Hunter Lawrence and his family sacrificed everything to reach the pinnacle of Motocross. Now, as both Hunter and his brother Jett have secured the AMA 250SX East and West Supercross Championships for Honda, Hunter is finally allowing himself to enjoy the ride.
In this Hunter Lawrence article
- Hunter Lawrence Quick Facts
- Hunter Lawrence Moves To Europe
- Hunter Lawrence and Jett Lawrence
- How does Hunter Lawrence keep fit?
- How Does Hunter Lawrence Relax Between Races?
- Hunter wishes more people knew about Motocross
- What does Hunter Lawrence spend his winnings on?
- Meet and Greet
- Victories 23/24
- Clothing Line
- Sponsors
Hunter Lawrence Quick Facts
| Name | Hunter Lawrence |
| Age | 24 |
| DOB | 1 August 1999 |
| Height | 5″7 / 170cm |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Net Worth | $2 million USD (~$3 million AUD estimated) |
| @hunterlawrence |
Who is Hunter Lawrence?
Hunter Lawrence was born in Landsborough, Queensland on 1 August 1999 and ever since he was little, he’s been on a bike. And it’s not surprising, given Hunter’s dad, Darren Lawrence, is a former racer himself. Hunter started riding bikes in Queensland aged 4 and was racing two years later. Before long was winning national and regional titles in his native Australia.
“We came from nothing in Australia and it was like ‘hey, we haven’t really got anything to gain here financially. Why not chase our dream, you know, and risk it?'”
Hunter Lawrence
It was clear from an early age that racing runs in the Lawrence family; both Hunter and his younger brother Jett have won titles in Australia, Europe and America. In 2023, the Lawrence brothers won both the AMA 250SX East and West Supercross Championships for Honda. But it wasn’t always smooth sailing for the Queensland natives.
“We got this contract offer to go race in Europe at first in the world championship. I was like ‘Yeah, perfect. Let’s do it. I’ll pack a bag and I’ll be ready to go tomorrow,’ but obviously, as a 15-year-old that’s your only concern.”
Hunter Lawrence
Hunter Lawrence Moves To Europe
Hunter and his family moved to Europe in 2016; they sold all their belongings, cut ties with friends and family and uprooted their entire lives in pursuit of a collective dream. Aged 16, Hunter signed with Kawasaki and campaigned in the 2016 EMX250 European Championship.
“Things did get worse for a bit to our surprise, but we pulled through and we’re very blessed and fortunate Jett and I have great parents to push us through all this and support us more than anything… they just pushed us to be the best version of ourselves possible.”
Hunter Lawrence
Just three rounds into his debut year with his new team, Hunter secured his first podium finish at one of the most unforgiving tracks in Motocross, Teutschenthal, Germany, a clay track with an abundance of hills.
Hunter then went on to make a name for himself in Europe, signing with Team Suzuki World in the MX2 class. The young Australian dominated the competition, and would go onto the secure three podium finishes in his debut campaign. In 2018, Hunter won his first MX2 Grand Prix in Assen, the Netherlands.
The Lawrence Family are on the move
It wasn’t long before the family would need to relocate again, but this time to realise the dream of both Hunter and Jett, as the Lawrence brothers signed with Geico Honda in America’s AMA Supercross and Motocross Championships. For the Lawrence family, everything that they had sacrificed to reach this moment was starting to pay off.
“I just want to say thank you, from the bottom of my heart,” Hunter Lawrence said after lifting AMA 250SX East Supercross Championship. “Everyone that is with me now was with me when I was at my lowest of lows, so this is incredible. I can’t say I dreamed of this as a kid because I didn’t know this was possible. I’m choked up; this is just surreal. This weekend has been incredible — the perfect day. I just want to celebrate this with everyone I love and care about — the whole team. This means the world.”
“It’s hard to put in words because, obviously we have such an emotional connection to it because we lived through it. But for someone that’s just hearing about it, it’s hard for us to put into words what we went through and what my parents went through to do this. but yeah, to say the least, it has paid off.”
Hunter Lawrence
Hunter Lawrence and Jett Lawrence
When you have two brothers fighting for championships within the same team, there’s bound to be a bit of friction. Such is the hyper-competitiveness that the Lawrence brothers share and carry with them in everything they do; they’re not only the future of the sport, but they’re also the explosive present, pushing themselves to their physical and mental limits every time they get on the bikes.
“It’s just a whole body work routine. A lot of people don’t realise, that for Supercross and motocross, we’re racing above our max heart rate. We’re racing above our max heart rate capacity because of the added adrenaline you know… you get to the end of 35 minutes, in the last lap or two laps, you might have to push because there’s a guy right behind you and you’re already at your max. So it’s, it’s extremely, extremely demanding.”
Hunter Lawrence
More often than not, the guy behind Hunter, whether on track or on the sidelines, is his brother, Jett.
“It’s tough because it’s almost like racing yourself or a better version of yourself,” Hunter revealed to us. “So it’s good because at least I know if I don’t win, more or less Jett probably has won so at least it’s still a Lawrence out there. It’s cool to be able to look back in 10 or 12 years’ time and go ‘Hey, we both dominated this together.'”
These two young siblings, hailing from Landsborough, Queensland, undoubtedly have the world at their feet, and are two of the most exciting drivers in Motocross. But it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing at the start of their fledgling careers, with Hunter first blazing the trail for this younger brother to walk through.
Hunter likens their experience to building a house; together with his dad, Hunter was able to perfect the process of building through trial and error, learning from every mistake to improve his performance and strive to be better. When it was Jett’s turn, his older brother handed him the tools to build his own legacy.
“With him [Jett] being younger, when you’re learning the ropes of something, every mistake, dad and I made trying to figure something out, Jett didn’t make that mistake.”
Hunter Lawrence
After the Lawrence brothers won 250SX East and West Supercross Championships earlier this year, the pair were tied with 12 race victories each in the 250 division, and with Jett announcing his decision to go up to 450SX class, the Lawrence brothers would have one last chance to earn bragging rights over their sibling: the East-West Showdown in Salt Lake City.
WATCH Hunter Lawrence Wins 250SX East Region Supercross Championship 2023 below.
Hunter fell down the line after a rocky start and Jett started to pull away in front of nearly 50,000 screaming fans, packed into sold-out Rice-Eccles Stadium. Hunter and Jett were tearing up the track and fighting for the lead during the 15-minute final race, when almost halfway through, Jett was in striking distance of RJ Hampshire in front, when the two drivers clashed through a corner. Hampshire stuttered and Jett broke away, claiming the East-West Showdown title, his 13th win and the bragging rights.
Although Hunter finished 6th that day, he’d never let his sibling rivalry transcend the track: “We were brothers before this sport. This career is only for the next 10 years to 12 years, but we’re brothers for the rest of our lives. So we’d be idiots to let this career get in between that.”
How does Hunter Lawrence keep fit?
Those who aren’t familiar with Motocross won’t understand the intense physical demands that these drivers endure every time they get on that bike. Controlling a machine with this much velocity and sheer power is extremely taxing on the driver’s body, with races coming thick and fast throughout the season leaving these athletes very little time to recover.
“If you’re in the middle of the season, you’re just continually beating your body down and you’re expected to perform at the highest level a few days after. It’s getting tougher and tougher.”
Hunter Lawrence
In between races, Hunter undergoes a rigorous fitness regime to aid his recovery, starting with physiotherapy and low-heart rate gym work with his personal trainer to flush the lactic acid built up through his races.
The strain on the body is immense so it’s important to keep the recovery relatively mild and low-impact given the intense physical demands of racing, something Hunter says is “a kind of mix of everything you need to be, you need to have endurance like a marathon runner. But you need to have the explosive power of a gymnast.”
Motocross drivers risk their life every time they enter the track, racing through the corners and over steep elevations and jumps faster than 100 km/h; drivers must be physically strong and perfectly balanced to remain in control of the bike; reactions must be quick and decisions must be executed well to stay safe, as Hunter concedes “if you get it wrong, you crash. It’s a major injury.”
How Does Hunter Lawrence Relax Between Races?
Hunter splits his time between Florida and California during the race season. Of course, he misses Australia and the comforts of home, often struggling to get a decent meat pie when he’s constantly on the move, but he admits he loves his new life in America.
When he’s not racing through muddy rough terrain at neck-breaking speeds, Hunter can be found on the green, quietly and calmly perfecting his short game, away from the distractions and demands of a hectic race schedule.
“Our life is so busy and so jam-packed. It’s just good to have that release. You go out on a course and it’s just you just focus on hitting a white ball with it with a club, and no phones. It’s just peaceful, you know, so it’s kind of like a bit of a meditation.”
Hunter Lawrence
“All of our sponsors and partners, that invest in us for racing, don’t want to be getting a phone call during the middle of the week, like, ‘Hey, Hunter was skateboarding and he broke his wrist.’ Golf is a really, you know, mellow, low heart rate just casual and we enjoy it.”
Hunter’s certainly not the first athlete to pick up the golf club in between the day job, with more and more sportsmen opting for the immaculately manicured green to destress in the middle of a busy season.
Hunter wishes more people knew about Motocross
Hunter admitted Netflix shows such as Drive to Survive piqued his interest in cars and racing, and sees the opportunity for a similar style show about Motocross, citing the immense pressure and the highs and lows experienced by the drivers just like Formula 1.
“I think the easiest one is Formula 1 – once people understood more about it, the Drive to Survive came out, which explained a lot about the sport. Obviously, it’s the drama and all the stuff that goes on behind the scenes but something like that for our sport would be really cool because it’s a great sport, dude. It’s unreal. You know, we sell out the same stadiums the big NFL games sell out.”
“Every top athlete in our sport has such a unique story. I think the storylines are so cool: where each guy comes from and what they’re going through. The highs and lows are both unmatchable – like Drive to Survive captures. They capture the immense peer pressure from having to perform and then when they do perform, they’re released. You get that emotion and it’s the same in our sport.”
A full-capacity crowd witnessed the Lawrence brothers’ showdown in Utah, with 50,000 people in attendance for one of the biggest races of the year. Hunter understands the demand is there and the racing product is unmatched, ready to package it for a mainstream audience.
Unsurprisingly, Hunter loves fast cars and speaks often about Formula 1 and catching up with his friend Daniel Ricciardo whenever their schedules overlap. He watches a lot of car reviews on YouTube and admits he spends a lot of his time customising and fixing up cars when he’s not with the bikes.
When we spoke to Hunter, he was cruising around in a 518-horsepower Porsche 911 GT3. He admitted “I’ve never had a car tickle the ivory at 9000RPM. Like this one does. It’s unreal. I get it. I get the hype.”
He’ll often watch the latest series of BBC’s Top Gear with Chris Harris, but admits to having a soft spot for the older version with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. Post-retirement Hunter thinks he’ll stick with motors, but the only racing he’ll do would be for a revised Top Gear-style car show, sayin:
“It’d be cool to do like a try and make Top Gear again [after retirement]. What it used to be.”
Hunter Lawrence
What does Hunter Lawrence spend his winnings on?
Coming from humble beginnings certainly hasn’t changed Hunter; the success that he and his brother Jett have enjoyed over the course of their careers has come from hard work and dedication and they’ve endeavoured to stay grounded amongst all the noise – but make sure that they enjoy the ride too.
“Mate, we’re blessed that we have a great lifestyle. We work very, very hard for it. Now this life, it’s not a nine-to-five by any means – it’s just every day from when you open and close your eyes. But at the same time, it’s not forever so so we enjoy it. That’s the most important thing.”
Hunter Lawrence
Racking up race win after race win has its perks and it’s allowed Hunter to indulge in another one of his hobbies… Hunter boasts a modest, but extremely impressive, watch collection, telling us “I feel like there’s one thing in life you can’t buy and that’s time you know. So you buy a nice watch.”
Hunter’s love of watches came before he was taking home the top prizes in motorsport, back when he was competing in Europe with little to no money, introduced to watches by one of his Swiss friends who opened his eyes to a whole new world.
His favourite piece? “My rose gold AP [Audemars Piguet] I love it. It’s beautiful.”
Meet and Greet
The second edition of the Annual Hunter Brothers Conference kicked off at the beginning of 2023. Later in January, he made his debut for Alpinestarsmx. The brothers had previously hosted a Dinner and Donut in Dallas and a hangout with the crew on the west coast. They proceeded to hold a meet and greet to kick off the bike week, where they also signed autographs. The Star was present at the official Gibson Garage from 11 am to 2 pm to sign autographs and take pictures with his fans.
Victories 23/24
After winning in various stadiums including Daytona International Speedway and Lucas Oil Stadium, Lawrence celebrated his sixth win of the year in the first quarter of 2023. At the Nissan Stadium, he bagged the Supercross Champion title in May 2023. He also celebrated his win as the 250X East Champion. At Chicago, he won another race and celebrated his brother Jett Lawrence’s victories as well, stating that he was extremely proud of his brother.
In the Des Nations Cup, the Aussie and his brother won silver, representing the country at the national level. He proceeded to acquire the 450 class Honda bike, which suited his biking needs better than the class 250 he had always used.
Clothing Line
He started his clothing line called Factory Fun Zone, selling replicas of fits and kits he had worn at major sports events in his life. He announced the launch of the Affection series under the brand Enchante.
Sponsors
Both brothers were gifted a Quad Lock set by Quad Lock. Lawrence’s home race was powered by Honda Bikes Australia. In his most recent race in April 2024, he thanked his sponsors Quad Lock, Red Bull, Honda Racing US, Alpinestars, and Ethika for their constant support towards achieving his goal as one of the best bike riders Australia has ever produced.