ANAHEIM, California: In San Diego last week in Snapdragon Stadium, Hunter Lawrence earned the holeshot and led the first seven laps before getting pushed back to third. He battled back to second and matched his career-best Monster Energy Supercross finish.
Lawrence passed Ken Roczen for second on Lap 18 and set his sights on Tomac, slowly reeling him in during the final seven laps. On the final lap, Tomac looked over in a corner and was shocked to see the red, front fender of Lawrence’s No. 96 Honda. Inches separated the Australian rider from his first win.
“The last lap, I thought I was really close and then as I was coming in and the corner’s getting closer and you’re getting closer and closer, and I’m like, ‘Oh, this is going to be pretty damn dirty.’ If I see this through, it would have been like what happened with Chase [Sexton] and [Mitchell] Harrison in the qualifying” Lawrence said in San Diego’s post-race media scrum. An ill-timed pass attempt sent Sexton and Harrison hard to the ground.
Six days later, Lawrence would not have done anything different regarding his pass attempt on Tomac.
“Scenario is everything,” Lawrence told NBC Sports during Press Day at Angel Stadium. “Second round. I didn’t obviously value it enough to go through with the move in that split decision. Maybe a little bit further into the series? Yeah, absolutely.”
The only thing Lawrence would have changed in San Diego was the timing of his pass. With time running off the clock, Lawrence knew he had only one chance to get around Tomac.
“I really feel like I should have waited,” Lawrence said. “In hindsight now, waited and tried to maybe make a move on the last two corners.”
Lawrence earned his first career 450 Supercross podium in his 10th start in St. Louis, Missouri. He finished third that afternoon and improved one position four rounds later in Denver. Since then, the opportunities simply haven’t been there in the stadium series. Lawrence finished with a best of fifth in three consecutive races at the start of the 2025 stadium series before getting injured in a training crash that sidelined him until the riders took it outside.
Lawrence won an SMX Playoff race at Texas Motor Speedway in 2024 and in the Pro Motocross outdoor season at Ironman Raceway in Crawfordsville, Indiana, the following season. He won a second SMX race last year in St. Louis, the site of his first Supercross podium. Those are accompanied by 14 second-place results. Coming that close without winning can take a toll on an athlete, but it also defines who a racer is — and that is one of the things that makes Lawrence special.
“Obviously winning’s very important, but how you win sometimes is really important as well,” Lawrence concluded before climbing on his Honda CRF450R Works Edition to take a few laps around the the track ahead of Round 3 of the 2026 SuperMotocross World Championship.
