If you would have told anyone 10 days ago that Team USA '24 would be Eli Tomac as our MXGP entry on the #22 Yamaha, Cooper Webb as our MX2 entry on the #23 Yamaha, and Aaron Plessinger as our Open rider on the #24 KTM, they never would have believed you. But here we are, and that is one solid lineup! 

But wait, isn't there some kind of hurricane blowing into the Florida panhandle right now, with possible a direct hit on Cairo, Georgia, home to Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing? Yes, unfortunately. But the bikes of Eli and Cooper are already on their way to Atlanta, from which they will be leaving on Sunday, arriving in London on Monday morning. They are in pieces, along with lots of extra parts. And in case you're wondering about next week's schedule, it's unlikely that Team USA will do any riding on Wednesday or Thursday, but there is a start practice on Friday on a small side track that will help them get a feel for setups.  

So next Sunday afternoon at Matterley Basin in Great Britain, we may get to see one of the all-time deep fields for a single moto—the final MXGP/Open moto of the 2024 Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations. Just think about this lineup: Eli Tomac, Jeffrey Herlings, Jett Lawrence, Jorge Prado, Tim Gajser, Ken Roczen, Hunter Lawrence, Aaron Plessinger, Romain Febvre, Jeremy Seewer, Glen Coldenhoff, Maxine Renaux...

Oh, and to top off a busy week already, the AMA will be releasing the 2025 AMA Supercross and Motocross National numbers here real soon. Stay tuned.

And although KTM's Johnny Girroir already wrapped up the Progressive Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) Racing Series title, there are two rounds remaining: This weekend's John Penton GNCC and the Ironman GNCC final in Indiana set for late October. Tune into RacerTV.com both days to watch live and for free!

Post-race celebration scenes after the 2022 MXoN at RedBud MX in Michigan...

Rough Ending (Jason Weigandt)

Gosh could Chase Sexton be any more pissed at the world right now? The math says he lost a shot at the million-dollar SMX bounty when he hurt his hand on the very first lap of the race (he instead collected around $900k less than that by dropping to seventh in the standings). It’s worse than that, though, because, as DC mentioned, the injury forced him out of Team USA for the Motocross of Nations, a race Chase really loves, and ended any chance of finally answering those “Can Chase beat Jett?” questions. It would have been tough in Las Vegas, though, because Sexton’s starts on the KTM have not been on the level of the Lawrences on those fast-starting Hondas. I believe everyone’s main worry coming into this super-hyped winner-take-all showdown was that Chase would just get a bad start and never really have a shot. Well, that’s kind of how it played out here, just not in a way anyone expected. That’s insult and injury, there.

The good news is KTM reported Chase had a bone contusion in his hand, which is one step better than a broken bone. So, while he would not be 100 percent for MXoN next weekend, this shouldn't wreck his off-season too much. 

We held a ton of special shows over the weekend in Las Vegas and on Friday night’s live PulpMX Show, Phil Nicoletti, a man of a million appointments, stopped by to tell a great story. Sexton said KTM had a new motor package for the weekend, and he wanted Phil to watch his practice starts to see how it looked. Phil watched ‘em both and quickly reported grumbled to Chase, “Yeah that’s not it” in his typical grumpy style.

We’ll miss having Phil reporting from the starting line area like that. Enjoy the read on his three retirement parties in Las Vegas. As for Chase Sexton, well, now he gets three months to sit there mad about how the season ended. There might not be anyone in the sport more motivated for 2025 than him!

Finally, a note of thanks and praise for Cooper Webb and Eli Tomac stepping up to take slots on the 'Nations team. If they don't do it, I don't think the team is even racing. That says everything. See you next weekend in England.

Pro Perspective (Jason Thomas)

Thirty-one rounds of SMX are done and dusted and eyes turn east for the last round of MXGP and Motocross of Nations in back-to-back weekends. For the MXGP faithful, the premier class title is a tight one. Jorge Prado took over the lead at the penultimate round in China after Tim Gajser had a disastrous moto. Prado had been stalking the Honda HRC Slovenian, waiting for a mistake that finally came. Now he must hold onto his seven-point lead at his final GP before moving to America which happens to be in his home country, too. The scene couldn't be scripted any more perfectly; the home hero with a chance to win another title before moving on. Prado has delivered on home soil, too. He has dominated the Intu Xanadu event outside Madrid in past years and won in Galicia earlier this season as well. He will need another solid weekend across three separate races to bring home his second consecutive MXGP championship. The scene will be absolute pandemonium, and I will be on hand to witness it all. Spanish fans are known for being some of the most enthusiastic on earth. They will be out in full force to will their native son to victory. 

Stateside, the Team USA boys are in full prep mode. The behind-the-scenes drama of fielding a team this year is well documented by now. With the roster set, now it's time to hunker down and lock in. None of the Team USA members have ridden Matterley Basin before but their competitors know it well. Team USA is entering a hornet's nest, make no mistake about it. Maybe it's a good thing that they aren't viewed as the favorites. The last-minute changes could take some of the pressure off versus what was felt in 2018 or 2022. Chaos reigns at the Motocross of Nations, always has. I don't believe Team USA can go in and dominate on Sunday. But, with the right strategy and solid results, they could be a factor when the nuttiness arrives. This race requires attention to detail; no strategic mistakes can be made, or a severe penalty is often paid. Team USA will need every angle, every sneaky tactic. We won't come in as the favorite, some won't even have Team USA as a likely podium finisher. If I was Webb, Tomac, or AP7, I would lean into that fact. Motivation can be derived from many different facets. Feeling disrespected? Use it as fuel. It's going to be that type of year. There are several teams with incredibly strong rosters. The win will be in the margins. The team that leaves no stone unturned will be the one standing in the middle step on Sunday afternoon.

Winner Take All: European Edition (DC)

Last weekend's SMX Finals gave us a true winner-take-all scenario involving the Lawrence brothers and Chase Sexton, though it only lasted a few corners before Sexton was out. Now, for the second week in a row, we pretty much have another one over in Europe with the conclusion of MXGP and the 2024 FIM Motocross World Championship. Spanish Red Bull GasGas pilot Jorge Prado, the reigning MXGP Champion, enjoyed a huge points swing at the 19th of 20 rounds, the MXGP of China, and he went from 14 points down on Honda HRC's Tim Gajser to seven points ahead (943 to 936). Jeffrey Herlings is still mathematically in it, but he's 48 points behind Prado, which means he would need epic bad days for both Jorge and Tim. And tipping the scales a bit is the fact that the race is in Prado's home country of Spain, as JT touched on. The last round of MXGP will be held at the Castilla la Mancha circuit in Cozar.

There are 50 points up for grabs in the two motos, as well as the 10 points that can be taken in the Saturday qualifying race. Add it all up and Prado does control his own destiny. If he finishes second to Gajser on Saturday and second to him in both of Sunday's motos, they would be tied in points at 996 apiece, but Prado would win the tiebreaker based on the fact that he has more moto wins and more overalls (10). Prado could also be the first rider in MXGP history to earn over 1,000 points in a single season. 

Of course, this is Prado's swan song for MXGP as he will be moving to the U.S. as soon as the Motocross of Nations are over next weekend in Great Britain. He is going the Monster Energy Kawasaki team and is likely going to set up base near ClubMX in South Carolina, where his soon-to-be teammate Jason Anderson has been riding and training. 

In the MX2 class Husqvarna's Kay de Wolf has a 43-point lead over his teammate Lucas Coenen (940-897). With a perfect weekend de Wolf would also earn exactly 1,000 points. He is almost certain to join a short list of Dutch riders who have won the championship in this class, going back to the 125 days of Davey Strijbos (1986), John Van den Berk ('87), Pedro Tragter ('93), and into MX2 with Jeffrey Herlings ('12, '13, '16).

With everything finally done here in the U.S., the MXGP finale will make for a nice warmup for fans getting ready to watch the MXoN the following weekend and getting a reminder of how fast these guys, and who might be the main challengers for Eli, Coop, and AP. You can watch it all live on MXGP-TV.com, hosted by the great Paul Malin. And speaking of Paul, here's part one of a cool interview he did recently with MX Geoff Meyer.

PulpMX Show #600 (Matthes)

Weege detailed the multiple Phil parties this past weekend and it's amazing that the Feld Motor Sports guys managed to schedule an actual race around all the Phil parties to be honest. But that wasn't everything. Oh no, we also celebrated PulpMX Show #600 on Monday night. Every 100 shows we like to do something special for the show, which we started in 2010. Show 500 we had Ricky Carmichael and Jeremy McGrath in-studio along with JT and Daniel Blair to mostly talk about their careers. For this one, being as how it was after the season long finale, our buddy Phil was retiring, I thought I'd have just my friends around and celebrate it in-studio and downstairs in my house. So, it was a good ol' times with Phil and his dad in-studio, JT and Blair were back, Seth Rarick stuck around, Thomas Fichter came in and we ended it with everyone's favorite podcast duo, Kellen Brauer and Lewis Phillips. 

We talked Vegas SMX, the entire season and it was cool to have Phil Sr. on to talk about the early years and the struggles. Phil Jr. admitted that Phil Sr. had mellowed quite a bit the last few years and I thought you could tell pops was very proud of what his kid had made of himself. The mechanics from ClubMX came in also and I wanted to get Phil's guy Cam on, but he had an early flight. We went almost six hours for show 600 also so that was appropriate. 

Fourteen years of the PulpMX Show have gone by, and I don't know how much longer we keep it going to be honest, I'm sure that I'm closer to the end than the beginning but if you were there for the early years and still listening, thank you! 

PulpMX of Nations (Matthes)

Somehow when Lewis Phillips and I went to Maggiora, Italy, for the MXGP earlier this year, we convinced David Luongo of Infront Moto Racing to let us do a live show at the MXoN next week. Yeah, who knew? Anyways thanks to David and the Infront guys for letting us do it, it'll be in the paddock on Friday and Saturday night. Friday night at 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the stage that's there. Should be good times, we'll get some good guests and have a bit of a laugh yeah?

2025 Schedule (DC)

Finally, the 2025 Monster Energy AMA Supercross and AMA Pro Motocross schedules were released this week, with just a few surprises. SX will start on the second Saturday in January rather than the first, there are four races in the northeast, all late in the going, Daytona remains the only venue to have been on the schedule every season since the beginning back in 1974, Tampa is back but Nashville is not on the schedule for '25, and there are no rounds in northern California. That last one brought mixed feelings for many riders and teams, as they always seemed to like the San Francisco rounds, despite parking challenges, but the Oakland stop that was across the bay wasn't popular at all. Oakland not having a race is part of an unfortunate trend for that town, which according to a Wall Street Journal story this week: "It Was the Pro Sports Capital of America. Now It’s Been Wiped Off the Map." It refers to the early seventies, when both the Oakland Raiders and Oakland Athletics were world champions, but now both teams have plans for Las Vegas. The Oakland Athletics played their last game in Oakland on Thursday and they went out with a bang and a win. Side note, our man running this website, Mitch Kendra, went to college with the pitcher who just threw the final pitch in that stadium, Mason Miller. Just a casual 104 MPH fastball to close the doors.

In regard to Pro Motocross goes, the only real change is the fact that the last three rounds of the series have switched dates around. The Ironman National will now happen right after the last break, followed by Unadilla and Budds Creek, where the series will end for the first time since 1992. 

And as far as the SMX playoff rounds go, they will all be in September, but the dates and venues have not been announced yet, nor has the '25 FIM Motocross of Nations. 

Silly Season: Part 2 (DC) 

If you've been following the races since, say, the outdoor opener back in May at Fox Raceway, then you probably realize that we've already had a full "silly season" of riders changing teams. Usually, this carousel of changes happens once Pro Motocross starts to wind down and riders and teams explore their options. But now, with SuperMotocross following the motocross season, these changes are happening earlier as riders and teams are hoping to get a piece of the $5 million in bonus money. The first change we saw happened on the eve of the first national when Ty Masterpool went from HBI Kawasaki to a fill-in ride for Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki, and he's since turned that into a two-year deal. Max Anstie got out of his Firepower Honda deal to join Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing beginning with the Southwick National, and Garrett Marchbanks went from Muc-Off/FXR/ClubMX Yamaha back to Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki (he was there from 2018 through 2020). We also saw Colt Nichols leave Liquid Moly Beta for Twisted Tea/HEP Motorsports Suzuki, and Shane McElrath go from Twisted Tea/HEP Motorsports Suzuki to Bubba Pauli’s Maddparts.com Kawasaki team. And we also know that Jeremy Martin, who missed the whole season following a crash in the whoops at the 250SX East Region opener in Detroit, has parted ways with ClubMX, but we aren't sure where he's going just yet.

So now that SMX is over, it's time for Silly Season: Part 2. The first announced change has been Max Vohland, who got hurt after the second 250SX West round and has been out ever since. He's gone from Pro Circuit Kawasaki and will now be with the ClubMX Yamaha team. Jordon Smith announced that he's leaving the Yamaha Star Racing fold after finishing fifth in the final SMX points. He's said to be going to Triumph. And speaking of Triumph, they parted ways with Joey Savatgy just before the start of SMX, and Joey has landed a ride with Firepower Honda to ride WSX this fall and 450SX in the U.S. beginning January 11, 2025, at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California.

And there's the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/GasGas team, which came in hot in 2021 with Justin Barcia winning the first race brand ever lined up for in AMA Supercross (the Houston opener) and then Pierce Brown winning what's believed to be the last race ever for the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/GasGas in the 250SMX class in Las Vegas. Of course, the big rumors are that Troy Lee with be teaming up with Ducati when they start racing on the AMA circuit in 2026. But what about '25? The two contracted riders—Barcia and Ryder DiFrancesco—are going to be in their own GasGas trailer back under the KTM Group umbrella. As for Brown, he is headed to Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing, taking the place of the injured Stilez Robertson, who will be going to the expanded Triumph team.

Austin Forkner is hopefully going to be back and at 100 percent again, after winning the 250SX East opener, then crashing out while leading the second round in Dallas and missing the rest of the season (and there was that whole brain surgery thing too). Forkner probably won't be with Pro Circuit Kawasaki, where he's been throughout his entire injury-riddled career. Rumors are he is also going to Triumph, but he's said to be talking to ClubMX Yamaha too. But PC is not out of the picture entirely. 

Needless to say, silly season will continue.

Pennsylvania Old School (DC)

With news of the return to Pittsburgh on the 2025 Monster Energy AMA Supercross calendar, it brought back a lot of memories of races gone by in the Keystone State. I live in Morgantown, West Virginia, not far from the Mason-Dixon Line that pretty separates the Mountain State that I live in (as well as Maryland to the east) from Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh has held exactly two SX races before, in 1978 (won by Bob Hannah) and 1983 (Broc Glover). My parents were the co-promoters of both, and neither were very successful, unfortunately. Rain caused a huge mess back in '78 that made the removal of the dirt from the old Three Rivers Stadium afterwards incredibly difficult. The Wall Street Journal even came and did a front-page story on the whole misadventure, as the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team nearly had to cancel games because of all the mud. (Fortunately, it dried up enough to get the 300 dump truck loads of dirt out in time to play ball.) For the '83 race, it was in the middle of summer and the crowd simply didn't turn out like everyone had hoped.

Philadelphia hosted the only other true SX race held in Pennsylvania, and that was just last year, and by all accounts it was successful, so it's cool to see the City of Brotherly Love back on the calendar in '25 as well (April 12). But there was another "nighttime stadium motocross" held there, way back in 1973. It was held in the old JFK Stadium and promoted by Mike Goodwin. It was included in the Trans-AMA Series and run on a Friday night. The race was won by the Flying Dentist himself, the Dutchman Gerrit Wolsink (who really was a dentist too). The crazy thing is that two days later they raced another round of the series at Copetown in Canada, which was about a five-hour drive. 

As far as Pro Motocross goes, between High Point Raceway (barely a mile into Pennsylvania) and the old Steel City track in Delmont, there have been plenty of outdoor nationals in Pennsylvania. High Point has been on the schedule since 1977, with one exemption—we could not race there in 2020 due to the COVID-19 restrictions. Steel City was on the schedule between 1988 and 2012 before the track closed. Steel City also hosted the last 125cc U.S. Grand Prix ever held in this country, back in 1987. The winner was Suzuki rider Erik Kehoe. 

There was one other big outdoor race held in Pennsylvania. In 1976 the track outside of Allentown over near Philadelphia, which was called Pennsylvania Motocross Park, hosted a 250 National that was won by Kawasaki rider Jimmy Weinert. The track is now the home of Dag Boyesen, the former professional racer who runs Boyesen Engineering in nearby Lenhartsville. He and his father Eyvind used the Allentown track often to test products and also prepare for racing, and a frequent visitor was Bob "Hurricane" Hannah, a close friend of Eyvind's. He loved the rough Allentown track and stopped by to practice there often, including in the days leading up to the 1987 FIM Motocross of Nations, which were held at Unadilla.

Coincidentally, I found a really cool video of that 1976 Allentown National that was shot by Lyndon Fox. He's the uncle of current Dunlop man Rob Fox and has recently been digitizing his old home movies. There's no sound, but the quality is excellent!

Hey, Watch It

GoPro: Jaydin Smart 65cc World All-Stars + Charlotte SuperMotocross

WMXer and multi-time Loretta Lynn's Women's National Champion Sophia Phelps joined Jason Weigandt in Las Vegas for the Best Post-Race Show Ever, but not the last one because Weege is headed to the MXON (and you'll see Sophia more too—she's an excellent commentator!):

Shane McElrath ended an up-and-down season on a high note with the Maddparts.com Kawasaki team, with a nice chunk of bonus money to boot:

SuperMotocross playoffs 2024: Round 3, Las Vegas Motor Speedway best moments | Motorsports on NBC

Back-to-Back: Jett Lawrence Wins the 2024 SuperMotocross World Championship | Alpinestars

Here's a very cool documentary series about Team USA Junior by Camworkx and Motocross Action, featuring the big trip to the FIM Junior World Cup in The Netherlands this summer:

From Maxima Racing Oils: Happy 927 Day!

Head-Scratching Headline/s of the Week

“Dan Campbell's Home Address Was Leaked by His Daughter's High School Classmate”—NBC News (Campbell is the Head Coach of the NFL's Detroit Lions)

“Details Of How Dan Campbell's Address Leaked Are Infuriating”—Outkick

"UNLV QB Matthew Sluka quits team in middle of undefeated season: ‘More money’" - NY Post

"Diddy's Lawyer Offers An Explanation For Why His Client Would Have 1000 Bottles Of Lube And Baby Oil In His House" -Barstool Sports

"Ireland has a problem everyone wants: How to spend €14.1B windfall from Apple"—Politico

Random Notes

Here's an early Christmas gift suggestion: "50 Years of Supercross" by legendary motocross journalist and photographer Jim Gianatsis is featured in the new FAST 2025 Calendar Yearbook. A small 6-page excerpt was featured in Racer X Magazine in the May 2024, but now you can read and see the complete story, featuring many new and never before seen or published photos by Jimmy "The Motocross Greek" Gianatsis taken during the 1970s Golden Age of Motocross, together with those featured in the BERM BUSTERS Motocross Calendars from the 1990s, and taken by Jim at this year's Anaheim Supercross in a 58-page featured story.