Image: Octopi Media.

Previous 250MX red plate-holder Hunter Lawrence admitted that his DNF in the opening moto ‘hurts’ after being struck with a mechanical fault, now trailing Haiden Deegan by five points in championship standings.

Longtime leader Lawrence entered round six following a bruising second moto at RedBud where he was involved in a multi-rider incident at the first turn, leaving him unable to finish the race.

That DNF meant his points-lead was cut to 11 entering Southwick, where after working his way from ninth to fourth position in the opening encounter, he was forced to retire with a bike issue. Left with a poor gate pick for the second outing, the Australian was 17th after the first corner and was able to work his way up to P8 to salvage 13th overall for the round.

“It was a rough day at Southwick,” said Lawrence. “A malfunction in the first moto hurts, and the second moto was all about salvaging points. Obviously, I didn’t want to be coming out of this race five points behind, but we’re going to enjoy the chase.”

Team Honda HRC manager Lars Lindstrom added: “It was another up-and-down day for the team. I want to apologise to Hunter for letting him down in the first moto after he gutted out a strong race while trying to recover from last week’s crash. He’s a true warrior and I have no doubt he’ll come back strong this next race and get back to where he was before his RedBud start crash.”

Prior to that RedBud incident, Lawrence had won four from four overalls to start the season and was victorious in moto one at round five. He now looks to rebound at the seventh stop on the 2023 Pro Motocross calendar this weekend at Spring Creek.