While some of the riders had the last couple of weeks off many of us in the industry were working (and playing) hard at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch. The 43rd Annual Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship wrapped up last Saturday and it was quite an amazing week at the ranch. Kawasaki Team Green’s Drew Adams kept his stock rising by sweeping the two Pro Sport classes and earning the AMA’s Nicky Hayden Horizon Award. Fifteen-year-old Texan Caden Dudney was a revelation, winning two B classes and earning the Oakley Fastest Lap of the Week Award with a blistering 1:48. (Remember, the track conditions are ever-changing at LLMX, and it is by design that the Pro Sport classes get the track at peak roughness, and usually peak heat too.) Andrew Short returned and engaged vet legend Mike Brown in the best battle of the week and hats off to Jason Lawrence who stuck with the goal he stated last year—that he would come back to Loretta Lynn’s and race in 2024—and finished an impressive fifth in the highly competitive Junior +25 class. And once again California was the best state overall, led by a flying squad of minicycle riders that captured six titles. And hats off to Cobra, the “little giant” of the junior minicycle world for sweeping a record seven titles in what is their 30th anniversary season. Here’s a look at the final “State Championship” to round out the 20-day Scott Sports Countdown we did leading into the race.

There are way too many interesting stories and anecdotes and bench-racing stories to relay here from the long 10-day week that is Loretta Lynn’s, but I would like to thank all of the former pros who showed up to support their brands, friends and families, from Kevin Windham (who it turns out is a superb race announcer) to Travis Pastrana (who came to support his good friend Randy Richardson, the Fastest Man in Piedmont) to Sophia Phelps, the WMXer/college student who jumped in on the race calling and may have found a new calling—we’re going to introduce her to the NBC/Peacock folks at the Ironman National! Chad Reed was there with two of his kids racing and admitted that he was truly blown away by the whole event. Both Ryans were there in Villopoto and Dungey, working with the kids from Yamaha and KTM, respectively. Cooper Webb and Daxton Bennick joined Damon Bradshaw under the Yamaha tent to talk to the riders and sign autographs, and I saw Jo Shimoda there for Honda and Fox Racing. Triumph got their first-ever LLMX results (though not from Mike Brown, who was on a KTM 350 SX-F with black plastic) and also had Jalek Swoll at the Ranch. I’m sure there were more riders, but I spent most of my time out on the track trying to help out, and I never actually made it the beer tent! (Sorry I missed your big night, FMIP.)

And I want to give a shoutout here to the unsung heroes of the week, the race announcers and the RacerTV.com crew who spoke and filmed and streamed the race from early every morning until the motos were complete. The announcers did a great job of not getting to stale after some 60 hours of motos, and I know the TV producers and directors in the truck were staring at screens and making calls for those same 60 hours, with an unreliable air-conditioner making matters even sweatier in there. And the kids shooting the motos on scaffolding didn’t get much of a break either, but everyone hung in and made sure the rest of the world could watch it live, and free, on RacerTV.com. And man did they tune in, to the tune of 581,000 views! And it’s going, as all of the motos are now archived and available to watch, and you can use the scroll to find the motos you’re looking for—like the Micro 2 minicycle moto where little Ezra Armbruster’s bike would not start, leading to a wild display of several folks trying to help switch out a carburetor, the pack taking off without him—he was 1-1 going into the final moto—and then starting nearly a minute and a half behind everyone. Just scroll to the 9.59:00 mark on the link to see how it all went down.

(And one thing we made an initial mistake on was Drew Roberts, who won the 250 C Jr. (12-17) Limited championship is from British Columbia, but the family moved to Kemp, Texas, which we did not realize. So, Texas got five titles, and Canada two.)

Drew Adams’ motos, Shorty-vs.-Brownie, Caden Dudney, the WMX showdowns, moto agent Jacob Hayes’ winner-take-all final Junior moto—they are all up for your viewing, just use that search bar.

Also, thank you to the SMX Insiders’ team for coming and doing a show from the Ranch itself during the week, and then some wrap-up work on the whole event this week. Here’s this week’s show featuring Weege and JT$ (and more info than I have on Garrett Marchbanks and Shane McElrath, both on new teams for these last three rounds).

And finally, thanks to all of the participants and their families and the industry for getting behind the biggest amateur motocross championship in the world. It was an amazing week. And we’re already working on ways to improve it for next year and for many years to come.

Plus, AMA Pro Motocross isn’t the only championship coming back online this weekend. The FIM Motocross World Championship (MXGP) is back for the 15th round this weekend in Sweden. Tune into MXGP-TV.com live to watch all the action (times below). And for next weekend’s round 16 MXGP of the Netherlands, watch for nine-time MXGP World Champion Antonio Cairoli, who will debut the all-new Ducati Desmo450 MX. The brand will have an MXGP team in 2025, so AC222 is helping get some races in aboard the new bike as one of their test riders, alongside Alessandro Lupino. (And for what it’s worth some of the top Ducati brass are headed to Unadilla today.)

Pro Perspective (Jason Thomas)

The 450 class is getting a caffeine hit this weekend with the addition of Cooper Webb and Ken Roczen. With Webb suffering a thumb injury during supercross and needing to get repaired following Salt Lake City's finale and Roczen's spectacular crash (due to a mechanical failure) in Nashville, two race winning riders exited before Pro Motocross started. The sport needs its stars and thankfully, two will descend upon upstate New York on Saturday. The question on everyone's mind is "How will they do?"

Both riders are coming off different injuries with different timeframes for recovery. Roczen's leg injury was much more traumatizing than Webb's thumb repair. Roczen was forced to take legitimate time off from training where Webb was mostly held out of riding but could do many cardio replacements. Roczen's injury was nearly a month before Webb's, but again, the injuries more severe. How that all shakes out on the racetrack is anyone's guess. For Webb, best guess is he is still fighting soreness and possibly arm pump/fatigue from recovering hand muscles. For Roczen, I don't see any trouble spots other than simply time away from racing. 

The other variables here are the track itself and the arrival of Hurricane Debby. Unadilla is an extremely tough track to find comfort and rhythm upon. The hard base and constant camber create a nightmare for those wanting to feel planted. That usual lack of traction may be all for not in 2024, though. Hurricane Debby is sweeping through the area as you read this, leaving incredible rainfall in its wake. That accumulation will likely leave the track waterlogged on Saturday morning and have track crews working double time to drain it. How that leaves the dirt for the motos will be where experience comes into play. Tire choice, suspension settings, and line choice will all be heavily weighted for importance. The typical Unadilla approach will not be as dependable. Prior settings won't be as usable, and teams will have to be forward thinking as to how the track will shake out. Qualifying practice will be much different than the first moto and the second moto will be much different than the first.

It will truly take a team effort to be successful on Saturday.

The International Brigade (DC)

Over the years we've seen plenty of international riders turn up at Unadilla, one of the oldest and most prestigious tracks on the circuit. Unadilla has long been on the global map as the Robinson family started hosting international-caliber events all the way back in 1970 with the first Trans-AMA Series, Inter-Am races, the annual 250cc U.S. Grand Prix, and of course the first FIM Motocross of Nations ever held in the U.S., back in 1987. Off the top of my head, I remember Stefan Everts, Gareth Swanepoel, Clement Desalle, Shaun Simpson, and just last year Harri Kullas all turning up at the Unadilla National and putting in impressive performances. 

Kullas is back this year as he's hoping to score enough points to make it into the playoff rounds of the SuperMotocross World Championships (SMX), and he will be joined by the three riders on Neil Prince's team, Charlie Putnam, Tristan Purdon, and Charley Herman, and now German rider Henry Jacobi is coming, according to Gatedrop.com over in Europe. The site reports that Jacobi is coming off a broken jaw, but nonetheless looking forward to this weekend:

Of course Ken Roczen is returning as well, as mentioned above, plus plenty of series regulars that have come from abroad: Hunter Lawrence, Tom Vialle, Dylan Ferrandis, Jo Shimoda, Fredrik Noren, Max Anstie, Lorenzo Locurcio, Romain Pape, and more.

2025 Yamaha YZ450F Press Launch (Keefer)

Matthes and I headed to Glen Helen Raceway to ride the updated 2025 Yamaha YZ450F and although there aren’t huge changes on paper, there are some different feelings out on the track compared to the 2024 version. The linkage ratio along with the new shape/thickness of the lower engine brackets do make a difference so it isn't just all fluff. There are updated footage brackets, suspension settings (as well as a rear spring rate change), updated throttle tube that increases clearance against the throttle housing. That means NO MORE YAMATHUMB! I would love to tell you more about this, but we are sworn to secrecy until Monday at 9 a.m. PST. I can tell you that Matthes of course loved it and it's the Bike of The Year once again so that isn't shocking. Look for a full review right here Monday morning! 

STUFF (Matthes)

As Keefer mentioned, 2025 YZ450F intro at the Helen was yesterday, good to see Yamaha take some of the things riders were doing to their 2024's, like solid motor mounts, and put them into production on the bike. Some would say it's the Bike of the Year! What I wanted to talk about though was how this still-new SMX series has affected the nationals the last couple of years. There's no chance we'd see the amount of racers lining up here late in the season without that three-race, big-money series we have now. Even guys that can't really move up or change their points standings much, like Ken Roczen and Eli Tomac (coming back next week with a 2025 contract PR expected next week as well) they want to get gate drops underneath them for when the playoffs kick in at Charlotte next month. Trust me, many other years we never would have seen guys like Cooper Webb, Roczen, ET3 poking their heads into the outdoors. The SMX series has definitely worked to add star power and intrigue to the outdoors and that's not even counting guys like Dean Wilson, Colt Nichols, and Garrett Marchbanks who have jumped back into the series to get some points and get into the top 20 (or 30) of their classes. 

As far as Marchbanks, his departure from Muc-Off/FXR/ClubMX and onto Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki is not something you see every day. I've gotten asked a bunch on what happened because despite what any PR might say, Garrett got fired from the team. Of course, he had a 2025 Pro Circuit deal in his back pocket so to start up this weekend was a pretty easy fit really. Now, what did he do to get fired? I'm not sure what the straw was that broke the camel's back, but Marchbanks had been having bike issues this summer since coming back and let's not forget, his 450MX season started off on the wrong foot when a flagger mistake on press day at the opener left him with a broken thumb. So, I think there was a lot of pressure for G to get into SMX and with the injury he didn't have much time to do really well. So, when the mechanicals started happening, Marchbanks (not a shrinking violet ICYWW) was expressing his displeasure with things while the team was expressing hope that Marchbanks could express a better attitude.

So, I really think it was one of those "I quit/you're fired" things which I was sort of in when I left Red Bull KTM at the end of 2001 (never mind that I went back to Ron Heben for my job a month later and he basically laughed at me, which I get). It happens and now both sides can move on and Marchbanks will benefit from having a few races on the Kawasaki 250 this year.

WACKO ZACHO (Matthes)

So, what was ClubMX going to do? Well, they had been talking to Zach Osborne about coming out of retirement to ride. Osborne and Brandon Haas (owner of ClubMX team and compound and a new Loretta Lynn’s champion in the Vet +30 class) go way back as they were partners in the facility when it was first getting going. So for Osborne to end his career back at the same place where he started his pro career was kind of neat. He took the team’s YZ450F back to Florida to ride a bit, rode at Club, and I truly thought we'd see the OG 338 back at the last three nationals.

But as Zach told us on Wednesday on the Fly Racing Moto:60 Show, he decided that it was a no go. Osborne said he felt like his speed was good enough to do well but his fitness wasn't where it needed to be. He broke his elbow in the fall and just hasn't been riding enough. Osborne went on to say he didn't feel safe out there because he couldn't hold his pace as long as he needed to in the 450MX class. So, the comeback is over before it begins for the four-time MX/SX champion. 

New Kid(s) on the Block (Mitch Kendra)

Each year, after a week full of racing at the Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch we typically see riders make the jump to the pro ranks. Whether for a race or two to test the waters of the pro scene or jumping fully into the pro ranks, it is fun to see where riders slot into the already stacked classes. Well, this year is no different as we will see a few faces in Pro Motocross over the final three rounds. A few names to keep an eye on over the next few weeks are Jaxon Pascal, Parker Ross, Jace Allred, Noah Stevens, and Drew Adams. Honda teammates Pascal and Ross are set to race the final three rounds (Pascal in the 450 Class, Ross in the 250 Class), with Noah Stevens (College 18-24 class overall winner) hoping to make his pro debut at the Budds Creek National. Pascal will be #790 on a Honda CRF450R, as that was his first trainer Rob Imondi’s pro number years ago.

“He was the man who made me who I am on a dirt bike,” Pascal told us last week after he won a College moto at the Ranch. “We trained together for 15 years. And yeah, that one's for him.”

Ross will make his pro debut aboard a #302 CRF250R, with hopes of racing the 250SX West Region of Monster Energy AMA Supercross next year. Allred is making his pro debut as #736.

Stevens is aiming to race the Budds Creek National in Maryland next weekend, and we will get an update from the KTM rider early next week.

And Adams, who received the Nicky Hayden AMA Motocross Horizon Award after winning both the 250 and Open Pro Sport Classes, is racing in Canada this weekend for the final round as he sits down eight points to Kaven Benoit with two motos remaining. After that, we will see Adams race the Ironman National Pro Motocross finale here in the U.S. aboard a Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki. It sounds like Adams’ 2025 plans are not 100 percent set in stone yet, but we expect to see the Tennessee native race SX Futures then go full pro for Pro Motocross. While that could change over the next few months, it sure will be fun to see Adams make his long-awaited U.S. pro debut. Adams has been on a 250F full-time since late in 2021—getting on it around 14 years old—which he said was “Honestly the best decision I've ever made.” The next generation star from the Team Green Kawasaki squad will have all eyes on him come August 24.

And speaking of teams, Jamie “Darkside” Guida over at Vital MX did a cool piece on the return of Marchbanks to the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki team, and how other returns have returned to Mitch Payton’s fold. It’s a good weekend read—read it here.

Hey, Watch It

Check out this new YouTube channel with vintage footage from all over the country!

@VintageFactory_TV

"Chef Smoke" featuring Levi Kitchen on a freshly-built Kawasaki KX250 two-stroke at Washougal:

Kevin Windham was a special guest on Radio Fox to discuss his week at the ranch, Jason Lawrence and more:

Adam Cianciarulo and Kawasaki Team Green teamed up with Racer X Films for "AC in the AC," one of Adam's numerous interviews in the air-conditioned comfort of the new Kawasaki RIDGE side-by-side, and in this one he chats with the very fast and cool Kyleigh Stallings, who won a title for the fourth year in a row at LLMX:

And here's AC with the breakout star of the week, Texas hotshoe Caden Dudney:

Matt Burkeen limped around the ranch with a freshly-twisted knee but still managed to do Matt Burkeen things, which is make his own race coverage and while both filming and calling the action. He was in the right spot for the ultimate showdown between Andrew Short and Mike Brown:

GoPro: A Collection of Axell Hodges' MASSIVE Hits

And our American friend in Europe, Florida’s Jack Chambers, had an eventful weekend in the British MX Championships, check it out: