For Hunter Lawrence, Europe was where it essentially all began. Both he and Jett were wildly successful as juniors in Australia, and it was obvious they had the talent from a young age to make a career out of motocross. But then Hunter Lawrence was selected to race for Australia on a 65 in the Junior World Championship at just 12-years-old. So he and his father Darren headed off to Cingoli, Italy for young Hunter’s first shot at showing his skills on a global scale. Hunter would go 8-3 that day in Italy. Jorge Prado won both motos, but the seed was planted.

His next go would be on an 85 in Bulgaria but the success wouldn’t be found as he would go 13-13 on the slick Sevlievo soil. He would return in 2013 with a vengeance an 85 where he would collect a huge moto victory going 4-1 in the Czech Republic to finish second overall to Conrad Mewse. But this time around, he was better than Prado and a young American in fourth place whom you may have heard of before by the name of Chase Sexton. Point being, the motocross world was now taking full notice of this flying young Australian, and one year later in Belgium, they would quickly learn that he was not alone. His then just-turned-11-year-old brother Jett won the 65cc Junior World Championship with 1-2 finishes beating Jo Shimoda’s 4-1. When Hunter returned to the World Championship again in 2015 for the final time, this time on a 125, he would go 5-4 for third overall just behind Mewse again and eventual champion Maxime Renaux. It was no longer a matter of if he’d make a career outside of Australia, it was when, and Kawasaki Europe decided the time was now.

Both Hunter and Jett were off to Europe in 2016 together at the ages of 16 and 12. Hunter immediately became a force. Three rounds into his first European Motocross Championship, he went 1-1 in Germany and sat a close second in the championship behind Thomas Kjer Olsen. But a knee injury and subsequent surgery pulled him to the sidelines for the rest of the year.

Suzuki Europe had seen enough already, though, to sign Hunter to a full-time MX2 deal alongside Jeremy Seewer. Once again, his younger brother Jett was part of the same deal as Suzuki brought him on to contest the EMX85 Championship where he would finish second to Kay De Wolf. Hunter would have an up and down year in his first year of MX2 with some top five results until he broke through at the final Grand Prix of the year to win the final moto of the year and finish second overall. But it was the very end of 2017 when the real flashpoint came. Now racing for Australia in the Motocross of Nations, Hunter Lawrence simply rode the race of his life to that point to finish fourth in the mud on a 250 in the first moto at the Motocross of Nations. Coupled with an eighth in the second moto, he just tipped Zach Osborne to win the MX2 overall and help carry Australia to a sixth overall.

Behind the scenes that summer, Hunter and Jett were already getting shopped to American teams, courtesy of their new agent, Lucas Mirtl. This all culminated the very next day after the ‘Nations. For the third year in a row, a massive contract swing relating to Hunter was dropped. American motocross and supercross powerhouse team GEICO Honda was going all in on Hunter as they signed him to a massive three-year deal, which was really a four-year deal with Honda. He would do one final season of MX2 in 2018 with Honda 114 Motorsports and move to the USA full-time afterwards. This time, the deal did not yet include Jett, but GEICO was soon to scoop him up anyway with a similar deal that saw Jett actually stay with Suzuki to race EMX250 in 2018 before moving to the U.S. and switching to Honda. That meant Hunter and Jett once again were coming as a package deal by 2019. As monumental as this was, 2018 was still quite rough for Hunter who fought through injuries and mechanical issues with the 114 Motorsports team to end up eighth in MX2. He put it all behind him again though as he dazzled once more with 7-2 finishes in his first real ride on a GEICO Honda at the 2018 Motocross of Nations at RedBud.

Now he was in the U.S. full-time at just 19 after what could only be described as a whirlwind between Australia and Europe to that point. But before he could even get started in the USA, collarbone injuries pushed him to the sideline for all of supercross. He would come back for Pro Motocross and collect moto wins at High Point and Spring Creek before more late season injuries (including a torn ACL) bit him again. There was still plenty of reason to believe Hunter was on the doorstep of success despite the injuries, but 2020 brought about struggles that nearly became too much.

Hunter would tear his labrum and rotator cuff before 250SX East began in 2020, but to some the hype around Hunter Lawrence in Supercross was already dwindling. The future many had imagined of a young Australian coming over a la Chad Reed and being a force in supercross was taking a lot of hits, but then, it became a reality anyway. While Hunter was working to rehab his shoulder, Jett Lawrence came within half a lap of winning the Anaheim 2 Supercross in just his third ever start. He unfortunately crashed with one turn to go and broke his collarbone, but the massive Lawrence hype train was just about fully switched over to Jett in the blink of an eye. Hunter would make it back to race two supercross races in 2020 as he was helped by COVID-19 pushing back the series to June, but his 13^th and 7^th place results were overshadowed by Jett getting his first career podium. And then, the seemingly never-ending dark cloud found Hunter again when his shoulder popped out at the Loretta Lynn’s 2 National just a month later. For Hunter, after multiple trips around the world, it was just about the final straw.

“In 2020, I was done,” said Lawrence. “It was Cynthia [wife] and my dad and Johnny [O’Mara] in the bunker of the GEICO truck. I just dislocated my shoulder for a second time, needed a fourth surgery in seven months, and I was done. Every time you get injured, you work so hard, you do extra to get back to where you believe and where you feel you should be and then to over and over again get knocked down with injuries, at times not even crashing. I was in such a bad spot, and I was like, 'I’m done. We’ll just support Jett. He’s got what it takes, and we’ll just support Jett.' It was probably two or three days after that that I decided I was going to come back and keep doing this.”

After going under the knife again to get his shoulder fixed Hunter came back in 2021 ready. Now with Honda HRC after GEICO Honda closed up shop, Lawrence began to thrive. Four races into the season, and in just his sixth start, he won his first 250 Supercross at Arlington. That season, he finished second in 250SX West. Then he rolled right into Pro Motocross picking up his first career overall win at Southwick and finishing third in the championship. His brother Jett, now an established front runner, won that 2021 Pro Motocross title. Hunter kept his head down and had a very successful 2022 250SX West campaign winning four races and narrowly finishing second in the title chase to Christian Craig. Over on the East, Jett would clinch his first 250SX title. The summer of 2022 became a summer of Lawrence as they often found each other battling at the front with Jett once again getting the upper hand to claim his second 250 Pro Motocross title.

All of this as it turns out, would just be the precursor to one of the greatest 250 Supercross seasons of all time. Through all of the uprooting of his family at incredibly young ages, through all of the injuries that nearly brought it to an end, Hunter Lawrence finally had everything go right in 2023 Supercross. Thus far, seven wins, nine podiums, and a number one plate he had given everything to earn. Most stories have struggles and ups and downs. It’s easy to look at your 2023 250SX East Champion Hunter Lawrence and think, “Well everything went right.” But few stories feature the number of miles, the pain, and quite frankly, the family dynamic that Hunter Lawrence has lived through. Hunter and Jett have a very strong bond and Jett was the first to greet Hunter after he sealed the title last weekend, but Jett was along for the ride at every step of Hunter’s journey before becoming the leading Lawrence brother. This season, it was Hunter’s turn to follow Jett’s footsteps and now it appears that working together has made both of them nearly unstoppable forces. For Hunter, this moment might be the beginning of years and years of wins and championship success, but it was also the very end of a story that started in a small town on the Eastern coast of Australia that has finished with the Lawrence family truly atop the world in 250 Supercross.