Slaw
With his back against the wall, Hunter Lawrence delivered.
Down four points to title rival Ken Roczen entering Round 16 of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship in Denver, Lawrence knew one thing: beat Roczen, or lose control of the title fight heading into Salt Lake City.
And Lawrence left nothing to be desired at Mile High.
He jumped out front early and never flinched, putting together a near-perfect main event to secure his fifth win of the season. He crossed the line 13.2 seconds ahead of Roczen, flipping the championship picture in the process. Now, with one round remaining, the two are separated by just one point. Winner takes all.
“I love it. I’d rather be in the position I’m in now than what I would have been like seven points down if Kenny had won or whatever the points would’ve been,” Lawrence said post-race. “Yeah, this is my title to lose, I feel like.”
Now, with the championship on the line in Salt Lake City, Lawrence spoke with the media after his Denver win to break down the ride, the pressure, and what it’s going to take to finish the job. Here’s the full interview:
A perfect result tonight. Consistently fast in that main, just how close to perfect were you and that bike feeling? We know that you and the team have put in a lot of work these past few days.
Hunter Lawrence: It was good; felt good. Bike was working good. It was giving me what I needed. It was a really tough track. There wasn’t much traction out there. Had to pick and choose where I make my arcs in the corners to bank off of stuff, so that whenever I’m turning, I have support. It was good, though, all in all, a good day. Everyone knows what I need to do next: the last two rounds. We checked the first box, and yeah, going into Salt Lake City and try and to do the same thing.
Can you take us through the decision on your gate pick? You started quite a bit further inside than I expected.
I’ve kind of been starting there all day. That was about it felt like you’d get around the first turn pretty good if you didn’t nail it. My starts weren’t amazing all day today. We were kind of fiddling, and we’re massaging some things, and we got them sorted for the main. I feel like we do pretty well at.
Most people label this weekend a clutch performance. As you said, you know what you have to do coming into this weekend. Denver is always hard-packed, which creates unique conditions. You said about the fiddling, can you break down just a little bit of your process today? Again, how much of it is on you adapting throughout the day? Did you guys put any more effort into the footage, the breakdown? You got Trey here. Was it a normal day, or was there a bit of pressure? Was there a little more to figuring it out throughout the day?
I love having to work for it a little bit during the day. I feel like that’s when I have my best days. I love working with the team, and we work so great together. When you kind of just say, ‘Alright, yeah, we need to be better next session, this is where we can be better.’ And then just every step of the way, I think kind of working through it, I feel like I really enjoy that, and I feel like it brings the best out of me.
Would you say you thrive a little bit when your back’s against the wall?
I love it. I’d rather be in the position I’m in now than what I would have been like seven points down if Kenny had won or whatever the points would’ve been. Yeah, this is my title to lose, I feel like. And I feel like under pressure, I’ve been the best guy this year to be able to clutch up and make something happen. So, going to Salt Lake City, go have fun, enjoy it. It’s my first-ever full 450 season. We’re still racing. It feels like we’ve been racing for six months.
In my racing experience, there were times in the main event where I did a couple of setting changes. When you go out there for that hot lap, it seems like you know if it’s good, or if it’s not. The reason I bring that up is I watched you go out and blitz the whoops, and then I saw you blitz the second set of whoops. When you hit that second set of whoops, were you like, oh yeah, it’s on right now? Was that the setting you were looking for, or were you just blitzing them to get ready for that main event?
Funny. No, I can see there are times that you try to go out and put a little effort on the sprint lap, but this one, I just timed the gate. J Star gave the 5, 4, 3, and I just did a start, and I was one of the first guys off the gate. Normally, that’s never me, so it was one of the first times I think ever that on the sight lap I had a clear track and I used to always do it in the GPs or even outdoors, as I was used to being really slow to get going outdoors and come around after 15 minutes. So, I’d get out on a sight lap and try to wake myself up a little bit. But no, it was good. The setting was the same for most of the day. We made a little click of change for the second one, didn’t feel it, back to base, and just left it there.
I want to talk about Cameron. He’s had a really kind of down week—neck is hurting really badly. How confident and inspiring is that for you to have your mechanic kind of be down in the dumps, hurting, and still deliver you a race-winning machine?
Cam: His back, his neck, the dude’s going through it, it’s gnarly, but he still doesn’t want to step back. I mean, I think he needs to rest and stuff, but he’s like, hell no. I’m in the trenches with you, bud. And he wants to suffer, and yeah, I love the guy. Hopefully, he has two weekends off after Salt Lake. He can settle it the back down and rest it for outdoors. I love that guy.
We had a brief conversation during press, and I made the comparison: you’re a Kevin Windham-style rider, and this track was very slow to go fast, and it looked like you had to hit everything straight, like you were coasting a lot into corners. Were you just managing the lead?
I mean, in the end? Yeah, sure. The second set of whoops, for example, I feel like the beginning of the main, you were able to drive into them pretty good, and then it got to the point where I was getting wheel spin off the rut on the flat before I even got to the whoops. So, there were a lot of slippery sections where you had to be straight up and down, didn’t want to be trying to turn across that slippery stuff.
Photos: octopi.media
