Also, this week was the very rare Wednesday professional race, the fourth and final round of the FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX) from Abu Dhabi. CDR Yamaha’s Eli Tomac kept on winning to wrap up the title, though there was a strange first race where both he and Ken Roczen had problems and Vince Friese won on the MotoConcepts Honda. In the SX2 (250) class Shane McElrath of the Fire Power Honda team capped off a dominant WSX tour by winning everything in Abu Dhabi except the SuperFinal, though he was top 250. After the race WSX announced new stops in 2025 in Buenos Aries and London, but not the exact dates. Those announcements will come sometime in the spring. Congrats to Eli and Shane on their wins and titles.

Speaking of announcements, Kailub Russell finally made his return to racing official when he and Yamaha announced his comeback earlier this week. The eight-time Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) overall champion will be riding for the AmPro Yamaha squad, which wasn’t a very well kept secret in off-road circles. For what it’s worth the only time I’ve spoken to Kailub about this whole deal was after Thanksgiving dinner (he’s my nephew). He’s always been quiet and serious, and he seems just as driven as he ever was! The GNCC banquet is next weekend in Sandusky, Ohio and I imagine the return of #557 will be a big topic of discussion…

So, what all was going on at Angels Stadium? Here’s Weege and Jason Thomas…

Updates on Everyone! (Jason Weigandt)

Great times at Angel Stadium for this week’s SMX Media Days. Each rider spends four hours cycling through photo shoots, creating opening ceremonies videos, and talking to officials from the AMA, the Alpinestars Medics, Aegis anti-doping testing people, and more. They also do lots of TV interviews. When you watch the High Point National on TV, and you see riders talking about Father’s Day? Those videos were actually shot this week. All the obligations get done a month before the season so the athletes don’t have to be bothered once racing begins.

They also get 15-minute sessions chatting with the media on the record, and our man Mitch Kendra has been pumping out some content this week, with more to come. I was in the 30-minute sessions between the riders and the broadcast team, which are done without recorders or cameras, so everyone can feel as relaxed and comfortable as possible. I’m telling you, no athletes have stories like the riders in this sport. So many tales of huge injuries and illnesses, and the mental toughness to overcome it is unlike anything anywhere else. December is all about hope, too. The amount of “I’ve never been fitter or in a better place mentally” I heard this week and “Our bikes are awesome right now” can’t even be counted. The only riders to even hint that they have some more work to do on the bikes were the Lawrence brothers and Jo Shimoda, who have new chassis on their 2025 Hondas. The Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki 250 guys love the new-generation bikes, which turn better and have more low-end torque.  All the way down to the AEO KTM guys, Talon Hawkins and Lux Turner, you kept hearing guys love, love, love their bikes. Isn’t December great?

Maybe the best bike news involves Chase Sexton. Last year he broke the mold by not really saying he loved his bike. He was struggling in December last year and he told us so! The honesty was refreshing, but, also, startling. To me, Sexton finally finding supercross comfort with the Red Bull KTM is one of the most important stories of 2025, and he indicated he’s in a much, much, much better place this year. Sexton told us straight up that last year he was slow! But, he was also happy that he avoided the big crashes that plagued him on his old Honda. He’s trying to get a more reactive, lively bike so that he can go faster, but not lose the predictability that helped him stay off the ground. He thinks he has it.

There’s so much to discuss over the next few weeks. I left the stadium last night grinning ear-to-ear. How could you not love this sport and the excitement of Anaheim?

Finally, it was awesome to hang with your Spanish and French broadcast colleagues in person. As DC mentioned the French broadcast will have a rotating cast of Marvin Musquin, David Vuillemin, and Sebastien Tortelli. Can you get any better? A special shoutout to the play-by-play man for the French broadcasts, Maxim Martin. We've known each other forever. In 2006, I was hosting the supercross press conferences and he was there as the French translator for Christophe Pourcel. Now we're announcing the series together! Congrats, French Weege!

And check out some of our content and videos Mitch put together so far.

Pro Perspective (Jason Thomas)

That’s a wrap on Feld Media Days as we inch closer to the 2025 SuperMotocross World Championship. With so many riders sharing so many stories and perspectives, I believe everyone takes different things away from this marathon week. The goal for the broadcast team (still shocking to say I’m a part of this) is to gain insight as to how the off-season is progressing and take note of any pertinent info that may be of note in 2025. Every rider is planning on huge improvement and wins, etc., but sometimes the tone of the conversation can speak volumes.

I’ll leave you with one example: last year Chase Sexton said all of the right things, but I never really got the feeling that he was comfortable or in a good spot with the team change. His confidence level seemed to be a work in progress, and we saw that play out early in 2024. It wasn’t so much the words he said, more the way in which he said them. This year, however, he seemed much more at ease. Maybe it’s that the motorcycle and dynamic is a known quantity now or maybe they have taken steps forward. A new season will answer that. The point, though, is that these tidbits are snapshots into what we may or may not see when the gate drops. If Sexton is able to find the sprint speed of 2023, I will remember this week’s conversation. The days are long and the lines blur when we hear the same questions asked and answered for 35-40 hours but the moments of pure insight make it all worth it.

Here is the SMX Insider show that Weege and JT did while at Angels Stadium this week:

And Josh Gagnon's (@alwaysbelieve331) countdown to A1 continues...

Edition Season (Keefer)

Tis the season for Works Editions and Special Racers. We took delivery of our 2025 Honda CRF450RWE this week and will get our 2025 KX450SR next week. Since we didn't do a 2025 450 shootout, why not do a comparison with a red and a green "Edition"? WE can't talk about the Honda until Wednesday but since the Kawasaki test is next week, I wanted to get both together and compare which one is the better Edition motorcycle. I am going to grab some of the usual test riders I use but I will be on the lookout for some normal weekend warriors to help me try these bikes out. The only criteria is you'll have to be at the same track I will be at in Southern California, not be weird and be able to talk on camera! Could that be you? Possibly! Now I can't tell you where I will be but look for a van parked out in the North 40 pits at a local Southern California track on the week of the 17th. Then let me know that you're interested in purchasing one of these bikes and you may be able to help us out! 

Stark Varg (Keefer/Matthes)

Steve and I had the chance to go to Glen Helen Raceway this week and ride the Stark Varg. Now this isn't the first time I have rode a Varg but this was Steve's first time so I thought it would be cool for both of us to go ride together in silence. Ryan from Stark met us out at Glen Helen, gave us a rundown on the Varg then set us free out on the hills. If you haven't ridden one before it is quite the experience. The best way I can describe it is riding a mountain bike with a throttle and better suspension. It acts like a dirt bike, it feels like a dirt bike but not having that dirt bike sound is just... Well? Bicycle-ish! It's crazy how fast these things can go and how well you can concentrate on your technique when you're riding. You don't really know how much the sound of the bike can affect little nuances of riding a dirt bike, but it does. When you ride the Stark, it's apparent that you can think more about where you want to place your wheels while riding. I am going to let Steve add some more in here but check out the YouTube video of me riding with Steve and having a full-on conversation that he could probably hear. 

STARK LIFE (Matthes)

A lot of media was at Anaheim stadium this week for interviews with the riders ahead of the 2025 SX season but I wasn't able to go—I had made a date with the Stark guys to test out the electric Varg bike at GH. The bike's been out for a while but I hadn't gotten a chance to ride one yet and so we worked it out to meet Stark's Ryan Ritter out at the track. I had ridden Keefer's Alta years ago, so I knew the deal with the electric bikes and of course I ride an electric assist MTB bike a lot. Man, what a blast I had on the Stark, the different modes you have, all accessed via a phone on your crossbar. I had a 40HP mode, 50, 65, and 75 with different regen braking also to try. I also ended up turning the regen way down to 40 (Stark guy Justin Bogle was there and he uses a 30 setting—I think of the regenerative braking like engine braking) which I liked better. The bike is so fun to ride, it's so different from my YZ450F, it definitely takes some time to wrap your head around the bike, how to deliver the power, etc., but soon enough you'll be smiling ear-to-ear. Ritter got me to try the bike with the rear hand brake and yeah, that was weird but soon enough it was like riding a mountain bike. Some guys I talked to say that once you get used to that mode, you'd never go back but for me, I was still moving my foot down! And I got left arm pump! 

If you're not a fan of the electric bikes, you really should try one. Then maybe you'll be like "not for me" but at least you'll understand the allure and fun of a bike like the Stark Varg. What a good time! Thanks Ryan, Ben, and Bogle for the help with the bike—pretty cool deal.

Walking Around Namur (DC)

If you haven’t been watching eighties’ 500cc Grand Prix rider Rob Andrews (The Inside Line motocross book) and his YouTube series “Namur Track Walk” you should really check it out. Namur was the best-known track in the motocross world from its first race in 1947 long past it’s last in 2007. Located atop an old fortress called The Citadelle in Namur, Belgium, it usually hosted the FIM 500cc World Championships every August before it became MXGP. The track was more than three minutes long and wound up and down the steep hills and woods of the fortress that was effectively in the middle of the city. And with Belgium being the epicenter of Grand Prix motocross at the time, Namur was considered the single most prestigious GP to win. It’s also the site of the famous moment in 1988 when the late Hakan Carlqvist stopped on the last lap of the last moto at the trackside Café Monument and chugged a beer that his brother had waiting for him trackside. The big Swede was a dominant 1-1 that day in what was effectively his farewell race, as he retired just a couple of weeks later. Andrews has a vivid memory of the history of the place and makes an excellent guide. He’s released the first two of five episodes, which are below, and tomorrow will be Part 3.

53rd THOR Mini Os Wrap-Up (DC)

The 53rd THOR Mini O’s wrapped up last Saturday, and while the racing was great all week long, what a long week for the industry—but a very good one. Wyn Kern and the Unlimited Sports MX team do a fantastic job in fitting so many races over the course of the long week, and they do it on quality tracks for both the SX the first part of the week and the MX motos the second part of the week. The RacerTV.com crew was there and filmed from practically dawn ‘til dusk and all of the days are now archived if you want to go back and watch any motos in particular. (And salute to the broadcasting team too in being out there and on the job the whole time.)

Among the standouts of the week were new Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing signee Caden Dudney of Texas, who was impressive in the 250 A and Pro Sport classes, as well as NSA Yamaha’s Avery Long, who topped the 450 A and Pro Sport classes. The NSA Yamaha team is leaving the paddock at the end of the year, so it was a bit of a last chance for the soon-to-be free agent Long to show how good he can be, and he delivered. He also spoke to Darkside and the MotoXPod guys about what the rest of his season looks like.

As for Dudney, the kid has some big opportunities and decisions ahead of him. With the looming prospect of the minimum age for a pro license gradually moving up to 18 over the next three years (due to the fact that fewer and fewer states are recognizing minor release forms, adding to the ongoing insurance crisis the sport is now it) the 15-year-old Dudney could turn pro as soon as next July 24, his birthday. More likely, he and the Star team will wait until after Loretta Lynn’s and maybe do the last three 250 Pro Motocross nationals. He doesn’t have to turn pro, as the age probably won’t move up until 2026, so he’s grandfathered in. It’s the current 14-year-olds who will be most affected if that change comes. However, by all accounts Dudney has been extremely impressive at The GOAT Farm in Tallahassee against his professional teammates, and that tracks with what we saw from Caden at both LLMX and last week at the Mini O’s.

Lachlan “LaLa” Turner put in another great showing, winning both the Girls (11-16) class and the WMX 12+ class, and she also finished ninth in Supermini  2 (13-16) class. It would have been great to see her battle with WMX World Champion Lotte Van Drunen, but the Dutch girl broke her ankle while training for the race at MTF last month. When these two do meet it should be an epic battle, and we may be seeing it for years to come as both are just 17 years old.

Florida’s own Carson Wood won both supermini championships on his Team Green Kawasakis, but then it was announced after the race that the 15-year-old is moving over to the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing team where he has a development deal similar to Dudney’s. And Alabama’s Colt Martin topped the Mini Sr. 1 and 2 classes aboard his GasGas motorcycles. California’s Jesse Furtado topped the Schoolboy 1 and 125 Schoolboy classes on his Yamahas.

To see all of the results for all 77 SX and MX classes, check here:

2024 THOR Mini O's SX Results

2024 THOR Mini O's MX Results

Arenacross Preview Photos (Scott Wallenberg)

Our own Scott Wallenberg was out at the Ford Idaho Center in Boise, Idaho, for the round three and four doubleheader today and tomorrow for AMA Arenacross. Check out some photos!

Hey, Watch It!

AUS-X Open highlights featuring Hunter Lawrence-vs.-Dean Wilson

How did Vince Friese win a SX1 main in Abu Dhabi? Watch it right here:

Jorge Prado sat down with Jace from Gypsy Tales, and this is the part about his thoughts on the coming battles with Jett Lawrence

Here's what Spring Creek looked like for the 1986 500cc Pro Motocross National, featuring Rick Johnson, Ron Lechien, Jeff Ward, David Bailey and Danny Storbeck

Motoworld coverage of the 1995 NMA Grand Nationals at Ponca City, Oklahoma, featuring James Stewart, Travis Pastrana, Ricky Carmichael and more: