450SMX contender Hunter Lawrence made significant progress throughout this year’s SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) series, solidifying his place as a title threat after falling just shy of a maiden crown. This Five Questions feature gives an insight into Saturday’s finale in Las Vegas, as well as his 2025 season.

Image: Octopi Media.

Hunter, that was a strong finish to the season for you – a big effort. As you look back, how are you reflecting on such a strong result in the championship and ultimately how things finished?

Yeah, it was a good year. Obviously, I had surgery during Supercross, and then came back for Pro Motocross. I think it was not too bad of a year. It was going to be a pretty great year about halfway through that final moto – it was going to be a pretty awesome year, actually, but that’s motorsport. Yeah, as of right now, I just feel like eating a steak and then going home.

Throughout the year, it seems like your confidence was building, and I think there are a lot of positives to take away. Maybe you didn’t get the one million, but looking back, this was one of the first times that you beat your brother straight up, with him not getting a DNF or starting from the back. So I think there’s a lot to build on. Can you elaborate on that?

Yeah, for sure. I feel like my confidence is always there, let’s say, I back myself, and I know what I’m capable of. I can’t remember the last time I lined up at the gate, doubting myself. I know what I’m here to do, and I know what I need to do – just some nights or some days you can execute better than others, even though the effort level always feels the same. Some days just click a little better than others, you know, and it’s like, ‘Geez,’ you need a genie to help you point out what it might be. It’s so close, it’s really so close. Sometimes those little percentages do make a difference, as you’ve obviously seen. So yeah, it was a good year. I feel like I’ve made another step from where I was last year. Still, a similar result – but we just keep working.

Image: Octopi Media.

Congratulations on the night you’ve had. Your brother, Jett [Lawrence], won the title, but two laps to go, and it would have been you. How do you manage that disappointment of coming so close to the title? At what point are you like, ‘Man, this sucks?’

Tonight is that point, but it’s got nothing to do with it being my brother. It could have been anyone else, and I still would have had the same reaction because, yeah, Eli [Tomac] was on my butt all moto and then obviously Jett was inching closer. I think the yellow flags for Chase [Sexton] – hopefully he’s okay – but I think that maybe helped, you know, throw a dog a bone, maybe. And then, yeah, once I saw that he got by Eli, I was just like, ‘Let’s pull it into the pits.’

The intensity that we saw during these Playoffs, does it have to do with the triple-point format? Or is it that you’ve got three riders who are at the top of their game, and everybody just found the right form in the last three races?

I don’t know. We need, like, some way to measure it, because I mean, I feel like I’m pushing just as hard as any other time. Maybe it is more intense? Yeah, sure, we’re going faster. We’ll just go with that.

Can you take us through that first moto between you and Jett after the finish line, that really tight section, you guys were battling maybe a little bit harder than you normally do. That’s at least what it looked like. Was there any extra barbanging?

No, I mean, it’s just racing on a track didn’t offer a ton of passing spots on it, so any passes that were going to happen – except that one, you know, outside before the double – any other passing spots on the track were going to be close just due to the nature of the track with the drag strip being really one line.