DIRT NEWS
HUNTER DIGGING DEEP
With his points lead reduced to a single solitary point with three rounds remaining, Hunter Lawrence had a mixed bag of results in Cleveland. It all started swimmingly well with a win. The next outing proved more challenging but still a fifth, not bad by anyone’ s standings, except Hunter’ s. The final outing saw the title pressure mount as a fourteenth place finish saw his lead evaporate. Overall, he secured sixth for the weekend and then had a firedup Ken Roczen just one point behind and determined to keep his momentum going. The next round at Philadelphia was a mudfest and it was a brilliant performance from Roczen in the mud to secure the win. Hunter limited the damage with a third place, but that dropped the Aussie four points behind the Suzuki rider leading into the penultimate round in Denver, Colorado. Hunter put in a stellar performance to take the top step of the podium ahead of Roczen in second, putting Lawrence just one point behind heading into the final round at Salt Lake City. Hunter had this to say after the win,“ The bike was working good, giving me what I needed. It was a really tough track, not much traction out there; I had to kind of pick and choose where I made my arcs in the corners and bank off stuff whenever I was turning. My starts weren’ t amazing all day today; we were kind of fiddling, massaging some things, and we got them sorted for the main. I love having to work for it a little bit during the day. I feel like that’ s when I have my best days, and I love working with the team; I feel like we work so great together, and it brings the best out in me. Everyone knows what I needed to do— win the last two rounds— and we checked the first box. Now we need to go to Salt Lake City and try to do the same thing. I’ d rather be in the position I’ m in now than seven points down if Kenny had won. This is my title to lose, and I feel like under pressure I’ ve been the best guy this year. So, we’ ll go to Salt Lake City and enjoy it.”
KIWI RIDER 103