Like a lot of people in America on Wednesday morning, I was up earlier than usual, to tune in live, just as I had done Sunday morning. I had long made fun of friends who are so enamored with Formula 1, MotoGP, or Premier League soccer that they would wake up early for a race or a game, but here I was doing it for MXGP! Sure, it’s the off-season here in the states and there’s not much else going on other than testing, testing, testing, as well as the Dubya Vet World Championships (and with it yet another unfortunate bonfire of drama around Mike Alessi), but the racing has really been amazing in 2021. It’s a testament to the quality of competitors in the MXGP series right now, with Herlings, Febvre, and Gajser at the front, as well as the dedication to complete the full series despite the global chaos of the ongoing coronavirus restrictions. Series organizer Infront Moto Racing (formerly Youthstream) had more challenges in front of them than we did here in the states with the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship, because while every state here seemed to have a different idea of what could and could not happen in the summer of ’21, MXGP was dealing with different countries. They were fortunate to find that Italy, their original home, was able to fill in whenever they needed, with some good tracks, and they raced there seven times, matching what Feld Motorsports had to do with Utah to complete the 2020 Monster Energy AMA Supercross tour.

As for Herlings, he’s sitting pretty to shatter Everts’ all-time wins record early in ’22, and he looks like he has several seasons left in him to continue to build his case at the MXGP G.O.A.T. He is on the strongest team, and with Antonio Cairoli retiring as of Wednesday, he will be getting even more resources and focus in ’22 and beyond. While he may never match Everts’ ten world titles, or even Cairoli’s nine, due to the years he lost with injuries from riding so aggressively in seemingly every single moto, Herlings can keep building his bona fides as far as race wins go and put up an MXGP wins number that will never be challenged, just like Jeremy McGrath’s 72 AMA Supercross wins and Ricky Carmichael’s 102 outdoor national wins. And when Herlings goes past RC’s 102 number, only with Grand Prix wins, it will seem easy to say that he’s even better than Carmichael, I will argue against that every time, based on this: There are only 12 outdoor nationals each year as compared to 16 to 20 MXGPs, and all told RC raced 127 nationals and won 102, while right now, as it stands, Herlings has already raced 163 (I think) GP events. RC’s winning percentage is a crazy 80 percent while Herlings’ is right at 60 percent (which is still wildly impressive).

Finally, in regards to our top AMA guys compared to the top MXGP guys, right now they definitely have the upper hand in outdoor motocross (though I think our young guys have them covered on 250s). While all of the riders on the AMA circuit are making the switch back to supercross settings, supercross testing, and supercross racing, Herlings and Febvre and Gajser and the rest will take a well-earned break and then come back to the motocross settings they ended ’21 with, and begin improving them from there, never even thinking about stadium racing, let alone investing the next seven months entirely immersed in it, before then switching back to Pro Motocross in May and starting the whole process again, only in the reverse direction. We focused on two types of racing in American, supercross first and then motocross, and it’s shown itself even more in the last 15 years of the four-stroke era, with its much more technical aspects of engine mapping, “smart” suspension, and more.

But that’s not to discredit Jeffrey Herlings, Romain Febvre, Tim Gajser, Antonio Cairoli, or anyone else in Europe right now. Those guys are amazing, they are formidable competitors, and they raised the level at the very top to a place higher than it’s ever been. They all deserve the off-season they are about to enjoy, and they should all take a bow as well—that was an incredible season, and it was damn fun for us fans all over the world to watch. After a very entertaining Lucas Oil Pro Motocross season, and an even more wild and unpredictable MXGP tour, if we get an AMA Supercross season as close and competitive, I will be the first to say that we motocross/supercross fans might just be living in the best year of racing ever, COVID-19 be damned.

Just 57 days until Anaheim 1…

WORLD VET (Matthes)

Well, the Dubya USA World Vet Championships at Glen Helen have come and gone and another year where I survived it. Kris Keefer not only survived it but thrived in going 1-1 and winning +40 Pro (somehow, he caught and passed Travis Preston in the first moto—the same Travis Preston who BEAT James Stewart FOR A TITLE) in a great ride on his Yamaha. Myself, I went 12-7 on Saturday and then 13-DNS on Sunday. Hey man, I was tired, and my shoulders felt like I had been jackhammering on a road construction crew for 28 hours straight. 

I'm conflicted on this race, it's the only one I do all year and it's fun to hang out with my buddies Keefer, The Newf, TP, Eric, Dallas, Greg, and even Michael Willard came out to race this year. The thing to me is this race could be so much better if the crew at Glen Helen just invested in the race itself. I've raced it 7-9 times now and it's almost always the same. "A beautiful shit show," as Keefer called it on the PulpMX Show. The practice situation is jacked up as everyone just gets to go out there for as many sessions as they want, there's too many riders on the track at the same time, the sun is blinding you for many motos, the staging area is a complete mess and so and so on… They have too many riders and too little organization. As promoters they're making a TON of money on this event and that's awesome, they deserve it. But putting just a little more budget into staffing, a little more thought about things and the race could be amazing. Unfortunately, not much has changed at this race in all my time of going to it. 

On our show we were laughing about all the things behind the scenes that make you shake your head at it and got some callers on the line that said they agreed with all of it, and yet they're absolutely going back next year! Out of say, 20 calls or DM's I got, just two were saying they would not be going back to the race until they got their act together. So, there you have it, the experience of hanging with your buddies supersedes the chaos of practice, staging, race order, race laps changing, racing until 6:30 p.m., 80 bikes on the track at once, the gate falling when the card girl was out there in the middle of the track, +50 125 riders being on the track with +30 pros and so on and so on… Yes, I’m going back to the ’22 Dubya USA Vet World Championships at The Helen.

MOTOCROSS 2022 (DC)

It wasn’t a total slow-news week here in America. The 2022 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross schedule came out on Monday, though without the blockbuster-level news some in the southeast or maybe Texas were probably hoping for. After this past season’s extremely strong comeback from the COVID-19 shackles of 2020, MX Sports Pro Racing and the 11 individual event promoters decided to keep the momentum going with a schedule very similar to 2021, with one big change—Hangtown was moving back to the front of the schedule now that California seems safe from any kind of shutdown. But Hangtown can’t go on Memorial Day weekend, which is when we wanted to start to give everyone three full weeks to transition from the last round of Monster Energy AMA Supercross, so Fox Raceway at Pala will host the opener, Hangtown second. We will also have several breaks, which we know everyone welcomes after the 17 rounds-in-18 weeks grind of supercross.

The one thing we were hoping for was a 12th track to take the place of that second Fox Raceway round, but after not finding a suitable replacement to join the series in ‘22—despite looking at several potential area and venues, a couple of which show great promise but need more time—we conferred with the teams and sponsors and industry entities about keeping that second round in SoCal for ‘22 in order to help keep costs as low as possible for them, and they were overwhelming in favor of that. The Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations is returning to RedBud in ’22, which will add costs to several participating teams, so two races closest to their HQs in SoCal was a popular move. That said, we will be finding a 12th track in 2023. Where exactly remains to be seen.

RETIREMENT PARTY (DC)

Wednesday's MXGP finale marked the conclusion to an excellent championship battle, as well as the conclusion to Antonio Cairoli's brilliant career as a full-time racer. But the 9-time FIM World Champion wasn't the only fast and familiar face to call time on his racing career at Wednesday's GP in Mantova. Highly-respected veterans Kevin Strijbos of Belgium and Shaun Simpson of Scotland also parked their MXGP rides for the last time. While neither awon an FIM World Championship, they were both multi-time Grand Prix winners. Strijbos finished as series runner-up in MX1 a couple of times, and finished third overall as recently as 2014. He also teamed up with the great Stefan Everts to help Belgium win the 2004 FIM Motocross of Nations. 

"It was an emotional day yesterday," posted Strijbos after Mantova. "When I went out for the last moto i had already tears in my eyes and then coming back from it, it was even worse. It was hard to focus on the races. I tried to have fun but when you ride not great its not easy to have fun. BUT in free practice I had fun. Didn't even know i had a small whip in me but i tried."

As for Simpson, he was long a standout for Great Britain in the MXON, as well as one of the most gifted sand riders on the circuit. In 2015 he swept the MXGPs at both Lommel, Belgium, and Assen, the Netherlands, two of the roughest, sandiest tracks in the world.

"ITS BEEN ONE HELL OF A RIDE" Simpson posted before his last race on Wednesday. "Thank you to everyone who has been a part of it! There’s been some highs, there’s been some lows but I wouldn’t have changed a thing! I’m not sure what’s next but I’m sure it’s going to be good!"

Afterwards, Simpson posted, "It almost goes without saying that I owe so many thanks to many people, everyone who believed in me or backed me or took a chance on a Scottish kid who just wanted to fulfil his dream of riding at the top. The journey has been brilliant: at times hard and painful but everything that you’d expect from a career in this sport. We’ve travelled the world, met a lot of very cool fans, beaten some of the best riders and had an amazing time."

On a personal note, I got to hang out with both Kevin and Shaun when they each came to America to race rounds of Lucas Oil Pro Motocross. Both were very nice and very, very fast. In 2013 Strijbos and his Suzuki teammate Clement Desalle (who retired last year) came to Muddy Creek and Thunder Valley and finished seventh and ninth overall in the 450 class, while in '15 Simpson came to Unadilla with Red Bull KTM and finished a rock-solid fourth, behind Ryan Dungey, Justin Barcia and Trey Canard.

Congratulations to both Kevin and Shaun on jobs well done.

WIN ADS WE COULD NOT GET AWAY WITH TODAY... (DC)

This old Penton West ad wasn't a win ad, but it was something that would probably be frowned upon today...

Non-Pro Perspective (DC)

Racer X gets a lot of requests from for media credentials for various events, racing from Loretta Lynn's MX to MXGP, from Monster Energy AMA Supercross to Lucas Oil Pro Motocross, GNCC, the Mini O's, and more. Unfortunately, we can't help everyone, as there is only limited room available in the media tent and out on the sidelines of the racetrack for everyone who wants to shoot, but we do our best to help give folks a chance when we can. One such request came earlier this year from Ryder Koch of Foggy Llama, an aspiring videographer from Idaho who wanted to shoot the Washougal National. We had unfortunately already used up our quota, but Koch got hold of our longtime collaborator Wes Williams of Vurb Moto to see if he had a spot on his team. Williams did, and Koch got a video bib for and press credential. How did it go? Here's his story on the big day, as well as some of his very promising work.

And here is another interesting story, but about a totally different type of event involving motorcycles and ATVs, "The War on Urban Dirt Biking," by Vice News.

Hey, Watch It!

SPILLED PAINT EVERYWHERE | Justin Barcia BAMTV

The great Valentino Rossi is also retiring, and at his farewell press conference the nine-time MotoGP Champion was backed by his nine world championship-winning motorcycles. Check it out.

Chad and Ellie Reed take the family racing!

Listen to This

Part two of the 2001 Steel City National:

Matthes and Weege discuss more of that epic race. The story revolves around the epic 125 National Championship finale, and the boys interview Grant Langston in Part one. Here in part two they cover the 250 class, the TV tour of Tim Ferry's house, talk to the champ Mike Brown and Michelin's Randy Richardson as well.

The folks at Pit Pass Moto (with special guest co-host and longtime Ohio fast guy Dale Spangler) checked in with DC for a podcast on the growth of motorsports during the pandemic, as well as some general bench racing. Check it out on the Pit Pass Moto website or below.