RJ Hampshire Reveals Injury: “Actually Cut My Cast Off Yesterday to Come Here”
RJ Hampshire, the 2024 250SX West Region Champion, was expected to shoot for a title defense in his final 250SX season ahead of a move to the premier class full-time. During today's SMX World Championship media days, Hampshire shared information with members of the media a title defense is very unlikely. Off the heels of his first professional championship, Hampshire had a significant wrist injury just a couple of days ahead of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship opener that sidelined him until the final two rounds. Unfortunately, he suffered another injury this off-season that set back his preparation for 250SX West Region racing.
Hampshire has been vocal about his ideal situation of running the #1W in the 250SX West Region while racing an FC 450 in the premier class on the East Coast races with goals of getting race experience ahead of a full-time move to the 450cc class. Vital MX’s Lewis Phillips asked Hampshire if this was still the plan, and Hampshire—to his credit—shared in honest details of his struggles—both on and off the bike lately with the death of his father in November.
Lewis Phillips: Are you locked in to doing 250 West, 450 on the other coast or could that still change?
RJ Hampshire: Yeah, it's changed. Yeah, it's out the window. So, it's not even like I've been hiding it. Five weeks ago actually today, I had to have surgery on my wrist. Same surgery as what I had before. I had a screw put in right before outdoors started. Came back racing and I was still in a lot of pain at the last four races I did and figured that during the six weeks off for off-season it would get better. Got back on the bike last week of October, out here, and I was in more pain when I got on the bike that first day than what I was before I stopped. So, right away we knew there was an issue. Scheduled a doctor's appointment for that Wednesday. And ended up actually having a crash. It's crazy. I had a crash the day literally at noon on Wednesday. I had a doctor's appointment at 1:30 that day for my wrist! Fractured my fifth metacarpal just outside of my hand. But so, yeah, doctor appointment got moved forward a little bit, showed up there and I'm like, "Hey, look, here's my main issue, it's my wrist. But also, I just fractured this." So it was just kind of like a sign of like, “Hey, look, you need to get your wrist fixed and figured out.” So I flew back home to Florida and on November 1, I had another surgery on my wrist, got that screw taken out, got another plate put back in. So, yeah, I haven't really done much off-season work at all. Just cardio here and there and I still have a couple of weeks left. Actually, cut my cast off yesterday to come here and so I didn't have a cast on for all these photos and stuff. But I only have a couple more weeks left of healing. It's going good so far. So, yeah, that plan of racing at 450 on the East Coast is kind of out of the window now because I haven't had any time on it. West Coast might still be an option. I doubt it. Just in my scenario, I'm not gonna rush back into it. Man, I just had a lot of life events happen since my wrist. I wasn't hiding it, just had a lot more stuff go on and didn't really feel like I needed to really post about it. I was at Mini O’s with the cast on like, so everybody knew, just had a lot more stuff going on. So, it's about now healing up. I doubt you'll see me at A1. But I won't be missing [all of] supercross.
Hampshire noted he will in fact race a 450 in Pro Motocross, as his contracted to do so. This is Hampshire's final 250 championship he will compete in, as he will go full-tiime 450 starting in the summer of 2025 and in the SMX Playoffs in the fall.
“I'm contracted to a race a 450 moving forward. Every anything else [possibly 450SX racing this year] is just kind of what I wanted, and the team supported it. But yes, after supercross, I'm 450 on. ...Yeah, I'll be 450 from end of supercross 2025 on."
Hampshire added his joy in life is his family.
“My joy and kind of positive light is lmy family, of course. And that's what I kind of base it off of. Like the highs and lows of this year, it just kind of shows my whole career. Like that's what it's been with highs and lows and you have that goal of winning a championship. So, yeah, I finally checked that off and then two weeks later I get hurt and miss almost the rest of the year and now I'm kind of in the same situation, yeah, I had another surgery. But I believe all things happen for a reason. Maybe I wasn't supposed to race a 450 in supercross this year and that was just…you come up with this plan and you hope that would happen, but also it's like, look, I'm contracted to race a 250. So, that's what I go back to. And who knows? I think Zacho [Zach Osborne] actually told me, he's like, ‘Man, you should’—before I even did all this—he's like, ‘Yeah, I'd be sick to win an East and West championship and not defend and run the #1 plate. That's what you wanna do.’ So, I have a chance or an opportunity to win both coasts, kind of look at that as the bright side.”
