Josh Hill is returning to Monster Energy Supercross. The former factory Yamaha rider will fill in for the injured Justin Barcia this weekend at Seattle Supercross, Monster Energy Yamaha announced on social media.
Since retiring from professional supercross and motocross in 2015, the 2008 Minneapolis 450SX winner has been involved in various projects, including riding the Alta electric bike at Red Bull Straight Rhythm and most recently competing in Snow BikeCross at 2018 X Games Aspen.
Hill recently signed a deal with Cycle North, a Prince George, British Columbia-based dealership, to compete in the arenacross portion of the new Rockstar Energy Triple Crown Championship in Canada.
This weekend will mark the first race for Hill since a 13th-place finish at Atlanta 2 in 2015. Hill crashed a week later in practice at Daytona and hasn’t raced since.
“Getting a call from Factory Yamaha to come race Seattle came as a total surprise to me,” Hill said in a statement. “I was just on my way home from winning the AMA National Snowbike Championship and was planning on racing Seattle on my own bike out of my own truck. Got a call from Keith Mccarty, asking me if I wanted to fill in for Justin Barcia and of course I was honored and shocked that they would think of me. It’s pretty surreal to come up out of retirement and get a call from Factory Yamaha to go racing. It’s even cooler that Factory Yamaha is where I started my career out in 2006 when I was 16 and to be doing it now, 12 years later, coming back to my home race in Seattle, is pretty exciting.”
