As we’ve approached the halfway point in this year’s AMA Pro Motocross Championship, Kellen Brauer and Steve Matthes shared some thoughts via email on what’s happened so far this season, and what their expectations are for the second half of the 2023 MX season. The two talk Jett Lawrence and his so-far undefeated streak and what they think his turnout may be, rookie Haiden Deegan, Hunter Lawrence, and the battle for the 250 Class championship, team departures and new signings, and more. See their back-and-forth below.
Kellen Brauer: Steve, we're past the halfway point of AMA Pro Motocross now with just five rounds left in the series. In some ways, we've seen the contenders we expected going into the season up in spots we thought they'd be, but it's also been a wild storyline watching Jett Lawrence dominate the 450 class the way he has. On top of that, we have a wide-open championship in the 250 class with a rookie leading the points: Haiden Deegan! What have been your biggest takeaways from the first six rounds?
Steve Matthes: Honestly, my biggest takeaways this summer are that I didn’t think Jett and Haiden would be this good, I love the fact that we have all these weirdo privateers crushing it in 450MX and, also, the racing has been pretty fun despite one dude winning all the motos in 450s. I don’t need a battle for the lead to get me excited, there’s plenty of great stuff going behind the #18, you know?
![Jett Lawrence]()
Jett Lawrence Align Media ![Haiden Deegan with the Red Plate]()
Haiden Deegan with the Red Plate Align Media
Haiden’s rise has been great to watch, this kid is in great shape, and he hasn’t been prone to typical rookie mistakes. Hunter’s been faster but hey, two DNF’s will do that to you, right? Now, with Hunter battling a rib issue, Justin Cooper, RJ Hampshire, and Jo Shimoda are all in this thing, so that class should be super fun to watch going forward.
Haiden Deegan posted the following reel to Instagram:
But Kellen, out of all the stories in the 450MX class that there is, which one is the greatest? I think with your love of GPs, you might say 32-year-old Jose Butron doing what he’s been doing, but Ty Masterpool has been great, Garrett Marchbanks has been up and down, but the highs include a podium, our guy Phil Nicoletti is back and that’s always interesting. What’s been the funniest/most interesting thing in 450s?
KB: Without question, one of most intriguing is Wildcat Racing (RAWR!) and the dream team of Butron and Lorenzo Locurcio. I mean, we didn't even think these guys would be racing AMA Pro Motocross coming into the season and now they're 10th and 11th in the standings! I'm all aboard the #SummerofButron train and we're going to ride this thing right into the SMX Playoff races and make Butron the thousandaire he deserves to be.
I do think Ty Masterpool is somehow not getting enough credit for these rides though. Because he's just become part of the factory guys out front every week, it seems like people are already just defaulting on the "seen it" side of the coin. The dude is one half decent weekend away from being fifth in the points and he raced the opening round in the 250 class. I'm not going to say we should be beating the door down for Masterpool to get a factory ride, but I do hope this leads to him being a 450 class mainstay when we move to 2024.
Either way, all of these storylines have been fantastic, and we still get to see five more races of it all. If you had to guess right now, what will be the thing that turns our head the most down the stretch run of this championship? I know you think Jett won't go perfect, but he might! Or how about one of these 250 dudes like Justin Cooper clawing back into the championship after missing High Point? What should we be closely watching?
SM: Call me a hater, but I do not think Jett is going to go undefeated this summer. Washougal will be a big test (he’s never won a moto there!) and then the #94 of Ken Roczen coming back for Unadilla and Budds Creek and we know he’s great at ‘Dilla. I don’t know, it just seems to be too easy for the #18, so he’s got to face SOME sort of adversity, right? Then again, maybe I’m wrong again—we’ll see. If he does go undefeated, I don’t want to hear that Ricky Carmichael or James Stewart were better because of one more race, we ALL have to just say that Jett is the third rider in history to go undefeated—and there’s NO asterisk guys.
I’m surprised that Jason Anderson hasn’t been better, I know it’s just four motos but man, he’s off the pace. JA21 is a bad dude, so him being this far off makes me think that maybe, just maybe, Burton, Masterpool, Marchbanks, Locurcio are better than we thought, you know? I guess the ultimate litmus test is when Justin Barcia comes back, if he is powerless against Ty Masterpool, then I give up. We just have to accept that Ty is THAT good, I guess.
What will turn our heads I think is Jett losing a moto somehow, somewhere, and then also, I had a prominent factory rider tell me that he thinks Hunter will just pick back up and start winning again rather easily, but to me, ribs are something that take a while, and he’s already not been practicing during the week much and I think vets like RJ Hampshire and Justin Cooper are going to step it up. Remember when Stew went out in 2007? Everyone got real fast when there was some hope out there (Timmy Ferry won that title I think, not sure really) and I expect the same in 250s…I think it’s on like Donkey Kong now.
KB: Well, I think all those 250 guys could already smell some blood in the water after Hunter DNF'd the second moto at RedBud. We saw some of that come out with a Tom Vialle win at Southwick, with Jo Shimoda winning a moto, and Justin Cooper looking maybe the best he has all year as well. These guys all look like they know this is their opportunity to pounce, especially in these two rounds before the Loretta Lynn's break, which would only help Hunter get back to full health.
With all of that said, we know silly season will soon be a hot topic. A lot of guys already sound like they have their deals lined up for 2024. We saw the Webb/KTM split last week, which in some ways feels like the first domino to fall (at least publicly). How much, if at all, will we see some extra pushes from guys still maybe shopping around? The big guys obviously already mostly have their stuff worked out for next year, but there are still a few musical chairs, particularly in that 250 class, that need sorting out. Is silly season maybe even going to help this 250 championship be that much spicier?
SM: I don’t think so, we know Shimoda is going to Honda, Hunter and Cooper are moving up, the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki team is mostly set, I think the biggest name we don’t know about yet is Maximus Vohland. The Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing guys might do something there, not sure yet. What’s KTM going to do to fill Vohland’s seat? They tried Levi Kitchen (PC) and Shimoda, but they moved to something else. Triumph coming in and most of us expect Jalek Swoll to be one of the riders there, but the big names in the 250 class are set.
Two thousand twenty five is going to be an epic silly season for sure, but this year, I think it’ll be a bit low key—something I hope Millville this weekend is not!
