Vancouver’s BC Place stadium has hosted supercross before, back when World Supercross GP was the FIM sidecar of Monster Energy AMA Supercross. Back in December of Ricky Carmichael won on his Suzuki RM250, and then in ‘05 it was James Stewart on his Kawasaki KXF450, beating both Carmichael and Chad Reed. The races were entertaining—the soft dirt they used back then was a challenge for everyone—but attendance wasn’t quite as it good at the other Canadian round in Toronto, so Vancouver did not remain on the schedule moving forward. Hopefully with all of the growth the sport has seen in these post-COVID-19 years the Vancouver crowd will be strong. Keep an eye on Racer X Online and our social media for news and updates from the event as Steve Matthes will be there for both RX and PulpMX.

Also happening this weekend is the final round of the 2024 Progressive AMA Grand National Cross County (GNCC) Series at Ironman Raceway in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Annually the biggest event on the schedule, in both the number of riders and spectators, this one could break some records is the weather holds out. Besides all of the top GNCC regulars, several prominent names will be there racing for fun, including Phil Nicoletti, Ryan Villopoto, and Marvin Musquin in Sunday morning’s Industry race, and Villopoto and Damon Bradshaw will be racing Yamaha YFZ450R ATVs in Saturday morning’s Industry race. Also, the FIM is there to have a look around and inspect the site of the 2025 Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations, October 4-5. You can watch the main afternoon races from the Ironman GNCC live on RacerTV.com, with the ATVs on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET and the motorcycles racing on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Even before this weekend, it’s been busy around the industry with new signings, hirings, departures and more. The biggest one was probably news from Austin Forkner…

Austin Forkner Moves On (DC)

Way back in the summer of 2010 a young Austin Forkner swept his two classes (85cc 9-11 Stock and Modified) at the Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch. That caught the attention of Kawasaki Team Green, and they signed Forkner to a deal for 2011 and beyond. He would win several more titles as a youth and amateur, and then turn pro for the 2016 AMA Pro Motocross Championship with a full Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki ride. The sky seemed the limit for the Missourian, especially when he ended that rookie tour with a win at the Ironman National finale, beating the more seasoned Cooper Webb, Jeremy Martin, Aaron Plessinger, Zach Osborne, and Adam Cianciarulo—all of whom either were or would become 250 Pro Motocross Champions. So, it would seem that Forkner had titles in his future as well, but it hasn't worked out that way. Forkner won lots of races in the years to come but never a title due to a terrible run of injuries. He's led the points several times, only to crash out. Forkner and Pro Circuit stayed together for nine years, making him the longest tenured rider ever for Mitch Payton's team. He also has the dubious distinction of being the riders with the most 250SX wins in history (13) to have not won a title. 

This week Forkner announced his farewell to Kawasaki and Pro Circuit on his social media:  

Now Forkner is set to join what's becoming a formidable Triumph team that already includes Jalek Swoll (and soon Jordon Smith). It's a huge change of scenery that might do the hard-lucked Forkner well, because he certainly still has the speed—he won the '24 opener at Detroit and was winning the second round in Arlington until he crashed out violently, ending his season after just a race and a half (and during his downtime he even had to have brain surgery). Here's hoping Austin Forkner can put a full season together and maybe even get in the record books for something else, like maybe Triumph's first win… 

Also, former two-time 250 Pro Motocross Champion Jeremy Martin told Steve Matthes on the PulpMX Show that he is thinking about a comeback after missing the entire season following a concussion at the first 250SX East Region race at Detroit:

Martin’s spot on the Muc-Off/FXR/ClubMX Yamaha team was taken by Max Vohland, who also pretty much missed the entire season himself with an injury. Jason Weigandt caught up with Max for this week’s Racer X Exhaust podcast to find out where he is in his own comeback. Lisen to Weigandt’s podcast with Vohland.

Another top amateur prospect, Caden Dudney, has thanked Kawasaki and is expected to join the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing program, after winning two titles at Loretta Lynn’s with Team Green.

And check out this post from GasGas USA as the team—Justin Barcia, Ryder DiFrancesco, and Casey Cochran—breaks some of their own news:

Team USA Losses (DC)

In a recent article here for Racer X Online I mentioned that Team USA 2024 riders Cooper Webb and Aaron Plessinger now shared a dubious distinction as the only two riders who have lined up for Team USA to have a record of 0-3: "Here’s an unfortunate asterisk which I hope both Coop and AP will have a chance to rectify in 2025: At 0-3 each they are now the only riders in the modern history of Team USA to have that many appearances with no team wins at the MXoN."

Webb raced the MXON in 2015, '16, and '24 and performed well, but those races were won by the French ('15, '16) and the Australians. In AP's case he has raced for Team USA in '18, '23 and '24, with the first two wins again going to France and then Australian this year. 

Turns out there is another rider who is actually 0-4 in MXoNs in which he raced for Team USA, and that's Justin Barcia. Going back to 2012, Barcia has raced for our country in Belgium, Germany ('13), France ('15), and the U.S. ('18). Team USA finished 3-2-2-5 in those four races, which means Barcia alone has been on the most U.S. teams to have never won the MXoN...

But wait, there's one other interesting little caveat to this stat: Zach Osborne is actually 0-5 at the MXoN. Zach raced for Team USA in 2019 in the sands of Assen, the Netherlands, as well as '17 in the mud at Matterley Basin. But before that Osborne lined up on three different occasions for Puerto Rico, which is allowed because it is a U.S. Territory and uses U.S. passports. In 2012, '10, and '08 Zach raced under the Puerto Rican flag, which is allowed for U.S. citizens. And plenty have done it, including the long-retired Travis Pastrana and Kevin Windham in 2018, and well as fellow Team USA alumni Alex Martin, who rode for the U.S. in '16 but Puerto Rico twice before that. As a matter of fact, in 2014 Alex Martin raced for Puerto Rico while his little brother Jeremy raced for Team USA in Kegums, Latvia. Team USA finished third while Puerto Rico was 18th overall. 

Obviously, 0-5 is not the record anyone would want for the MXoN, but to his credit Zach knew Puerto Rico wasn't going to win, but he just wanted to compete, and Team USA didn't seem like it would ever be in the cards for the late-bloomer, until it was. Same goes for Alex Martin. But things could be worse—Estonia's Tanel Leon is 0-22 as a member of an MXON squad, and Ireland's Martin Barr is now 0-18. To their eternal credit, both Tanel and Martin were still out there trying for their countries in 2024. 

World Vet Prep (Keefer)

I went and co-hosted the PulpMX Show Monday night, so I got Steve to go riding with me on Tuesday over at Mesquite MX which is about an hour away from Steve's house. Since the Dubya USA World Vet Championships are coming next weekend, Steve and I went to put in some work together for the upcoming race. Just a few short years ago my good friend Steven didn't even want to sniff out a dirt bike to ride but since I bugged him enough about riding, he's been going consistently as much as he can and to me that makes me incredibly happy. Now if you ask him, he probably will say I bitch too much about him not going into the deeper ruts on the inside of the corners for practice (which is part true), he does still get around the track at a good clip. I posted something up to my Instagram story last week about "riding buddies" and how it can positively or negatively affect your riding, but in our case, we have a god group of solid riding buddies to talk crap and ride dirt bikes with and I am appreciative of that. Make sure to get to Glen Helen on November 2 and 3 for the Dubya USA World Vet Championships to watch Mr. Steve Matthes and Jamie “Darkside” Guida go toe to toe in the +45 B class which is sure to be a barn burner! Who you got? Daaaaark or Matthes? 

Stopwatch National Returns to Glen Helen, And More (DC)

Last year Glen Helen Raceway came up with a unique way to help riders get ready for the start of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship when they held an actual "Stopwatch National," based on the long tradition of SoCal-based pro riders and race teams using the track to help prepare for the upcoming outdoor national season. They offered a purse of $20,000 and held two 30-minute motos on the Thursday after the Salt Lake City SX finale and nine days before the Pro Motocross opener at nearby Fox Raceway. There was a full gate and Kawasaki test rider and longtime pro Broc Tickle came out on top. This week, Glen Helen owner Bud Feldkamp announced an even bigger Stopwatch National for 2025, as well as a new weekend-long event called MotoFest that will take place May 15-18 at his San Bernardino track. Besides Thursday's Stopwatch National, they will be awarding $80,000 in sponsorship to four different privateers, the top two in the 450 class and the top two in the 250 class, for four rounds of Pro Motocross. The top MotoFest finishers will each get $5,000 for each of up to four rounds of the series. Here's how that part of the weekend was explained on the press release on Motocross Action: 

MXA's Josh Mosiman also interviewed Bud Feldkamp, which you can watch here: 

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