Welcome to the Hunter Lawrence column. If you told me as a kid that I’d be a columnist for ADB, I never would have believed you.
THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN ADB ISSUE #474 – MARCH 2019
For those of you who haven’t followed my journey over the past few years I’ll bring you up to speed.
Four years ago my family and I sold everything, packed up and left Australia to chase our dream of racing professionally in Europe, with the end goal of racing in America. I ended up racing one year in the EMX250 class before spending two years in the MX2 class of the World Motocross Championship. However, just recently, I made the move to America to race in the land of opportunity. I want to use this monthly column to shed some light on what it’s like behind the scenes and what I get up to day-to-day.
Lately, it’s been full-on, training for the East Coast FIM Supercross Championship. I wake up at 6.30am, stretch and warmup before breakfast at 7. I then throw my gear into my Honda Ridgeline ute (usually in a hurry as I’m often late) and pull into Starbucks at 7.45am.
I’ve never been a coffee drinker but this training is intense so I need it. I finally arrive at the track at 8.30am. After testing and practice I head back to the workshop for lunch before hitting the gym. I’m knackered when I get home so I usually just stretch and chill.
My supercross prep was going great until a minor setback a few weeks ago. I crashed while practising a step-on, step-off section. As I lifted off I bumped the gearlever with my boot, clicked a false neutral and went over the handlebar with the bike landing on me. I smashed my collarbone near the SC (sternum clavicle) joint and that put a pause in the schedule.
I didn’t think it was broken, I thought it was muscles, ligaments or tendons, so I rested for two weeks and then tried riding but it wasn’t quite right. At three weeks we went to see a doctor to get scans because I had been training in the gym and lifting weights with it and it was fine but some movements hurt.
Turns out I had shattered my collarbone at the SC joint, but, being three weeks into it, it already had some calcification around the bone and it had started mending so I rested two more weeks and now I’m good to go. I attended my first ever round of AMA Supercross at Anaheim 1. It was awesome to watch practise and qualifying all day and then the night show.
Watching and learning helps me as I’m new to supercross. As a spectator the first rule I learnt was to get the best seat for the C-group practise and qualifying. They have no fear! They just send it and hope for the best.
Now the series is on the west coast (where I live), the practise tracks are full with guys like Ken Roczen, R.J. Hampshire and Cameron McAdoo. Sharing the test track with the 450 factory Honda HRC team is cool because I get to ride with Kenny and Cole Seely. I remember as a kid watching my idol Ryan Villopoto, and now, because we share the same agent, I get to talk smack with him all the time.
Where I live in California has lots of mountains so I get to do a lot of mountain biking. The team has a great relationship with Intense Cycles which supplies us with bikes. Back in Oz it was the only other thing I was good at! The week before A1 I was out mountain biking and after finishing the trail there was a little right left and then down a small drop, I washed the front and slid down the small hill on my left side. When I went to the workshop I had to try to avoid Dan Betley (GEICO team manager) because I was afraid to tell him what had happened. Luckily it wasn’t that bad but the question of the day at A1 was: “Hey what happened to your face?” sometimes we all run out of talent at some point!
At the moment we are searching for tracks to ride. It never rains in California but this week has been nothing but rain and the tracks don’t handle it well. But I’m incredibly grateful for the position I am in and the great people around me. HUNTER LAWRENCE
Photo: Simon Cudby/Honda