Hunter Lawrence was putting in a spectacular rookie 450 season in the AMA Pro Motocross Championship when he went down while leading RedBud. He still got up and finished second in the moto, but admitted at Washougal that he has not felt the same since the RedBud crash. Washougal ended up being his worst race of the year, and the only one where he finished off the podium, in fourth.
While some riders wanted to keep the momentum going and didn’t feel they needed the break, others like Lawrence took advantage of the two weekends off in the schedule before Unadilla. He was able to rest and heal his body, as well as change motorcycles! After riding the 2025 CRF 450R, Hunter felt so comfortable on it he pushed to be able to race it the rest of the year, as he said in the post-race press conference:
“Yeah, it was good. Obviously, handling is a lot better. It's amazing to have a bike that you can work with, and it helps you out in places on the track. So, 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 as well, you know, so huge props to the team and everyone that did what they needed to do to be able to allow us to race the new ‘25 this weekend.”
He spoke further about his decision to ride the new bike: “I mean, I definitely was outspoken about how good I thought the bike was. So, obviously, you know, a little bit of pressure of, 'Hey, you better go do good.’ Not that you're saying how good this bike is, and you go out and suck. So, you look like egg on your forehead, you know, and it was good. I mean, the bike straight out of the box is something we're all really proud of. You know, everyone has been included into it and it's something we're extremely proud of. I think it's one of the best 450s out of the box, which maybe we couldn't say that prior years. So, yeah, I'm just proud, you know, I have something I can tell my mates back home, ‘Hey, this is the bike you need’ you know.”
It seems the decision for him was an easy one to make.
“We always look at it like it's just investing in our future," said Lawrence. "You know, we're gonna have to get on the bike at the end of the season. We're in a position where we don't really have anything to lose as such by going from the old bike to the new bike, we feel like the new bikes are better and more capable platforms. So, sometimes those decisions are the easiest to make.”
The decision paid off for him as he got his second moto win of the year during the first moto at Unadilla and stopped Chase Sexton’s moto win streak. Not only did he look back to his pre-RedBud-crash ways, but he also said he is feeling better.
“Back to feeling myself, you know, be able to be strong for both motos all the way," he said. "So that was a good win today back to feeling, I'd say, normal and just looking forward to next weekend.”
Now that he is comfortable on his new bike, and feeling strong for both motos again, will he be able to pull off an overall win before the end of the season? He won Budds Creek last year on a 250, so we know he rides good there. We will see if he can keep this momentum going.
