For the third year in a row, Honda HRC Progressive’s Hunter Lawrence has traveled to France during the off-season to race the Paris Supercross. Hunter’s night started off strong, taking the Superpole and then finishing second in the second race behind Malcolm Stewart. In the third and final race of the night (day one) Hunter was again running second when he had a big get off in the whoops. As the medics tended to him it seemed unlikely that Hunter would line back up for night two. But as a testament to his toughness and commitment, Hunter was back out there the next day, finishing fourth overall. Steve Matthes was able to talk to him after the race to check on his health status and get his take on the weekend.
Racer X: Hunter Lawrence, listen, I was surprised you raced today because that was a big one on Saturday. So, good job racing today. You could tell that you were just circulating and getting it done.
Hunter Lawrence: Yeah, I'm happy I could ride today as well. I wasn't sure how I'd be. Thankful to keep Eric [Peronnard] happy. Rule number one at these races, keep the promoters happy. Yeah, we were just, I mean, you've seen it, compared to yesterday,
Was it like just overall like soreness or just did your head or?
Yeah, I mean, dude, kudos to the Alpinestars SM10 helmet. Like I had a gaping hole through the helmet, and I have no scuffs on my head. Obviously little sore head, but not, I mean, it's scary, like I should have a hole in my head, so thankfully for that, and then just my right arm, like, all the backside of it's just like a water balloon right now, so just tough to ride with that. But I mean, I could do enough, you know, get out there and still get some good practice laps in, and no, it was good. I take the riding from yesterday, Superpole, even the motos, how I was riding up until the crash. Crash was just one of those things. The whoops were abnormally large this year and I, just getting into it, had a bit of a shitty run out of the corner, the rut kind of caved in, and then trying to drive through the first three, and I think on like the fourth one, my front wheel just missed the tip of it. And as I've gone to extend, like, commit to put it on the next one, as you do, the rear wheel spun as I've pretty much pushed all my chips in on that one to get traction. I get bouncer front like I need to get to that front because they're so deep, right? So, yeah, it was pretty scary that one.
And then I felt like today, like your first main event, I was like, “Oh, he's pretty froggy,” but then...
I was trying to just keep the arm moving and just trying to stay moving the whole day, but it's such a long evening and it just deteriorated as the night went on.
So, I think you made me laugh the most this weekend with the Superpole. They interviewed you and you're like, “See, the problem was he [Jett] crashed.” That that was a great analysis by you.
I'm like, “See, if you asked my expertise, where I think he went wrong was when he hit the ground.”
I like the English and the French thing, right?
Yeah, yeah, the sense of humor takes a second.
You didn't have your full factory bike either, so I almost wonder if you're a little bit like “Ahh” going in. “I can't quite be on my game. I don't have my factory motor,” but you still, you know, you make some money and you learn some things.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's good. Like we're riding a stock bike with our suspension in it. Obviously, our grips and handlebars, but I mean, it's a pretty good testament to the Honda bike that we're able to, I mean, you see Jett get some wins and you know, put it up there last night, running up there with Malcolm, who's riding unbelievable. So yeah, I think it's good, it just makes it a lot better for the team as well, not having to send a full bike. It's a lot of money to send a full bike as well, it's like $20,000. So, these off-season races are something that the manufacturers are generous enough to let us do. So, if we can help make it a little bit easier on them to support us in these ones, you know, we try to do what we can.
What about Malcolm, man, really surprised at the weekend. I talked to him before the race, he was underselling himself because he hasn't been riding much from SMX and dude, he was unbelievable.
Malcolm was on freaking fire this weekend, unbelievable, bro. He was riding so good, just in tune, just hitting his marks. No, dude, tip of the cap, he rode really well, really well.
