250SX East/West Showdown winner on that victory and coming of age.
Hunter Lawrence has delivered a 2022 Monster Energy Supercross season to remember, the Team Honda HRC rider landing on the podium in seven of the eight 250SX West races to date and winning three of those, including the weekend’s Showdown in Atlanta. MotoOnline gets his Fast Thoughts on a variety of topics in this latest feature.
Image: Octopi Media.
Beating Christian Craig or Jett Lawrence…
I said Jett, for sure. I mean, there’s not really much for me to say, I mean you kind of put me on the spot there, I don’t know if you want me to say suck it to the pair of them or what you want out of me [laughs].
To win the East/West Showdown…
Really good. I mean anytime you win is cool, so East/West is really good. I mean everyone is hearing about the East/West deal, who’s going to win, this and that… I feel like it is the same for any opening round or any race after some controversy or whatever. It’s not really anything new, where you have to change your approach and stuff, we just come here to race and yeah that is just what I did. Got a good start and went from there.
The East/West events bridging the gap from the 250 class to the 450 class…
Obviously, the 450 is the premier class. That’s why there’s two coasts, because they obviously want to leave something to the premier class, the premier championship. So, I think it’s good, having two shootouts is cool. If it will ever merge into just being a full 250 Supercross championship, I’m not sure, just due to the fact there’s kids, there’s families going to these races that can’t afford to do the full season of a 450 class where there’s a little more money and funding in the 450 class, I believe. So, I’m not sure. I’m not educated enough to really say.
Image: Octopi Media.
That crash in Anaheim hurting your title aspirations after recent strong form…
I think I can speak for everyone, there are so many things we’ve changed in the past to better us now, its part of it. It was in a kind of do or die position, and Christian was obviously really strong in the whoops and I was doing everything I could to stay with him and try to pressure him and keep that being right there. I think Vince was in third, and he was quite a ways back so the easy thing was obviously to settle for second, but you know I was fighting for a win, and yeah it sucked how it turned out, but it is what it is. Christian’s put the pieces in the puzzle really well this year, he’s a strong guy and his starts have been awesome, and at the moment he has got the red plate for a reason. I’m just trying to learn stuff like that and be the best version of myself.
Your progression as a racer in Supercross over the last two years…
In 2020, it’s not even the same person that I am now, my body was so jacked up. 2021 was already way better, my body has been getting better and better health-wise. In the GPs, I was still so young, but I was still pretty good, then come to America, the whole Supercross thing was pretty new, I was super-young and just green to it all. I mean we have just been working hard dude, its no different to our whole career, its not a matter of if we can, its just a matter of when we can, because our work ethic is just second to none and the team we have around us now is unbelievable. We love every one of our guys that we work with, and its cool, just putting those pieces in the puzzle and I dunno, we are enjoying it, having fun and just believing in yourself, even more now. When you struggle with your health stuff, you are not fit, you are not strong, every time you hit the ground, even if it was a small crash, you break, you were fragile, so it’s… you just start to doubt everything, and now all of that is out the window. Its good, we are running now, where we were crawling at the start of Supercross you could say.
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