Hunter Lawrence was very open in the press conference about the reason he had to get aggressive with Michael Mosiman as the Aussie stormed through the field to a thrilling last corner win.
Lawrence said: “All I can remember is I was behind Michael, and I was definitely faster. I felt like I was being pretty respectful and pretty nice and giving him his room, and then he’d done something similar earlier in practice today where I was kind of like, “What are you doing?” Then I was like, “Alright, so now I’m going to have to pass him and force the pass.” I’m not trying to clean anyone out for, what was that position, fifth or sixth? It makes no sense. So, obviously didn’t really want to put him on the ground. I didn’t mean to, by any means. Nothing really crazy to talk about. Just coming through. Not really tired or anything. Was still under ten minutes into the race duration, so just kind of dissecting it, not trying to make any silly moves, like putting a wheel in where it’s not needed and wash the front on a greasy surface or something like that.
“So, as far as race strategy goes, when you’re behind someone and maybe you’ve only done a few laps and there’s still 12 minutes left on the clock and you’re trying to catch, surely, he’s not just out there trying to defend sixth place. Surely, he wants to win. So, we’re both trying to push forward to the front. Like Nate said about clean racing, it’s good to race with someone that has that respect. We’re not going to clean each other out, but when one guy starts to go out of his way and slow you down just to cat-and-mouse and keep you behind, we’re in sixth place, like what are you doing?
Hunter Lawrence sticks the pass to get up to third! #SupercrossLIVE #SuperMotocross pic.twitter.com/cYxq3bpZFj
— Supercross LIVE! (@SupercrossLIVE) February 12, 2023
“So, that’s kind of when it brings out, I would say, more of an aggressive pass. You have to force the issue, kind of stop their momentum that you can get away, because it’s just kind of same nature of the beast with that guy. You pass him clean, you’re going to get your front guard sawed off in the next turn. The same thing happened in practice. Second lap of practice down the start straight. I was on the inside out of the sand and then come down the straight and he’s on the inside, so I backed off. Then he does the whole braking thing to stop you at the bottom of the berm. It’s like, bro, it’s the second lap of practice. Are you good?
“We’re going to be racing each other for the next 10 to 12 years. Why be a dick to the guy and then start a tit for tat kind of thing, like you see with Barcia and Anderson. It just doesn’t end good for either guy. It just gets into like an ego match.”
On whether it was the best win of his career, Lawrence said: “Yeah, I was saying it’s probably the most hyped I’ve been after a win. My first ever supercross win I was more emotional and stuff, but this time, it was pretty cool. It was special, especially at home. I got half my neighbourhood here, so I didn’t want to look like a dork as well because you go home and they’re like, “You got smoked!” There was a lot on the shoulders.” And, on those last two corners that saw him duel with Thrasher for the win, Hunter commented: “Very, very little decision making. Just trying to be where he wasn’t on the track. That’s plain and simple.”
HUNTER LAWRENCE with the last corner pass to take the 250 Main Event Win 🤯#SupercrossLIVE #SuperMotocross pic.twitter.com/BhXsZqY1qG
— Supercross LIVE! (@SupercrossLIVE) February 12, 2023
