In mid-January, it was announced the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) would be one of four teams competing in the 2025 FIM Oceania Women’s Motocross Cup in late March. Five women from four teams from four different countries— New Zealand, Australia, FIM Africa, and the AMA Team USA—will race in Australia in a lowest-total score event to claim the title (Olympic scoring).
The five riders representing Team USA will be Jamie Astudillo, Jordan Jarvis, Kyleigh Stallings, Lachlan Turner, and Mikayla Nielsen, all of whom competed in the 2024 Women’s Motocross (WMX) Championship here in the United States in its returning season. We ran into Astudillo in the pits at the Tampa Supercross over the weekend as the Pennsylvania native was repping her USA gear proudly. Jarvis was also at the race and was interviewed on Race Day Live.
In this interview, Astudillo previews the FIM Oceania Women’s Motocross Cup, the WMX Championship, and talks women in sports day. Make sure to support team via merchandise and donations on the www.raiseit4usa.com page. Purchases will support the WMX Team USA as they head overseas to compete, representing the red, white, and blue.
Read: AMA Announces U.S. Team For 2025 FIM Oceania Women’s Motocross Cup
Racer X Online: Tell us about this opportunity that came about.
Jamie Astudillo: Yeah, so it was actually just a random call from the AMA and Christina Denney, our team manager. She just reached out to me and was kind of telling me what what's happening with the FIM Women's Cup, and that AMA was invited to go and do it this year. And they hadn't had the team selected yet. There were actually a few girls up for the running so she asked me if I would want to do it and I said, “Of course,” right? Ride for Team USA that would be like so dope. So, I said yeah and she's like, “All right, give me a week.” Christina and Mike Pelletier, we going to decide who the girls were going to be. And, yeah, she called me about a week later and told me, “Congratulations, you're on the team, you're going to Australia!” That's been really cool, and I've been really excited to go.
There's four teams that are going. It's New Zealand, Australia, FIM Africa, and the AMA Team USA. It's five riders just because there aren't that many countries yet. They want to fill the gates, so that's why there's a ton of riders on each team. But, yeah, we have a qualifier on Saturday—a practice and qualifier on Saturday—and Sundays are two 20-plus-one [lap] minute motos, and last our worst scores are dropped and whichever team has the less amount of points is the winner.
So, whenever you found out you were officially on the team, what was that like and the emotions that came with it?
Yeah, it's really cool. I've been around the industry and racing for so long and being able to see the MXoN team go every year and like all these guys work so hard to be on Team USA and it's such a great honor for them. So, it's cool that the AMA is putting the women on the map, they're giving us attention and to be selected for such a like prestigious team is amazing and it's really exciting. I honestly wasn't even going to race this year, I was kind of calling it done, but when Christina called me, I was like there's no way I can say no, so I'm going racing this year. Just she saved my career in a way! [Laughs]
And you have raced with all those girls on Team USA before, so what was it like finding out who you were going to be racing with? Because I'm sure you have on-track memories, off-track memories with those girls.
Yeah, it's actually really cool. All of us ladies, we've kind of formed a really like cool friendship and relationship in the past year since the WMX championship is back. We know that we have to really like stick together if we want like women's moto to succeed, so we're all like happy for each other when it comes to this. And we're all friends, so it's actually going to be a really cool experience because I'm going to Australia with my friends and people might think like, “Oh you guys are rivals,” and yeah, we are rivals on the track, but realistically we know we have one goal and it's still like push women's motocross forward. So, we're all friends and we all want the same thing realistically.
I think last year before one of the WMX rounds you girls all had a dinner together and that was cool to see.
Yeah, so we actually hung out all together right before Baja because it was Ironman was our one round and then we went to Baja for the next one. So, we all stayed in Michigan together at Brianna Scheltema’s house. So, we stayed the week. We rode and trained together the entire week, all five of us. So, yeah it was actually a lot of fun. That's how we all like started becoming friends because we hadn't really hung out before then, but we spent the whole week together. And now we're all like best friends.
Talking about having the WMX Championship back for last year and being able to compete again.
Well personally my season wasn't the best. I had some good races and some bad races, but it was just awesome to be able to have a series again. I was part of the WMX championship before it went away, so I kind of had a taste of that. So, it was nice to have it back and to be able to go to some of the outdoor nationals, and it's really exciting that we're back at pro nationals full time this year.
I know some of the girls had not raced most of the track before. What was that like not only being there on Pro Motocross weekend but racing those pro tracks, especially ones you might not have ever raced before.
Most of us had the pro tracks. Like, we’ve raced High Point because that's a regional for Loretta’s and some of the people had raced Ironman because that’s a regional as well but obviously it's different. They prep the track for pro weekend. And even though we were racing on amateur day, it's still like dug up pretty deep and then you have like the hundreds of amateurs that are riding before and in between us, so the track gets really gnarly and it’s not the same for regionals that we're used to riding. So yeah, in a way we've ridden the tracks we know the layouts, but the tracks were set up completely different and, yeah, I don't know, it's exciting it's all new to us.
![The RCSX WMX round at Daytona International Speedway.]()
The RCSX WMX round at Daytona International Speedway. Mitch Kendra ![P3 for Astudillo at the RCSX WMX round.]()
P3 for Astudillo at the RCSX WMX round. Mitch Kendra ![High Point Raceway.]()
High Point Raceway. Mitch Kendra ![Heading through the pits and to the track at Ironman Raceway.]()
Heading through the pits and to the track at Ironman Raceway. Mitch Kendra
You mentioned that you were not going to race this season but now you are back in it. Some changes to the schedule for 2025. What are your thoughts on the schedule this year and what are your personal goals for this season?
I guess I'm taking this year a little bit more serious. I have like a full schedule: I'm training with Brandon Hartranft and training down at South of the Border. But I guess now that it's something kind of more legit and more like serious and strict with our schedule, it's like something we can actually plan out whereas last year was kind of hard because we're going to amateur nationals but we didn't really know like how long our motos were going to be we didn't know if we were doing four laps or a full 15 plus ones. And so, it's just I have a more strict schedule going into this year so that's cool. I'm in the best shape right now we still are pretty far out from Pala but I'm in the best shape I've ever been in, so that's really cool. And, yeah, I guess now that we're at like the pro nationals it's kind of like, okay we can train just like the guys because we know what we're going into and stuff like that.
Earlier this week, a couple days ago, was women in sports day. What is it like being able to compete with these people and be friends with them on and off the track, but just help women raise women up. Everybody helps the sport grow.
Yeah, like I said earlier, we all have one goal right now and it's to uplift women's motocross and make sure there's a solid series and everything like that so. I don't know, this week it's been… I know we had a day right with girls and women in sports day and it's been cool to see all the posts and everything from Instagram and Facebook and everybody, just all the girls supporting one another. So, it's been cool, and I'm honored to be on this team with some pretty gnarly athletes, right, so I'm excited and I think this year will be great for women's motocross here in the U.S. and hopefully we all have a really good year and hopefully Team USA wins in Australia.
Last one: what was your favorite track you got to race last year, and which race are you looking forward to the most this year?
So, last year was Ironman. I had never been to Ironman, so that one was really cool, and it was a lot of fun. I think my favorites, I have two, I have Unadilla and Budds Creek. I'm from Pennsylvania, so Budd's Creek is not too far, and I grew up going to Unadilla and watching on the pro weekend every year. So those are my two home tracks, and I'm going have a lot of people there cheering me on.
How can people help the team?
Make sure to go ahead and support Team USA, the Women's motocross team. Go to our link, www.raiseit4usa.com. Make sure to get some T-shirts, some merch, and help us get to Australia!
