Hunter Lawrence finally turned into the hunted with his first ever AMA 450 overall victory and while it came due to his brother getting the crazy penalty for hitting the start gate (a lap penalty), it was still a day of celebration for the Aussie brothers.

Before the action began, the team that will defend the Chamberlain trophy for their 2024 Monster Energy Motocross of Nations victory, was presented to the crowd.

“Yeah,” Hunter Lawrence said. “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.”

Hunter was also surprised and a little disturbed by the penalty to his brother.

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.

Racing riders like Eli Tomac is a great addition to anyone’s CV and the older Lawrence enjoyed it a lot.

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.

Crazy times at Ironman

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 disqualified 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.