Deegan was lucky to have missed the torrential rain that swamped the area last weekend. If you saw some of the videos from the storm it seemed like the whole track was washing away, but I just took a lap around and you can barely tell it rained, let alone flooded the place! Needless to say, Keith Johnson and the whole ‘Wick 338 crew did quite a job of restoring the place.  

MXGP is also back this weekend, on one of their flyaway races to Indonesia, where they will race next weekend as well. As we mentioned last week the country of Belgium is on a seven-race winning streak, and the Coenen family in particular, after his twin brother Lucas won three straight MX2 rounds, Sacha Coenen has won the last two. Lucas rides for the Husqvarna factory; Sacha is with Red Bull KTM. They are 17 years old and will likely be moving to America within the next two years. As for MXGP, the race in Italy was great for Tim Gajser and Jeffrey Herlings, but bad for Jorge Prado, who crashed off the start of the second moto and was slightly injured, forcing him to retire for the day. He’s in for Indonesia and needs to rebound quickly. The second motos from Indonesia will air on Sunday at noon on the CBS Sports Network.

The AMA’s Mike Pelletier is in for both of the races in Indonesia as he will be a part of the FIM Jury. When he returns we will be getting close to the time of summer when we start talking about who will be on Team USA for the MXoN. With Cooper Webb back on the bike, and Eli Tomac also soon to do so, and Star Racing seeming to be interested this year, Mike and team manager Roger DeCoster are going to have a lot to factor in.

Because there are no amateurs here this weekend there’s not much going on at the track other than load-in and then the press ride, so Nick McCabe invited me to go visit a place called Hogan’s Cycle Shop, in nearby Agawam. Bob Hogan opened his shop in 1955 and he specializes in old Spanish brands like Bultaco, Ossa and Montesa. The place is backed with salvage models and photos alone don’t do it justice. It’s also full of old memorabilia, trophies, posters, signs, photos, riding gear and more. If you ever get to Southwick put Hogan’s Cycle Shop on your list of things to do on Friday, but get there early—Hogan’s is only open from 9 to 11 in the morning!

The Return of #778 Tony Lorusso (DC)

Tony Lorusso is something of a New England motocross folk hero. He raced the Southwick National for the first time in 1990, and most recently in 2012. His has several top-ten AMA Pro Motocross finishes and a couple of top-five 125/250 SX finishes. His high-water mark at Southwick was a seventh in 2003. As an amateur he raced Loretta Lynn's once on the way up, in 1987 on 85cc minicycles and had midpack finishes. He returned in 2014 in the Vet classes and finished third in both the Vet +35 and Vet +40. And in between all of that he has won countless NESC races and titles. 

We bring all of this up because Lorusso, who hails from Brockton, Massachusetts, is coming back out to race the Southwick National this weekend in the 250 class, at the age of 52! Lorusso, who is one of those "forever fast" guys like a Mike Brown, a Jeff Emig, or a John Dowd. He never really stopped racing locally and is extremely competitive, especially at The Wick. I've spoken to Rick "Ziggy" Zielfelder, Paul Buckley and Rick Johnson (Keith's dad) and they all say he still absolutely flies. So he applied for his license for 2024 and received it, with the direct goal of qualifying for the Southwick National. 

Will he make it? Here's hoping so, because it would make him the oldest rider to ever qualify for an outdoor national. The last time John Dowd qualified for Southwick was in 2013 when he was 43 years old. And keep this in mind: Lorusso will be in the B Group of 250 class qualifying, which means the first practice of the day. The track will be pristine, and Lorusso--like Jimmy D. just last year--will be able to hit the ground running. He knows the track like the back of his hand. 

One other funny thing: I got a note from Pete Noneman of the Legends & Heroes of Motocross/Supercross and he reminded me that they honored Tony Lorusso at the 2022 Foxborough Supercross. He wrote, "I believe Tony Lorusso would be the first Legends & Heroes honoree to go back out and race again in a pro national or SX after being inducted into our fold. This will be cool!" 

Added our resident New Englander Jim Mahan, now of Triple S Harley-Davidson fame back in Morgantown: "Now all we need is Barton, Fisher, Dzielak, Barna, Tread, KJ, JoJo, Waddington, Rudnicki, Carter, Mayo, Meenan, Sampson, Fauteux, Dowd, Henry and other NESC legends to do a parade lap in Tony’s honor! I can hear the crowd now and the Legion bar emptying out to see that." Five minutes later he texted again: "I forgot Burdette, Wymess Scott, Naumec, McCann, Finkelday, and others. NESC back in the day was a mini National every weekend!" Jim was at the first Southwick National ever back in 1976.

Matt Buyten Down (DC)

Seven-time X Games gold medalist Matt Buyten suffered a horrific crash last weekend at Thunder Valley in Colorado while trying to qualify for the AMA Amateur National Motocross Championships at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch. Buyten broke his back and then underwent surgery on Sunday, which confirmed he had damaged his spinal cord. 

Matt then posted an update after the surgery: “I will be permanently paralyzed from the mid chest down. The procedure was just to put in hardware to stabilize me so I can sit up. I am devastated and way too active of a person to be tied down, not sure how I am going to do that. Mainly pissed off I screwed my family over, can’t play with Jett and do things with him, also putting Krystal in a tougher position. Going to have to dig myself out and try. Apparently they have one of the best spinal rehab centers in Lakewood, CO, so I’d like to attend that, it’s a month long program I hear. Huge thanks to all the care, love and support. You guys are amazing!”

Road2Recovery has set up a donation program for Buyten and his family in this really difficult time:

Here’s hoping for better days for Matt and his family as they begin this unexpected journey…

The New Legends SMX jerseys

Colt Finds Something Beta (Matthes)

Big news this week as Beta and Colt Nichols announced that they're parting ways in the middle of a two-year SX-only deal that they inked last year. Nichols had a few flashes here and there this year in SX but, for the most part, the finishes weren't where he or the team wanted (he missed the first part of the year with injury) and I think this parting was amicable.

This is Beta's first year in SX, they have an all-new bike and the Italian company is attempting to do something pretty big, which is to compete in the very specialized world of Monster AMA Supercross. I tweeted this out the other day:

And I stand by it. This isn't easy but these new OEM's are doing a good job in my eyes (although we've yet to see Ducati obvi) so  far. (They did go 1-2 at an Italian National last weekend with Alessandro Lupino and Tony Cairoli.).

Benny Bloss finished top ten a lot on the Beta, he set fast times and generally looked like he always did out there. The Beta did not hold him back in my eyes. Now, in talking to Colt throughout the year it was obvious that he couldn't get the bike to work for him like Benny and perhaps the very rough start for the team with ECU issues, etc., was too much for Colt to overcome. Once the trust wasn't there on the motorcycle, he just couldn't ride like he wanted to. I would point out though that other established OEMs have ECU cutting out issues as well. Not limited to the Beta's. Also, Benny's set-up, because of his alien-like body, wasn't going to work for Nichols either.

It's been a rough stretch for Nichols for sure since winning the 250SX West Region for Star Yamaha a few years ago. A fill-in at factory Honda, privateer Kawasaki deal and now Beta. From the sounds of it, Nichols will land on his feet with a Pipes Motorsports Suzuki ride for this summer starting at Millville and then for 2025 as well. Sounds like Shane McElrath will be moving on to Madd Parts Kawi for 2025, Kyle Chisholm's future is up in the air, Pipes is also talking to Christian Craig as well.

Beta will be out there as well to replace Colt Nichols so stay tuned as the musical chairs are still going around and around.

Oh, and Max Anstie loves the sand, and he will make his 2024 MX debut tomorrow with Star Yamaha. Expect Max to be a frontrunner tomorrow--he's that good in the sand!

The Glen Helen Saga (Cont’d) (DC)

The podcast I did with Jase Macalpine for Gypsy Tales went up last week. It was a deep dive into a lot of things, including the whole why-no-national-at-Glen Helen saga that dates back to 2010, when Bud Feldkamp canceled his national in favor of hosting an MXGP instead. The late Tom White got us back to the table together in 2014, and Bud even awarded me a special “Glen Helen Award of Excellence” trophy during opening ceremonies, for my "Passion, Wisdom and Leadership to Grow the Sport of Motocross in America." I thought we were doing pretty well! But then Glen Helen unexpectedly bowed out of the series again in the fall of 2018, after the schedule was announced at the '18 MXON (and at least that time they asked to be taken off the schedule rather than inform us by fax). Bud again had several “non-negotiable” terms that he would not budge from.  It was an unfortunate turn of events that reverberates to this day. Glen Helen is a badass track with some very loyal fans, and I hear from them often.

But there is one thing that keeps coming up in the comments that is simply not true, and that is the notion that I somehow undermined the NPG (National Promoters Group) when the AMA decided to sell AMA Pro Motocross, as well as all of the other AMA professional racing series, in 2007. The AMA invited bids on their various professional series, including road racing, flat track, hillclimb, etc., through a formal Request For Proposal (RFP) process. There were many bidders for the MX series, including Youthstream—the company that ran the FIM World Motocross Championship.

The NPG also made a bid. At the time, the MX series was being managed by the NPG. The NPG was a peer-based group that met annually to share best practices and develop policies to bring uniformity and consistency to 12 otherwise disjointed events. It was a cooperative that my dad had pulled together in 1998 to help align all of the events for sponsorship and television, as a way to keep up with what supercross was doing and stay relevant. Unfortunately, my dad passed away six months after forming the group. Fortunately, the NPG continued to work together in the years that followed under the guidance of John Ayers and my sister.

But the NPG was not an entity with offices, assets or employees, only good ideas, and there was a real fear that it would not win the bid. So MX Sports was invited to throw its hat in the ring—with the express knowledge of every one of the other promoters—in the hopes that if the NPG didn't win the bid, there would be another oar in the water that would keep the series in American hands. I put together the MX Sports bid; John Ayers, who was the NPG's operations director at the time, wrote up the NPG bid on behalf of all of the promoters. 

In the end it was all a moot point because both bids were turned down. Jim France and the Daytona Motorsports Group (DMG) ended up buying the whole thing—MX, road racing, flat track, Supermoto, and hillclimb. The deal was announced at Daytona's Bike Week in March 2008. The France family owns and operates NASCAR, but Jim is an old flat-tracker and road racer himself and he wanted those forms of motorcycle racing to grow. AMA Pro Motocross came in the bargain, and while motocross wasn't DMG’s specialty, they did not want it to be swallowed up by supercross, nor did they want Youthstream to expand with the three or four FIM rounds in America it had had its eye on.

It was DMG that selected MX Sports to manage the AMA Pro Motocross Championship. Mr. France knew my parents from back in the day, and he knew that we were heavily involved at every level of the industry, including professional and amateur national event promotions and operations, as well as national and international media platforms. So MX Sports Pro Racing was born and in 2009 took over the helm of the series with all of the existing tracks that were in the NPG. We also agreed to pay a sizable rights fee, paid in part by each of the promoters in lieu of the sanctioning fees that previously went directly to the AMA.

I bring all of this up because in 2012, two years after he canceled the Glen Helen National the first time, and after his MXGP failed to gain any traction here, Bud Feldkamp did an interview with Motocross Action where he implied that MX Sports "lo and behold, in the midnight hour" snatched AMA Pro Motocross from the NPG, which is simply not true. DMG could have chosen to manage Pro Motocross on its own, but it did not. It could have chosen to work with 12 individual promoters, but it did not. Instead, it chose to work with MX Sports to manage the series, with the expectation that we would continue working with the NPG promoters, which we have, except for three: Steel City (yes, we got rid of our own national for the sake of the series, because Pennsylvania did not need two rounds 60 miles apart), Freestone in Texas (which was simply too hot to draw fans in the heat of summer), and … Glen Helen.

While the other promoters approved the transition to MX Sports Pro Racing managing the day-to-day business operations of the series (series marketing and promotions, sponsorship contracts and activation, TV packages, rules enactment and enforcement, officiating, results management, etc.) Mr. Feldkamp would not. So, he quit, not once but twice.  Glen Helen Raceway does not have a national today because they do not want one under similar terms to every other track on the schedule, including High Point and Ironman. Like I said on the show, Bud Feldkamp wants a big race, he just doesn’t want to be part of a big series like AMA Pro Motocross.

Iowa Track for Sale (DC)

We got a message at Riverside Raceway in Winterset, Iowa, which was long run by Tony Wenck, a motocross man through and through, is now for sale. Tony invited me out for the big race he does each fall with local-kid-turned-legend Justin Brayton and had a really great time. It's a very good track not far from Des Moines and has a lot of potential. According to the listing, "There is a lot of support from the local community, and the business holds a special-use permit in perpetuity. This is a turn-key operation. The sale includes all equipment and infrastructure needed to prep and maintain the track and put on practices and races."

Hey, Watch It!

We've mentioned before how cool it is that at one point over in Europe Ken Roczen and Jeffrey Herlings and Jeremy Seewer were Suzuki teammates on 85cc minicycles, and then later on they were followed by Hunter and Jett Lawrence, and then Liam Everts. The Lawrences trained for a time under Harry Everts,as well as with Heiko Roczen, Ken's dad. The Lawrences, who went all-in, selling everything they had to pursue their motocross dream, also stayed at the Roczen family home after Kenny moved here to America. I bring all of this up because we stumbled upon a Suzuki promotional film featuring young Jett and Liam when they were still on 85cc Suzukis together:

Ram Trucks commercial featuring Jaydin Smart on his DC65 Cobra:

Florida's Jack Chambers is living the Grand Prix motocross dream, racing the MX2 World Championships with the England-based Bike It Kawasaki team and also racing the British Nationals on his off-weekends, where he's leading the championship. Jack is ranked 15th in the Grand Prix tour and is headed to Indonesia for a doubleheader, beginning this weekend. Here's his vlog from last weekend's strange day in the British Nationals, where the race was cut down to one moto:

"This is Lawrence" looks back at the weekend that was at High Point where Jett won the 450 overall and Hunter held on to the red plate in the 450 class:

Across the Atlantic Ocean the Red Riders also have their hands on the red plate in MXGP as Tim Gajser has taken advantage of a bad weekend for Jorge Prado to surge into the lead as they head for Indonesia for two flyaway races. Here's Tim's "Tiga243" journal of Germany, Latvia and Italy:

Our Irish friend Jonathan McCready did a very cool interview catching up with the ever-honest Jeffrey Herlings following the Bullet's 3-1 at Maggiora for Gatedrop.com: