Hunter Lawrence on Tampa | Vital MX Interview

Hunter Lawrence entered the 250SX East championship as the clear favorite and, with two races complete, he has only strengthened his position at the top of the table. Lawrence had what was arguably his best race ever in Tampa on Saturday, February 11, as he stole the lead in the final turn and won by one of the smallest margins in Monster Energy Supercross history. '96' reflected on that massive moment in this exclusive Vital MX interview from Raymond James Stadium in Florida. This interview was first published as a podcast and is presented by our friends at DeCal Works.

Vital MX: Where do we even begin with this? This was the best race of your career, right? It has to be the sweetest…

Hunter Lawrence: Yeah, that was epic. That is probably the most hyped up that I have been after a race! That was cool! I had the adrenaline going. It was probably my best supercross win, I think. The first win was more emotional and stuff. This one was epic. Atlanta last year was cool… The shootout, that was rad. The energy was high with this one.

Truthfully, at what point in the main did you think that you could win? I would imagine that you thought that it was a long shot with three laps to go.

Absolutely. When I could see the leader, I knew that my speed… I was the fastest all day. I knew that I could replicate good lap times for the full fifteen minutes and twenty laps or whatever. It was almost that! I have confidence in that. I have confidence and faith that I can be the fastest guy on the track in the last five minutes of the race. Even when I was behind Max [Anstie] in third, I think it was seven seconds to the lead. I just kept pushing and kept pushing. I got a clear track and could put some laps together. Maybe he makes a mistake or sees that I have pulled a big chunk? Mental games. It was a good one.

Did you actually get frustrated early on? You got stuck behind some riders for longer than you needed to be, like [Michael] Mosiman. Did you get frustrated?

No, not really. I was just like… I cannot even remember what position I was in, like fifth or sixth, but with where I was trying to get to in the moto, that was not going as fast as I would have liked. I was patient and trying to let something come to me. I was like, "Okay, it is not" and then he wanted to play some games. I forced the pass and then went. I knew that, once I got around, I was going to leave him. Sure enough, I did.

A lot of people want me to ask this: There were like two laps in a row where you went over the inside berm in the sand. I just thought you made a mistake, but people think that it was a tactic. 

If they think it was tactics to make Nate [Thrasher] go there on the last night, then that is just a great conspiracy theory. I was just trying to not crash! It was such a sharp sand turn. Supercross bike set-up and that deep, deep sand does not mix very well. I was just trying to stay up and not crash in the sand section. There were guys crashing there all day.

What was the mindset on the last lap or even coming into the last turn? It was right there, then it wasn't and then it was. 

Jeez. It was literally just like natural instincts. You are acting off of fight or flight and instinct. I do not know what the exact gap was, going into the last lap, but I was not on his tail, to say the least. I was like, "I have got to execute this lap. This better be my best one of the night." That was it.

Did you actually know that you won? It looked so close – I was not sure if you even knew when you hit the finish.

Yeah, I knew it would be close. I did not get the table, single and I heard his bike. I was like, "Okay, I have got to scrub and get it." I knew that the timing is normally at the bottom of the finish. That was where I felt safe, but as soon as I went off the jump… It will be a sucky [sic] finish photo. No cool whip or anything, but I looked up and saw red on top. I was like, "Yes!" I was so hyped up. That was sick.

On the opposite end of the scale, you said that you had to fix your qualifying when we spoke yesterday and you did that. That was great! What is the weakness now? 

The starts were good last week and qualifying was not great. We swapped out the good starts for the good qualifying this week, so it is starts this week. There you have it.