Image: Octopi Media.

After a lengthy recovery process, Hunter Lawrence finally found his way onto the Supercross podium in Arlington on Saturday night, securing second place in 250SX West action.

When the gate dropped on the third main event of the 250SX West championship, Lawrence worked his way into the top three early on.

After a mistake by Jordon Smith (Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki), Lawrence slotted in behind eventual winner Seth Hammaker (Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki) to secure second place.

Lawrence’s struggles in his Supercross debut in 2020 were well documented, dealing with a host of issues physically and even mentally following the success of his brother in the series. He’s since rebuilt his nutrition and fitness program from the ground up, digging deep during his road to recovery from off-season shoulder surgery and keeping faith he’d find success in 2021.

“It’s pretty cool to prove yourself right and just keep believing,” Lawrence explained. “When you believe in yourself for so long, and no one believes in you more than yourself. So you keep telling yourself ‘you can do it, you can do it’, but when you’re not doing it, it’s tough.

“It mentally just chips you down and down. So to push through that time last year, when Jett [Lawrence] was doing really well and I was struggling with my body and the injuries and stuff, it was like it was never-ending. It took a big toll on me. We just dug deep and pushed through it.”

With just two days to recover before Arlington 2, his first Tuesday race of the season, Lawrence is looking forward to getting back on track and feeling ready physically.

“I feel really good,” he continued. “I felt strong all day, in the main event I was able to push all the way through to the end and put in the fastest lap as well for the main, so that was cool. I’m looking forward to [Tuesday], I think it’s awesome that we get to race again [so soon]. Maybe some of the 450 guys aren’t as stoked with the 17 rounds they do, but this is only our third round. I’m eager to race and I look forward to it.”

Lawrence now sits third overall in the 250SX West championship standings, just 12 points back from Cameron McAdoo in first, as the Monster Energy Supercross series continues Tuesday for the second of three rounds at AT&T Stadium.