Slaw
If you watched any of the Flight Plan episodes Red Bull Motorsports produced with Vurbmoto featuring Hunter and Jett Lawrence a few years ago, you already know one thing: nothing is coming between the brothers. Blood is thicker than racing, or something like that.
So, while they’re locked in on yet another title fight, don’t expect any bad blood.
“There’s no tension. There’s more, if anything, he’s annoyed me as a brother, but it’s nothing to do with racing, right? It’s just a younger brother. What you see is what you get, honestly,” said Hunter following Washougal.
Jett and Hunter have been untouchable this summer, combining to win every overall and every moto through the first eight rounds of the Pro Motocross Championship. Washougal was no different.
Jett controlled the opening moto, but the brothers were once again locked in a showdown in Moto 2. This time, a late crash by Jett while leading handed Hunter the moto win, the overall victory, and a 12-point advantage heading into the two-week break.
Following the race, Hunter discussed battling his brother for the championship, why Washougal felt different this year, swapping bikes with Jett, and much more.
You now have the red plate and a 12-point lead after today. Congratulations on the great day. And tell us how your day went as a whole.
Hunter Lawrence: Yeah, good. It actually went freaking sick compared to how it has been every other year. I mean, that was the talk of the week, right? Was Haiden’s track and this isn’t our best track. So it was unreal to go 1-2.
Do you have anything that you can point to that made the difference between previous years and this year’s in your moto scores?
I think it’s just the bike’s in a good spot or a good enough spot. We made one change between first and second moto and that did help me out, which was really cool. I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t know. Just the overcast, the shadows weren’t as bad maybe.
On the podium it didn’t seem like you were super ecstatic. Having a racing background, sometimes you win races, but you don’t feel like maybe that was a full win. You didn’t feel like the fastest guy. Can you talk us through a little bit of that frustration on your face with still getting the win, but not feeling fully satisfied?
I wouldn’t say not fully satisfied. It’s just, it’s such a tough championship. I mean, the guy I’m going up against is the best guy in the sport and I feel like we’re each other’s toughest opponents. So, it’s like I’m still debriefing. I’m thinking about the weeks to come on what I want to work on, where I think I can be better. My starts, I felt like weren’t—even the second one was a holeshot, but the execution wasn’t really good. But that’s something that I feel like this place always makes me scratch my head about is it’s almost like the looser riding styles, not as precise, tend to do really well at this track. And we’ve struggled a lot at this track previous years. So just kind of debriefing, honestly, still in it, just mulling it over and always critiquing myself. Happy to get a win for sure, even though my intention after Jett got around me that second moto was to just stay on him and just try and stay as close as I could and pressure and knew it was going to be a long moto and yet obviously unfolded how it did.
You and your brother were in California testing this week prior to this round to get ready. That track at Fox Raceway clearly does something for you. I mean, do you think you’ve set a trend? Will we see your competition there because you figured something out?
It just took us so long to get there and we missed the riding session. So, we only got like three laps of warmup before they put the amateurs on the big track. I just wanted to warm up. So we went and rode that track. But the dirt on the vet track’s actually better than the big track, I think. And it was good because there was obviously plowed and watered and the other competitors on the track maybe weren’t at an advanced level enough to ride the ruts through the plowed stuff on the inside. So it was just like me making the ruts initially. And then I think Garrett was out there and then Jett came out as well. So yeah, that was just riding.
Coming into this week in the test in California, you mentioned this has not always been your best round. What were the target goals coming into this? Where did you feel like you needed to be better to execute here or what needed to be better on the bike setup to be good in Washougal?
We just kind of tested a few things. I feel like sometimes when we test in California, when we go east or to other tracks, it doesn’t generally translate. Then once we’re on the East Coast, we’re sticking with that kind of setting or that genre, I guess. We don’t make changes and thought every time we come out to Cali, we’ll try… We knew we could have a stiffer bike that doesn’t normally work on East Coast tracks, so we kind of lent into that a little bit. And I mean, even after Qualies this morning, I felt like I was riding really good, but there was sections on the track looking through the segments where I’m like, man, I’m a lot further down than what I feel like. And I feel like I’m doing the right line and stuff, but it just doesn’t always translate on this track. It’s weird. It’s a very, very weird unorthodox track.
You guys have such a unique dynamic. We’ve never seen brothers like this. You guys are riding each other’s bikes. You ride together every day or every week. And I can see where that’s an advantage, but are you looking at Jett now and he’s not been riding as much because of the ankle? So are you kind of keying in? You said your plan was to stick right behind him and follow him and pressure him. Do you kind of know that maybe at the end of the race he’s not going to have as much gas in the tank as he normally would? I mean, are you strategizing like that from the things you’re seeing during the week?
This week he rode a lot more. I mean, we’ve been riding similar amounts during the week, the past two, three weeks I’d say. There’s times I’ve executed exactly to my game plan and it hasn’t turned out and you just never know. Just never know what could happen. I didn’t call it last weekend. I didn’t even know he crashed last weekend. I just got to be there every race, whether it’s him, another rider, whatever it is. You just got to put yourself in the fight. I think the riding each other’s bike, honestly, it’s more of a benefit to both of us and the team because he had a different fork and shock yesterday to what I did from what we developed during the week. And it was just, that’s our theory during the week. And all right, let’s put it to the test. We have one press session, so it’s the best way for us to see which one we like better. If he liked what I developed better or vice versa. I think it’s one thing that’s really cool is there’s no secrets and it’s a level playing field.
One thing you said to me a long time ago that stuck with me was like we’re racers for now, brothers forever. You’ve always maintained this great relationship with Jett. Close. Championship’s getting close. Is there ever any tension between you guys at home or during the week? Or is it just always family loves each other?
There’s no tension. There’s more, if anything, he’s annoyed me as a brother, but it’s nothing to do with racing, right? It’s just a younger brother. What you see is what you get, honestly. That’s one thing I can be proud of and say. It’s difficult to take the higher road sometimes. It’s easy to take the low road. And I think that’s a huge issue with the world is there’s so many people that are so insecure and just shitty people that we need more good people in the world. And if I’m going to stand up here and say that, then I have to do that, right? It’s easy to say it, but actions are more believable than words.
In the second moto, at a certain point, about halfway, it looked like you kind of upped the pace a little bit. Is that accurate? And if it is, how do you decide when to hit that button?
It’s tricky, because he’s doing the same and we get into a pace and obviously we knew Haiden was in third. So just trying to keep pushing ahead in the start and then yeah, all right, we’ll kind of put in some laps and see where he is. Is he sticking? Is he not? Some races this year I’ve been able to close the gap or extend the gap. Other races it hasn’t worked. It’s just kind of testing the waters on that. Like I said, it’s such a unique battle and it’s tricky. Obviously, all the races this year can be a testament to that.
Along those same lines of managing that gap, those last couple of laps, that second moto, your brother put in a big push and nearly caught up to you. Did you know how close he was getting to you?
I had eyes on him a lot of the way. When you’re in a flow on this track, I feel like it’s easy to just stay in it. And when he went down, I kind of took a lap to breathe and then try to go again because I knew we still had some time on the clock. And then just kind of, I don’t know, guesstimate like, all right, at this pace, he won’t catch me before the finish line and just try bring it home.
Photos: octopi.media
