The fans of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship were in for a treat at Thunder Valley, watching a four-way battle for the lead the first 450 moto. Hunter Lawrence pulled the holeshot then quickly lost the lead to his brother Jett Lawrence and Aaron Plessinger. Under pressure from Eli Tomac the whole race, Hunter at one point got around AP and made a run for the lead, only for AP to pass him back. Still with only a couple of minutes left on the clock all four riders were under four seconds of each other. Tomac tried every line possible to get around Hunter who was able to hold him off until the last lap when Hunter fell over in a turn. Hunter would finish fourth in the second moto and his 4-4 finishes landed him fifth overall. Steve Matthes caught up with Hunter after the race to get his thoughts on battling Tomac.
Matthes: All right, Hunter Lawrence. Not that you really care that much, but your tip over on the last lap cost you fourth overall. Four, four for fifth. That kind of sucks. But I want to just say, for me, that first moto was awesome. I don't know if it was cool to be in it as a racer, but holy shit, that was awesome.
Hunter Lawrence: Yeah, it was cool. I mean, I can still appreciate it from a fan’s standpoint, like it was, you know, Jett, myself, AP and Eli. I mean, we were gone. So that that's always pretty badass when you just can leave the field. It was cool. I can only kind of imagine what it would have been like from a fan’s standpoint. Seeing four badass dudes like that go at it for 35 minutes.
You're usually really good here. You still were good today. But the rain, we got a little different track than we have other years. Was that an issue for you, or was it fine and just one of those days?
No, I don't think the rain, or the track had anything to do with it. I think the fact, kind of being realistic, the fact that we've really just made the bike a lot better these past two weeks, and it's in a good spot now. We've not really ridden it that much. Obviously, Jett's unreal and he can compensate and adapt to things really, really well. I need more time. I need more laps. I need more muscle memory and stuff. So, I think if you put it down to numbers and stuff, it's like, well, I haven't done too many motos on that setting in that bike. So, there's parts of the track where I don't know what it does, even though it is looking after me better. There's just things I need to do. Some motos, get more laps under my belt which we will do this week and hopefully come out at High Point and show that.
Pala and Hangtown are so different from here, different than High Point. So, if you're not happy with your bike at Pala and go back to Florida, you're chasing Pala, you're chasing Hangtown, it's like, “Oh wait, now we're going to Lakewood and High Point.” Is it find stuff that works for such different soil?
Yeah, that's one thing. We try to be as realistic as possible when we're testing, like, “Hey, not set the bike up for Pala on a Tuesday,” for example. Like we're taking data, we have data sheets that we fill out at the end of every race day, and we focus on what we're trying to improve. What we feel like could have been better on race day, and we work on those specific areas. Obviously trying to be as realistic as possible. It's not very realistic, but I'm happy we've made a lot of good progress. And it's been a while coming. So, it finally feels good to, you know, everyone's been working so damn hard, us included. And glad to get things back on track and just build from here on out.
So four-four for fifth. But this is a positive day.
Yeah, I mean I don't think it's a positive day but the team's happy, dad's happy. Everyone around me is like, “Hey all good. Bigger picture. Like you did really good. We're a lot more in the chat, in the conversation.” So, I kind of have to rely on them to pick myself up because, no, I'm not happy with how it was just on my own performance. You know.
So many guys have told me about having Eli behind them. You had him first moto the whole time. He's going outside, he's carrying speed. He's trying to find a way. You're a little more precise, technical, on and off throttle. Really different to watch you two guys. And I'm guessing if I'm thinking about you, all you hear is just bike wide open.
Yeah, I like it, actually. It actually makes me smile. And I like it having him behind me. It is funny, man. It's cool. It is cool like that thing is just W.F.O.
And, you know, he's going wide, right? You know he's going outside.
Yeah. I kind of laughed because I'm like, obviously riding and we're about the same speed. Okay, second moto, he had a little more pace. But we're talking first moto, and I know where my throttle is and my ground speed and the rut and the traction I have, and I hear the guy behind me and I'm like, “Okay, so I think there's like a four-foot berm that he must be like horizontal on.” So no, it's funny man. It's cool. It's funny.
When I watch you guys, I was just like, “Look at the difference in riding, the way these guys ride.” I mean not one's better than the other, but it's just hilarious.
You couldn't get more polar opposite.
