Among the absolutely most consistent riders so far is Freddie Noren, who has qualified for all six 450 main events and notched finishes of 21-20-17-19-22-20. He sits 23rd in the standings with 13 points so far. Doing much better in the results but with similar consistency is Dylan Ferrandis, who has posted 5-6-6-10-7-6 finishes to hold eighth in the rankings on his Phoenix Honda. 

There's also been a few riders who have been consistent, but not in a good way. Rockstar Husqvarna riders Christian Craig and Malcolm Stewart have both gotten off to slower than expected starts to their 2024 campaigns. Craig has 20-14-20-14-13-12 finishes while Stewart has posted 11-22-19-8-9-11 finishes. The good news is both are starting to trend a little better, but at this rate, one-third of the way through SX, they might be thinking about hitting the proverbial panic button.

Same goes for Justin Barcia, who is actually trending the wrong way. The TLD/Red Bull GasGas rider went 7-7-3 in the first three rounds but since has slipped in the last three to 13-12-18. He's been struggling with bike setup, posting last week, "Still behind the ball on bike setup which is causing me awful arm pump when the track breaks down."

Again, we're only one-third of the way through the series, with a lot of races yet to be run. Lawrence is the only double-winner so far, and of course has the points lead, but it's a narrow one. The 250 SX East is only one race old, though after all of the misfortune that several of the contenders had in that first turn, Forkner definitely has a leg up on Haiden Deegan, Tom Vialle, Seth Hammaker, Cameron McAdoo, etc. The 250 SX West is now on hiatus until the end of March, with a three-horse race for the points lead between Levin Kitchen, Jordon Smith, and RJ Hampshire.

That's where we are on this off-weekend, so enjoy the downtime because we already can't wait for things to start back up next Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas! 

TIME MACHINE: GNCC 25 YEARS AGO (DC)

The Progressive AMA Grand National Cross Country Series kicks off this weekend in South Carolina with the Big Buck GNCC. The ATV divisions will race on Saturday and the motorcycles on Sunday, beginning at 1 p.m. ET and stream live (and free) on racertv.com. Back to defend his title is Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory pilot Craig Delong, who can expect plenty from the likes of Rocky Mountain/Red Bear Kawasaki's Stew Baylor, Coastal GasGas factory rider Jordan Ashburn, AmPro Yamaha's Ricky Russell, and more, as Jared Bolton explained earlier this week. 

Earlier this weekend, In a strange coincidence, from friend Larry Lawrence, longtime contributor to both the AMA and Cycle News, as well as Racer X, sent me a file full of old black and white images from what he figured was a GNCC around the year 2000, but he wasn't sure. Larry has been scanning some of the old Cycle News photo archives, which includes years upon years of old film from races gone by. One of the biggest treasures he's come across are the rolls of 35mm film of the 1981 Trophee and Motocross des Nations, the first year Team USA won.

As soon as I opened the file I recognized some of the photos—I shot them myself back in 1999! They were from the opening round of the '99 GNCC Series, down near Lake Okeechobee in Florida, a pivotal round in the 49-year history of the series. The race marked the debut of Australian KTM rider Shane Watts in the GNCC Series, and he shocked everyone by taking the overall win. Watts was already the overall FIM World Enduro Champion, so the fact that he was competitive in the Florida sand was not the surprise. However, the fact that he won on a KTM 125 was truly remarkable. That has happened only one other time in GNCC history, when Tommy Norton won the 1990 Blackwater 100 on a 125. Among the top riders the then-22 year-old Watts topped in Florida were future AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famers Rodney Smith of Team Suzuki, Honda's Scott Summers, KTM's Scott Plessinger, and Yamaha's Barry Hawk (who won the previous afternoon's ATV race). Also on hand but racing support classes were retired off-road legends Dick Burleson and Larry Roeseler.  

One week later Watts would prove his win was no fluke when he also topped the second round of the series in Macon, Georgia. That led Summers to tell Cycle News reporter Geoff Meyer (yes, the MX Geoff from MXLarge.com!) that Watts, "Showed us all that he can win anywhere in the world. He kicked our butts, no doubt about it. I'm happy for him; he's a good guy."

One week later Watts would appear on the cover of Cycle News for his second win (shot by MX Geoff), announcing his arrival on the U.S. off-road scene. One year later he would become the first foreign rider ever to win the AMA Grand National Cross Country Series, opening the door for the likes of Juha Salminen (Finland), David Knight (Isle of Man, UK), Paul Whibley (New Zealand), and Josh Strang (Australia) to all follow as GNCC Champions.

ARGENTINA BECKONS (DC)

With the opening round of the FIM World Motocross Championships now less than a month away, the preseason international races are heating up over in Europe. The annual race in Mantova, Italy, went off last weekend with Red Bull KTM's Liam Everts winning the MX2 class and former multi-time MXGP World Champion Tim Gajser winning the 450 division. This coming weekend there is a race in Sommieres, France, as well as Lacapelle next weekend, and then Hawkstone Park in the United Kingdom. After that everyone will be heading to Argentina to start the Grand Prix season.

Missing from these races is the defending MXGP Champion Jorge Prado, who of course spent much of his off-season here in the U.S. trying his hand at Monster Energy Supercross. Going into the opener he will be something of a question mark, but only because he spent that time racing in stadiums, not testing outdoors. No matter, I think it's safe to say he will be among the top pre-race favorites, along with Gajser and another multi-time former champion, Jeffrey Herlings, who has been keeping a low profile. He was in Spain recently, working with former champion John Van den Berk. Geoff Meyer recently got with Van den Berk to discuss training "the Bullet" which you can read right here.

Also among the other favorites will be Kawasaki's Romain Febvre (another former world champ) and his teammate Jeremy Seewer, plus Yamaha's Maxime Renauex, the former MX2 World Champion and a standout for Team France in the last couple of MXoN races. As for the 250 class, with Jago Geerts moving up due to the MXGP age limit (23 years old, and keep an eye on him as well), it's pretty much wide open, as defending champion Andrea Adamo lines up alongside Everts on the KTM team, and German rider Simon Langenfelder of the GasGas team, Belgium's Coenen brothers, Denmark's Mikkel Haarup, Holland's Kay De Wolf, and the American ex-pat Jack Chambers, who will be starting his first full season abroad. (No American has won an FIM World MX title since Bob Moore in 1994, crazy to think that was 30 years ago!)

As Argentina gets closer we will keep you posted on the news from over there, and you can sign up now to watch all season long—as well as the '24 FIM Motocross of Nations from Matterly-Basin in England at mxgp-tv.com.

Random Off-Weekend Mystery (DC)

Got a note from our buddy Stan the Stump Grinder, who usually sends over a funny headline or two: 

We checked The Vault for both amateur and pro points and didn't see anything, so maybe he's a regional or series champion, or from another country. Anyone have any info? 

GOOD QUESTION (DC)

Got this one from longtime reader Reese Dengler, from Kent, WA:

During our weekly meeting on all things SX/MX/SMX I asked Feld Motor Sports’ Dave Prater and Mike Muye why the 450s start first and end last, and why the 250 main goes first. They explained that it came at the request of the network—get the viewers started watching from the beginning and stay to the end—and when they put the question to the team managers they all preferred it this way, in case something happens during their LCQ. They collectively do not put as much emphasis on the 250 class, as it's still a regional development series and their races are shorter, so they would rather use the time for those four 450 riders from the LCQ to get ready for their main event, which of course is longer than the 250 race. And by what I'm hearing and seeing on the broadcast numbers, this new format is in fact working well so far.

Vintage Daytona (Blake Wharton)

As the moto world prepares to descend upon the 82nd Annual Daytona Bike Week, don’t forget that little air-cooled four-stroke sitting in the corner of your shop, that little XR200. A fan-favorite and one of the fastest growing classes in vintage racing, the XR200 class will be returning for year two at the Ricky Carmichael Daytona Amateur Supercross. The "King of Daytona" is a no-excuses class piloted by Pros and Joes alike, all them showing off their builds, battling together and pushing these bikes to their absolute limits.

The amateur supercross has become a huge part of Daytona Bike Week, and if you've ever been down in the infield for the first half of the week to see all of the kids and pit bikes and dirt bikes there to watch not only Monster Energy Supercross, but the RCSX as well, you know what I mean! Bike Week is much more than just Harleys and leather. If you haven’t been to the RCSX, a race that offers something for everyone in the family, you should definitely look at it for 2024 because you will not be disappointed!

BRAND NEW ISSUE (DC)

The latest issue of Racer X Magazine dropped this week with the Red Bull KTM "Cowboy" himself on the cover, Aaron Plessinger, after his first career 450 win at the San Diego round. In between his TV and SMX Insider gigs, Jason Weigandt penned a cool feature called "Wet January" about the four-race swing through the Golden State that was mostly rainy and gray, but also very interesting and entertaining. Also, In between PulpMX and his various podcast gigs Steve Matthes sat down with Troy Lee himself to discuss his career, as well as his favorite bits and creations from over the years for "The Happy Man" feature. Aaron Hansel followed the veteran Billy Laninovich around California as he tried to become the oldest rider to ever qualify for an AMA Supercross main event. That feature is aptly titled, "Fast 40." And finally, there is the second part of my history-on-the-125 feature "Endgame" that focuses on the last 125cc motorcycle to ever lead—let alone win—an AMA Supercross or Pro Motocross event, James Stewart's 2004 Kawasaki KX125. In a matter of one week Stewart went from absolutely dominating the Steel City 125 National on that bike to a nearly-stock KXF250 for the final round at Glen Helen and promptly won by even more. But, in doing so he signaled the effective end of the 125 era in professional SX/MX. How fast was James on that bike? 

Watch this full moto video from Washougal '04 of Stew against the 250Fs right here from the Racer X Video Vault:

Here is the Racer X Lego'd cover...

Area Qualifiers (Keefer)

It seems like I just typed about this not too long ago. We are typing this from Mesquite MX in Arizona as the first wave of Loretta Lynn's Area Qualifiers have started. Yes, we are only in February but since my test schedule is so crazy I thought I would take the boy to qualify now instead of later. This weekend is a SUPER AREA which means we can qualify for a midwest and southwest regional, which ensures a backup plan in case some unforeseen crap goes down at the first regional. This is all the stuff that you need to think about as the moto-parent of an aspiring amateur. Logging miles and writing checks that my body can't cash is the name of the game and it all starts this weekend. Thousands of families will start their journey this weekend over the United States and it's cool to see everyone flock to these motocross tracks all over the map to meet in one spot in August. Hope to see ya'll there! 

Mad Skills Motocross: Chasing the Dream (Kellen Brauer)

This week, longtime “Mad Skills Motocross” game developer Turborilla announced a partnership with Illinois-based developer LCQ Studios, and a new game titled, “Mad Skills Motocross: Chasing the Dream.” To gamers, a lot of these names will sound familiar, as Turborilla’s “Mad Skills Motocross” mobile game has been very popular for more than a decade and LCQ Studios has been producing a beta version of a PC game titled, “Motocross: Chasing the Dream” for a few years now. Their playable beta of the game has been available on the PC gaming platform Steam since August of 2022. Any players who have already purchased that game will be able to get “Mad Skills Motocross: Chasing the Dream” at no charge.

LCQ Studios was founded by Michael Hodge who comes from a motocross simulator game background as he used to compete professionally in MX Simulator and has been around the motocross gaming community for years. Now teaming up with Turborilla, the base game built by LCQ Studios can really continue full steam ahead.

“Our goal is to create an arcade motocross game with best-in-class physics that are true to the sport, are easy to learn and tough to master, and that provide a fun balance between arcade and realism,” said Turborilla’s lead game designer Joe Welch.

This isn’t the first time Turborilla has ventured outside of the mobile gaming market either as their original “Mad Skills Motocross” game was originally a PC only release, though now all of their games are mobile only. Either way, this is an exciting combination of two developers full of individuals with a passion for motocross. While no release date is yet available, the plan is to get the game in the hands of the community quickly so they can be part of the development process with the game. That model was how LCQ Studios was operating with their original release, and it appears that will not change. They also hope to begin with PCs and expand to all major consoles in the future. Exciting times lay ahead for where this project will be going!

COLORADO ADVENTURE TOURING (DC)

In the past couple of years many of us here at Racer X have become regular adventure bike riders. It's another fun way to enjoy motorcycling, and I personally have been lucky enough to ride up the Lost Coast of Northern California on a Ducati Multistrada, Jeff Stanton's Pure Michigan Triumph Experience, all around the local roads and trails at several outdoor national tracks on a KTM 1190 Super Adventure, and of course all over West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland...

This year I'm hoping to add an insider's tour around Colorado with the gang at Exittours.org. They are a non-profit motorcycle club that has 17 different tours coming up this year through the Rocky Mountains and points even further. For instance, there will be five Club Dual Sport Rides in Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, and California. They also will host Adventure Rides as far away as Baja and even Cuba. The rides will include gear portage, phone-capable GPS tracks, meals, hot springs, camping—you name it, they probably already have it lined up.

Here's a link to check out their upcoming rides.

And these are the Great Divide Ride series.

Finally, here are the Dual Sport rides.

Give Exit Tours MC a look and maybe join them on an upcoming ride this spring, summer, and fall.

Hey, Watch It!

The preseason international races are up and running, despite it still being winter there too. Here's a glimpse at the familiar Mantova event in Italy, which featured Tim Gajser, Romain Febvre, Simon Langenfelder, Liam Everts, Jeremy Seewer, MX2 World Champion Andrea Adamo and more:

Check out Episode 3 of the Muc-Off/FXR/ClubMX series "Every Second Counts" coming to you from Glendale:

James Stewart breaks down Ken Roczen's win in Glendale on this week's Bubba's World podcast:

Racer X's Kellen Brauer asked a fast group of riders--Dean Wilson, Jo Shimoda, Ryder DiFrancesco, Jerry Robin, Talon Hawkins, Hunter Yoder--which rider they learned the most from:

The top six moments from the Glendale SX, from NBC:

This week's SMX Insider as everyone takes a well-deserved break: