Saturday’s Unadilla National proved to be an eventful weekend for Honda HRC Progressive, with Jett Lawrence and Chance Hymas achieving success in the 450MX and 250MX divisions, while former points leader Hunter Lawrence endured a costly DNF in moto two. In this Industry interview, team manager Lars Lindstrom reflects on the highs and lows of a dramatic day in New York.

Image: Supplied.

Congratulations on the overall win in the 450MX class and Jett [Lawrence] getting the red plate. Obviously, everyone’s pretty bummed about Hunter [Lawrence]. Can you just run us through that entire situation?

With what’s going on for the next couple of races and how close they have been, Jett knew what he needed to do if he wanted to win the championship. And when he didn’t win the first moto, that set him back in other little spots there. It looked like Jorge [Prado] was riding really well, so it looked like they were all going to battle right there, and then possibly Jett was going to make, like, one point back or whatever that was going to be, or two. So, when that happened, [Hunter] got stuck in the fence, and we couldn’t see it because he’s down in that section there. It’s kind of like we’re trying to relay on the radio with the rest of the team. Where’s he at? Why is he not getting back on the bike? And then you find out that he’s stuck down on the hill, that he’s stuck in the fence or whatever was going on. It was kind of gutting for everybody because he deserves it so much, and he’s such a good guy and such a good friend to everybody on the team. We’ve gotten so close with him. And after Supercross, you really want the best for him, and he was doing everything right. It just feels kind of unfair. I know it was his fault. It wasn’t like somebody took him out or anything like that, but it just felt like everybody really felt gutted for him.

Is that the first DNF in the 450MX class in quite a while? And I think that ends Hunter’s little streak that he’s been on of top five since he got on the 450. A little bit disappointed, yeah?

His streak was unbelievable for a 450 rider. Yeah, I don’t know when the last time we had a DNF in a 450 motocross race. But yeah, it’s never a good thing when you do that, I guess.

And encouraging signs on the Chance [Hymas] side, on the 250 side of things. You guys must be happy with his progress across this season and obviously looking for hopefully more in the next two rounds.

It’s really cool seeing him get back to where he can be, where he should be. We’ve worked really hard in the off-season weeks on the R&D side, trying to make a little bit more power. And we actually did bring an upgrade to this race. So, we did have a little bit more power and a little bit [of a] better-running motorcycle. I think it showed. I mean, he got two good top-three starts. The reason he got good starts was because of, I don’t know, in the second moto, guys going off the track – that helped, but he was top three in both of them. And then his speed was there. He rides this track well, typically. His aggression was there early. And then his unfortunate tip-over in the first moto caused him to lose that second-place or possibly a win, I guess. Maybe. But no, really, really cool to see him back up front again. And hopefully we can get a win or two here before the season ends.

Image: Octopi Media.

It seems like this year has really been the year of red plate swapping, and you’ve experienced it all season long, whether it was Supercross or motocross. How do you manage the fact that before it was with different teams – whether it was KTM or Suzuki – you were trading it off with different teams, and now it’s within your own organization? So how do you lead the team differently in a mental sort of way, saying, ‘Hey, we have the red plate, but now it goes from the number one to 96 or vice versa?’

It’s kind of a good problem to have, right? It’s cool that both brothers are so close and that the mechanics are best friends. Nobody really gets jealous or angry or anything like that. I think everybody right now is even…Jett almost, like, doesn’t even want the red plate to take it from Hunter. But that part for me is pretty simple. There’s no animosity or anything like that. And the red plate looks great on our bike, so I’m glad it’s on either Jett’s or Hunter’s.

We just came off a two-week break. Ever since you guys got the Lawrences in general, I feel like your guys’ program has just been go, go, go, go between the bike development, them moving classes, the off-season races, and Motocross of Nations. How important have the last two weeks, and even this upcoming off season is for you guys just to get everybody calmed down, because I’m sure it’s really easy for everybody to just keep on grinding. That’s just kind of how this sport is.

These last couple of weeks were kind of a grind for everybody. We did the ‘27 shoot, which you were at. A lot of times I’ll go to Europe to do a GP or to visit family or do both. We didn’t do that this time. Some of the guys worked on weekends getting the 250 stuff ready, especially the guys back at the shop. And they’ve been busting their butt to try to make some improvements because we’re just trying to push the limit of what we can make for power and for just an overall better motorcycle in the 250 class. We haven’t really had much time off, but we did have weekends, which was great. And this off-season is going to be probably a nice break because we’re going to have a lot of weekends off and not a lot of traveling, but we are going to have a lot of work with the ‘27 450 to get going more on Supercross. There’s an earthquake in Kumamoto in Japan, so hopefully we’re not going to be struggling for parts and things like that, but it sounds like everybody over there is okay and the facility’s all right. So that could take up a lot of our time, and hopefully it’s an easy transition. It’s never that easy to take a production bike and go Supercross racing. But so far I think we have a really good base, so maybe it won’t be that difficult. We’ll just have to find out.

Just to confirm, Hunter is okay?

He’s a little beat up, and luckily we have Dr. G [H. Rey Gubernick] here to make sure that he’s got everything rubbed out, but his shoulder and his wrist are a little sore. But other than that, he’s okay.

Image: Octopi Media.

Were you thinking he should pull in to try and get the bike sorted up and keep going, or was it just a lost cause at that point?

It’s kind of like up to him. If he felt that the bike was okay to circulate and get some points, then I think he would’ve made that decision. The thing was pretty bent up. The handlebars and the lever were way down. I think maybe he could have stopped in and we could have adjusted some stuff, but I mean, the thing was pretty wrecked and he was pretty beat up. Once he was that far back, I mean, he was already in the 20s when he just finally got going, so for him to start picking off guys and make some points got to the point where it was impossible. It wasn’t worth it for him. So pulled it in.

I asked Jett kind of the same question here. For him, there were obviously question marks coming into this season, and this year he’s been very frustrated. But have you guys as a team looked at the way that he’s gone about this year dealing with the injury and everything as an overall success?

I don’t think anybody thought his foot was going to be this difficult to get over, including him, or mostly him, probably. But after realizing that, after seeing how much pain and how difficult it was for him to do his thing on the bike, I think everybody’s been pretty danged surprised at how well he’s able to ride. Obviously, the crashes that he’s had have been less than ideal. Maybe those don’t…I guess they probably don’t happen. They haven’t happened in the last four years that he’s won, right? Or three years. But other than that, he’s been incredible. I mean, today he was incredible too, especially in that first moto of having to come back and get those guys for second. So yeah, pretty big success. And I think he kind of needed this with his foot and to get everything going again, whether he wins the championship or not, just to get the confidence back that he can ride and do that and get better, because when we come around in Supercross, his foot’s going to need to be a lot better than it is right now.

We know that Hunter is one of the most mentally tough riders out there. He rebounds very, very quickly. So this question is not to disparage that whatsoever. But that said, will it take longer for his emotional recovery this week after having such a tragedy?

He’s probably really fired up. I think he knows that he just threw away a huge opportunity at a good points lead. And I think the fire inside him will be even stronger, though, to come out these last two rounds. Now he’s just got to win. It’s kind of like where we were at Supercross, right? And after that whole situation too, I’m sure that the motivation is even stronger now to come out and just win and win the championship. We’ll see. I mean, right now it’s a tough day for him for sure. I’m pretty confident that he will be really motivated and really hungry to come back and win next weekend.