Hunter Lawrence | 3rd overall In 250 Class

Racer X: Hunter, just take us through your day. It was just that much better to get on the podium compared to round one. Do you feel you rode better, or was it just track position and stuff? How was your day overall?
Hunter Lawrence: I think we definitely rode better. We did a bit of work during the week with the team testing suspension stuff, which definitely helped. Just starts were a little better. Obviously with the second moto with that little crash wasn’t ideal, but we were in a pretty safe, solid third. The gap to fourth place was pretty far, so I had a cushion there. It was definitely a step better than Pala. I’m happy, but nothing to jump up and down about. It was all right.

Do you have some areas where you know you can improve? You don’t seem 100 percent satisfied yet.
Yeah, for sure. I feel like the outdoors really puts a magnifying glass over all the areas that aren’t 100 percent yet. Obviously coming back from my shoulder injury and stuff, it was quite a lot to rebuild. Supercross I could manage pretty well. So, we’re still building that. Just bike time, like supercross is so much slower speed than outdoors. But we’re doing good. We’re working hard and we’ll be where we want to be shortly, so just building and enjoying the process.

A lot of times in the past this track has been really deep and really rutted. It didn’t form up that way. I know you haven’t ridden here a ton, but were you a little surprised? What type of track do you prefer? Some riders like it without ruts so they can move around, some guys like being locked into ruts. What do you like?
It was a great surprise to see dust in the first practice and in timed qualifying. I think that was pretty different and surprised a lot of people. Normally they’re running a paddle tire and it’s just so thick and heavy. But I think it was good. I think what was pretty cool was it was a hard-pack track and you had to have good front wheel feel. It wasn’t just soft, loamy stuff. I think it’s cool that if they could do like you’ve got your sand and your loam, like your Red Bud and stuff like that is deep and whatnot. But the hard-pack tracks like today, et cetera, they are not ripped as deep just because it brings into more of a skill than just being able to get into a slot car line and you’re kind of stuck there. I think it was good. I think it made for great racing. There was a lot of good passes going on in both races. I think people have a split decision, but I thought it was cool. It was different for a change. It brings out other techniques and areas and skills of riders. So, I think it’s good. 

Sort of just going back to what we were talking about with the track setup, how did you find the motorcycle reacting obviously with more altitude this week compared to California last week where there was no issue with that? Did you guys notice something different with the bikes on how you set them up?
Yeah, for sure. I think I speak for nearly every 250 rider that we lose quite significantly a lot of horsepower at altitude. As far as suspension, handling-wise, nothing really changes, I don’t feel like. Just the horsepower, really. We’re feeling it out there. First practice we’re casing some stuff. It’s rough. They cut a few singles down for us to help us hit some down ramps, thankfully. But it was good. Mostly it’s just the engine and your body that takes the majority of the toll. Like when you have a water bottle going up in the plane when you take off and stuff you see the water bottle shrink or expand or whatever, that’s what the altitude does to everything inside our body constantly.

Chase Sexton | 6th overall in 450 Class

From Honda HRC Press Release:

Chase Sexton: I had high hopes coming into today after last weekend. It started off rough in the first and second practices. In the first moto, I rode okay and finished fourth, but overall didn't ride to my potential. In the second moto, I actually rode well, but started last again; I made a bonehead move and started in second gear like normal [instead of first for the high elevation]. I had to ride as hard as I could from there on and finished fifth. Overall, it wasn't the day I wanted, going 4-5, but we're back in two weeks and I'm looking forward to High Point. I really like that track and I'm excited to go back to the East Coast.