And yet there was both Hunter and Jett last weekend at A2, again showing improvement from their awful opening night of 11th and 12th place finishes, respectively. Jett won for the first time this year and Hunter was fifth again for the second straight week. But their rebound was not as big a story as the new points leader in the 450 class. Who would have thought at the preseason press conference at Anaheim 1 that this motorcycle would be the one leaving California after three rounds with a red plate on it? Each week here in Racerhead we post some funny or just plain strange "Head-Scratching Headlines" but there was one this week that deserves more attention: 

I don't think anyone had that on their bingo card after three rounds of 2025 Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX)! It's a headline that Suzuki's waited a decade to post—3,655 days to be exact—marking the first time since Kenny's first go-around with Suzuki that he held the points lead here. He didn't win the main event, but Kenny may have won something bigger in the form of exorcising those haunted memories of Anaheim 2 '17, when he suffered that horrific broken arm and basically recharted his entire career path. He even posted afterward:

For more on this unlikely situation, here's Jason Weigandt from out in Glendale: 

Roczen’s Run (Jason Weigandt)

You know it’s a big deal for Ken Roczen to grab the championship lead when it actually overshadows Jett Lawrence getting his first win of the season. Yeah, in two weeks Jett turned a well-below-par 12th at Anaheim 1 into a victory, and he’s just five points out of the series lead. But that’s not the feel-good story anyone wants right now. Give us Ken Roczen, and more Ken Roczen!

So, here’s more Ken Roczen: Not only is he the point leader, but he’s headed to one of his best venues on the circuit. Roczen won the race last year in Glendale, and he also swept a Triple Crown here back in 2020. This weekend just happens to be a Triple Crown in Glendale. Also, We Went Fast reported that this is the eighth season in which Roczen has led a supercross championship, which is actually tied for the most ever with Jeremy McGrath. This is a bit of a dubious honor, as McGrath turned those eight points-leads into seven titles. Roczen hasn’t won one.

Look, the reality is this is a short sample size of three races and the start of the season is often crazy. Eli Tomac, Chase Sexton, and Jett Lawrence have been very fast but each suffered incidents on starts and first laps that led to bad finishes. That stuff tends to work out across the averages in 17 races—Roczen will have his race where he’s buried early and can’t get to the podium. Also, Roczen, as those eight seasons with the points lead shows, has a tendency to start the season hot and tail off.

But there’s one noticeable thing here that helps his case. Not only does Roczen usually start the season strong, he also starts the races strong. No one fires off on the first lap better than Ken. Also, in many years, he has a tendency to fade as the race unfolds. The big story is that we have not seen that this year. Ken actually charged late at all three races. He couldn’t track down the winners (Sexton, Tomac, Lawrence) but he didn’t show any sides of fading. He looks strong and in control and with that, he gets to use his experience and race craft to hang in with these battles. Has he been the fastest guy this year? No. Is he his best self? It looks that way. How far can that take him? It’s a feel-good story everyone can get behind.

And congrats to the Progressive Insurance ECSTAR Suzuki team and the Pipes Motorsports Group on holding the red plate for the first time in Monster Energy AMA Supercross. As DC mentioned above, it’s been a minute, er, decade actually.

Anaheim 2 Additional (DC)

In closing the books on the 84th Anaheim SX and the whole “Anaheim season” of three SoCal races, congrats to Julien Beaumer who became the first rider of 2025 to hold on to the red plate for a second race. The Red Bull KTM rider had a tense night with his rival Haiden Deegan of the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing team, and they even tangled in the heat race, with Beaumer going down. But he kept his cool and took the second place that the night was giving him and thus held on to the red plate. Is anyone getting a déjà vu deal from Ryan Dungey-vs. Jason Lawrence back in the day? You know, where one is just steadily rising and keeping his head down and the other is a lightning rod for race wins, brash comments, and drama? No offense to Deegan—it works for him, and he’s got the championships to prove it, though it’s still hard to believe that he has yet to hold a points lead in 250SX. This will be something to watch and enjoy for seasons to come…

Eli Tomac used the Saturday afternoon practice start to try out the right side of the tunnel jump structure, lining up in what was effectively the far-left gate of the right side of the split start. It worked and he got the “holeshot,” so he decided to use it during the main event. (And as Mitch Kendra pointed out on Sunday, Deegan used this gate to get the holeshot in the 250SX main event). It did not work out at all as the sudden rain made for a long, slick rut that spun him up. He recovered for seventh but posted afterward:

”So bummed on that start last night, felt great in the heat race and riding all day. That gate went from the best to worst in a matter of minutes with the rain hitting the hard pack outside of the rut. In hindsight I should of chosen a different gate, but it is what it is.”

Four-time FIM Motocross World Champion Jorge Prado had a very unfortunate crash in practice when he bounced a rhythm section, crashed into the safety nets, and ended up dislocating his shoulder. He scratched for Saturday night, then the news got worse. Prado posted:

This was an unfortunate turn of events that we have seen before when MXGP talent moves to America and struggles to learn the SX ropes, get injured, and then struggle to be ready for the AMA Pro Motocross Championship. Greg Albertyn and Sebastien Tortelli come to mind, as both came over with multiple world titles in motocross but struggled to be healthy when motocross started. Here’s hoping #70 heals up completely by the beginning of May.

Also missing from Anaheim 2 was GasGas rider Ryder DiFrancesco, who apparently suffered a brutal practice crash and ended up with serious internal injuries, requiring emergency surgery. He was off to his best SX start ever. Here’s hoping he can make a comeback soon and get right back to where he seemed headed.

And congrats to Drew Adams for coming off the bench to race for the beleaguered Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki team, after both Ty Masterpool and Garrett Marchbanks could not go. Adams finished eighth in his debut. With an actual race and a full week under his belt, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Adams in the top five this weekend, if he can nail the starts. And glad to hear that Marchbanks is back as well.

Finally, respect to the Dirt Wurx gang, who put together three very good tracks for the start of the SMX season, and three very good races. Unfortunately for them, no sooner had the checkered flag fell on Anaheim 2 than the rains hit hard, making move-out much more of a chore than they expected. After a full month of relatively dry weather with the dirt on the floor of Angel Stadium, they got hammered as they were just starting to exit the building! Keep up the good work, Dirt Wurx.

And props to Troy Lee Designs for stepping up to help the first responders who battled all of the fires in Los Angeles earlier this month. TLD is organizing an industry-wide fundraising campaign to support the cause through a helmet auction. Find out more right here:

Troy Lee Designs Fire Relief Fundraiser

And as mentioned above the first round of SMX Next – Supercross takes off this weekend in Glendale, with a solid lineup of young prospects. To preview it all Mitch Kendra was joined by Racer X contributors Cody Darr and Travis Delnicki to preview the SMX Next - Supercross program for 2025. Also, did anyone else notice the all-teenagers podium in 250SX at A2, as Haiden Deegan led Julien Beaumer and Cole Davies to the winner's circle? All three are recent graduates of SX Futures, or what we now know as SMX Next.

DOING THE DOUBLE (Matthes)

There are things that history remembers as amazing feats of endurance and heart, like climbing Mt Everest, or closer to things that involve sporting events, Tony Stewart racing the Indy 500 and a NASCAR race in the same day. And then there's what I'm doing this weekend—Reno AX tonight and Glendale SX tomorrow night. What can I say? I'm here for the people.

But in all seriousness, this did seem like a better idea when I booked all the tickets than, like, right now. I was actually in Phoenix on Wednesday for a WPS sales meeting thing which was fun, then flew here to Reno just to jump on a plane tomorrow AM to come back to catch the SX. I like AX though; it's been a fun series the last couple of years and Reno is sort of an historic venue for the guys. Vince Friese has a decent points lead right now but it's AX; anything can happen right? Stay tuned to RXI social channels for some updates from here.

Some bit of news this week also with the Lawrence brothers’ lawsuit filed against their old agent Lucas Mirtl and the release of the court docs. It's not a good look for Mirtl, someone I consider a friend, in these papers, but we'll have to see how this turns out for both sides. Mirtl is proclaiming his innocence on social media as he did to me last Monday night on the PulpMX Show. 

-RJ Hampshire made it sound at the WPS show that he really hasn't been back on the bike for long so he's not coming into next week’s Tampa SX at 100 percent either. There's also a chance that Chance Hymas doesn't race Tampa either as he had some arm pump surgery and is still recovering from that. 

New Issue (DC)

While we were out in California the latest issue of Racer X Illustrated dropped with Triumph’s Austin Forkner on the cover—a first I believe for both Triumph and Forkner. Remember, just one year ago he started the 250SX East with a win in Detroit, and now he’s hoping to do the same next week in Tampa, only this time on a black bike, not a green one. We also have a really cool feature by Aaron Hansel on JuJu Beaumer and his background in jet ski racing, a look at the massive THOR Mini O’s, and a really cool history piece about Team Australia at the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations—a victory 40 years in the making—by Sir Jack Burnicle. Look for it in the mail or on newsstands now.

BASEBALL (Matthes)

We, over at PulpMX, dropped a ridiculous video where I try to steal a base on our friend and former minor-league catcher Chris Betts. We went down to Long Beach High School last Friday and had a lot of fun shooting it. Thanks to TJ and the other guys there at the Long Beach Dirtbags team for the help and outfitting all of us. Betts riding out on a Kawi also made the video that much better. What you don't see in the video was after we were all done, everyone was complaining about something hurting on them. Except for Weege, he played 1B and didn't run so I guess he was fine? Thanks to Kellen Brauer for also making this video super funny. Did I do it? You'll have to watch!!!

GasGas MC 450F Factory Edition (Keefer)

I had the chance today to spin some laps on the new 2025 GasGas MC 450F Factory Edition and it surprisingly was better than I expected (compared to a standard MC 450F). I don't want to give it all away here as we have a full breakdown of the machine here on Racer X, but Factory Editions always feel a little more refined to me when it comes to chassis and engine feel. The standard models are good, but when I receive a Factory Edition to test, it always feels a little more crisp and planted than the standard editions. This "Barcia Replica" was a surprise to me in a good way as there was more differences than I thought there would be on the Rockstar Energy GasGas Edish. I did a little Go-Pro bike/track preview on my Youtube channel that you can watch here, but if you need the full helping of the red factory edition machine, make sure to come back to Racer X to see what $12,600 bucks feels like out on the track. 

Hey, Watch It!

Ty Masterpool | Adversity | Digital Dirt

Walk Around Cody Webb's Yamaha YZ250X Race Machine

How's this for a throwback...19-year-old Kailub Russell, then with KTM.

Inside Arenacross S2E3: Kill Shot

SMX Next - Supercross Preview: 2025 Schedule, Glendale Entry List, Riders to Watch

The latest from Michael Antonovich... All Access - 2025 Anaheim Two Supercross 250 Main Event