I hate to say it, but sometimes talent isn’t enough. As a fellow Aussie I sure hope Hunter Lawrence comes good, he has so much potential, but he just seems to make big mistakes or has a lot of bad luck, that cost him the momentum riders need to get to the next level.

His injury list is growing and since turning pro, he hasn’t had a single season without missing a bunch of rounds and finishing well down the FIM or AMA championship points race because of it. Potential isn’t enough in this sport, you also need results.

We remember seeing him battle the best at the Matterley Basin held Motocross of Nations and his MX2 overall victory in that 2017 event, beating AMA 250 champion Zach Osborne in the process. A year later he finished second overall in the MX2 class at the MXoN to Jorge Prado and beat AMA 250 champion Aaron Plessinger. 

We remember him winning moto’s in MXGP and AMA motocross rounds, and we remember what we expected from him in those championships, but his career is full of injury and major disappointment.

His latest shoulder injury sounds nasty and will take some time to repair once he has the operation, but I wonder even in full fitness if he is mentally good enough to recover from what he has had to deal with.

“Unfortunately my shoulder popped out in second qualification at Fox Raceway, which wasn’t ideal, but after the first shoulder injury back at Loretta Lynn’s we knew there was a chance it could be good and a chance it could happen again. We rolled the dice and gambled on building my shoulder stronger even more, which did help me get through the rest of the races, but it could not handle my 100 percent, which I felt like I was coming into full form these past two weekends. [I’m] going to take a few weeks after the small surgery to tidy it up and be ready for a great 2021. Thank you to everyone who has supported me and to [Geico Honda] for giving me the chance to come to the country of opportunity and chase my dreams – will never be forgotten.”

As early as this year’s AMA supercross the older of the Lawrence brothers was again out, and again missed more races. The GEICO Honda rider was expected to line up for the 250SX class in Minneapolis, but an injury compels him to stay out until at least the start of March in Atlanta in early March.

“Absolutely heartbroken to say the least guys,” Lawrence said earlier this year. “I won’t be lining up at round one this weekend. Some of you know a few months back I had a collarbone injury that I have now re-injured. And it isn’t in a condition where I am able to plate it. A misfortunate crash and part of the sport. Will do everything I can like always to get back to 100%. I want to thank my amazing Honda team and supporting sponsors for all their great support. And a massive shoutout to all of the Aussie fans that were behind me and following along. Super bummed, but with the Aussie grit and determination I’ll be back soon.”

In his rookie season in America in 2019, he again missed a lot of races due to injuries. Unfortunately, he didn’t make it to Supercross when he broke his collarbone before the season started. This kept him waiting to make his American debut in the opening round of the AMA Nationals. The Australian rode well in outdoors, he had two race wins and was sitting fourth overall in the 250 championship point standings after round eight.

Practising for the next round Lawrence had a bike malfunction on a jump that caused him to crash and break his collarbone again. Lawrence only missed two rounds before he was back on the bike racing at the Budds Creek round. He qualified fourth and finished twelfth overall with 10-13 moto scores, then it happened again as it was announced that he would be out for the Ironman National and off the bike for a while as he suffered another injury while training during the week.

“When it rains it pours,” Lawrence said. “it has been a very rough past month, two days ago whilst training long story short, my foot hit the ground and twisted the wrong way and as of now looks to be a torn ACL, meniscus and mild sprain to the MCL, to say I’m gutted is an understatement, bit of a rock bottom moment for the year. I don’t doubt I will be back. Nothing but another little bump in our road to success, Plan now is simple, rehabilitation and get back to 100%. Thank you to all of my supporters, sponsors and team, appreciate you guys so much. Not how we wanted to end the year, but hey... it happens. I will be back.  P.S really wanted to meet @remithemonkey this weekend”

I remember speaking to Hunter just prior to the opening GP of the 2018 season in Argentina. He was considered by many as the favourite to win the World MX2 championship that year, even ahead of Jorge Prado. He had told me on the Friday that he was sunburnt from being out on the kayak on the Thursday and he also changed his diet the week or two prior to the opening round and felt weak. I remember at the time thinking, WHY!! He finished with 2-6 results, but his season was all over the place.

A few rounds later, Lawrence sustained a broken middle metacarpal in his right-hand during Saturday’s timed practice session at the MXGP of Trentino and again his momentum was blown out the door. He travelled to Portugal, wanted to ride, but just couldn't handle the pain.

“Hard to swallow this weekend’s results of not being able to race due to a crash in time practice. I got an X-ray done and thought it was just muscle damage as everything looked ok we tried to ride the qualifying race but after 5 laps of not being able to hold on and just circulating we pulled in to try and save myself for Sunday’s races but went and got it checked out more and found out I have a broken metacarpal in my right hand . So now focus on recovery to get back to what I love doing as soon as I can.”

After missing Ottobiano in 2017, Lawrence hoped he would be making a return to action in Portugal. However, after he got checked out at the doctors, his scan results have shown that along with two compressed vertebrae, he had a small fracture on the side.

“It’s a massive shame,” Lawrence said at the time. “But with this type of injury, I’m just glad that I can ride in the future. I will attend Portugal and cheer on the rest of my Suzuki World team-mates and hope to be back out on the track as soon as I can.”

His ninth place in the World MX2 championships in 2017 and 2018 was disappointing, because everyone felt he was something special. His injury riddled career will make it difficult for him to remain in a major team and once that happens, that golden career many expected will be lost.

Just like in Europe, Hunter Lawrence has taken his bad luck, or bad judgement to America and as we know, time runs out fast in both Europe and America, and if you finally don’t click and start to win races on a regular basis, then it is over racing with the elite racers. Let’s hope Lawrence can stay fit in 2021 and build on something as special as we all expected.