Troy Dog
It was a monumental day for Team Honda HRC as they debuted the 2025 CRF450R at Unadilla over the weekend.
The debut of the bike was news enough, but it was Hunter Lawrence bringing home the first 450 moto victory that truly made the weekend one to remember. Lawrence was able to hold off a hard charging Chase Sexton in the final laps of the race to get the job done.
“I definitely was outspoken about how good that I thought the bike was,” Lawrence said in the post race press conference. “So obviously a little bit of pressure of ‘hey you better go do well, now that you’re saying how great this bike is’ and (if) you go out and suck. It’d look like egg on your forehead you know?”
So what is the secret sauce to the 2025 CRF450R that makes Hunter feel all giddy inside? Our test rider Ashton Bloxom had a chance to ride the bike at the Ironman bike launch last month and he raved about the stock version.
“Obviously handling is a lot better,” Lawrence said. “It’s amazing to have a bike that you can work with and it helps you out in places on the track. As far as new bike debuts go we were really happy with it. A little bummed with how the second moto played out but there is next weekend and it could have gone a hell of a lot worse.”
Regardless of being bummed on his second moto, Lawrence still finished second in the race and his 1-2 scores on the day gave him second overall. It was a step in the right direction and it seems like he benefitted a lot from the break in the schedule. Lawrence needed to bounce back from his RedBud crash that took a lot of wind out of his sails.
“It was tough, the second moto you know,” Lawrence said. “The lines are so skinny and it’s really tough to look ahead or look through a rider. You know, theres a terminology that we use to see what’s coming because a lot of the bumps were super high speed, but extremely sharp. All in all, not a terrible day.”
With one race down on the 2025 model, the future is looking bright. Hunter Lawrence may be the best salesperson in the pits. He truly believes in the bike. We saw first hand how much this bike meant to all of the Honda engineers and team members at the launch. As we’ve also seen with Honda over the past couple of years, everything is a team effort, and this new bike is definitely that.
“The bike straight out of the box is something we’re all really proud of,” Lawrence said. “Everyone has been included into it. It’s one of the best 450s out of the box, which maybe we couldn’t say that in prior years. I’m just proud. I have something I can tell my mates back home, this is the bike that you need.”
Photo Credit: MX Sports Pro Racing, Inc.
