Johnny O'mara and Eric Johnson are long time friends. A relationship that started in the 1980s and has grown as the racing legend and the media legend became as close as a racer and media man have ever been.

EJ, one of the greatest journalists in the sport of motocross and Johnny O one of the greatest legends of AMA racing, grew closer as the sport in USA grew. The era of Team USA domination and O'Mara was at the forfront of that domination. In this amazing interview Johnson catches everything that we, the fans want to know. Another classic from EJ.

O'mara is one of the main parts of the puzzel for the Lawrence brothers success and obvously, EJ taps into the inside stories that make the two Aussies great.

Eric Johnson Interview - Paul Buckley Image

43 years. On Saturday, August 27, 1983 at Spring Creek MX Park in Millville, Minnesota, 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,” offered 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 premier 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 championship both brothers desperately want to win.

“Jett is ready to go,” said O’Mara of Jett Lawrence, the 2022 and 2025 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,” continued O’Mara. “Everyone knows. It’s been talked about widely out there. It was a very sever break in that ankle area, but everything is sound in there right now. We’re not worried about anything. We’ve been on top of that thing since day one. That’s doctors and rehabilitation people in the business. Yeah, it’s good to go. We’re literally ready to go. 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 people so they can understand that.”

Is everything where it needs to be and is everything in order for Jett Lawrence as he prepares for this Saturday’s AMA Pro Motocross Championship opening round?

“Yeah, I do think Jett is good to go,” said O’Mara enthusiastically. “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-miute motos. I’ll put it that way. He’s highly fine-tuned. There was not too much wear and tear on him. We felt good the whole time. Kenny just was a little better at the last race, so we just move on. 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.”

O’Mara talked about the reality that Hunter Lawerence is fine, recovered and has moved along from the disappointment he experienced is coming up so heartbreakingly close to Ken Roczen at the Salt Lake City Monster Energy Supercross Championship conclusion.

“Yeah, Hunter is fine,” offered O’Mara. “Hunter is an intense individual. You just give him his space. 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. Jett 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 through 1986, 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 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.

Up next for Jett and Hunter Lawrence and the Honda HRC Progressive team will be Fox Raceway at Pala in Southern California and the first round of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship. How are they looking at it all?

“it’s just the start of another motocross series for us. We don’t really look at it any other way. You would think there is total big talks about it. There’s not. In our camp, you can only control what’s in front of us. 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. He’ll be at Fox Raceway at Pala on a Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha YZ450F and he’s been lighting up the global moto media about it. How have O’Mara and he Lawrence brothers looked at the Haiden Deegan variable come this Saturday?

“We don’t fall in that category,” said O’Mara. “We’re not dumb. 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. 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. That’s what we do. 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.” We don’t look at it like that. 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.”