Welcome to Racerhead, coming to you from the Carolinas, and a mini-road trip. Just got down here on a family trip, which means I missed last night's Moto Fite Klub, which was just down the road at Traveler's Rest, South Carolina. Weege will tell you all about that further down. And while we're deep in the off-season as far as AMA racing goes, there was a lot of news happening around the moto world, and some previews of things to come.
First up was the announcement of the 2022 Monster Energy AMA Supercross television package. It features a record three live races and 13 total hours of coverage on NBC. And all 17 rounds will be live in one form or another across NBC, CNBC, USA Network, Peacock, and NBC Sports digital platforms. Why so many different networks? Because 2021 was the last year for NBC Sports Network, the main network for SX and the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship coverage. It may seem confusing at first glance—supercross on CNBC?—but knowing what Feld Entertainment went through to get this package for fans is commendable. I know that a huge new audience will be watching CNBC for the first on the night of Saturday, January 8, because they will be airing the Anaheim Supercross opener live! It's also great to have Anaheim back on the schedule for two races.
Over in Europe, the 2022 FIM Motocross World Championship calendar was released, and it's also getting back to normal, with the return of flyaway races to Argentina and Indonesia, and far fewer races in Italy, though we should all be glad that the Italians stepped up to host so many rounds when the series was under the ongoing threat of cancellations due to COVID-19 restrictions. Of course, the MXGP calendar is only provisional right now because it always seems to undergo a change or two or three during the winter, so stay tuned. And speaking of winter, opening on February 20 at Matterley Basin in Great Britain is very risky, weather-wise, but here's hoping promoter Steve Dixon gets a great weekend after some of the recent mudders he's had to work through, including the 2017 Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations.
FIM Motocross World Championship Schedule
2022 MXGP Schedule
- MXGP
- MXGP
- MXGPMXGP of Patagonia-Argentina Sunday, March 20
- MXGP
- MXGP
- MXGP
- MXGP
- MXGP
- MXGP
- MXGP
- MXGP
- MXGPMXGP of Indonesia Sunday, June 26
- MXGP
- MXGP
- MXGP
- MXGP
- MXGP
- MXGP
And speaking of the MXoN, the date for the return to RedBud was also announced on the MXGP calendar: September 24-25, 2022. I'm sure the hotels are already being scooped up, as well as spots on the Jeff Stanton Pure Michigan Adventure tours that surround the big race on the calendar.
There's also a huge amount of amateur racing coming up next week at the 51st annual THOR Mini Os from Gatorback Cycle Park in Florida, which will be streaming live for much of the week on RacerTV.com. It's one of the biggest motocross races in the world and a great way to catch a glimpse of some future stars. As a matter of fact, I remember seeing Jett Lawrence race for the first time when he first visited the Mini Os a few years back, and now I'm looking forward to seeing Haiden Deegan racing on his Monster Energy/Star Yamaha Racing YZ250F for the first time. (And speaking of Star Racing, hated to see the first "December Surprise" of the off-season happened earlier this month to Levi Kitchen, as the SX rookie-to-be crashed while testing and suffered a broken shoulder blade. Mitch Kendra has more on that here.) Finally, speaking of Jett Lawrence, the Honda HRC rider and AMA 250 National Motocross Champion has been busy during his off-season, and he has a very cool project going with A.J. Catanzaro. They are teaming up to school everyone—but you'll have to wait until Monday to see exactly how they plan to do that!
Only 50 days until Anaheim 1.
Also, very busy this week is our own Jason Weigandt, so let me throw this right over to him….
Around the Moto World in 4 Days (Jason Weigandt)
Two quiet months of off-season changed in a hurry this week. I ended up visiting Yamaha’s new American HQ in Georgia on Monday and Tuesday to interview all of the brand’s 2021 racing champions. I always like it when brands treat athletes similarly across the board, and thus Dylan Ferrandis’ 450 National Motocross Championship is treated the same as Cory Texter’s Production Twins Championship in Progressive American Flat Track, or Walker Fowler’s GNCC ATV Championship. We did lots of interviews with lots of riders, and Yamaha will reveal the videos in early December, and I’ll share some of them here on Racer X. I can tell you Ferrandis is excited for supercross, but he’s not putting pressure on himself to suddenly win like he did outdoors. The always-honest Frenchman says he never expected to win multiple titles on a 250 and definitely didn’t expect to win a 450 championship. He considers everything he does from here on out a bonus. If he wins more, that’s great, but if he tries his best and gets beat in supercross, that’s fine too. However, I think we’ve all seen just how determined Ferrandis is, and you know he will do everything in his power to make this work. His status as a supercross contender is going to be one of the big stories heading into 2022.
After two days of working with the Yamaha folks, I flew to California to host the bricklaying ceremony for KTM’s new North American headquarters. The $50 million campus will feature an office building, a race shop, and a warehouse sits about a half mile from the KTM Group’s current offices, which they lease. The building should open in early 2023. This is a big investment for a motorcycle company, but it shows that kind of full-steam-ahead mantra we’ve seen from this brand for the last decade. It was cool to work on the inside with two motorcycle brands in the same week, because I can tell you as optimistic as KTM is about its future, Yamaha feels the exact same way! The off-road market is very strong right now, and while supply chain issues (you might have heard) are a problem for every industry right now, both brands have done studies and believe this new level of demand will sustain itself for many years. Man, it’s good news to hear good news like that.
After the KTM event I flew back east for last night’s MotoCar Fite Klub 2.0 at Traveler’s Rest Speedway. Jeremy McGrath won again, like he did at this race back in the spring. The King really is the King. The rest of the event was hilarious, the track was slick, and the guys could usually do about two laps before someone spun. Even McGrath swapped it a few times. At one point MC spun and four other cars (Justin Brayton, Robbie Maddison, Larry Pegram, Steward Baylor) all spun to avoid him, and Grant Langston shot into the lead. Then GL spun! It was kind of like that over and over. Then at one point Stew Baylor went Stew Baylor and flipped his car, which drew a lot of attention until a fight broke out between some of the local racers on hand for the local Super Stock class. It was as South Carolina dirt track as it gets!
Oh, and we industry types got to race also in four-cylinder cars straight from the junkyard. I’m glad that’s over. Sorry to our French friend Stefan LeGrand. We shared cars with the Women’s class and they bashed on each other so much that Le Big’s car was damaged beyond repair before he could even go race it! And SmarTop/Bullfrog Spas/MotoConcepts Honda’s owner Mike Genova was also grounded when his car blew an engine, and then a backup car got torn to bits before he could race. Me? I nursed my 2003 Dodge Neon to fourth place. Out of five finishers.
After all that, I’m just glad to be back home. Check out The Weege Show from the KTM ceremony and be on the lookout for some cool content with the Yamaha riders soon.
2022 Yamaha YZ125 Intro (Keefer)
We are still cranking away 2022 intro videos over here weekly, but as the holidays get closer, we will be shifting some focus to comparison tests that will help you decide which bike is most likely right for you. A bike we just tested that I think could be for a wide variety of people would be the 2022 YZ125. The Yamaha YZ125 has got some major refinements for 2022, and we got to shake them all down at Glen Helen Raceway on Wednesday. Ryan Villopoto, Damon Bradshaw, Doug Dubach, and a whole host of other media outlets were in attendance to throw around the blue two-stroke little zinger. You will have to wait until Monday at 9 a.m. Pacific to get all the details about what it does and doesn't do on the track, but I can tell you that even though Villo and Bradshaw don't ride as much as they used to, they both still haul ass on the track. Here is a small clip of them shredding around together, and don't forget to click back here on Monday morning for the full 2022 YZ125 video.
ADVERTISING HALL OF FAME (DC)
Or better yet, Ads We Could Not Get Away With Today...
When Camel was the title sponsor of AMA Supercross, Smokin' Joe wore a chest pro.
PARIS (Matthes)
Eight days away from the lone off-season SX over in Europe, as the Paris SX will kick off Saturday night in a one-night format with a pretty good lineup. It hasn't been easy for the promoters to get riders to come over in these COVID-19 times, and the original lineup of Hunter and Jett Lawrence and Cooper Webb aren't going, but I think by moving this race later in the year and getting MXGP riders like Romain Febvre and Antonio Cairoli there was a great idea. American-based riders Justin Brayton, Alex Martin, Chad Reed, Cole Seely, and hometown hero Marvin Musquin will join those two to make what I think is a pretty good, deep field. JB10 is probably the favorite here, but after that it should be a good battle with everyone. I'll be there tweeting and IGing away as well as writing some race reports, so stay tuned here to get the action.
WAS Jeff Ward EVER REALLY ON A YAMAHA? (DC)
A couple weeks back we did a Racer X Online feature about the riders who had been with one brand the longest. For instance, Broc Glover was with Yamaha from 1977 through '88, while Jeff Ward rode for Kawasaki from 1979 through '92. We also mentioned how Glover actually started his career on a Honda CR125 (1976) while Ward spent his first professional season (1978) on a Suzuki RM125. Those were the only other times Glover or Ward rode on a different brand in their AMA careers.
But then a reader named Alan Woods commented, "What about Wardy's winning a national on Broc Glover's works Yamaha in 1978?" I responded that it was not in The Vault and that maybe it was just a '78 Trans-AMA Support race, or that "Olympiad" event at Saddleback that was basically the invention of Super-Moto, as Ward was featured on the cover of Cycle News East from that event on a Yamaha.
Then I got a call from Broc Glover and he said he distinctly remembered Wardy riding the works OW-125 in 1978 that Broc had raced upon at the Valvoline 125cc U.S. Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio—his backup works bike. And then he sent this photo, a screen grab from Cycle News or another publication.
Alan Woods, you were right! Turns out that in 1978, Glover was defending his first 125 title and Wardy was just beginning his professional career. Ward started the season on an FMF Racing-backed Suzuki RM125 and did pretty good. His fourth-place finish in just his fourth national in Nebraska was definitely impressive. So after the mid-summer break, which included USGP rounds at Carlsbad (500), Unadilla (250) and Mid-Ohio (125), Yamaha decided to offer the rookie some support. He continued doing better and better, so toward the end of the series Yamaha decided to give Ward a factory bike—the OW-125 that Glover had won the USGP on. (And Broc had clinched a second straight 125 National title by this point as well.) That's when Wardy really took off, and at the Metrolina National in North Carolina he had the lead over Kawasaki's Gaylon Mosier until the final corner, only to get passed by the veteran. It would have been the first moto win of Wardy's Hall of Fame career, but instead it turned into Kawasaki's first-ever 125 National win as a brand, as well as Mosier's.
So, The Vault was wrong. In 1978, Jeff Ward raced a Suzuki to start the 125 Nationals, then switched to Yamaha for the last four. And after Mosier moved up to the 500 class in '79, Kawasaki turned around and gave Ward his 125cc ride, and he would stay on green for the rest of his career. We will get it fixed in the Vault, and thanks again, Alan and Broc, for pointing this out.
HULTNER (Matthes)
Nice to see iconic nineties photographer Chris Hultner back at the races this past summer. I've gotten to know Chris a bit, and he's a pretty rad dude and a great talent at that. He's been busy scanning some of his old photos from back in the day, and it's quite a trip for me. He primarily shot for the Hi-Torque guys (he did do lots for Racer X as well in the early days), so many of the photos on his archive I've seen before in magazines growing up. I've been posting some of his best stuff on my IG this year, so check that out.
You can read an older story I did with him on PulpMX.com where I asked him for the stories/thoughts behind some of his personal favorites and it's pretty funny. From the old Shift ads with Fro to the '86 USGP, and so on and so forth.
Here's the link for the stories, stay for the Bradshaw and Fro in the hot tub ones please and thank you.
Behind Hultners' Lens Part 1
Behind Hultners' Lens Part 2
Behind Hultners' Lens Part 3
Behind Hultners' Lens Part 4
And since the Paris SX is this weekend, here's one of the iconic JMB in 1991 on his way to sweeping all three titles in one year, the first and only rider to ever do that.
I think it's Binghamton, and it's on the mighty Cliff White tuned CR500. Great shot of JMB wearing the V-1000 from JT but curiously, no hand guards at a track most everyone put something on. Also, looks pretty dry but JMB running roll-offs anyways. He was always a bit different for sure and I look forward to saying hi to Jean-Michel this weekend. Great light here, little body English going on this photo just reeks coolness.
Thanks Chris!
Hey, Watch It!
Justin Barcia released a new episode of his Bam TV YouTube series in which he debuts a new haircut and gets back out on the supercross track:
Balls to the Wall, Winning the MXGP of Spain | Behind the Bullet With Jeffrey Herlings EP 9
Head-Scratching Headlines Of The Week
“UK police find 900 pounds of cocaine worth $44 million in load of onion rings”—MSN.com
“Carole Baskin is in a 'Cage Fight' post 'Tiger King'”—CNN Entertainment
“MATT STAFFORD'S WIFE: SORRY FOR HURLING PRETZEL AT FAN... In Altercation At 49ers Game”—TMZ Sports
“Pete Davidson and Kim Kardashian celebrated his birthday with Flavor Flav”—CNN Entertainment
“How Von Dutch’s Trucker Hat Empire Ended in Chaos and Death”—Yahoo!
Random Notes
We Went Fast posted this message for Lisa Akin-Wagner:
"Join me in wishing a speedy recovery for Michigan Motocross legend Lisa Akin-Wagner.
Last month at the Red Bud Grass Race, Lisa crashed and broke 11 bones, including a shattered wrist, scapula, pelvis (in two places) and her fibula. She said she doubled her lifetime number of broken bones, which was 11 before the wreck. It's now 22.
I called her recently to check in and tell her what an honor it was to race against her. We competed in the same class and I even got to line up next to her. She absolutely roosted me down the start straight. I have fond memories of watching Lisa race at Baja Acres and at Loretta Lynn's against Mercedes Gonzalez.
Get well soon, Lisa!"
Thanks for reading Racerhead. See you at the races!