Here at Racer X the guys are working on the Monster Energy Supercross Preview shows, and we also just completed work on the 2025 Supercross Yearbook. And the latest Racer X Illustrated dropped this week with the incoming Jorge Prado on the cover. It’s the first cover for the multi-time MXGP Champion who is now racing in America full time. We pulled out the old crew for this feature, shot by Simon Cudby and written by Eric Johnson. (And please don’t say “cover curse” because his crash earlier in the month happened way before anyone saw it!) Matthes went to Canada for the reboot of the FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX) in Vancouver and reported back with his feature “Do Over.” There’s also a feature in this issue on Pay Dirt, which is the new SX/MX documentary by Paul Taublieb, which is being released in January (and I got a few phone calls from prison from none other than Michael Goodwin, the very first supercross promoter). And we kept an eye on the Yamaha bLU cRU kids at the FIM Motocross of Nations for my story on “Yamaha’s Team USA.” Look for it in your mailbox or on the newsstands soon.

Before we get into the rest of the news, here’s hoping everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Simulated Racing (Jason Weigandt)

Yesterday was a good day to visit the ClubMX facility in South Carolina. “Simulated Race Day” was the theme, with all the ClubMX supercross riders—not just the guys on the actual Muc-Off/FXR/ClubMX Yamaha race team but also all the privateers who use the facility for training—participating. This day was structured with all the same pieces as a real Monster Energy AMA Supercross, including a free practice, two qualifying sessions, heats, an LCQ, a sight lap, and a main event. They even waved some red cross flags at times so the riders could practice seeing and obeying the flag. You can watch the whole video on it via The Weege Show on YouTube, but a quick synopsis is that Maximus Vohland and Freddie Noren (on a 450) battled it out for the win until Noren crashed in the whoops and Vohland got caught up with him. This allowed Coty Schock to sneak by for the win!

We all know many training facilities put riders on the track together in constant lap-time battles, but actual gate-drop starts leading to real motos with passing is rare. There was risk but reward to raising the intensity, with Noren going down and Vohland crashing on his downed machine. Freddy thinks he had a mechanical issue that led to his whoops crash, but he was not hurt. And that risk was worth it to push that extra bit of pace, especially for Vohland, who has not raced since his hip injury back in January. I also got a look at his unique rear brake setup, with a lever on the bars instead of the traditional foot brake. Max still has nerve issues dating back to the hip injury, so he can’t use his foot for the brake yet. Now he has a clutch and rear brake lever on the left side of his handlebar. Check out the video to see it up close.

Also, ClubMX has some big news coming with another expansion, I believe that will be announced soon. The place is always growing!

East or West? (Matthes)

As some of you may know, the fact that fans and media show up to Anaheim 1 without knowing who's racing the 250SX class is kind of ridiculous. But we did get some news earlier this week like Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing has declared its 250SX West lineup in Haiden Deegan, Cole Davies, and Michael Mosiman (who is finally back). We know Jo Shimoda (despite having a big crash the other day) will be West because Honda HRC Progressive teammate Chance Hymas is still recovering from surgery. And I was grilling Payton on the PulpMX Show about his Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawi line-up. He makes a good point where he tells all his riders to be ready for the West Region because if there's an injury and a rider that had been told to be ready for East Region has to jump in, well, sometimes mentally that's not the easiest. It's a decent point but I don't care. It's more important for the fans to know who is racing than some rider’s mental state, right?

Anyways, Payton and I will always agree to disagree but in the interest of real journalism, I did some digging and I believe Pro Circuit's West lineup will be Levi Kitchen and Garrett Marchbanks, with Cameron McAdoo, Ty Masterpool, and Seth Hammaker heading East. Mitch wouldn't confirm or deny this to me but that's what I got from some texts.

Mitch also said rookie Drew Adams is still scheduled to ride SX Futures, but I've been hearing he's been "flying at the test track" so maybe there's a chance the kid races pro, too. Stay tuned. 

Early Christmas (Mitch Kendra)

As Steve mentioned, moto Santa Claus came through and dropped off some blue gifts this year! That is right, we have confirmation on which Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing riders will be racing which 250SX region, after Yamaha announced the plan for all seven riders. Yes, seven! On Tuesday, they started out with one short—but big in the long run—announcement that Haiden Deegan would be taking his talents to the West Region Championship in 2025 Monster Energy AMA Supercross. Deegan started his pro career off with two straight seasons in the East Region Championship in 2023 and 2024, finishing second both years, and now announced he would compete on the opposite coast in 2025 as he looks for his first AMA Supercross title.

Then, a little bit before lunch time today, Yamaha announced the regions for the six remaining riders. So, here’s what the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing division will look like in 2025 supercross:

250SX West Region:
#38 Haiden Deegan, #93 Michael Mosiman & (number TBA) rookie Cole Davies

250SX East Region:
#31 Max Anstie, #41 Nate Thrasher, #20 Pierce Brown, and #34 Daxton Bennick.⁠

As we mentioned in our breaking news post earlier today, this leaves us with three big unknowns in the 250SX Class:

-What does RJ Hampshire end up doing?
-How does Mitch Payton divide up the five-rider Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki team?
-How will Triumph Racing split up their four riders?

The remainder of the 250SX Class looks like this at the moment:

Honda HRC:
West Region: #30 Jo Shimoda
East Region: #10 Chance Hymas

Rockstar Energy GasGas:
West Region: #25 Ryder DiFrancesco
East Region: #40 Casey Cochran

Red Bull KTM:
West Region: #23 Julien Beaumer
East Region: #1E Tom Vialle

Muc-Off/FXR/ClubMX:
West Region: #37 Coty Schock and #54 Jett Reynolds
East Region: #92 Max Vohland, #62 Mark Fineis, and #88 Devin Simonson*

* = Note: Simonson suffered a wrist injury that required surgery this week and a replacement rider is to be announced soon.

The Anaheim 1 SX is just 22 days away, and the 250SX East Region kickoff in Tampa, Florida, (set for February 15) is just 57 days away. Add in the 450SX Class, which we expect to be a barn burner of a season, and boy does the ’25 season look like we could be in for a real show. Again, thank you, moto Santa Claus! Hopefully next week Mr. Claus brings you more moto gifts under your tree.

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

J-Bone (Matthes)

Up now is a Fly Racing Racer X Podcast with Jeremy Albrecht on his new role with the AMA as Technical Director. It required him to leave JGR, where he'd been for over a decade. It's a new job for J-Bone as in the past he was part of the rider penalties department but now he's working with the teams to make sure the rules are being met in regard to their bikes. It's a great thing to see the AMA end of things stepping up to enforce some more rules and just keep the teams in line a bit. Theres's always a bit of fudging the rules here and there (in my experience) and to have someone like Albrecht is a good step. You can listen to the pod below. 

J-Law Update (DC)

One of the more unexpected stories of the year in moto has to be the return of Jason Lawrence to the whole amateur motocross scene. Once a lightning rod for controversy and trouble, albeit with a subtle little smirk or even a smile, the former 250SX West Region Champion got back into the public eye this year with his quest to qualify for the Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch, which he did in the Junior +25 class and finished a solid fifth. He kept everyone posted as he worked towards his goal, and now in 2025 he may go for a couple of classes at Loretta Lynn's (though it would have to be 250 or 450 Pro Sport since Jason is not yet 40).

I posted a picture of a J-Law Championship champagne bottle we have here at the office and that got us texting back and forth, I wanted to how he was doing, and to also ask him about his grandfather for "The Lives They Lived 2024," which is our annual New Year's Requiem we do for some of the moto friends and strangers who have passed away this year. Sadly, it appeared we had lost Jason's grandad recently. 

"Hell yeah you can ask about my granddad," he replied. "But you could also ask him yourself. People are getting it twisted that he's who passed away but he's not. It's my father who died. He [father] was barely ever in my life and none of you guys have any idea who even is. Several people have tried to console me on the fact that my grandfather passed away which isn't the case. My grandpa's got an instagram @thestickspop.

"I think maybe a lot of people think that the person they always saw me with at the races my entire life is my dad but it's not--it's my grandfather on my mom's side. My grandpa had a motorcycle dealership that sold European bikes in the 70s and Kawasaki and Suzuki dealership in the'80s until the early 90s called Wheels Unlimited in New Jersey. His names Don Heider."

As for his Loretta Lynn's plans, J-Law was pleased to report "I'm on a steep steep incline with my skills on the dirt bike. Thinking I'm going to like make it to Loretta's in both classes this year. In 2024 I couldn't even make it to the regional in Pro Sport!"

Lawrence, now 37 years old, has been staying Florida, racing on weekends to bank some contingency money, and keeping up what sounds like some real good momentum in life. 

Broc Glover on a Honda?  (DC)

Funny note from our friend Mike Kolar: 

Lock On Challenge (Matthes)

This past Monday night we at the PulpMX Show helped Renthal launch their Lock-On grip to the world. The UK guys waited until they could offer something different from their competitors and they did just that with a grip that can be used on any bar without sanding any knurls down. Anyways, Renthal's Paul Perebijnos was in-studio, and we brought the legendary mechanic Skip Norfolk in to hang out and chat with call-in guests Mitch Payton and Jeremy McGrath. And since Paul won an AMA Motocross title as Dean Wilson's wrench, Skip won a few races and titles as well, and then of course I'm the only mechanic to ever win Summercross, we decided to have a Lock-On Grip Challenge! Watch it for yourself here:

Daytona SX 2025 (DC)

Daytona International Speedway has held the title as the oldest round of Monster Energy AMA Supercross, as well as the venue visited the most consecutive years, since Day 1. Literally. The first-ever true AMA Supercross was held there on March 10, 1974. Of course, there races at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1972 and '73, but they were stand-alone individual races. But Daytona was running motocross races even before that, though they were part of the Florida Winter-AMA Series. And Daytona was the last race run before COVID-19 hit in 2020, so they got that year in, as well as the '21 race on that seven-city schedule. So, when the 2025 Daytona SX runs, it will either be the 52nd consecutive year on the schedule, going back to '74, and the 55th time there for dirt bikes when you add those three pre-SX Series years.

The Speedway itself is calling the 2025 race the 55th Annual Daytona Supercross and it will once again have a Ricky Carmichael-designed track, and it will be the 18th time that the five-time Daytona winner has designed the track, according to the press release that accompanied the unveiling of the new design.  

"The 2025 course layout is going to generate intense racing as riders will start by making a right-handed first corner," said the PR. "This leads into a left-handed 90-degree corner followed by a rhythm section that rides right along The Roost. From there, they’ll go all the way across the frontstretch giving fans an incredible view of all the racing action. There’s no doubt that this course is sure to bring entertainment and showcase some incredible talent from the riders."

“I tell you what, the split lane is always a lot of fun. We work really hard to make it even and give riders lots of options. I’m looking forward to this year’s design, I think it’s going to be a lot of fun no doubt especially with the right hand turn and a completely different track design as we’ve seen in the last several years,” said Carmichael. 

No word yet on whether fans will be allowed down on the stock car track, which was questioned after so many fans jumped over the fencing to get to the podium before last year's race was over. 

To purchase tickets or for more information on DAYTONA Supercross or Bike Week At DAYTONA, please visit www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com. Order today you can save up to 20% on tickets by taking advantage of the Daytona International Speedway holiday offer, which ends tonight, Friday, December 20. 

2025 Racer X Calendar (DC)

We've been getting a lot of good feedback on our 2025 Racer X Calendar, which we are giving away as a bonus to subscribers.

Subscribe now

We always try to do a theme for our annual calendar, whether it's Team USA at the 1981 Motocross and Trophee des Nations, past champs with riding numbers equal to each month, our favorite covers from each month, etc. For this year we decided to go with some of our favorite opening spreads for magazines features, and we quickly realized we had way too many going back to 1998 and our first magazine issue. So, we tightened it up to our favorite spreads of the last 10 years, but even then, we had to leave some gems out! Among the ones you might recognize are all-time classics like "The Most Interesting Man in Motocross" featuring Kevin Windham, "Moto XXX: How to Start a Riot" and "King for a Day" starring Ken Roczen, a two-stroke CR250, and Castillo Ranch—sand a shot-by-shot recreation of Jeremy McGrath's mid-nineties' Terra-Firma shoot at Castillo Ranch.

Unfortunately, probably my favorite opening spread of all time didn't make it because it was from so long ago. Back in '98 when we dropped the very first issue of the glossy magazine version of Racer X Illustrated, Eric Johnson did an amazing feature called "The Last Tycoon" on the rise and fall of JT Racing, featuring the founder John Gregory. The spread features their 1982 lineup of riders—and what a juggernaut that team was. See how many you can name:

Missing from this spread are the team's two legends on the MXGP circuit at the time, Danny Laporte and Belgium's Georges Jobe, who were battling one another for the FIM 250cc World Championship at the time. And you may have spotted one rider that was pretty much retired at this point... And yes, the moto world recently lost the second the rider on the left...

Anyway, make sure to subscribe or renew your subscription to get yourself a copy of the 2025 Racer X Calendar and see if your favorite magazine spreads are in there. and Merry Christmas to our industry friends who already got theirs in the mail!

Namur Track Walk: Part 4 (DC)

Grand Prix competitor-turned-author Rob Andrews continued his narrated walk around The Citadelle at Namur, Belgium, posting Part 4 last Saturday, with the final chapter dropping tomorrow. In the fourth chapter he found himself at the Chalet du Monument, the most iconic spot in the history of the FIM World Championships. This was the trackside bar where Hakan Carlqvist famously stopped to quaff a beer in his final Namur race in 1988, which he would win. It's also where the British fans seemed to congregate most often, to absolutely no one's surprise, if they actually know British motocross fans!

Back in 1997 when Jeff Cernic and I visited the track the bar was still open, so we went in and sat down for a Jupiler or two and started bench racing with a couple of locals who were there for many of the races. Upon realizing we had come from America the bartender opened a drawer and pulled out some old beer coasters and medallions from previous years and gave them to us. And I still have them here close to my desk at Racer X!

And here is what Namur looked like in 1964:

Take Our Readers' Choice Survey!

A lot of passionate, creative people work to make Racer X the best it can be, but our biggest source of inspiration is, quite simply, you! All of us at Racer X would really appreciate it if you can take a few minutes to complete our Readers' Choice survey. The better we know our readers and audience, the better we can make everything we do. For completing the survey, you'll receive a free 3-month digital subscription to Racer X Illustrated and a $20 gift card to MotoSport.com! You'll also be entered to win a Denago Powersports MX4 bike, five pairs of Sidi Crossair boots, an OGIO Dozer gearbag, a Risk Racing starting gate, a MotoSport shop stand, a 6D ATR-1 helmet, and a FXR 2025 Clutch Pro Moto gear kit! Winners will be announced January 3.

Take the Racer X Reader's Choice Survey Now 

Hey, Watch It!

How Did GNCC Racing Start? 50-Year History Documentary Teaser

Carson Mumford Back on the bike!

Catching Up With Liam Draper

Baker's Factory Week 4 BTS Bootcamp Supercross 2025!!!

2024 GNCC Bike National Championship - Johnny Girroir

RIG TOUR?!? Check out the new DBDRacing Rig for 2025!

 Kailub Russell: First Race on the YAMAHA!