terms of the title chase, but he has to pull out all the stops this weekend to keep Villopoto from clinching. Lawrence trails his rival by 34 points (147-113) with two rounds remaining - including Seattle on April 28th.

Next up for the AMA Supercross Lites class championship contender his adopted hometown race in San Diego at Qualcomm Stadium (Feb. 17th), Round Seven of the 2007 Amp'd Mobile AMA Supercross Series.

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Yamaha of Troy racer places 3rd at third and final Anaheim SX round

CARLSBAD, Calif., (Feb. 5, 2007) - Monster Energy-backed Jason Lawrence (Yamaha of Troy), a southern California transplant from New Jersey, is developing quite a fan base in his adopted home state, this past weekend enjoying the crowd backing at another packed Anaheim Angels Stadium in his battle for a podium 3rd place finish overall.

With the effort Lawrence kept a healthy margin between himself (2nd overall in the standings) and 3rd place Jake Weimer (17 points), along with keeping himself in the running for the overall championship.

As he usually does, Lawrence showed his hand in practice, hammering home the day's second fastest Lites class practice time. In his heat race he kind of 'yawned' his way into the main, finishing 7th.

Pumped to battle with series points leader Ryan Villopoto, Lawrence gunned his Yamaha YZ250F off the starting line and beat the rest of the field - including Villopoto - to the first turn to win the Progressive Direct Holeshot Award. Finally, with a less-than-mediocre start, it was on!

Then the red flag flew.

"That's a tough break - I was all about that thousand dollars," said Lawrence laughing, then becoming serious. "It's a real bummer because that's the best start I've ever got. I know when Ryan's ahead of me he can beat me - that's obvious. I wanted to see how it'd turn out if I got a good start, which I did.

So after the red flag I got a horrible start and the best I could do was third."

Despite the setback at the start Lawrence rode brilliantly. In battling back from a mid-pack place following the re-start, Lawrence passed both factory KTM riders Josh Hansen (lap six) and Martin Davalos (lap eight), along with passing and holding off factory Yamaha racer Josh Hill late in the race.

In the end Lawrence was positive about his race, the season thus far and his chance at making up points on Villopoto, who leads Lawrence by 31 points (122-91) with three Western Region Supercross Lites division races remaining on the schedule.

"I'm just going to do as good as I can do, see where it goes from there," he said.

Next up for the AMA Supercross Lites class championship contender is the third installment of the Anaheim Supercross trilogy, this Saturday (Feb. 10th) at Houston's Reliant Stadium.

Yamaha of Troy racer's 2nd overall in AMA SX Lites class points chase

CARLSBAD, Calif., (Jan. 31, 2007) - Monster Energy-backed Jason Lawrence (Yamaha of Troy) overcame a mid-race, track-exiting crash in the AMA Supercross Lites class final at San Francisco's SBC Park to finish 5th on the evening - keeping his second overall standing in the Western Region Lites division in tact.

Probably the most impressive aspect of Lawrence's performance on Saturday across the slick conditions at San Francisco was that he put up the event's second-fastest lap time (44.988) on the very last lap of the main event.

"I was pissed at myself," said Lawrence. "I realize points are valuable and wrecks are costly, so I put my head down and charged as hard as I could. Yamaha of Troy had my bike running unreal. It's what allowed me to catch back up to the top five."

Lawrence would catch and pass Kyle Partridge for the fifth spot - a racer he came together with and left the track on lap eight, landing in a mud hole and losing a glove in the process of getting his YZ250F up and going again.

"I ended up riding the last half of the race with only one glove,"

said Lawrence. "Never done that before."

Due to rain and soft conditions, Lawrence started the weekend with an abbreviated practice session. He'd make the main smartly through his heat race, placing 7th overall. In the main Lawrence struggled a bit off the starting line, but made up some time - and places - on the first lap in getting up to 12th. From there he started picking off riders and was up to 6th when he and Partridge came together.

"Not sure who's fault it was, if anybody's," said Lawrence of the get together with Partridge.

Once going again, Lawrence would mount a feverous attack that showed little mercy on new or veteran Lites class racers, putting the final touches on his 5th place finish with a last lap pass on Partridge.

Next up for the AMA Supercross Lites class championship contender is the third installment of the Anaheim Supercross trilogy, this Saturday (Feb. 3rd) and Angels Stadium. Noteworthy: Lawrence has been on the podium at both the Anaheim 1 and Anaheim 2 rounds, finishing 3rd and 2nd, respectively.

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Yamaha of Troy racer finishes 2nd, now 2nd overall in WSX Lites points

 CARLSBAD, Calif., (Jan. 22, 2007) - Monster Energy-backed Jason Lawrence was all over the competition at the second of three Anaheim

(Calif.) supercross rounds, clocking one of the Lites class' fastest overall lap times and parlaying that speed into another podium finish

(2nd) in the Western Region Supercross Lites division of the '07 Amp'd Mobile AMA Supercross Series.

With the effort - his second podium finish in three rounds this year

- Lawrence, running the Yamaha of Troy-tuned YZ250F, took over sole possession of 2nd place in the overall WSX standings, six points ahead of Chris Gosselaar, but still a bit behind overall WSX points leader Ryan Villopoto (72-55). And it's that gap between he and Villopoto that Lawrence is looking forward to changing.

"If I can get out with Ryan, it's on!," says Lawrence.

With a mid-pack start in the Lites main event, Lawrence had to rail through a ton of top shelf racers just to make the top ten - which he did much of by the end of the first lap. From there the SoCal transplant (New Jersey) blew past a whole host of outstanding talent through the next five laps, including factory-backed racers Josh Grant, Martin Davalos and Josh Hill.

"Jason was on a mission," added Lawrence's agent, Scott Sepkovic of Crown AMG.

That mission began during practice where Lawrence busted out the second-fastest lap time in the first Lites practice session. The second session, however, had Lawrence pulling off the track.

Undaunted, the young talent knew exactly what was going on.

"We finally got the settings figured out, and I knew what I needed after the first practice session anyway," said Lawrence.

Out of his heat race in good shape (podium 3rd) to make the main, Lawrence didn't get the start he wanted and was forced to play catch up.

"I'd had a bad start in my heat race and my start in the main pretty much sucked as well," said Lawrence. "On top of that there were a lot of guys in front of me making mistakes, which made it even more difficult to get through the pack and up to the leaders. Then once I got into 2nd place (lap six), I knew there was no chance of catching Ryan, so I just rode smart and got to the podium in 2nd.

Pretty stoked about that."

One of the sections that was noteworthy in Lawrence's comeback was a triple out of the whoops, which only he and Villopoto were clearing (and only a couple Supercross class racers as well). Through that portion of the track Lawrence was able to pick up enough time to clock a 48.546 - through traffic - which put him up close to Nick Wey's fastest time in the Supercross class main event.

"Yep, I was just a click off the podium times in the big bike class," said Lawrence.

Next up for Lawrence is the fourth round of the WSX Lites division this weekend at San Francisco's SBC Park (Jan. 27th). Last year at SBC Park Lawrence finished 4th overall.

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