Hunter Lawrence slammed the ground at Daytona when he hit a rock in the 450SX main event. He tells us, that if he sustained that kind of impact a few years ago, he’d definitely had suffered structural damage to his shoulder. He’s stronger now, and while he did sustain a few cracks on his shoulder blade, he didn’t take on any structural damage and was able to make enough progress by taking off the Birmingham weekend to make it back to action at Indy.
In the past, Hunter was confused when he would hit the ground with a relatively minor crash and still sustain a major injury. He traced it back to improving his diet, which has helped strengthen his body. On press day at Seattle, while he was enjoying steak and sweet potato fries, we asked him about it.
Racer X: Hunter. You came back last week. Did you expect to be back that fast when you left Daytona?
Hunter Lawrence: Yeah. You know, hindsight's a beautiful thing. We probably could have stayed another weekend on the couch, but that's how it felt. But that's just not who I am. I was happy to be back at the races. I missed my team, they missed me. So even though the results weren't great and weren't where we were before, you know, we're back. It's part of it. Part of the ups and downs, and we just keep building toward next year and throughout the series.
This diet situation over here is very strict. Can we talk about sweet potato fries?
Yeah. So it's just a sweet potato. So it's pure, it's clean. We don't eat junk fried in oil. No, no, no. Just the air frier. That is a great, great investment, man.
How gnarly is your diet situation? Are you constantly torturing yourself to do it?
If you do it long enough, you just get used to it, right?
Oh, is that what it is?
Yeah. My diet is only purely for the performance side of being an athlete. You know, I'm not blessed with amazing genes, like my brother, who can just kind of function and perform off of anything. So yeah, I have to watch what I eat. I have to really be conscious of that and make sure I'm getting the right stuff. A lot of the foods here in America, I struggled a lot with when coming from Europe and stuff. So, we've worked very, very hard in that area.
Yes, because when you had these injuries, you traced a lot of it back to overall health being a part of that.
Right. Yeah, there was so much inflammation and I mean, if you're good, like my brother, you don't have to change anything. That's the best case scenario. But I encourage people to look into it. You know, people that are maybe are not having the energy [they think they should], or are not as strong physically or they don’t have as much endurance as what they might feel they should, or stuff like that. Injuries, a lot of it is the amount of inflammation in your body. That was a lot of what I was dealing with. You know, my body went type two diabetic. Yeah. It was basically cannibalizing itself. You know, like when, when I'd exercised, my body wasn't storing fat in the areas where you pull energy from. So it would just eat the muscles to feed itself and fuel itself.
And a lot of that started with moving to America? Like just the ingredients aren't as clean, or either way as an athlete you were just gonna have to evolve with this anyway.
I don't know. I mean, growing up as a kid, like we always were just super plain and healthy. Just milk and water, that was it, we didn't do soft drinks, sweets, not that much of that. You know, there's a lot of people that run into the same issue coming from overseas to America that we know and, and all the people we work with, also. So yeah, it's definitely a curveball. You feel like you just gotta’ train and ride do all that stuff, and eat healthy so you can be fit and strong. But when it really comes into play, it's tough when we're traveling all the time.
I figured. How do you know at a restaurant what you're getting into?
We always have to ask. It's a pain in the ass. My wife or Jacob Hayes [assistant] always goes through all the restaurants in the city. Okay, look at the menu, and then call in. Hey, what's this prepared with? So that's the traveling stuff. We’ve been dealing with traveling antics for the past three years.
My jaw is dropped. You got people calling the restaurant before you leave to see what the ingredients are like on the menu!
That's what it takes. You have to know a lot of things, like is it prepared with dairy or a bunch of gluten and stuff like that. Those are the two big keys I stay away from. It's definitely not easy but I mean, it's all for the sport, you know?
Do you become a bit of a cook? Are you like a foodie?
No, I don't. Extremely blessed. My wife does everything and she's amazing at it. It just gets really tough when you go to somewhere different, and more so in outdoors. Because we're in the middle of nowhere. Supercross is a little easier, because we're in the cities. I wouldn't say I'm a foodie but because my diet's so restrictive, if I have a meal that's like, I’m just not that stoked on it, hey whatever, I'm just eating purely for fuel. For energy’s sake. Maybe sometimes I’m a little bummed because it could have been better, but it's all part of it, man. It's all part of the sacrifices you have to make.
Do you think like 10,15 years from now you will stick to a lot of this, just for your overall quality of life in general?
I think so. I mean, it probably sounds a bit weird coming from a 24-year-old but, you know, when I'm 50 or, you know, above 40 like, you know, everyone we know above that age, they all look after themselves because it really catches up with you then. So, live a healthy lifestyle and you should be good.
Well, that's people you know! People I know just eat whatever.
[Laughs] Yeah true. Like I said, if you don't have any issues with any of this stuff, then what are you gonna do with all the information? If it doesn't affect you, just throw it out. Like I said, my brother doesn’t have to worry as much about this stuff.
What about the donuts? The donuts are not on your plate. What about your brother?
Like, he is healthier now and stuff for sure. You can't do what he does and not be healthy and responsible.
But donuts were real at one time though?
Yeah, they were a little bit. Not as crazy as everyone thinks. These guys are the best in the world. So, you know, so he’s doing something right. The only time donuts would come out were like after we went and trained, just as a reward here and there. He's the best for a reason.
