The frustration fans saw after the first moto where he won, was not about him being a sore loser as some on the internet are speculating, but about the frustration that comes when one’s body doesn’t allow you to ride to your full ability.
“Everyone knows my records of wins so it’s not like I need to go out there and prove something to everyone. It’s just more racing for myself, it just sucks right now. Because I normally love riding and right now it’s been a pain in my butt with my foot, so it’s taken one of the things I love doing. It’s just a struggle and obviously that first one, Hunter he deserved that one. He caught me, passed me, I was just kind of not having a really good flow. And he had a bit of bad luck with getting a rock stuck in the chain which stalled the bike. It’s just like, you’ll take it but deep down you just say, ‘Yeah, I won that first one, but it just got gifted.’”
Just watch the guy walk when he gets off the bike and it’s obvious he is in a lot of pain. His ankle could probably handle some extra time off, but the word “quit” is not in Jett’s vocabulary. “It’s hard with the mental because it’s just like I’m doing stuff on the track and I may have a good flow, but I always go in the back of my head, ‘Imagine if I had another good ankle. I could be going so much faster.’ It could be a lot easier because I am just having to work twice as hard almost… We’re in a bit of a pickle but we’re just putting up with it really. I’ve come this far I can’t obviously say, quit here or whatever. Where I have been able to maintain and be able to work around it. Just today was not an ideal track for it.”
Jett’s injury is coming at the exact time as Hunter is finding his form. Is this the changing of the guard? Or simply how it is going to be until Jett’s ankle is feeling better. Hunter now has a three-point lead heading into Southwick, where the track will be rough, but the sand usually develops berms and not deep ruts. Will Jett be able to rebound in the sand?