Philadelphia 1980 Supercross film by Lyndon Fox, the uncle of Dunlop’s Rob Fox!

But that wasn’t the first time “stadium motocross” was held in the old stadium, which was demolished in 1992. Way back in 1973 JFK Stadium hosted a round of the old Trans-AMA Series on a Friday night in September, followed by a round on Sunday in Copetown, Ontario, Canada. Yes, two races on one weekend, in two different countries (but not that bad of a drive). The race was won by the Dutchman Gerrit Wolsink, and it was promoted by none other than Mike Goodwin, who dubbed the race “the Superbowl of the East.” I remember my parents attending, and there also being a real problem at the end of the race with fans coming out of the stands and crossing the track to stand on the infield. It was like Daytona ’24, only without all of the iPhones!

As far as the current series goes, Jett Lawrence has five points on Cooper Webb after breaking their tie last weekend with a win in Nashville. However, the big stories from the race were the epic crashes of Red Bull KTM’s Chase Sexton and then the crazy deal with Ken Roczen’s shock exploding. At first it seemed like both riders were hurt, but Chase was okay, but Kenny was not. He announced later announced on social media that his supercross season is over: “After further evaluation it looks like I will be out for a little bit. It turns out I broke my tib plateau, my foot and my toe.  No surgery is required as of right now but we are still gathering some information and further evaluation… That’s really all I have for now. Bye bye SX24, you were pretty cool! My fans and partners, you guys make it super fun and it’s a joy coming to the races and get that support you guys give us. “ 

Ricky Carmichael was thinking of both Roczen and Sexton when he tweeted, “The sport is brutal and often unnoticed just how gnarly it is. At times it will chew you up, and spit you out, with zero remorse. I hate it for our incredible athletes when they are on the wrong side of that equation.” Here's hoping Ken gets back on the bike soon and we hopefully see him do at least a couple outdoor nationals, as he was fantastic last year when he jumped in at High Point. And hopefully Sexton won’t have any lingering effects from his crash.

There was also the very strange/difficult/bad night for the two points leaders going into the East-West Showdown, Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki teammates Cameron McAdoo and Levi Kitchen. McAdoo got banged up in practice when he collided with another rider, then things got worse when he and Kitchen crashed together on the first lap of the main event. It was crazy how the two guys with red plates crashed together—and they were teammates! The closest thing I can remember incident I remember that was something like this was the 2019 Motocross of Nations in Assen, Holland, when Team USA’s Jason Anderson and Justin Cooper crashed together with each other on the first lap of the first moto, and just-like-that Team USA was out of contention. (There was also the 2003 East-West Showdown at Las Vegas that saw East #1 Branden Jesseman snap his wrist on press day and then West #1 James Stewart suffered that spectacular crash in front of the signaling area in the main event that left him with a broken collarbone. A lot of people probably had them going 1-2 in the 125 Nationals but in one weekend both were out.) McAdoo, who overcame quite a lot to get that red plate, is now done for SX as well and will not line up in Philadelphia this weekend, leaving the title fight to Tom Vialle and Haiden Deegan—with only Philly and the Salt Lake City East-West Showdown left Vialle leads by 13 points. As for Kitchen, he was able to scramble and salvage some points and is only two behind Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s RJ Hampshire in the West with Denver and SLC coming up.

Beyond that, there were a couple milestones of sorts. Jalek Swoll scored the first top-five finish for Triumph, just a day after the team and Evan Ferry parted ways. And Benny Bloss reached another highwater mark for Beta with a solid eighth-place in Nashville, two better than his previous best in 2024. And Mitch Kendra pointed out a cool stat: Both Lawrence brothers and both Hill brothers qualified for the 450 SX main. Has that ever happened before?

Looking ahead, the weather has been nice all week, so there will be a press day with riding for once, as well as nice weather tomorrow. Look for some film from Philly’s press day later on right here on Racer X Online. And while the MXGP guys are off another weekend, GNCC will be up-and-running with the Hoosier GNCC from Ironman, which you can watch stream live and free on Sunday afternoon on racertv.com.

ONE WEEK (Matthes)

No, not the Barenaked Ladies song but it's just one week from today for the 3rd annual Yamaha LCQ Challenge race in Denver. We'll set the field on Monday and the format is two 5 minute + 1 lap races with a staggered start (with 22nd in front down to 1st in last) for the second moto. We got over 100K last year in raffle ticket sales, we're behind that now so get to it.

The winner will get a 2024 YZ450F and we have 20 other prizes as well. The race itself will be streamed Friday on Vurbmoto and PulpMX YouTube. BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW! 

And after we crown the Yamaha LCQ privateer winner, we'll most likely have them on the FLY Racing LIVE Podcast show Friday night not far from the stadium. It'll be Justin Brayton, JT, and myself hosting it and a good time will be had by all. Get your tickets HERE.  

Also, the winner of the Yamaha LCQ Challenge race is going to get start money, flight, hotels to race the 10th annual Tampere SX in Finland also! Pretty cool deal. Thanks to @xracingfi for this.

Brownie And The East Coast Swing (Keefer)

I've decided to let Mike Brown take the reins and let him handle my son Aden's on/off bike training here in Georgia. Mike is currently at the Triumph facility in Culloden, Georgia, training Jalek Swoll as well as helping out around the facility. Mike is one of the friendliest humans ever but a beast on the bike so what better person to help my kid toughen up a little bit for the upcoming summer months of amateur motocross? I feel like Mike Brown has that old-school tough mentality as well as enough new school knowledge, as he comes from the Baker's Factory, that Aden could benefit from. As I have seen firsthand this past week, there is no lack of training around these parts. Thick skin must be had and a will to dig is something you'll need when training with Brownie. He is not afraid to tell you when you need to be better but also has a solution for the parts in your riding/program that need work. If you aren't good or don't feel like training, you'll hear it. However, if you get the training in and give it your all, you'll hear positive reinforcement. The reason I know this is because I've been tagging along and doing most of the on-bike work this week with the boys here and I can tell you that my mid-40 body is feeling it. 

Triumph and the team are gearing up for the outdoors and I think a lot of people will be surprised on how well Joey Savatgy is riding. Savatgy has been patiently waiting to get back into racing and in a short few weeks, we will be able to see the #17 back on the track. Swoll also is a sleeper and is no slouch at these outdoor races, so Triumph will be well represented this summer. I, for one, am headed back to the good ol’ high dez to get back to regularly scheduled programming, but being back here and riding these tracks makes me appreciate what y’all get to ride. Great dirt to test on has me thinking that we need a Keefer Inc. "East Coast" Testing division! My 18-year-old inner self is super jealous of Aden right now. Great tracks, hot weather and long days of riding/training makes me wish I was young again. 

TIGER (Matthes)

Something interesting is happening in my homeland with some top American amateur racers. Drew Adams, a Team Green prospect, is committed to three Canadian Nationals for the Kawasaki team while 17-year-old Australian Thomas "Tiger" Wood has been picked up by the Gopher Dunes Honda team to do the whole series. Years ago, big time USA amateurs like Kyle Chisholm, Josh Woods, Nick Wey and others raced a few races here or there or the entire series and it looks like that's back for 2024.

Lucas Mirtl is Wood's agent and he reached out to GDR Honda's Derek Schuster about putting Wood on the team for the summer. Derek's been used to working with American Honda and Mirtl before, he's got Canadian MX stalwart Tyler Medaglia also in MX2 and Wood will be the young kid learning the ropes. I think the plan is that instead of racing the few U.S. amateur races, going to the nine-round Canadian series with 25 minute motos against men like Medaglia and past champ Kaven Benoit will help Wood and his development.

Last weekend was a local kick off race at the sand track of Gopher Dunes and Wood acquitted himself quite well against some solid Canadian pros. Wood has just been on a 250F for a few months and kept them in site. He figures to be a top five MX2 rider up in the Great White North for this year. Great thing for Wood and Adams and also, great for the series up there.

Guitars for the Win (Ads) (DC)

The Music City SX in Nashville loans itself to all kind of tie-ins with music, and Feld took advantage of it by giving out custom Gibson guitars for everyone on the podium. Sure, we’ve seen guitars given out before—everywhere from Glen Helen to Loretta Lynn’s—but for some reason the Gibson guitars were a real hit with everyone, and they made no less than four appearances in this week’s win ads in Cycle News for Jett and RJ.

And while I don’t know if he won or not, it was cool to see the next generation of Emlers in the KTM Junior SX Challenge, as Lil D’s son Ethan Emler raced in Nashville and ended up featured in this week’s FMF ad. Also, Kailub Russell’s son Kru raced in the KTM race as well and end up fifth after a fall in the sand. What a cool experience for any kid, but really cool to see industry friends and family participate in what’s become a supercross tradition.

Trophy Returned (DC)

And speaking of trophies, here's an interesting story that involves supercross, motocross, college football, the Los Angeles Coliseum, "stolen glory," and a trophy returned. Stay with me...

In 1974 a Czech rider named Jaroslav Falta came to America to race the Inter-Am Series that summer during his weekends off from competing for the FIM 250cc World Championships back in Europe. Falta and his teammate Zdenek Velky were under the watchful eyes of their Communist Party bosses and secret police everywhere they went, as the Czech and Eastern Bloc authorities were always worried that high-profile athletes like them might defect while they were competing in western countries like the U.S. Falta and Velky were very good, despite the fact that they were forced to race CZ motorcycles that were falling well behind their competition's Japanese brands. That and the fact that they were still competitive made them heroes to the people who saw them race, and I was lucky enough to be one of those kids along the fence when Falta and Velky raced at the 1974 Inter-Am race at Mid-Ohio.

One week earlier in that summer of '74 the third Superbowl of Motocross was held at the Los Angeles Coliseum, and Jaroslav Falta won what we now regard as the last round of the first AMA Supercross Championship. That would be the highlight of Falta's year because after he went home to complete the battle for that '74 250cc World Championship, he ended up getting absolutely robbed at the final round of the season when several riders from Russia spent the day blocking and knocking him down in order to help their teammate, the "Soviet Major" Gennady Moiseev. But they couldn't keep Falta down, and he ended up finishing third in the final moto, which was enough to win the world title. But no sooner had Falta claimed the trophy than the FIM took it back, based on a protest from the Russians that Falta had jumped the starting gate! He was docked one minute, and that dropped him back to eighth-place and gave the world title and the championship trophy to Moiseev. None of the Russians were penalized, and the whole sordid mess remains a very dark day in motocross history. To this day people are still hoping that someday the FIM will do the right thing and give that championship trophy back to Jaroslav Falta's family—Jaroslav himself passed away in 2022.

You can read all about Jaroslav Falta, his career and that dramatic '74 season in the biographical book "Stolen Title" written by Gary Tippings and Falta's daughter Mariana. It's a must-have, must-read for every motocross fan and/or student of the sport. 

The Los Angeles Coliseum also happens to be the home field for the University of Southern California Trojans football team. That meant that O.J. Simpson played there in the late 1960s, and Reggie Bush played there in the early '00s. Both won Heisman Trophies as the nation's best college football player, Simpson in 1968 and Bush in 2005, with all of their home games happening in the LA Coliseum. But then in 2010 Bush had to give back his Heisman Trophy when the NCAA ruled that he had received improper benefits for a student athlete from USC—the only player to ever have to give his Heisman Trophy back. Even O.J. got to keep his, despite all of his legal troubles, which included killing two people, his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Dan Goldman. 

But then earlier this week the NCAA and the Heisman Trophy people decided to give Reggie Bush his trophy back, ruling that what Bush did in accepting money from boosters is basically how it all works now and that it didn't make sense to single him out, so he got his Heisman Trophy back. 

Which leads me to my whole point about trophies earned by those who happened to have all been successful in the Los Angeles Coliseum: Can Jaroslav Falta finally get his trophy back? The one he never got for winning the 1974 FIM 250cc World Motocross Championship? 

Here's Ken Smith's Racer X Magazine feature on the whole 1974 saga involving Jaroslav Falta, written 21 years ago for our July 2003 issue.

Hey, Watch It!

This week’s SMX Insider from the Jasons—Weigandt and Thomas—with some input from T.J. Rios:

Fun video from retired rider Alex Martin through his Troll Training program: How Fit are Supercross Athletes? (Interviews with the Pros)

"Is Nashville Supercross Cursed?!" (Not a Headscratching Headline of the Week, but rather this week's vlog from Shane McElrath):

THOR's "In Focus" Episode 2 follows the cowboy himself, Aaron Plessinger:

Old School: The 1990 500cc Grand Prix opener at Valkenswaard in Holland, where #7 Kawasaki rider Billy Liles was a convincing 1-1 in the season opener. (Look closely and #1 is David Thorpe, #3 is Eric Geboers, #4 is Kurt Nicoll.)

World’s Only KTM Powered Suzuki!

GoPro: The Fastest 9-Year-Old in the World?

Feast or Famine with The Lawrences: Foxborough and Nashville SX:

Dirt Shark goes to Nashville and runs into an OG Monster Girl, none other than Diana Dahlgren: