Welcome to Racerhead, where the countdown is on and we are now just 357 days away from Anaheim… Er, Anaheim 2026. And if it’s anything like the Anaheim opener we just enjoyed, it’s going to be amazing. But that’s a long way away. Right now, we’re focused on San Diego tomorrow night (and it’s back to a later start) for round two of the 2025 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship, as well as the second round of the SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX), at Snapdragon Stadium. We’re already had plenty of drama for a season that is now just 20 laps old, 15 if you’re in the 250 class. The pre-race favorites—reigning SMX Champions Jett Lawrence and Haiden Deegan—did not win, nor even reach their respective podiums, as both ran into issues off their main event starts. Rising to the occasion were Red Bull KTM’s Chase Sexton and Honda HRC Progressive’s Jo Shimoda. They will be your red plate holders tomorrow night. All in all, it was an epic opening weekend, from the slick press conference on Friday afternoon to the jam-packed paddock on Saturday, to the sold-out Angel Stadium on Saturday night. SMX ’25 is off to an exceptional start!
Besides the favorites struggling (Jett more so than Haiden), A1 definitely had some surprises, like how good KTM’s Sexton and Julien Beaumer did, despite all of the chatter about the company’s financial challenges over in Austria, as well as Ken Roczen’s rock-solid second on the Suzuki, and Jason Anderson’s impressive third. The race has some weird little factoids as well. For instance, there was not a single rider from the state of California in the 450 main event. Contrast that to, say, Anaheim 1985, where 15 of the 20 main event riders were from California… Triumph reached the podium of an AMA Supercross for the first time ever with the third-place of Jordon Smith in the 250 class. And it's been since maybe Seattle 2018 that there was not a single Honda in the top ten of the 450 main event.
And it's been since Glendale of '19 that a rider wearing #4 won a 450SX main event (Chase Sexton this time, Blake Baggett that time, both on KTMs). And eight different brands competed in the 450 main event: KTM, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Yamaha, GasGas, Husqvarna, Honda, and Beta. That number will almost certainly be nine next year when someone like us on a Troy Lee Designs/Ducati Desmo450 MX lines up. And for the first time in 83 Anaheim SX races over the years, a Japanese rider won a main event, Jo Shimoda in the 250 class. Back in 2005, Akira Narita made history as the first Japanese rider to ever podium in AMA SX when he finished third in the 125 class in the “Perfect Storm” race at Anaheim—the only other time a Japanese rider has been on the podium at Angels Stadium.
And it's been since Glendale of '19 that a rider wearing #4 won a 450SX main event (Chase Sexton this time, Blake Baggett that time, both on KTMs). When was the last time #4 had the red plates in supercross? Ricky Carmichael to start the 2007 farewell tour.
Let me circle back to the pre-race favorites again. Jett's obviously got some digging to do here. In the history of the series, going back to 1974, only three riders have ever finished outside the top ten in the opener and gone on to win the SX title. Back in 2002, Ricky Carmichael got knocked out in his Honda debut and finished 20th but still managed to rebound to take the title. In 2009, James Stewart was making his Yamaha debut when he got clipped from behind in the whoops by his fierce rival Chad Reed and went down hard, banging his head and knocking himself out. He finished 19th but came back to take the title. And in 2013, Kawasaki's Ryan Villopoto just had a plain old bad night, with a bad start, some mistakes in traffic, and off-track excursion, and finally cartwheeling over a Tuff Block. RV finished 16th, but like RC and JS7 before him, he came back to win the title—his third straight.
Deegan didn't have the best night either, but the 250SX West Region favorite did rebound better from his first-turn crash. Funny thing: Haiden has never done very well in SX openers since he turned pro—and even before. In 2023 he started out in SX Futures at Anaheim (and it's crazy to think that was just TWO years ago) and crashed a couple of times and finished fifth. A few weeks later he raced his first "real" supercross, the 250SX East Region opener in Houston, and finished fourth. And then last year he was one of many riders caught up in a first-turn crash in the East Region opener at Detroit and finished 16th. So last-to-fifth at A1 is not a bad start to '25 and, like Jett Lawrence, I would look for him to rebound quickly. There are no odds on the 250 class right now, but if there were, I imagine #38 would be getting even more lopsided odds than Jett is getting for San Diego... More on the odds later, here’s Weege…
A Better Chase Sexton (Jason Weigandt)
Leading up to Anaheim 1, our TV analyst James Stewart kept hammering home how good Chase Sexton looked while watching him during the pre-season in Florida. James also interviewed Chase as part of the SMX Preview show on NBC, and he kept telling us that if Chase could bring his practice-track form to the races, he was going to be very, very good this year. Well, Stew knows a thing or two! Sexton was great all day and night at Anaheim, crushing his heat and the main. I talked to Chase after the race for the Weege Show and he said he knew he was feeling good, but he didn’t want to say too much in the pre-season. He was raised not to brag or boast. In the press conference, he said he would rather let his riding do the talking, and it definitely spoke volumes.
On Saturday morning I stopped by the Red Bull KTM tent to chat with Roger De Coster, and he said there have been some internal changes with the team. Roger made it sound like the U.S. group will now have more say in supercross suspension setup, and a key WP (suspension) staffer in Austria who was overseeing the program has now been moved to other areas. Chase seems darned happy with his bike these days, which is a massive difference from this time last year, when he podiumed Anaheim 1 but said he didn’t even think he was going to finish in the top ten! It’s not all roses, though. Chase said the biggest breakthrough really only took place on Monday before the race, and he finally got the feel he wanted. He also says he still wasn’t fully satisfied, and there is more work to do.
If you’re looking for excitement this year, seeing Sexton, Ken Roczen, Jason Anderson, Cooper Webb, and Eli Tomac in good form at Anaheim while 2024 Supercross Champion Jett Lawrence struggled definitely makes for a fun story-line. We expected a slow start for the Honda 450 program this year, we spoke about this in our Monster Energy Racer X Supercross Preview Shows a month ago. The new 2025 Honda has not transitioned to supercross as easily as it did in motocross or SMX, plus, since then, the team has taken on new Showa suspension components, a new ECU supplier (GET), and new race fuel (ETS). I love the sliding scale of being ready for round one. Every year, someone gets it right and someone needs more time. Last year it was Sexton and KTM struggling, this year it’s Honda and the Lawrences (Hunter was 11th). Variables in racing are more fun. Will Honda figure it out? Absolutely. But it will be fun to watch the defending champ have to dig out of a hole.
This weekend, Ty Masterpool is subbing in for Levi Kitchen. I know Masterpool fans are mad that starting Ty at round two will hurt his title chances, but I don’t think anyone, including Ty, considered this a potential title year in supercross. Do you know Ty doesn’t even have a top-10 finish in his career in supercross? He has failed to even make the main several times in his 250SX career. This is a learning year. From what I heard, Ty’s agent Lucas Mirtl actually asked Mitch Payton if Ty could fill-in as soon as Kitchen went out on Saturday. I think this move works well in a few ways. First, there’s less pressure. Second, I don’t think this West field will be as deep as the now-loaded East, which recently added RJ Hampshire, Austin Forkner (again, now with Triumph), and Kitchen to its ranks. Third, West gives Ty a mid-season break to focus on motocross testing. On the drawback side, Ty could possibly have benefited from a three more weeks of prep if he had stayed in the East, but I think the stiffer competition there negates that. Let’s just see Ty get through supercross healthy and learn for the future, and see what he can do fully prepared for the summer. Title contender?
MX Sports Scouting Moto Combine Throwback (Mitch Kendra)
Check this out from our guy Mitch Kendra. Read more on the rookies' nights here in his rookie round up feature.
Going through my photo archives, check this out from the 2023 Ironman MX Sports Scouting Moto Combine: Gavin Towers, Cole Davies, & Avery Long, all on Yamahas.
— Mitch Kendra (@mitch_kendra) January 17, 2025
The trio just raced their first pro 250SX race together at A1! 📸 #Supercross #SupercrossLIVE #SuperMotocross #SX2025 pic.twitter.com/2Kql3CfvKZ
Eli Tomac's Rubber (Keefer)
I learned something this week about Eli Tomac that I thought this was interesting enough to put here in Racerhead: Tomac is currently on production tires and not the usual spec tires you see the top professionals run. I learned that Tomac is on a production Dunlop MX3S front tire, and a production based MX34 rear (possibly cut, depending on conditions). This is actually quite big news as Eli was the one holdout on the older spec Dunlop didn't make anymore. When the rumors were circulating that Tomac was going to retire leading into 2023, Dunlop needed to know if he was on his way out or not. Why? Because Dunlop discontinued the spec that Eli was running in ‘22 and they weren't going to make any more of them if he was retiring. Dunlop was courteous enough to continue to make the tire just for him in 2023, but they needed to know if he was in our out. When they found out he was IN, they went ahead and made enough for Eli to last the season. This year, though, Eli is on production-based tires which leads me to believe that the Dunlop MX3S front tire has the same on-track carcass characteristics that his older front spec did. He is comfortable with that, as he is super picky with this front end, so thinking about the MX3S characteristics I can understand why he would pick this tire over the spec. The spec has more lean angle integrity has a much stiffer feel than a production tire. I think when it comes down to how these tracks are by main event time, having a softer carcass feel (with more air pressure in the production MX3S) is a more comfortable feeling for Eli. Think about it... Stiff chassis setup, stiff suspension setup. Having a little softer-feeling front tire carcass makes sense.
Maybe you guys don't care, but this is fascinating to me as it is RARE that you will see a top SX rider go with production tires! "Hey Keefer, what about his front end washing out on lap one of the main event last weekend"? Great question! That portion of the track was "wet slick" as the moisture came up in that corner. There was around a 4-5 foot pocket of "wet slick" in that corner and I feel like the Dunlop MX3S isn't great in those types of conditions. The standard MX34 front tire is a little better in that area of the track. However, everywhere else on the track where it is a little drier or edgy (think main event rough) the MX3S front tire carcass is much better than the MX34 to me. This is the reason why I think Eli stuck with this tire.
Hopefully you gained some knowledge because I woke up at 4 a.m. this morning to type this because I couldn't sleep as I was thinking about tires. Yeah, I know, I have a problem. We will see if Eli sticks with this production based combo as we get late in the series. Stay tuned as you know I will be on this!
Beasts in the East (DC)
With the last-minute scratch of Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Levi Kitchen from the 250SX West Region due to having the flu, the 250SX East Region is shaping up as a very deep field. Both of last year’s 250SX Champions, Red Bull KTM’s Tom Vialle and Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s RJ Hampshire, are racing in the East, as well as Triumph’s Austin Forkner (though the region lost Forkner's teammate Jalek Swoll last week with that Achilles injury). Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing will have Max Anstie, Pierce Brown, Nate Thrasher, and Daxton Bennick. The Muc-Off/FXR/ClubMX Yamaha team has Max Vohland and Mark Fineis leading the way, while Honda HRC Progressive’s lone rider in this region will be Chance Hymas. And the PC Kawasaki team will now have Kitchen, Cameron McAdoo, and Seth Hammaker.
Speaking of Kitchen, he of course will be replaced in the West by his teammate Ty Masterpool, beginning tomorrow night in San Diego, as Weege mentioned. Obviously, Masterpool is starting 25 points down on Anaheim 1 winner Jo Shimoda, but this will be something of a learning year for Ty anyway, as he has surprisingly limited supercross experience. Back in 2021 he raced in five 250SX races, with a best finish of 13th. He also raced four 450SX races last year with a high finish of 16th. The reasoning for sending him west now is because the team needs at least two riders on each coach to satisfy their sponsor contracts, and the team probably considered Ty a title long shot anyway. The other East riders—McAdoo and Hammaker and now Kitchen—have all won 250SX mains before. Masterpool has won an outdoor national (High Point '24) but as we mentioned above, his SX results are nowhere as impressive as his outdoor work has been. Eric Johnson caught up with Ty yesterday as he was literally breaking his race bike in out in California for this exclusive interview.
Beat Down Dirt (DC)
Obviously, it's been a very dry run for California—the dryness certainly contributed to the terrible fires that hit above Los Angeles last week. The dryness also took its toll on the track surface. Despite the best efforts of the Dirt Wurx crew to get water into the soil, it was obvious that the extremely dry second half of 2024 would play a part in how the track would break down. (It was also hard-pack to begin with, in part because Monster Jam was run on it the previous weekend.) And by the end of the night, it was pretty hammered. For instance, fast qualifier Eli Tomac's best afternoon time of 1:03.120 was more than two seconds quicker than his best main event lap of 1:05.219, which came on the eighth lap. Up front, with clear-sailing for much of the race, Chase Sexton had the best main event lap times: 1:04.583, a little more than a second slower of his best qualifying time. But his average lap time in what was a close race to the finish was 1:06.088.
After the race Johnny Hopper got down on the stadium floor for a very quick and revealing track walk that really illustrated how much the track broke down for the video below. Given how dry the track look before they really started watering heavily on Friday, Dirt Wurx did an impressive job of keeping it from completely blowing apart.
Orange Moves (DC)
You probably recall the big amateur industry shakeup when Daniel Blair announced that he was resigning from his role as KTM USA Amateur Racing Manager, which came right before the news went public that KTM's parent group over in Austria was going through some serious financial challenges. Blair is a former racer himself, an excellent TV host/analyst, as well as the parent of a young racer. While the timing was awkward, Daniel assured everyone that it was not due to the situation with the Pierer Group that runs the KTM family, but something he had been planning for some time. We did not know exactly where he was going to land, nor did we know who might take his place at the wheel of the Orange Brigade... Now we know both.
Blair announced a really cool new project just before A1 called Supercross University where promising young riders and their families can find information, resources, advice and more as they navigate their way to the top rungs of SMX. With a series of videos from Supercross U, Daniel offers his expertise, past experiences and suggestions on how other might enhance their performances and maximize their talent. He will have top racers past and present as guests, and he will be breaking down race footage for the benefit of his Supercross U members. Here's a video introduction, hosted by DB himself.
Daniel has also teamed up with Steve Matthes of PulpMX and Racer X fame for the Troy Lee Designs/Race Tech Blair-Matthes Project, a weekly podcast about the goings-on in and around the sport. Here’s this week’s show (and Daniel’s insight into how Cole Davies slipped through the hands of the KTM Group and over to the Yamaha Star Racing fold is very interesting).
As for who will be taking over Blair's position with the Orange Brigade, on Wednesday KTM announced that it would be Darian Sanayei, a well-traveled racer just as his predecessor Blair, and before that Nathan Ramsey. Sanayei, a native of the Pacific Northwest has raced on both the AMA and FIM circuits, as well as the French Championships. The press release also mentioned that he would be getting help as he learns the ropes from Ramsey.
Here Comes Ducati (DC)
On Saturday afternoon Ducati Corse (“corse” means racing in Italian) made it official: They are going racing with Troy Lee Designs when they line up here in America. That wasn’t necessarily breaking news. However, how soon that happens was very big news. Ducati is going to begin homologating their first production bike, the ’26 Desmo 450, as soon as June, with an eye toward racing it as soon as July here on the SMX circuit. While they don’t have a U.S.-based rider signed yet, it is expected that nine-time FIM Motocross World Champion Antonio Cairoli, still in racing shape at 38 years of age, would be the rider this summer for a few select outdoor nationals. Cairoli was there for the announcement, as was Rick “Ziggy” Zielfelder of Factory Connection, who will be a technical advisor on the project, which is very big news for Ducat. Ziggy was the co-owner of the GEICO Honda team, which folded following the 2020 season. Among the riders on that team were ¾ of what is now the current Team Honda: Jett and Hunter Lawrence as well as Jo Shimoda. And a couple years before that the team graduated Chase Sexton to Honda HRC, and before that they had both Eli Tomac and Justin Barcia! Obviously Barcia’s name comes up as a possibility for the Ducati ride next year, but we’re also hearing there’s talk of a certain #94 who put in a fantastic ride last Saturday night. Keep an eye on this space…
Hey, Watch It!
Another one of our favorite media colleagues that made an off-season move is Michael Antonovich, who departed from Swap Moto Live to start his own project called Course-Heading. Here’s a look at Anton’s Anaheim 450 All-Access video from down on the track for the main event (and give Michael a following at course-heading.com and on social at @courseheading as he builds out his platform):
Here is Shane McElrath's Chapter Twelve: Anaheim One vlog: "Betting My Career on This."
11th and 12th wasn't what anyone expected of the Brothers Lawrence at Anaheim 1, but they at least both know "the only way to go now is up."
Was it the bike? Ricky Carmichael and Ryan Villopoto weighed in on the idea that Honda should not have messed with the bike that Jett won on last year in one segment of this week’s Title 24:
Ty Masterpool | Act I | Digital Dirt
Head-Scratching Headline/s of the Week
"Italian soccer club Lazio fires falconer for posting photos of his penis implant"—AP
"AI Brad Pitt dupes French woman out of €830,000"—BBC News
Random Notes
On Sunday afternoon a celebration of life was held for Malcolm Smith at his Riverside dealership and a couple thousand people came out to say farewell to Malcolm. It was like a who’s who of the off-road world, as Malcolm influenced countless motorcycle enthusiasts. It would be impossible to list all of the folks that Scott Wallenberg and I ran into during the celebration, but the short list includes Mert Lawwill, Malcolm’s costar from the film On Any Sunday, plus speakers Roger DeCoster, Troy Lee, Bud Feldkamp, Scott Harden and Mitch Boehm, plus Stu Peters, Gunnar Lindstrom, Mark Blackwell, Danny Laporte, Gabriele Mazzarolo, Rob Dingman, Dave Casella, Zap Espinoza, Bob Weber, Paul Thede, Andy Jefferson, Bob Rathkamp, Don Emde, Randy Hawkins, Kevin Foley, Rodney Smith, Ron Lawson, Chuck Miller, Charles Halcomb, Bill Berroth, Ron Hinson, Todd Huffman… Like I said, it’s impossible to list them all! And of course there was Malcolm’s family, and sons Alexander and Joel both spoke about their dad as well. To sum it up in single word that all On Any Sunday fans know, it was neat. Thanks to Jean Turner for helping out with these photos.
Thanks for reading Racerhead. See you at the races!