Austin Forkner has played down the potentially-explosive rivalry between himself and teenager Jett Lawrence as they go into the first 250SX round in Texas this weekend.

The pair clashed at Salt Lake City last season after Forkner had some handbags with Hunter Lawrence and at the next event, it all got a bit salty when Forkner took Jett Lawrence down at turn one.

ā€œIā€™ve been seeing everybodyā€™s trying to build it up. Everybody likes a rivalry, so thatā€™s kinda just what I chalked it up to,” said Forkner.

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“I mean, we got together in one of the last Salt Lake City races ā€“ I donā€™t know if that set us up for a huge rivalry, it was just something that happened. But, yeah, I guess everybody wants a rivalry and they picked us two.

ā€œI didnā€™t really know who was going to be on each coast, I was just trying to prepare as much as I could myself and we had work to do with the new bike, so I didnā€™t worry about anybody else and had enough to worry about. We did that with the new bike and itā€™s great.ā€

Jett Lawrence replied: ā€œEverybody tries make some drama, make it more excitingā€¦ like every TV show, they want drama. But yeah, it was a one-time thing. Who knows, if either of us try to do a stupid move we will obviously give the favour back.

ā€œIf I do something wrong to him, he will give it back, thatā€™s how racing goes. We did settle it there and, like I said, if something comes up again one of us is going to hit back harder and harder, then weā€™ll just have to wait and see.ā€

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