In front of a record-breaking crowd in Glendale, Arizona, for round 5 of AMA Supercross, the premier-class main event delivered high drama in the championship fight. Hunter Lawrence powered to a strong second-place finish—his fourth runner-up result in a row—and, for the first time in his 450SX career, took possession of the red plate that goes to the championship leader.
The 450SX main event saw the Honda HRC Progressive rider launch from the gate in third, but he wasted no time charging forward, taking over the lead on the opening lap. Lawrence set the pace for several laps before being overtaken by Ken Roczen, at which point he settled into a consistent rhythm and maintained a comfortable gap over third place. A signature late-race surge wasn’t enough for the Australian to reach Roczen, and Lawrence crossed the checkered flag in second place.
With championship rival Eli Tomac involved in a first-lap incident and finishing 12th, Lawrence now leads the 450SX championship standings by five points over Roczen, marking an important milestone in his career and strengthening his position in the championship fight.
Hunter Lawrence 96
“Second again—we just focus on the positive. I just felt a little flat; usually, around the 10-minute mark, I feel like, ‘Alright, we’re on,’ but I couldn’t quite get into that tonight. I tried to make a push at the end with Kenny [Roczen] and closed a little bit on him, but a little too late. The first thing I focus on is the start, and I saw Eli [Tomac] down when I came back on the start straight; that was obviously in my favor, but I just focused ahead. Kenny had the sand line really good. The majority of the day, the outside was a better run into that double-triple; I hadn’t gone inside yet in the race, and I didn’t realize how good it actually was. Sure enough, after I got passed [by Roczen], I went inside for the rest of the race, so that’s on me. Before the beginning of the season, I had supercross circled on my calendar for this year. I’m happy to have the red plate—it’s cool in the 450 Supercross Championship. I want to keep it, but I just want the red plate at the last round, plain and simple. From 2020, the amount of work to be here, it’s kind of tough to put into words how much goes into getting to this point, but it is pretty damn cool.”
Lars Lindstrom – Team Manager
“It’s crazy to think that we’re almost one-third of the way through the series already, and to be this far in and take the red plate with Hunter is a fantastic feeling—and I think the best is yet to come! I really like Hunter’s mentality, and I think we share it on the team as far as not getting too caught up and worrying about when we will win a race, and also to just focus on doing the best possible result every Saturday night, rather than worry about protecting the red plate. As long as we all do our job, and Hunter can do his, we should be in good shape. We’re definitely excited to get on the road, on to other tracks that Hunter enjoys.”
Words and Images by HRC
