Hunter Lawrence: "We’re still in it and can’t wait to bounce back next weekend.”

With one run through the whoops, Hunter Lawrence's run as the Mr. Consistency of the 450 class, his two-race win streak, and his points lead all washed away. Lawrence's big crash while running third and pressuring Chase Sexton for second led to dirt smashing into his front brake lever, locking the wheel until he could get to the mechanic's are for repairs. Even after that, the brake was still dragging somewhat, leading to another crash.

Lawrence was 18th after the first incident, then 20th after his final crash, and fought back to 18th again by the end of the race. He's uninjured and undeterred according to today's Honda press release. 

“My day was a bit of a bittersweet one," said Lawrence. "The qualifying race went really well, and I was happy with everything—the bike, the team, myself, everything felt great. I was feeling really good in the main event and was honestly feeling so comfortable. I was really happy with where I was, and I made a push to the front and was catching Kenny and Chase. I just got caught by surprise with the crash at the end of the whoops. I was okay, but the bike took some unfortunate damage. It’s just racing, sometimes that happens, and I had to pull into the mechanics’ area. I crashed two more times just due to the front brake locking on, so that was difficult to bring home but I think we managed two points. It was a difficult situation, but we’re still in it and can’t wait to bounce back next weekend.”

Team Manager Lars Lindstrom added his thoughts, focusing on the inevitability of having to deal with something bad at some point.

“We’ve had a great 450 season so far, with not a lot of difficulties, which is represented by our run of finishes inside the top four at every event so far this year up until now," said Lindstrom. "It wouldn’t be very normal to have a season without some adversity, so although we gave up a lot of points tonight, we’re still in a great position for the championship. The way that Hunter has been riding gives me a lot of confidence that we’re still in the driver’s seat. Most important, he wasn’t injured and is more motivated than ever to win more races."

Lindstrom also summed up the night for 250 rider Jo Shimoda, who took a distant third.

"Jo wasn’t himself tonight, which I think was a combination of the track, and him not feeling 100% physically," said Lindstrom. "Hopefully he can get a good week of training in and come out swinging in St. Louis. Both Hunter and Jo won there in September for the SMX race, so we have good vibes going into this coming weekend.”