From rider to mentor, O’Mara keeps the championship flame burning

In 1983, Team Honda racer Johnny O’Mara clinched the 1983 125cc National Motocross Championship after a fierce battle with rivals Jeff Ward, Mark Barnett and Ron Lechien. “A lot of people consider the ’83 season as one of the toughest ever,” remembers O’Mara of the epic 125cc title fight. “Barnett was still in his prime and Jeff Ward and myself were peaking and Ron Lechien and a few other guys were coming on. It was quite fulfilling to win such a competitive series.”

43 years removed from O’Mara’s championship season, the Californian will be out at Fox Raceway at Pala this Saturday for the opening round of the 2026 AMA Pro Motocross Championship. The mentor and riding coach to both Hunter and Jett Lawrence, O’Mara and his watchful eyes will be on the dynamic duo and there Honda HRC Progressive CRF450RWEs as the brother act makes a run at the 450MX National Championship – a title both brothers desperately want to win.

“Jett is ready to go,” says O’Mara of the 2022 and '25 AMA Pro Motocross Championship 450 champion who suffered a fractured talus, a fractured navicular, a dislocated ankle and a shattered tibia in testing and training crash last December. “Obviously, he hasn’t been on the bike in a while. He’s been chomping at the bit to get back racing. It’s been an intense rehab program, but he’s ready to go for Saturday so everyone is excited to see it.

“He’s back from that injury,” stresses O’Mara. “Everyone knows. It’s been talked about widely out there. It was a very severe break in that ankle area, but everything is sound in there now. We’re not worried about anything. Sure, you still may see him limp around a little. That just kind of comes with the territory of doing that. I limp around on my foot from when I broke it so many years ago. I think we all know that an injury at that level, it’s probably always going to be never the same. It doesn’t mean you can’t do your job at the highest level. I’m just being pretty frank with people so they can understand that.

“I was just in Florida the last couple weeks after the supercross stuff. I went back to make sure everything is in place with Hunter jumping on the outdoor stuff. Jett has been doing all testing and putting in all of the time that’s necessary with the motorcycle, so a lot of the Hunter stuff was already gone through with Jett. Everything looks good. There was plenty of seat time on Jett’s side. There was minimal time outdoors for Hunter, but only because he just came off the supercross season. Being able to go a full 17-race series in supercross, Hunter is pretty fit. There is no doubt about it. I’m not worried that he can’t go two 35-minute motos. He’s highly fine-tuned. There was not too much wear and tear on him. We felt good the whole time.”

That supercross season Hunter Lawerence is coming off included a disappointing finish when he narrowly lost the Monster Energy Supercross Championship to Ken Roczen at the final round.

"Kenny just was a little better at the last race, so we just move on," O'Mara sums up that chapter. "Congratulations to Kenny and we just wish we were in that spot, but there is going to be more opportunities for Hunter. That one hurt because we were so close

“Hunter is an intense individual. Give him 24 hours and he just moves on. That’s literally how we look at it. I give him his space. He flew home right away, not sulking, but it just hurts a little bit. When you want to win that bad, you expect that to hurt. If you didn’t see it hurt, then you’d be disappointed in the person because they lay everything on the line. I’d be the same way. Some of the greatest people that I’ve worked with, champions, business people, people all over, if they don’t get their way, they’re not too happy. They move on. As they say, you fail way more than you succeed. Hunter has had plenty of that. Jett has had plenty of that when he was young and is going through it a little bit now. He had a couple of injuries, but he comes back. Last year he won. I don’t see Jett missing any beats on this. I think he is going to be competitive right off the bat. I think we’ll see that this weekend.”

O’Mara, who competed for Team Honda from 1980-86, firmly believes the Honda HRC Progressive race team and overall program operates at an optimum level.

“It’s a good as you can imagine,” said O’Mara, who also won the 1984 AMA Supercross Championship for Team Honda. “Everyone kind of knows my history with the Honda racing team back when we built it super-strong in the 1980s. That was a long time ago, but that’s how we tried to replicate it for Jett and Hunter. So I was part of that and the Honda guys gave me full range to help with putting people in place. We’ve got Japan way more involved now. It’s built perfectly for both boys to succeed."

So what are his expectations for the upcoming AMA Pro Motocross Championship?

“it’s just the start of another motocross series for us. We don’t really look at it any other way," O'Mara says. "You can only control what’s in front of you. That’s just being prepared. You guys all know how my work ethic is and how we go about business. That translates to the boys and I’ve been around them long enough that we all kind of know what we’re doing. We don’t get wrapped up in anything other than making sure we are as prepared as possible when we go on the start line.”

Haiden Deegan will be at at Pala on a Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha YZ450F and he’s been lighting up the global moto media about it. O’Mara isn't focusing on any of that, though.

“We watched the kid be successful on the small bike. We would expect him to come into the 450 ranks and be competitive right off the bat," he says. "Where that is we don’t know util we see the start of the season here relatively quick. Other than that we just know we have a very stacked field. We don’t disrespect any of the guys in there because there plenty of guys that are grown men and championship-material guys who have won multiple championships. We don’t really look at any particular guy, we just know how to prepare ourselves for a battle.

"22 motos and then on to the SMX Finals. All the guys are very good. They’re world champions and multi-time champions. We don’t look at it like, “He’s our main competition.” If anything, the boys are pretty competitive with themselves and it wouldn’t surprise me to see those guys at the front and competing for wins between the two of them.”