Also returning last weekend was Ken Roczen on the Progressive Insurance ECSTAR Suzuki team. Like Coop, he looked fast, but not quite his usual self. That will certainly come, though not this weekend, as Roczen is sitting Budds Creek out, and then says he’s racing a 250F next week at Ironman. We will have more on that next week when we do The List on top guys dropping down a class for whatever reason: Ricky Carmichael, Jeff Stanton, Kevin Windham, etc.

In the 250 class we will see Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s RJ Hampshire race for the first time since he clinched the #1 plate in the 250SX West Region back in May. RJ crashed on press day at Fox Raceway and has been out all summer with a wrist injury. Just as he returns Honda HRC’s Jo Shimoda is out with a broken collarbone suffered late in the second moto last weekend. (And with his teammate Chance Hymas crashing out while leading the first moto last weekend it just wasn’t a very good ‘Dilla for Honda’s 250 squad, though Hymas is racing tomorrow.) 

And while we’re talking about guys coming and going, now is a good time to start thinking about how Jett Lawrence is doing in his own thumb rehab. A reliable source told us he got back on the bike this week with a plan of being fit and ready to go for the SMX Playoffs, where he will be defending his #1 plate. Then, Jett posted an Instagram photo of him back on the bike. 

Random thought: it's weird to think that if a young Jett Lawrence had only stayed with competitive breakdancing while growing up in Australia the world would have never gotten to share Raygun's artistic vibes and her complete lack of awareness... She lost all three rounds of her first round matchup 18-0, 18-0, 18-0. It's almost like #18 Jett was reminding us that had this dirt bike thing not worked out, he might have been the 18 piling up on her in the Team Australia tryouts, and we would have missed that global feeling of hilarity...

Hot off the presses is our October issue of Racer X, and we're really pumped on this iconic photo Mike Emery took of Chase Sexton winning the RedBud National and getting hit with a dose of water from his longtime friend Bob Pistole, who made a promise to Chase years ago that if he ever won the RedBud National, he'd get a cool down from the water truck after crossing the line. We loved the photo and instantly knew this had to be our next cover! Inside the mag we've got a look at the all-new Honda CRF450R that is turning heads, a Haiden Deegan profile feature, revisiting The Bakersfield Boys (think Ryder D and Jett Reynolds), and a look back at Travis Pastrana and the 1999 X Games.

Ducati Debut (DC)

After a couple of years’ worth of research & development the Ducati Desmo450 MX bike will make its FIM Motocross World Championship (MXGP) debut this weekend in Arnhem, the Netherlands, with Antonio Cairoli in the saddle. The nine-time MXGP champion has been helping the Italian brand as it takes its first steps into the motocross world, with a plan of doing just this one race on the sandy Dutch circuit. Cairoli raced the 450 MX Desmo at an Italian National before but it was quite muddy and hard to gauge just where the bike is in its evolution.  Cairoli is 38 years old now, and hasn't been a full-time racer for a few years now, but he's an excellent sand rider and should be in the top ten at the very least in Arnhem. But with Tim Gajser, Jorge Prado, and Jeffrey Herlings vying for the MXGP title, and all excellent sand riders, I just don’t think Cairoli and the Ducati have a podium shot this weekend…

Last weekend at Unadilla the top brass in the project, Paolo Ciabetti and Martino Branchini, were doing their due diligence, as they hope to find a way to maybe bring Cairoli over next year for some later rounds of AMA Pro Motocross, if they can meet the homologation requirements. That's not a problem in Europe as there is no production rule there, but under AMA rules any motorcycle raced needs to have a set amount (400) available in the U.S. marketplace. (And if you're wondering how exactly Honda got to race their 2025 CRF450 with Hunter Lawrence last weekend at Unadilla, they got the bike on the assembly line in Japan early enough to get the minimum requirement to showroom floors.)

There is still no word on where exactly Ducati will set up its race shop in America, nor who might be working with the brand, though every conversation includes the Troy Lee Designs team. And with Troy himself having retaken ownership of his company, and GasGas trimming down it's SX/MX efforts across the board, the alignment seems perfect.

Jason Weigandt and Jason Thomas invited Paolo Ciabetti into the SMX Insiders' TV booth last Saturday morning at Unadilla for this report:

Oh Canada Moto! (Matthes)

The Canadian Motocross Championship Series wrapped up last weekend with two exciting title fights at Walton, Ontario. The Kiwi Josiah Natzke came in needing to sweep the race and get a bit of help to win the 450MX crown and he did win the first moto. But his teammate at KTM, Jess Pettis, did enough in moto two to win the first 450MX title of his career. The four-time defending champion Dylan Wright, injured early on in the series, ended up winning Walton though (and we should be seeing him at the Ironman National next weekend).

But it was the 250MX series that was the banger. Kawasaki Team Green's Drew Adams came in eight points down on KTM's Kaven Benoit and so all Benoit had to do was cruise behind Adams to get the title. Which appeared to be easy enough as those two had been the class of the field. But then Team Green's Krystian Janik showed up to hopefully go 2-2 to give Adams the title. Also, Dylan Walsh from the UK showed up to ride for Walton Kawasaki. And who knows, maybe previous Walton winner Tyler Medaglia could summon the ghosts of Walton past to get into the mix. Things were getting spicy. No disrespect to Benoit but Adams had been the fastest guy all summer in terms of speed. Just some crashes set him back.

So, the first moto it all played out right for KTM. Adams took off for the win and Benoit cruised around for second. The gap would be five points going into the final moto. Early on Benoit led before Adams got by. And that's where things got weird. Adams, with Janik in third, started trying to bunch things up the last couple of laps to see if Janik could get by Benoit. He then let Benoit by and sort of half-assed a takeout of the KTM rider that didn't work either. The kid was definitely trying some "creative" ways to get Janik up into the mix or perhaps just crash Benoit. Janik had a crash of his own and in the end, Janik got close to the top two but Adams wasn't able to get the title.

Benoit was not too happy about this and really let Drew know afterwards. I wasn't there but from people that were, it was Benoit that let them down more than Adams trying to affect the race.

In my opinion, I'm not sure that Adams’ move, if it had worked, was going to stand anyways. So, slowing down, letting a rider go by and then knocking him down isn't a protestable (maybe that’s not even a word?) move by KTM? Like, I don't know exactly how it would've gone but I can't see everyone just saying, "Great move, Drew, congrats on the title!" but I guess we'll never know. 

Also, is the 18-year age gap between Adams and the vet Benoit (he actually quit the sport for four years) the biggest between riders first- and second- in the points? Calling DC on that one.

Also, Marvin Musquin came up to Walton! Pretty cool right, he rode the two-stroke class and yes, he won.

The series up north itself really benefitted from Adams, Janik, and some other American KTM kids coming up there to race. There was a bit of a "buzz" for the Great White North Moto that there hasn't been in a while. The TV coverage on the Ryde TV app was okay, also though the names they used probably need to brush up more on some Canadian moto knowledge, but it was better than it's been. 

I know some USA amateur managers were watching the racing and thinking that maybe sending some of the kids up north for 25-minute motos against men and deeper competition is the way to go. Adams really seemed to benefit from it watching his Loretta Lynn’s dominance. Anyways, the series up there was pretty cool to follow this year and congrats to the KTM guys on the titles. 

And here are my Observations from Unadilla, which begins with a callout to Unadilla MX’s track crew in somehow turning what everyone thought was going to be a serious mudder into an excellent, albeit rough, motocross track.

The Return of #593 (DC)

Matthes just mentioned Drew Adams' adventure in Canada and the climactic moto of the MX2 championship for the #300 Kawasaki Team Green rider, and how he now turns his attention to his AMA Pro Motocross opener next weekend at the Ironman finale. He also has to change his number because #300 is already spoken for in 2024 on the AMA SX/MX circuit—it belongs to, well, I’m not sure who.

So, Adams and his team had to come up with a different number, and they took a page out of the Team Green playbook and went with #593. That's the number another top Kawasaki prospect wore when he turned pro, and this rider set a high bar for anyone to follow. In 1993 Oklahoma's Robbie Reynard was in a very similar situation to where Adams is today, only he was even more of a prodigy. He already had a long-term Kawasaki factory contract, as Pro Circuit was just changing to green that year and Reynard's contract put him straight on the factory team. Reynard's first race as a pro was the '93 High Point 125 National, and he finished an impressive seventh aboard his Kawasaki KX125. The six riders who beat the kid--Robbie had turned 16 just three days before the race—were, in order, Jeff Emig, Doug Henry, Jeremy McGrath, Ryan Hughes, Erik Kehoe, and Ezra Lusk. Then next three to round out the top 10 were Larry Ward, Brian Swink, and James Dobb, and then not even in the top 10 overall were both Damon Bradshaw, Donny Schmit, Tim Ferry, and Damon Huffman!

Unfortunately, just one week later Reynard entered his first AMA Supercross at San Jose and promptly broke his wrist, putting him on the sidelines for the next six weeks.  

When he returned Reynard began a remarkably steady improvement in the six outdoor rounds left to be run. He finished 18th at both Glen Helen and Kenworthy's in Ohio, then 17th at Washougal, 8th at Spring Creek and fourth at Broome-Tioga, New York. Finally, at the last round of the '93 series, Reynard won the Steel City 125 National finale with 6-1 moto scores on the #593 KX125. To this day Robbie Reynard remains the youngest rider ever to win an AMA Pro Motocross race: 16 years, 3 months, 8 days.

And speaking of Matthes’ comment about young U.S. prospects heading up to Canada as a way of getting ready for AMA Pro Motocross, I think that’s a great idea. I’ve been to a handful of Canadian Nationals, and those guys are good and the tracks I saw (Walton and Gopher Dunes) were both very good too.

And next year I believe the top prospects are going to have even more chances to compete on actual Monster Energy AMA Supercross tracks and Pro Motocross nationals, as the OEMs here are asking for more “SMX Next” events, like the SX Futures and the MX Sports Scouting Moto Combines we’ve been doing the past few years. 

The Leadville 100 (DC)

Two-time AMA 250 Pro Motocross Champion Jeremy Martin has been on the sidelines ever since a frightening crash in the whoops at the 250SX East Region opener at Detroit's Ford Field. The Mac-Off/FXR/ClubMX Yamaha rider suffered a UCL avulsion fracture (to his elbow) and a heavy concussion. Some were guessing the Minnesotan might be done racing professionally, but he plans on returning as soon as he gets a full release from his doctors. He's also been staying in shape—excellent shape, actually. Last weekend Martin competed in the notoriously tough Leadville 100 MTB race in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The race starts at above 10,000 elevation and pretty much just goes up from there. J-Mart was one of 1,738 entries in the race, and he would complete the task in a time of 7 hours, 7 minutes, 19 seconds. That time was good for 48th overall, which puts him in some very rare air indeed. "I'm in the best shape of my life," posted Jeremy afterwards. We would agree! 

Another cool thing: John Tomac, Eli's dad and a bonafide mountain-biking god, came out to support and root on his old friend J-Mart. 

2007 VS. 2025 Battle Of The Reds (Keefer)

I guess it really isn't a versus but maybe a comparison? A 2007/2008 Honda CRF450R was one of the best motocross machines that I could remember but my memory is getting foggy with my old age so as I was driving home one day, I thought about how cool it would be to test an older 2007 CRF450R against a new 2025 CRF450R. That is 18 years of R&D! How much of an advantage does the new bikes have over the older versions? Is it huge? Is it even noticeable? Well, my good friend Zeb Armstrong found a gem up in Oregon! This 2007 CF450R was nearly new (0.5 hours) and was kept indoors most of its life. Zeb had the bike shipped to Haeseker Racing Engines in Sutter Creek, California. and Jim tore down the whole bike as well as refurbed it completely. He vapor blasted the frame, tore apart/cleaned the engine, cleaned the carb, installed new rubber, fresh wheels and my oh my, is this thing a beauty! UNREAL! The only parts that weren't stock on this bike were a set of wheels, Dunlop MX3S/34 tires (742's were stock in 2007) and a FASST Co. rear brake clevis. When Zeb dropped off the 2007 to my house, I could barely sleep knowing that I was going to FINALLY get reacquainted with this machine. I drove down to Glen Helen Raceway, met up with Ryan Dudek of American Honda to get delivery of my 2025 CRF450R test machine and I rode them back to back. It's crazy to feel the difference between 18 years of any machine, but this test wasn't what I was expecting. Is the 2007 Honda CRF450R as good as we remember? Watch for yourself here:

The Off-Season is Heating Up (DC)

While we still have five races to go on the domestic schedule—the last two Pro Motocross rounds and then the SuperMotocross playoffs—as well as the Motocross of Nations in early October, the off-season races around the rest of the world are taking shape with some decent lineups. The Lawrence brothers have already announced their return to their homeland in Australia for the AUS-X Open at Marvel Stadium on November 30, and before that they will be at the Paris Supercross on November 16-17, where they had some excellent battles last time around. There they will be joined by Cooper Webb, Malcolm Stewart, and Dylan Ferrandis. Others are likely to be added as the races get closer.

And in FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX)news Ken Roczen went from Unadilla MX to Vancouver, Canada, for a presser on the 2024 series opener there on October 26, but the bigger story came later in the week with the announcement that Eli Tomac will be returning to the series. The multi-time AMA Supercross/Pro Motocross Champion won the opener of this version of WSX back in 2022 as a wild card and is hoping to use the three rounds this year to prepare for a 2025 Monster Energy AMA Supercross title run with Yamaha Star Racing, though for the WSX races he will be under the CDR Yamaha banner. World Supercross will also have a double-header in Perth, Australia (November 23-24) and end in Abu Dhabi on December 4. 

Hey, Watch It

Here's a cool mini-movie Unfiltered MX on the on-again, off-again James "Bubba" Stewart film that longtime moto fan and director Sam Jones was going to make in the early '00s, with Tom Cruise helping to produce:

Johnny Hopper broke down some of what went wrong, and some of what went right, at Unadilla in his Breakdown video review:

Shane McElrath sums it up simply: "Welp, I got fired..." Here's his story of how he went from a Twisted Tea Suzuki to Maddparts.com Kawasaki during the Washougal/Unadilla break:

GoPro: How Jordon Smith Juggles Family and Racing | In Their Element EP2

PULPMX AT LORETTA'S?!?! The Amateur Chaos Continues | The Bottom Line Show

Cameron McAdoo's Track Etiquette, Revving and Roosting Weekend Warriors | Racer X Films

Is A 2007 Honda CRF450R As Good As We Remember?

Head-Scratching Headline/s of the Week

"With in-home concerts, people are partying like it's 1899..."—The Washington Post

"Illinois school worker pleads guilty to stealing $1.5M worth of chicken wings" -Fox59

"A mom with a license plate that reads ‘PB4WEGO’ wins a battle with the state to keep it"—CNN

"Breakdancing Will Not Return for the 2028 LA Olympics"—Pubity

"Driverless cars wake residents with nighttime honking"—BBC News

Random Notes

The motocross world lost a great lady this week when Elaine Bell passed. The mother of 1980 Supercross Champion Mike Bell, Elaine was the matriarch of one of Southern California’s most prominent moto families, as her husband and kids have been around the scene since day one. Godspeed, Elaine Bell. She was 85 years old.

2024 Beta 450 RX Auction - Supporting the USA MXdN Team

Beta Motorcycles is committed to supporting the motocross community by backing the Motocross of Nations US National Team through a unique bike auction. The auction will feature a brand new 2024 450 RX motorcycle with the accessories listed below, as well as an exceptional Supercross Experience at Anaheim One (known as A1) next year. All of the proceeds will go to support the team's expenses to ensure that Team USA is well-equipped to compete for the MXdN title in the United Kingdom this October.

The winning bidder will receive: A 2024 Beta 450 RX, FMF complete exhaust system, custom printed set of HBD graphics, signed Benny Bloss front number plate, two sets of Pirelli tires, four cases of Liqui Moly oil, and the Liqui Moly Beta Race Team Supercross Experience.

The Supercross Experience

Get the experience of working and being part of the Liqui Moly Beta Supercross team for the day at the first round of the 2025 Supercross season in Anaheim. Beta will provide airline tickets, hotel accommodations, & supercross tickets for the winning bidder and a guest.

The auction will be posted on Bringatrailer.com the first week of September. Sign up below for updates and to receive the auction link when it goes live. https://betausa.com/2024-450-rx-auction/