It came as no surprise that Hunter Lawrence was in the mix at the front of the AMA SX races in his debut season. What did get the attention of the other teams was his calm and clean riding when under pressure. And it finally happened for the Aussie at Round 7 in Arlington, where he dialled it up a notch after passing Ken Roczen, in itself no easy task. Once in front, he was metronomic, hitting his marks, keeping it tidy and stretching out the lead to take his maiden win in the 450SX series. There was a protest on the jumping done by some riders while the Red Cross flag was held up, which is a pretty clear penalty issue, but the officials have declared no action. Honda HRC Progressive Team were not impressed and called for escalation and a review. The issue did see Hunter’ s lead closed down but he just kept it all together and came home with the win in Arlington. Impressive riding and with his consistent form so far this season, the unflappable Australian showed he is here to challenge for the title, not just observe and learn. The learning is now the responsibility of the others as he not only won the weekend in Arlington at Round 7, he is leading the series.