A week ago, Hunter Lawrence had a shot at winning Hangtown, with his brother Jett ailing and Chase Sexton laying on the ground on the first lap. Sexton then launched a charge for the ages, and Hunter didn’t make excuses. He couldn't stop it.
"Ultimately I think not being faster than Chase, to be completely honest, that's where it got away from me," said Lawrence.
Deep inside, both Lawrence brothers were struggling a bit with their bikes. Jett was visibly unhappy when he crossed the line winning the first moto of the season at Fox Raceway. Jett tested a bit before Hangtown, but the feeling still wasn’t there.
Honda chased a problem back to some new parts in their 2024 race setup. The new components, including something Jett dubbed as “The Magic Bolt” in a few press day interviews, allegedly made the bike better for Monster Energy Supercross, and the team was pretty sure it would also be an improvement for motocross. Testing time was scheduled for April, but then Jett got slammed by Justin Barcia in St. Louis and wasn’t able to ride. Hunter could, but he was new to the 450 and didn’t have a 2023 feeling to reference.
After the first two rounds, Honda HRC knew there was work to do. So much so that Jett, still beat up from Hangtown, had to get on the bike for two testing days before Thunder Valley. The team tried to make the 2024 components feel like the 2023 stuff, but ultimately decided that would take too long to do, or wouldn’t even be possible at all. The easy road would be just bolting 2023 stuff back on, but the team had already put in its parts orders during the off-season, and chose the new 2024 stuff. What to do? Team Manager Lars Lindstrom says the decision was made to find every last 2023 part they had left, and basically find every way possible to make those components last through the Pro Motocross Championship.
The decision worked at Thunder Valley. Jett bounced back with a win powered by grit and adrenaline. Hunter was also much better.
“Is it not clear to see?” said Hunter of the improvements. “The bike, what it was able to handle today, it got rough, and was also more slippery, and the bike handled it all so well.”
“Today was a huge step,” Hunter said in the post-race press conference. “I was really comfortable today, for how much lean angle and crappy bumps you had to go through, the bike handled well. All of the things we really struggled with at the first two rounds, we were pretty spot on this weekend. It always feels good to hit the mark.”
Due to a rash of injuries early in his American foray, Hunter probably garnered a rep for crashing, but the reality is, he never hit the ground that hard or that often, he just broke himself even during the low-grade falls. He traced a lot of that back to his diet, and steady, persistent discipline through the years has rebuilt his strength. Hunter is actually a thinking-man’s racer, not a sender. He never planned to come out and win on a 450 immediately like his brother did, as he tends to build confidence and strength over slow, steady, compounding work. Hangtown was an example. He could have tried pushing a little harder to try will himself to a win, but could have very easily have gone over the edge, crashed, and ended his season. He’d rather take a podium and continue to learn.
“Through supercross, right around Phoenix and Dallas, we started to get a lot better, than I had a crash at Daytona and that kind of delayed the progression,” Hunter explained. “You’re building through the supercross season, but that’s tough because you’re racing every weekend, so there’s not that much time during the week. Like I said, we made huge changes to the bike and that was a big change, we were really fighting the bike at the first two races. These things are a beast to hold on to, and no one can hold on to that thing when it’s fighting and bucking for 30 minutes, no matter how strong you are.”
At Thunder Valley he had his shot at the overall, winning moto one. Sexton was out for vengeance in moto two, sending it, and actually making contact with Hunter with an aggressive early pass.
“I didn’t think it was that bad in my helmet, but I did see the replay and I was like “Ah, yeah a little bit [aggressive],” said Hunter. “But that double, it kind of went to that [outside] berm. They put a lot of water on the track, so I gave myself maybe five laps to not do something dumb and throw it away. I was like, 'Yeah, he’s on one!' He had a good pace. I didn’t see what happened. I came over and there was a KTM upside down.”
Hunter then set after race leader Justin Cooper, until Jett snuck by him. They both passed Justin Cooper and then battled down the stretch in moto two. Hunter couldn’t quite get there.
“You just stay as close as you can and hope you can spot a minor, minor mistake and then throw it in or something like that,” Hunter said. “It’s tough. I was just trying to get as close as I can and apply that pressure.”
“The one corner I was great in all moto was the second turn, the flat turn, and for some reason I decided, on the last lap, I’m going to go outside this time. Because I’d seen him go to the middle. So that was a sick line choice,” said Hunter with sarcasm.
You can watch Hunter shake his head after that corner on the final lap. He knew he had picked a bad line and perhaps lost his best shot to make a pass.
There’s still cause for celebration, as Hunter will carry the red plates on his number 96 next weekend at High Point. But wins are hard to come by, especially when you’re battling Jett.
“I would have preferred to get the overall instead of the points lead,” he says. With 16 motos still to go, the points lead doesn’t mean all that much, as far as being in control of the championship. What it really marks is more progress and another mile post for Hunter, who is building 2024 into a rock solid rookie 450 campaign, points lead, race wins, title or not. As long as he keeps getting better, he'll be happy.
