Consistency has been his strength for some time now, and on a scorching hot, drama-filled day at Ironman Raceway, a composed 2-2 scorecard saw Australian Hunter Lawrence break through for his first 450MX overall win. The Team Honda HRC Progressive rider spoke to the media and reflected on the milestone in this Conversation feature.

Image: Octopi Media.

Hunter, congratulations on your first overall 450 win. You’ve always told us that it’s process first, results later, and that if that’s in place, the rest will take care of itself. Now, here you are with your first 450 overall. Do you feel like that’s finally proven itself true?

Yeah, for sure. There was a lot of wild stuff that went on today as well, which helped. Obviously, what happened to Jett [Lawrence] in the first moto with being DQ’d one lap or penalized one lap, and then I wasn’t quite sure what happened to Chase [Sexton] in the second moto, but I’m guessing he didn’t finish. So, yeah, it was a wild day in that aspect, but happy to just be there and be able to capitalize on it. It was a tough day. It was hot, there was no breeze. It was a really tough, physically demanding day.

Mathematically, it seemed like you just had to ride it in to get the overall, but we saw the podium – you were definitely pretty hammered at the end of this one. So take us through how deep you actually had to dig to get it done, even if the math seemed like it was going to be simple.

Yeah, even just circulating was tough enough in itself. And yeah, like Eli [Tomac] was like the dangling carrot in front of me and just naturally I wanted to try and get as close as I could. I mean, we were both feeling it, like we were making sloppy mistakes that we don’t normally make just due to the fatigue. He had the little mistake where he stalled it and I was just close enough to be there. Then it’s just like four laps to go, like feels like 25 minutes at that stage of the moto. So yeah, it was I didn’t want to just settle. I wanted to, you know, at least push forward again after my mistake up here and where I went down before the finish line, so just tried to push through and never give up to at least feel like, you know, I still did work for the win rather than just having it kind of fall in my lap.

You crashed, you went off track, then Chase was ahead of you for about 30 feet. Did you even see what happened to him?

Yeah, it’s like he was in front of me and I seen it like as I got up, I was like, ‘Nice work.’ Like, ‘Come on, get going again, get your rhythm.’ Like when you crash or even a mistake where you stop, the heat gets to you so fast. Then to get back into your rhythm on a track, that’s really tough to get rhythm on in the beginning. So that was my first priority. And then that happened, and I was like dodging Chase on the ground. Yeah, hopefully he’s okay. I didn’t know what the extent of that was, but yeah, it was, yeah, wow.

Alright, Hunter. So I’m sure you’ve expected this win to come. It was just a matter of time. Was it any type of relief off your shoulders or have you been? So we all know you’ve been expecting this win. Did it feel like a weight off your shoulders?

No, I don’t think anyone really expects it. It’s what you work towards, so it’s like it’s what you want, but nothing’s guaranteed in this world, so it’s more something you’re working and striving towards. This class is so extremely tough. There’s days where I feel like I’ve ridden better and been stronger throughout both motos than I was today and ended up third or second. So it’s a really unpredictable sport, but that’s what’s so cool about it. But yeah, when I come off the track, I didn’t really care. I was so done and finished and hot and the priority is just cooling down. Honestly, you push beyond your limits that it’s like the pain we experience.This is pretty next level. ​​

Image: Octopi Media.

Winning your first overall with a 2-2, does it kind of validate your strong and consistent riding style? And now that the gates opened, what’s the expectation for victories after this?

Yeah, I think I’m a pretty consistent rider. I think I have 19 or 20 top five finishes since moving up into the 450 class. So that’s pretty cool. But yeah, we’d like to be a little better at being consistent, a position or two better, so.

Earlier you mentioned that nothing’s predictable in this sport. Think back a couple years ago. You almost called it a career through everything you’ve gone through. We know you’re not too high, not too low. You know, what’s it like? How proud you are yourself for not giving up all those years ago? Is it like, ‘Damn it feels good?’

Yeah, it is. I’m super grateful to race with the legends of the sport, like Eli. Back in 2015, like I was in school watching him race and stuff. And even with guys that I’ve been teammates with and just you kind of graduate through the sport, you get to race so many cool legends, you get to do so many iconic things that when you’re doing them, you don’t realize it. But when you were a kid, you looked at that and thought the world of it, right? So we get caught up pretty easily and overlook those things. But no, it’s cool, I’m aware of what we’re doing. But I don’t know, you never like to look at it until it’s all said and done. Because I feel like if you step back and look at it, it kind of feels like you’ve done a little bit, you know, you just always keep looking forward to just strive and prosper.

I’m sure you knew about the penalty for Jett since you’re on the same team. And I know you said you’re just worried about yourself, but look, that does change the overall complexion a little bit. I know you had to still have a battle Chase. Did that run through your mind at all on the gate of moto two?

Not really, honestly. I thought it was pretty comical. Like, he hit the gate and then went into the first turn last and that resulted in a penalty of one lap, but, you know, they explained the rule and what they saw and why they called that and stuff. So, yeah, it was interesting. Obviously, it benefited me, but at the time it happened, I mean, I thought that was BS, but it did end up benefiting me. But, yeah, that’s racing and it is what it is. Kind of when I’m down there on the line, I’m not really worried about anyone else. I know what I have to do and what I have to work on and where I need to be better. So that’s just, I’m just kind of with me, myself down there.

They brought Team Australia up as part of opening ceremonies as the champs and you got to hang with the trophy a little bit. Talk about the same advantage you guys are going to have, you’re going to be basically in the country that you now live in, [racing on] a track you know. Talk about the differences between last year and this year.

Yeah, when they announced us up there, it was pretty quiet. There wasn’t too much of applause and we’re like, ‘Hey, we’re kind of American, take it easy.’ But no, it’s funny, it’s cool. Obviously, one thing we find so bad-ass about this country is the patriotism, and we respect it and it’s going to be cool to see. Obviously, anywhere you go, whether it’s the French team in France or England, in England, America team on home soil, it’s special. You feel that home crowd, home game energy. So yeah, it’s cool. But I don’t know, we’ll see. It could be a completely different track. It’s a mostly MXGP rider field, so I’ll be interested to see if the track develops a little different. I know Redbud developed differently both times from what it is traditionally like in the nationals. So weather will have a lot to do with that. But yeah, we’ll see – it should be a good event.