Slaw
No Supercross hangover for Hunter Lawrence.
Just weeks after a heartbreaking loss in the Monster Energy AMA Supercross finale to Ken Roczen, the Honda HRC Progressive rider showed up to the opening round of Pro Motocross at Fox Raceway and dominated a stacked field.
After qualifying fastest in both 450 sessions, Hunter ran away from Jorge Prado down the stretch in both motos to claim his first ever 1-1 finish of his 450 career. While his brother Jett and rookie Haiden Deegan dominated headlines during the short break, it was Hunter striking first outdoors.
“I felt like on Supercross I really put a lot of emphasis on getting the bike where I really wanted it, and felt like it didn’t hold me back, and the same kind of thing on outdoors,” he said after the race. “Just kind of picking up where we left off at the end of the season last year in Nations.”
Following his career day, Hunter spoke with the media about his win, his brother returning from injury and more.
We will start with you, Hunter. The best we’ve seen you at outdoors; dominant day. First 1-1 of your career. No Supercross hangover whatsoever, despite you saying that you didn’t have as much time as you’d like. Given all that, how do you feel about how the day went for you, and is this what you knew you were capable of today?
Hunter Lawrence: Yeah, I feel really good. I’m happy with that. Keep the Lawrence streak of winning at Pala alive. It was good. I’m really happy with where the bike’s at. I felt like on Supercross I really put a lot of emphasis on getting the bike where I really wanted it, and felt like it didn’t hold me back, and the same kind of thing on outdoors. Just kind of picking up where we left off at the end of the season last year in Nations. It’s just good you don’t have to figure out a whole new bike, right? It’s always tricky when you have to do that, and we’ve done it before and been able to put out good results, but it just makes everyone’s life a little more difficult, so it’s nice to come in on common ground and be familiar with it.
Over a rider’s career, they kind of develop things that make them who they are, and I think those things are consistency and being there every single weekend for Hunter. But this weekend, you were out of the shadow, you went 1-1, and you were the fastest guy in qualifying. As a racer, this is what you live and dream of as a little kid. Can you talk about what this means to you, what this means for your family, and for yourself?
It’s unreal. Like you said, to be able to do that and just have a perfect day. I’ve seen Jett do many of those, so it’s cool to have my first one. And it’s cool that it was Round 1. We don’t really love this track, but we always do well here, which is pretty ironic. And then obviously, Jett being on the podium as well for what he had to come back from is, I mean, the guy struggles walking. You see him walk, and you’re like, yeah, he’s not riding, and then you get on the bike, and you’re like, oh, okay, it’s better. Just a happy day. Stoked for the team days like this, it just feels good. You make everyone on the team happy, everyone’s hard work and dedication, as all teams in the paddock. Everyone works hard and gives it their all, so it’s cool as racers to have days like today and have good results. It’s great for everyone that’s involved.
You mentioned you guys can lean on how good the bike was outdoors last year and how amazing you guys performed at the Motocross of Nations. You talked about in Supercross chasing a little more. Is there anything that you learned from Supercross that Hutch and on your suspension, you guys were able to bring to your outdoor setup? Or did we really just default to MXON setting to start the year off?
We obviously learned a lot of things in Supercross, which was really cool and we applied a few things to the bike, which is always good when you have a theory and you do it and it works. That’s probably the best feeling for a technician, rather than, “Alright, this should do this, I’m going to put it in,” and it does the complete opposite thing. We’re all kind of stuck there, scratching our heads, so it’s nice when the intention works out. Happy with the bike and again, thankful for the group of people we have around us.
How would you compare this type of achievement to other milestones that you’ve been able to get during your career?
It’s good. I probably don’t put it as high as some of the other accomplishments. I think, I don’t know, a supercross win in my eyes kind of holds a little more weight just because motocross, I feel like you don’t need as much luck. A bad start in motocross, the best guy can generally, there’s enough time on the clock to come through where supercross, I mean there’s about, gee, 600 different outcomes that can happen just in the first corner. You do need a little lady luck sometimes, and one little mistake like your whole night’s over, where one little mistake here, you’ve got enough time to get back. And Nations is huge, but obviously I’m really happy with it as well.
Photos: octopi.media
