HUNTER LAWRENCE- GRIT 232 250SMX

HUNTER LAWRENCE | GRIT-232 | 250 SMX

Few in the sport (besides his brother, Jett) could ever relate to the feeling of winning multiple titles within a calendar year...which placed Hunter Lawrence into elite territory before the initiation of the Charlotte SMX event. But Hunter wasn't a rider who took to the idea of complacency or satisfaction after necessarily achieving a goal, and instead, yearned for more as more tasks were on the horizon. That was much the case as the green flag waved on Saturday, though his intensity seemed to be a bit "too" advantageous as he nearly crashed into an opponent amid turn number one, leaving him in the back of the pack as rivals were quick to speed away. But Lawrence fought from that point and onward with excellent line choices amongst the slick terrain, where he tracked the rear wheel of his Honda machine rather exceptionally before the "SX" triple and gained substantial ground on those at the top of the leaderboard. Yet, his flow would be halted when a bit too much pressure was applied to the front end in the sweeping bend that was hundreds of feet prior to the mechanic's area; where the berm of the inside gave away, and caused Hunter to crash to the ground. But with resiliency, he returned to the line of battled and began to chip away at the top-ten, passing riders like Jalek Swoll and Carson Mumford while gaining ground on Justin Cooper when nearing the final moments of the moto...and as he overtook Maximus Vohland, Pierce Brown, and Cooper with only minutes remaining, few could critique the efforts of the veteran - as he rebounded to an incredible ninth-place standing. Hours later, it was Lawrence who unfortunately again would find trouble in the first turn where he washed the front-end...meaning he would have to climb through the leaderboard once more if he wanted to accumulate a solid overall. No task was too difficult to be completed though, where the desire of Lawrence never ceased while carving through the ruts of the off-cambered corner and the unique right-handed bend after the finish-line. Scrubbing the double just following, he would speed into the split section while entering into the top-ten on lap ten...where Pierce Brown and Seth Hammaker seemed to be fading while he was ascending. Overtaking both of those opponents with time expiring, Lawrence's motivate outlook ultimately translated to a seventh-place residency for eighth overall on the day.

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