We have seen a handful of brothers both make it to the top level of the sport—James and Malcolm Stewart, Shane and Darryn Durham, Wil and Tommy Hahn, Alex and Jeremy Martin, Jett and Hunter Lawrence just to name a few in recent years. But at the 2023 Detroit Supercross, the Hill brothers, Josh and Justin, made history. The two brothers finished inside the top ten in the premier class on the same night for the first time since Jim and Ron Pomeroy did so in Houston in 1974—almost 50 years ago! Justin claimed seventh and Josh claimed tenth as the duo earned their season-best finishes at the tenth round.
After the race, Tom Journet and I caught up to both Hill brothers. The two have been battling one another for positions in a handful of main events so far this year. Plus, the next race, the Seattle Supercross, is the home race for the Oregon natives, so the brother rivalry will be full on, on Saturday.
Josh Hill | 10th in 450SX
Racer X Online: Walk us through your night here in Detroit.
Josh Hill: I rode like garbage all day. [Laughs] I was terrible in qualifying. I didn’t make it out of the heat. Made it by the skin of my teeth in the LCQ. It actually took a restart for me to even make it in, because the gates malfunctioned and popped up and hit me in the back tire. Almost went over the bars. But the main event, I just didn’t get a good start and just kept picking away at people. Then got a gift with AP going down. I came off the track so bummed because AP had it in the bag. He had such a big lead when he lapped me. I was pumped for him. Then it took my mechanic being like, “Well, you know, that gave you tenth.” I was like, “I guess there’s a little silver lining,” but not for him. I was bummed for him.
Looking ahead for Seattle next week, what can we expect there riding-wise, track-wise? What are you looking forward to there?
A podium. Nothing less. I got to shell out for the hometown crowd. [Laughs] I don't know. Just keep getting better. Keep working. Keep plugging away. I didn’t come in hitting my peak. I feel like I’ve just slowly built up over the season. It feels good.
Any bike changes or any changes?
No. You just ride them.
Justin Hill | 7th in 450SX
Racer X Online: Walk us through your night here in Detroit.
Justin Hill: The night went pretty good for me. I just kind of kept it together the best I could. Rode solid laps and didn’t make the mistakes that some of the other guys did. So, that was kind of the plan. I didn’t feel when I touched tires on this track that it was something that I needed to push extra hard. Our bike does a little bit better I think when it’s soft, so coming here it’s kind of a little different. So, that was my game plan, honestly, just to put solid laps in and pick my spots, find what’s working, and just do my homework today. That worked out really, really well. It worked out better than I had hoped. I didn’t feel good at all. I hated it today. This morning it was pretty wet in free practice. It’s like inside, and we didn’t need to really do that. [Laughs]
It wasn’t like the track was dusty.
No, it was like wet for free. So, I was like, dude, I’m just going to wait and let this thing come around a little bit because it’s hairy right now. So, I did. I think that was smart, too. I kind of formed my line choice and my day around, what’s it going to be when it’s like this but just a little bit lower? I think I made all the right decisions about what to do and what lines to pick. Ultimately, we just stayed up. That was a big portion of tonight. I wanted Christian [Craig] bad. He was right there, and I was keeping pace with him. Ultimately, when I kind of dropped Deano [Wilson] off a little bit and then I think he might have went down. When that happened, I’m like, I got a lot to lose now. I’m in a pretty decent spot. Should probably just cool it and keep it together. Then ultimately, that was the right decision to make. So that’s just how these nights have been. Just making a bunch of decisions in a row and hopefully they work out. Tonight, most of the decisions and things I did worked out.
This was a season best for you, so it’s got to feel good. This is probably where you want to be more throughout the season leading up to this. For it to pay off, how was it to not over-ride and think big picture? Like, “I got to think smart here?” What’s that process like?
That’s like me normally. I’m always trying to do that. I try not to get way too outside of myself, especially this year. I’m just getting back into it. I’m just relearning everything. I feel like I wanted to be a five to eight guy. I was like, I could be a five to eight guy. No, I can’t. At some point, I’m going to be a five to eight guy this year. I am now, which is cool. I know that I can continue to be, too. But just trying to do that all the time, keep it together and just use my head. I think that works out for me pretty good when it’s in super gnarly nights like this, but I need to put more effort out there when the tracks are not this bad. So, that’s going to have to be something that I do, take some risks and do some things to keep these finishes going when the tracks go to more mellow. They haven’t been mellow this year. Holy cow. They’ve been gnarly.
A lot of laps on them, too.
How many laps did we do tonight? Do you know?
I think 23.
We did 27 last weekend, I heard.
Yeah, that’s a lot. I think there have been a few 26, 25, 27 this year.
Daytona was the only one that made sense for us to do minutes. But it’s working out for me pretty good because I can ride so efficiently. I know I can ride efficiently. I can keep the same thing going the whole race. If that pace where I’m at doing that is okay enough to hold certain guys at bay, then I’m going to have a good night. When it requires just that little bit extra all the time, I’m not there yet. But I’m going to get there. Like I said, this year was just me kind of getting my feet back wet and enjoying it. I’m having tons of fun. This is a blast, dude. I love racing again. I missed it. I didn’t realize how bad I missed it until Josh called and was like, “Hey, you want to go do it? We could do this. This sounds like fun.” I’m like, “That kind of sounds like fun. I’ll call the guy. I’ll call our buddy up and see what he thinks.” It turned out to be a lot of fun. I think I’m going to stick around for quite a while.
You mentioned your brother. You guys have kind of been battling back and forth. Literally, you guys have been behind one another in the results. You got the best of him tonight. Looking forward to the home race next weekend? Is there a line between you guys? What’s the stakes there?
There’s a lot of pressure to be top Hill at Seattle, dude. [Laughs] A lot of it. But he got me at Oakland this year. Some of the other races have been like it was either me and then him one spot back or two spots back. I would like to just have us both in the top ten, and I don’t even really care where that is. He could beat me. I love that guy. If he beats me, it’s funny, there’s all this, “I’m going to get you,” stuff going on in the truck, joking around. Especially Dakota [Tedder, team manager]. Ultimately, if he beats me, I’m the biggest fan of him. I don’t even care. But of course, I’m trying to beat him. But if it doesn’t happen that way, I’m not even bummed out. But Seattle is a little different. I might need to lay it in there and make sure I get it done. For me, getting seventh and then knowing he was just three spots behind me, that’s impressive. A top ten this year is stupid.
It’s got to feel good for you, for him, and the team. You guys are putting in all the work. It’s probably the little brother in you that wants to beat him at the home race next weekend.
Yeah. More than anything, I want to not let it get in the way of what I’m trying to do. Sometimes it kind of does. You get a little more competitive and get a little emotional about it. It’s cool because, like I said, ultimately, I’ve gotten past that. If he gets me, then I’m proud of him. So, it’s just one of those things. But we’re having a lot of fun. We get to ride together. This is just an excuse for me and Josh as guys, me deep in my 20s and him in his 30s, to be able to stay close and hang out. That’s cool. A lot of people don’t get to just hang out with their siblings and do the same kind of work. It’s a lot of fun.
Especially being a pro athlete and on the same team and racing against each other literally in the main events. That’s like a dream come true for you guys.
It’s not a usual thing. It’s pretty neat. I’m excited. I’m excited to keep it going. I hope that we just kind of keep this same thing going. I really like riding for Tedders. I really like riding around with Josh. I think that we complement each other in certain ways. I think that we need to be like, all right, I’m going to come ride with you for three weeks and then I’m going to take a week off and ride over here. I’m going to go back and ride with you for two weeks… We need some of that, just to shake it up. We are our own men, and we need to think in our directions, especially with the bike and stuff. There’s a lot of ego in the sport and when you do something on the track that you know that you’re good enough and doing the right thing enough that that shouldn’t happen, that messes with you. Me and Josh have a lot of that. We’re feel guys. So, if that happens and it’s for reasons X, Y, and Z, it might have happened for me but for reasons E, F, whatever. So, we need to make sure that we’re paying attention to that and not changing X and Y even though X and Y is working for me and not for him. So, there’s a lot of that little stuff, but that’s just stuff that we’ve kind of already done that and worked through that, too. So, we’ll probably be better at it next time around instead of being all flustered and doing it all at once. I think we’ll have a better shot at putting together a bike sooner this next time around, hopefully.
You mentioned next time around. It might be a little bit early but are there any talks for next year with the team?
My feeling would be that I hope that we could just keep it going. I think that they would be interested to do that, as far as my feelings. I don’t know. They haven’t said it or talked about it yet. It’s obviously really early, and I have a whole other series to go do. [Note: Justin confirmed with Donnie “Roto Moto” Southers that he will be racing the FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX) with Bud Racing Kawasaki]. But I love it over here. I’m having a lot of fun. I would like to keep it going. So, if they want to keep it going, I want to keep it going. It’s a really neat environment for me. I’ve got my wife and my babies. It’s just a neat environment. It isn’t real high strung. We get to enjoy these race weekends and cut loose when they’re over. That’s a lot of fun for me. It’s a cool job. So, hopefully it works out and we can keep going.
