And we will be seeing Eli Tomac-vs-Jett Lawrence here at Daytona for the first time, which will also be fun to watch. But they have raced big bikes outdoors together once before—the 2022 Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations at RedBud MX. Lawrence was making his 450cc debut for Team Australia while Tomac was the captain of Team USA. They were in different classes (MXGP for Eli, Open for Jett) so they only raced one moto together, the last one. Interestingly, neither of them won—Team France’s Maxime Renaux actually did, with Jett second and Eli a cautious sixth, cementing the Team USA win.

Beyond those three—Tomac, Webb, and Jett Lawrence—just about all of the top guys are healthy and riding well, so I wouldn’t be shocked if Ken Roczen or Chase Sexton or Jason Anderson or Aaron Plessinger are up there at the end. (And welcome back to Adam Cianciarulo, who has been out with injury since the third round.)

Of course, the 250SX East Region class last weekend in Arlington was all about the big crash of Austin Forkner while leading, the subsequent handling of his situation, and the fact that he landed on concrete and not dirt or mats or some kind of softer surface. The whole situation definitely got the internet humming on over-drive, and I hope something positive comes from it. As for Austin, it just seems like the kid is just one of those really unlucky guys right now, hurt way more often than he should be, and usually early in a series, which makes all of that work even more painful to lose and difficult to repeat after such disappointment. Like Jett Reynolds. Or Jeremy Martin. Or more back in the day Ben Townley, and even further back Travis Pastrana and Doug Henry. In his video, Forkner tried to put on a brave face, but it’s obvious that he’s incredibly bummed to have to start rebuilding his career all over again. Get well soon #64.

Remember that big first-turn crash that caught up Haiden Deegan and Cameron McAdoo and Tom Vialle and Seth Hammaker and Pierce Brown? That was the finishing positions in Arlington, in that order. And that’s also why Max Anstie is the points leader, becoming (I believe) the first British rider to ever wear red plates in AMA Supercross, and also the first red plates in this series for the Firepower Honda team. Anstie was sixth in Texas, but he was second at the opener, making him what would seem like an unlikely points leader with 2-6 finishes, but consistency wins championships. Max finished second here last year—he absolutely loves sand, having spent plenty of time at Lommel, Belgium. (And Deegan, who won his first SX last weekend, earned his first-ever SX podium here last year.)

Finally, after experimenting for a few rounds, the race format will go back to how it used to be, with the 250SX class heat races running first, then 450s, then 250SX LCQ, 450SX LCQ, 250SX main, 450SX main. It was decided among team managers that the format they were trying out just doesn't give enough time for the 250 guys that end up in the LCQ, especially if it were to rain. But NBC and Feld will have the option of using that format again in case a race is on live network TV (which apparently the Philadelphia race is set to be).

The speedway is having a welcome reception here in a few minutes that I need to attend, along with probably most of the rest of the paddock. All of the OEMs should be there, as well as two ones new to our sport: Ducati and Stark (fresh off their British Arenacross Championship, their first as a motorcycle manufacturer). They are here to check it all out. When they are actually here competing in any kind Monster Energy AMA Supercross remains to be seen, but there will be an Electric exhibition class on Tuesday during the Daytona Vintage Supercross, and it sounds like Matt Burkeen will be aboard a Stark, so watch for his vlog next week!

Before we get into the rest of the week, our sincere condolences to Randel Fout's family, friends, fellow riders and fellow surfers, and the whole Motocross Action Magazine wrecking crew and Glen Helen Raceway. Fout was a regular at Glen Helen and with the MXA gang, even wearing the trademark orange helmet as he tested with them often. He passed away last Sunday after a crash in the SRA Grand Prix event. Here's the MXA report on what they think happened to Randel.

Sally Weisel has helped set up a GoFundMe to benefit Logan Fout, Randel's young son.

Godspeed, Randel.  

Florida...Whew (Matthes)

It's been a few years since I did the whole stay in Florida thing before Daytona SX. I don't even really like attending the Daytona SX. It's tough to find somewhere to watch from, credentials are a pain (I mean they didn't even let DC in one year!), parking, the expense of it, and all of it. But I'm back this year! We'll try it again but what kind of really sealed it for me was an invite to come out and ride the new Triumph on Monday before Daytona at Gatorback Cycle Park. That was a pretty cool opportunity and I've been riding lately way more than in recent years. So, Monday we were at the track with Jeff Stanton, Ivan Tedesco, RC, Clement Desalle, and more. Heck, there was even a Yogi (Ezra Lusk) sighting! So, getting to ride two prime tracks on a new bike was pretty cool, by now you've probably watched the video of Keefer and I talking about it. From the test riders that were there (I am not a test rider BTW), they all thought the bike had a solid chance to win shootouts which for the first year is impressive, right?

That night we had a live PulpMX Show at the hotel with Kellen, Keefer, Vital MX’s Michael Lindsey all co-hosting and then RC, Tedesco, Stanton, and Triumph USA's Rod Lopusnak all coming on guests to talk about this new venture. 

Next morning it was out to the Sandbox, Jason Baker's facility, to watch Ken Roczen, Shane McElrath, Lorenzo Locurcio, Levi Kitchen, and Hardy Munoz amongst others do their thing in getting ready for Daytona. Well, Kitch wasn't but he made me post on IG a photo of #47 black numbers on white plate to tell everyone he was. Also, Levi was very impressive out there and was pushing it hard. Watching Roczen do his thing, well that's always cool. He makes it easy man. Also, Hardy, wow. ICYWW, he also sends it during the week. 

That night I met up with KTM's Seth Rarick for dinner and then we went back and recorded a Re-Raceables Podcast with Weege and Denny Stephenson talking Miami SX 1989.

Wednesday AM went out to Chad Reed's old place in Dade City where Jett and Hunter Lawrence train. It's been a few years since I was there also and wow, that place has really expanded. Talked to Darren Lawrence a bunch, watched the brothers do some motos and both Darren and I laughed at a couple of Jett's passes through the whoops where he got a bit squirrely but didn't run out of talent. Also, both Sandbox and Lawrence's place had extra "Daytona" sections added to the SX tracks to try and get into that black sand that they'll see this weekend. At some point Tim and Evan Ferry showed up and yeah, that was awesome! Dylan Ferrandis also rides there but he wasn't on this day neither was Canadian MX legend Dylan Wright. SAD.

After that, Dan "the man of 10,000 jobs" Truman took me mountain biking and that was great. We rode for an hour and climbed like 53 feet! #Florida

Back at hotel and I recorded a PulpMX Fantasy podcast with the usual crew talking Daytona and who we like for our teams, etc. 

Thursday, I drove out to PAX Track closer to Daytona where I took part in a Suzuki RM-Army ride day. They've been doing it all year long across the country, Roczen, McElrath, and Kyle Chisholm came out to hang with fans, do a Q&A, tour the Twisted Tea HEP Motorsports rig, Larry Brooks was there also. The fans I met seemed to really enjoy the hang. Also, team owner Dustin Pipes and Suzuki's Chris Wheeler let me ride Roczen's SX test bike a bunch, like, probably 45 min or so! It was the bike Kenny practiced on when he was up in Mesquite, Nevada, for the first few weeks of the year. So, yeah that was awesome, fun track and Ken's bike was good. The SX spring rate was pretty good for my "husky" build and motor was friendly. Good times and they gave me a hat, shirt, and some RM-Army dog tags. Don't tell the BLU CRU guys. 

As you read this, I'll be out at the AMA Arenacross doing a webcast with Denny Stephenson Friday night. We'll have a bunch of guests on, and you can listen to Kyle Peters and Ryan Breece go at it for this title on AX website or the AX app. Should be a great time indeed.

So, yeah. SX tomorrow and then home. What a week it was, wide open with tons of driving but also, tons of fun and unique experiences as well. I should've written a Racer X feature on this or something. 

Time for a nap. 

Random Moto History (DC)

With Triumph and Beta now in and Ducati on the horizon, I've been doing some studying on how various brands have done over the years in AMA Supercross. As I mentioned before, Triumph became the 18th brands to compete in SX (though last weekend in Arlington was a disaster for Evan Ferry and Jalek Swoll). And another one of those crazy little factoids popped up, from 36 years ago. In the 1988 Daytona 125 Supercross, team Suzuki’s Todd DeHoop won. Second-place was Florida’s own Brian McElroy, who was riding an Italian-made Cagiva 125. Third was Kawasaki Team Green rider Chris Coleman, fourth was Yamaha-mounted “Mad” Mike Jones, and fifth place went to Robert Naughton, who hailed from Arizona but was riding the 125 East that year. He was also on a Cagiva. And so was the eighth-place finisher, Billy Whitley. Incredibly, there were more Cagivas in the top eight of that race than any other brand, the one and only time that ever happened. 

Triumph Week Part Two (Keefer)

Well... Unless you've been living under a rock, you now know about the Triumph TF 250-X. The motocross media invaded Gatorback Cycle Park and there are a ton of videos online about the machine. If you want to watch, listen or even read about the bike, I made it easy for all of you via three different websites: right here on Racerxonline.com, Keeferinctesting.com, or Pulpmx.com are the spots to go to. Instead of telling you about the bike why not tell you what my favorite part of the intro was. My favorite part was getting behind Ezra Lusk and riding with him. Yogi was one of my favorite riders growing up and getting to ride with him a bit was a childhood dream of mine! He still has that same smooth Yogi style and I loved that he got out to enjoy the day. It was also amazing to watch Clement Desalle ride as he still completely hauls ass on a bike. WOW! Sometimes, just sometimes, there are intros that are better than others and this Triumph TF 250-X intro was one of those to remember. Bike was good, legends of the sport were there and STEVE RODE A DIRT BIKE! Thus was a good day! 

A Camo Trucker Hat with A Touch of Class

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Hey, Watch It!

Motocross Action Magazine's Josh Mosiman took on his first GNCC at last weekend's Big Buck opener in South Carolina on a new Yamaha YZ450 FX, and it looks like it went pretty well!

Here's the great Antonio Cairoli putting the new Ducati MX bike through its paces for Dirt Shark:

GoPro: 65cc Takes on Glen Helen

Onboard with 65cc ripper Jaydin Smart at the recent Mini Monster event at Glen Helen Raceway.

Max Anstie of the Firepower Honda team is your new points leader in the 250 SX East Region after surviving for sixth in Arlington, making him the first British rider to ever hold the red plate in AMA Supercross: