It’s that time again. New numbers have been released and people everywhere are looking like an 80-year-old handed an iPhone 6 and asked to make a phone call.
The number system has been in place since 2000, with a few tweaks here and there, but a lot of people are still confused by this. And if they’re not, then I’m just getting the small percentage of people hitting me up on Twitter or email. There are people in the pits who hire and fire riders that are asking me questions about the numbering system.
That fact alone may prove the numbering system for professional motocross is whack. But I don’t think so. It’s really not that hard, people.
Let’s review this one more time, shall we? And next year we’ll review it again, and then again the following year until you get it!
Single Digit Numbers:
The only riders that can run a single digit number are ones that win a national championship. This means 250/450 motocross and 450SX titles. NOT 250SX titles—those are regional. Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha’s Jeremy Martin won his first national championship this year and had a choice of open numbers 6, 8, and maybe 9 (Ivan Tedesco retired this year, so I’m not exactly sure of that number’s status). Martin went with the #6. If Martin hadn’t wanted a single digit, he would still have the choice of a career number because…
Career Numbers:
If a rider win a national championship, he can have a single digit number OR a career number, which is any open number between 2 and 99. This is what Dean Wilson did by selecting #15 after winning the 2011 250 National Championship. They cannot have a three-digit number for a career number (more on this below). Winning a National Championship is one way to have a career number; the other is to finish inside the top ten of combined overall points at the end of the year. The AMA combines supercross points with motocross points, and if you’re in the top ten at the end of any season, you get a career number.
Riders this year that did do exactly that were Martin (6, because of his national championship), his teammate Cooper Webb (17), GEICO Honda’s Justin Bogle (19), and Lucas Oil/Troy Lee Designs Honda’s Cole Seely (14).
There are twenty-eight riders that have permanent career numbers right now: Ryan Villopoto, Eli Tomac, Blake Baggett, Ryan Dungey, Jeremy Martin, James Stewart, Justin Brayton, Kyle Chisholm, Jake Weimer, Cole Seely, Dean Wilson, Zach Osborne, Cooper Webb, Davi Millsaps, Justin Bogle, Broc Tickle, Chad Reed, Brett Metcalfe, Marvin Musquin, Michael Byrne, Nick Wey, Andrew Short, Josh Grant, Trey Canard, Justin Barcia, Josh Hill, Ken Roczen, and Mike Alessi.
Oh wait, one more thing: two years ago the AMA, at the request of some 250 teams, decided to make the horrific decision (in my opinion) to count 250SX points towards national numbers. Regional 250 SX racing (aka 125 supercross) started in 1985, but those points didn’t count toward numbers until two years ago. Yeah, the idea that a fifth place in a 250SX East Region race, where half of your total competition is on the other coast, being equal to a fifth place in the 450SX (in terms of counting for your standings), where all the best riders in the world race, is perfectly fine.
***HEAVY SARCASM ALERT***
I’m against this rule in case you couldn’t tell. But for your info, 250SX points do count for national numbers these days.
The Number One Plate:
New rules dictate that the champion of each series has to run the number one. It’s super weird to me that a rider would not want to run the baddest-ass number ever given out, but Ricky Carmichael started that trend and many others followed. Now the defending champ has to run the “1.”
The Alessi Rule:
Of course Mike Alessi is a little different, right? You read above that riders cannot take a three-digit number for a career number, but at one time, they were able to. The rule was changed a few years ago, but the AMA grandfathered the active riders that had chosen a three-digit number as a career number. Travis Pastrana would have been one of those with 199, but he’s done at this level. The only one left now is Mike Alessi.
In fact, riders used to be able to forego their “earned” national number to run any three-digit number they wanted to—and that was ridiculous. There were privateers that would have killed their own mothers for a two-digit national number, but they were getting shut out while some two-digit earned numbers went unused. Thankfully, this has changed. Alessi will be the last earned number in the three-digit range.
Keep Your Number:
To keep a career number, riders must earn at least 25 points a season. At one point, they used to say a rider only needed to earn one point to keep his old number, but they recently raised the minimum.
There are exceptions for injury, and for that reason, although he didn’t earn 25 points, Michael Byrne will keep the #26 for another year. I used to think this rule was silly but then we saw Mike Brown and John Dowd come out to race nationals just to keep their earned number, and it was actually kind of fun to cheer for these old dudes out there. Call me a softy, I guess.
Everyone Else:
Riders who did not finish inside the top ten in combined points at the end of the year are assigned a number. But with single digits reserved for national champions and finishing inside the top ten in combined points one time gets you a career number, there are cases in which the dude who finished eleventh in combined points (Jason Anderson) has to run #21 because so many numbers have already been taken as career numbers. The number 13 is available, but no one wants that except for Heath Voss, Sebastian Tortelli, Rick Johnson, and Blake Wharton, so Anderson went with the first available number of 21. Weston Peick finished twelfth overall in combined points and took 23 (the next available number), and Jessy Nelson was thirteenth but could only get as low as #28. No, I’m not going to keep going.
We good on this, people? Please read this, print it out, and put it on your fridge so we don’t have to go through this again. See you next year!
2015 Top 100 and Career Pro Numbers for AMA Supercross and Motocross
*Career Numbers
**New Career Numbers for 2015
1 - 450MX: Ken Roczen
1 - 250MX: Jeremy Martin
1 - 450SX: Ryan Villopoto
1 - 250SX West: Jason Anderson
1 - 250SX East: Justin Bogle
2*: Ryan Villopoto
3*: Eli Tomac
4*: Blake Baggett
5*: Ryan Dungey
6**: Jeremy Martin
7*: James Stewart
9*: Ivan Tedesco
10*: Justin Brayton
11*: Kyle Chisholm
12*: Jake Weimer
14**: Cole Seely
15*: Dean Wilson
16*: Zach Osborne
17**: Cooper Webb
18*: David Millsaps
19**: Justin Bogle
20*: Broc Tickle
21: Jason Anderson
22*: Chad Reed
23: Weston Peick
24*: Brett Metcalfe
25*: Marvin Musquin
26*: Michael Byrne
27*: Nicholas Wey
28: Jessy Nelson
29*: Andrew Short
30: Christophe Pourcel
31: Alex Martin
32: Justin Hill
33*: Joshua Grant
34: Malcolm Stewart
35: Kyle Cunningham
36: Matthew Goerke
37: Joey Savatgy
38: Matthew Bisceglia
39: Fredrik Noren
40: Shane McElrath
41*: Trey Canard
42: Ben Lamay
43: Matthew Lemoine
44: Zachary Bell
45: Vince Friese
46: Phillip Nicoletti
47: Martin Davalos
48: William Hahn
49: James Decotis
50: Adam Cianciarulo
51*: Justin Barcia
52: Mitchell Oldenburg
53: Jimmy Albertson
54: Ryan Sipes
55: Kyle Peters
56: Cole Thompson
57: Jackson Richardson
58: Killian Rusk
59: Dakota Tedder
60: Jake Canada
61: Michael Leib
62: Anthony Rodriquez
63: Chris Blose
64: AJ Catanzaro
65: Scott Champion
66: Christopher Alldredge
67: Dean Ferris
68: Christian Craig
69: Ronnie Stewart
70: Nicholas Schmidt
71: Cole Martinez
72: Blake Wharton
73: Gannon Audette
74: Zachary Williams
75*: Josh Hill
76: Evgeny Mikhaylov
77: Justin Starling
78: Preston Mull
79: Jace Owen
80: RJ Hampshire
81: Tommy Weeck
82: Jacob Baumert
83: Levi Kilbarger
84: Jesse Wentland
85: Landon Powell
86: Zackery Freeberg
87: Cody Gilmore
88: Dakota Alix
89: Brady Kiesel
90: Topher Ingalls
91: Chris Howell
92: Cade Clason
93: Dillian Epstein
94*: Ken Roczen
95: Nick Gaines
96: Sean Collier
97: Darryn Durham
98: Gavin Faith
99: Paul Coates
800*: Mike Alessi