Hunter: “On Paper I Think USA Should Have Won”

What about Webster? I talked to him after the race. Obviously, you still dropped one of his scores, but he went 6-4 in 250 with two first-turn crashes. Kyle Webster. Great job.
Unreal. Love Kyle. He came over three weeks before the event and he just worked his butt off. Never complained. Just logged his laps, did everything he could, starts, just gave it 110% effort. Even if we didn’t win, there’s no like, “If only we had…” No. Kyle did everything that we could have asked him to do, and some, to be racing the event. His fiancée is about to go into labor any second now, and he still came over and still put in that big of an effort away from potentially missing the birth of his first child. He rode phenomenal both motos. Turn one on the ground. It’s like the worst freaking thing you could possibly have at a Motocross of Nations, racing against 450s on a 450-dominant track. Really, really happy and proud of him. Just stoked to do it again with him.

Third moto gate pick, obviously you had first choice. Jett went outside. What was the thinking behind that? What did you guys talk about? Did you guys flip a coin? Did you just say, “Listen, you’re my younger brother. You’re going out there?” How did that come together?
No. Obviously, my first moto start was good, as was Jett’s. Second moto going into it, Jett technically should have been fresher. He had the bigger break in-between. I did the back-to-back. So, with Byrner and the team, we were just like, let’s give it to H. Jett, theoretically you should be fresher than he is. He just got off the track. Still sweating getting dressed for the next moto. So, if one of you were to get a worse start, you should theoretically be better longer, a little refreshed to come through the pack. That is a harder ride.

That’s what he had to do.
We both got around the corner good. We were both right next to each other going over those two singles behind the start gate. Then that top section where it used to be Godzilla, there was four or five ruts that led to one on that corner. Him and Isak Gifting come together. In hindsight, we were watching the video, and we were like, “Jett, you checked up! You would have been good if you committed fully to it.” He kind of got to Isak and I think he realized, “Oh shit, this rut goes into this rut,” and kind of hesitated and they both ended up going down. But he obviously was truly good enough to come through the pack and did what we needed. Got back to third. Any time in Nations you can go within two or three positions inside a top five, it’s pretty much a nail in the coffin. I remember when France did that in Ernée in the second moto. Renaux and Vialle went 1-2.

I didn’t talk to Gifting. He’s a pretty aggressive guy in MXGP and he told somebody, he goes, “If someone is going to hit me like that, I thought it would be an MXGP guy who didn’t like me, but it was Jett Lawrence. I was so surprised when I saw it was Jett!"
Yeah. That corner, there were five or six ruts that led into the one rut coming down off the berm. I remember the last moto, I’m taking three different ruts and I’m like, “I keep ending up in the same crappy rut on the exit. I can’t get out of this rut.”

I want to know what your thoughts are track prep-wise for this weekend compared to the national and what you thought was better. They looked clearly different.
The track prep this weekend from the get-go, timed qualifying or the free practice session, whatever you want to call it, was significantly faster than the national qualifying session we were having. I liked it. I felt like we could move around more. I think the track did get rough, a different kind of rough. I think the GP-dominant rider entry list has a different type of rut and a different type of bump formed to the US national entry list riders, that are on a national day. I thought it was good. I really enjoyed it, to be honest with you. It was deep. It did get a little deep in some spots, but it wasn’t to the point where it was like a national where you can’t move around on the track. I think the nationals that have a similar track prep, everyone has the same comment. You can move around and stuff. The racing was good. There was good battles. You were able to get close to other riders and take a line and not lose a ton of time. So, I was a fan of it.

With the track prep being different from the national, did you guys do any bike changes and different directions and that? Obviously, the track looked a lot harder and slippery this weekend compared to the national a couple months ago. What did you guys end up doing there, anything?
Yeah, we did. We went a little stiffer on the fork. That actually helped because the past two years, I’m not a fan of Ironman. I don’t really like that track. I felt like I’ve struggled there a lot with bike setup, and this weekend actually the bike felt the best it has in a really long time, which was super cool. We just stiffened up the fork a little bit. For the last moto, we actually just went two clicks softer on the front and rear as the track was getting a lot harder. It was in some spots hard, but you know when they put that mulch into the track and it kind of gets to a base and it looks like it has grip but it’s super slippery? There was a lot of that on the track. But I was actually pretty stoked. We didn’t have to recreate the wheel.

Listen to Hunter's entire interview here starting about the 29 minute mark: 

In my post-race interviews, a lot of guys like Kenny and Seewer, and a few guys were not happy with the track. Then you fell twice, so I was kind of thinking that you were like, “I have no grip, or the track prep” or whatever, but you’re a fan of it.
No, I’m not a massive fan of that track as a racing track. I don't think it ever really, truly races well. I think there’s too many obstacles on every single straight that it’s kind of almost influenced by like a Mini O’s supercross track like Gatorback or something. I think it was better this weekend than it was on the national. There’s always the irony of, “You do good here; you must love this place.” Jett and me, we hate Pala. But Jett’s undefeated there!

Have you rubbed it in Jett’s face that you won over him this weekend?
No, I haven’t, actually. I could not care less. It was such a cool moment to do it again. We talked about it, USA should have won with their rider lineup. Jett and me can beat Eli and RJ, but Eli and RJ are still good enough to finish in-between us or right behind us or beat us. They’re still good enough to do that. Then Justin Cooper should be, and he is a better rider than Kyle Webster or should be able to perform better than Webster. Kyle doesn’t race anywhere near as much as the US circuit guys. He’s coming over at the end of his season. On paper I think USA should have won. But it’s just all the boys rode so freaking good and then obviously a little Lady Luck never hurts.

I love [Team Australia Manager] Michael Byrne. I’ve known him forever. The guy has always been nothing but super cool and had a great career. Came close so many times with Reedy and Macfarlane and those years of those guys. They had a lot of heartbreak, too. Last year, I was so happy for Byrner, and I’m really so happy again because he’s a great dude. People don’t even know all the things he does behind the scenes.
They don’t. Byrner is a legend. You’re right. People don’t know how much of a legend he is. He’s such a good freaking dude. Three hundred and sixty-five days of the year he shows up to the farm, or to wherever he is, on his cycle with us, and he’s the same, consistent, positive, hard-working dude. He’s not an emotional roller coaster. You’re not walking on eggshells around him. He’s just such a solid dude. He always gives us his 110 percent effort. He comes and cycles with us in Florida, does track prep on the farm, coaches guys. He’s just a good dude. The effort he puts into this MXoN event at the end of every year, he’s a legend.