ADB: Were you seduced by everything you saw
on those early visits to Europe? Or did you
think beyond that, to the USA maybe?
Hunter Lawrence: America is a long-term
goal, for sure... I want to do supercross
and stuff, and we’ve looked at all the
Australian motocross racers that went
to America via Europe, like Chad Reed
and Brett Metcalfe. And the guys that
went via Europe, they seemed to be a
bit more successful in America. So
that was the initial part of the
planning, but then we started doing
the FIM Junior races and as we came
each year I used to like it more and
more, and now I’m here I don’t mind
staying for a bit longer; it’s cool, I
enjoy it here, I love the GPs. It’s such
a fun weekend and I still have such
a lot to learn.
When you competed in the FIM Junior couple
years ago in Spain as a privateer on a Yamaha,
how soon was it that you picked up your
Kawasaki ride with Monster Energy, and how did
it come about?
HL: Well, we came back home and it
was at the end of our season in
Australia. Actually, Ben Townley used
to ride for CLS (now BUD Racing
Kawasaki Monster Energy) and he
messaged the team owner saying “you
need to sign this kid”, and next thing
we got a phone call from some funny
accent, a French guy, called Gael
Liusetti actually. At the Junior race
BUD Racing actually spoke to us as
well, but this call, they were saying we
want you to ride for us, things like
Factory Kawasaki were mentioned, we
want you to ride for us and all that. It
was crazy.
Dad was like, “Are you BUD Racing?”
Gael said, “No, no, we are the Factory
Team, blah, blah, Jordi Tixier, Dylan
Ferrandis...” And we were like, “Aaah,
wow!” It was really crazy and I
couldn’t sleep straight after that phone
call, you know, it was like everything
we’d been dreaming of. It was our
ticket out of Australia.
We’d heard rumours that a lot of rides
in Europe, you needed to bring money
to the team, and we didn’t have money,
so it was cool to earn it from talent and
hard work.
In some ways it’s taken the pressure off your
parents financially by not having to bring
money to the team, but then the other side of
the coin they have immense pressure because
all of a sudden they’ve had to sell everything,
relocate, bring you and Jett and the whole
family over here. How tough has that been?
Because first up, it was Australia to Holland.
HL: Yeah, it was crazy! For me, as a kid,
obviously I don’t understand the
concept of “we have to sell the house”
and all of that side of things. Mum and
dad did all of that, but for me, I was
ready to move the next day after that
phone call. But yeah, we sold
everything, we had garage sales and
did everything we could to get as
much money as we could, so we could
chase our dream. It was definitely big
but I think we made the right decision.
Australia is awesome and I love it, and
the racing there is still good; racing
anywhere is cool but this is where I
wanted to be for my development and,
ask anyone, and they will say that
overseas the races are bigger, more
spectators, everything.
You seem to adapt to situations really quickly
and easily, at least from the outside looking in.
Do you agree?
HL: Yeah, I guess so. It’s how I grew up
as a kid, you know? We made do with
what we had and I think it’s the same
thing; this is the track, this is what we
have to do, you know, so let’s make the
best of it. But I’m quite relaxed and a
kind of easy going guy and don’t seem
to stress much about things, I’m really
relaxed. Sometimes it’s bad to have it
like that and other times it’s good.
In EMX250 last year, you led races early on,http://www.adbmag.com SEPTEMBER 2017 | 105Hunter and Seewar have become good friendsUnlike some riders, Hunter has not paid for his ride