The not-so-good drama was what happened very, very late in the 250 main event with the red flag. Max Anstie was seven seconds and one lap away from what would have been a second straight win when paramedics asked for a red flag so that they could get the injured Cameron McAdoo off the track after a big crash in the whoops. The thinking was safety first, as it should be. There were seven seconds left before 15-minute clock ran out, and Max was seven seconds ahead when the race was stopped. Anstie was understandably upset, but he lined back up as he was told, at the front of a long, staggered line that snaked back from the first turn.

Now this is where things got even more confusing. First, the rule had changed at the beginning of the 2024 series that rather than end a race with a red flag before time expires, the riders would have a green-white-checkered scenario to end the contest. The TV team seemed to be confused about this, as were many of the teams and fans. The assumption was that the old rule was still in place—the one that says if 90 percent of the race is complete when the red flag comes out, that’s the end of the race. However, as we covered in a breaking news post immediate after the race explaining the rule, we noted the 90 percent rule was taken away for a new rule ahead of the 2024 season. There was also confusion in that because the layout of the Detroit track had the finish line 17 or 18 seconds after the starting gate, the green part of the green-white-checkers did not happen the first time around, as a full lap had not been completed.

And then there was the unfortunate placement of the chalk line for Anstie. It was very close to the first turn, which had a rhythm section right out of the corner. Max could not hit it cleanly while Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Levi Kitchen, lined up second, did. What a difference one bike length can make. Had the line been a little further back, I believe Max would have hit that first rhythm section cleanly and gotten away, just as he had throughout the whole main event. Instead, Kitchen was right there, and Anstie had to go into defensive mode rather than the way he’d ridden all night. To me, that one bike length on the restart made the difference. Levi pressed the issue and eventually got the better of Anstie, who was thrown off by the pressure. It was a very weird ending to say the least. And I imagine a lot of people were pulling out their rulebooks for a refresher course. On to Arlington.

BTW, tomorrow’s race marks Military Appreciation Day for Monster Energy AMA Supercross, and we gotta say Triumph Racing came out of the gate strong with Jordon Smith’s bike!

Arlington 2024 (Mitch Kendra) 

This week's Race Rewind takes us back to the 2024 Arlington SX at AT&T Stadium last February...

WEBB'S WORLD (Matthes)

Cooper Webb got his first win of the season last week, grabbed the series co-points lead and look at that: the two-time 450SX champion is heating up right around his usual time, right? We had Webb on the PulpMX Show Monday night to talk about his win and it also seems like he's growing into more of a leadership role with the Monster Energ Yamaha Star Racing guys. There have been some incidents there with some of the kids and Webb confirmed what we had heard that he did indeed have to have a talk with the 250 side of things to stress that although they're all there to win, and that they all need to remember that the racing is for Saturdays.

"It's unfortunate, you have a big group, and you have young kids, everyone has a lot of pressure and Bobby [Regan] asks a lot of his riders,” explained Webb, who turned pro with the team and won his first championships in the 250 class. “You have egos, and everyone wants to be top dog. It was a conversation that needed to be had. It was like, 'Hey guys we're all here to win and be on the podium and everyone has different goals but with that being said, we gotta make it to the race.’ Little mistakes, collisions, some things are gonna happen for sure but let's have respect for each other.’

"Honestly, I learned that at Aldon's [Baker], he was really good about that,” explained Webb, who worked with Aldon during his tenure with Red Bull KTM. “We're training partners but we're using this to get better and as much as we can, put the egos aside That's been my role at Star a little bit since I came back. I've enjoyed helping the younger kids and with my experience I can try to help. I've been there, fortunately or unfortunately, and if I can help kids avoid the mistakes that I made then great."

Cooper Webb is in a good place these days with the team, the bike, his mental outlook and the 450SX points standings as well! 

Pro Perspective (Jason Thomas)

For the second race in a row for the 25SX West, we have ourselves a Triple Crown. A Texas sized Triple Crown, can I get an amen? So bring your ten gallon hat and spurs, it's going down in Dallas. Ok, enough hype. What does this event mean for the 250SX West? In a word: everything. This series is wide open. The top three are within five points and Cole Davies RSVP'd that he would like a seat at the table moving forward, too. Deegan is still trying to show us what we wanted to see, Beaumer wants to make up for the lost opportunity in Glendale, and Jordon Smith has the confidence and momentum after his Glendale win. Three different stories, three different perspectives, and three races to sort it out.

I will be hyper-focused on Deegan if pressed for a name, though. He was the de facto favorite coming in and even though he has a win, it hasn't been the overpowering performance I expected. He's made mistakes, gotten poor starts, and simply got outridden in Glendale. Simply put, I believe he's better than what he's given us so far. The only way to live up to high expectations is to, you guessed it, win races. He knows it as well as I do. He's a big believer in his own capability and for good reason. But, when you create controversy and raise the stakes, the expectation rockets to the stratosphere. I don't think he shies away from that expectation, but it still remains.

This weekend is a great opportunity to remind us of just how dominant he was in late 2024. Let's see what the 38 has under the hood.

Dallas SX History (DC)

While Arlington is not exactly downtown Dallas, the city first appeared on the AMA Supercross schedule way back in 1975. The race was held at Cowboys Stadium in Irving and won by Can-Am’s Jimmy Ellis. Here’s a feature we did on that first race 50 years ago here on Racer X Online. Ellis would also win the ’76 Dallas SX at Cowboys Stadium, and then Bob “Hurricane” Hannah won in ’77 in what may very well have been the longest supercross main event ever, as heavy rain hit before the main event, and it took nearly an hour for Hannah to get all 20 laps in. Honda’s Jim Pomeroy had the win in hand, only to get stuck trying to get up over the tunnel jump on the last lap. The mud did such damage to Cowboys Stadium that they did not welcome supercross back for several years.

Supercross finally returned to the Dallas area in 1983, but at the Cotton Bowl, not Cowboys Stadium. The race was won by the late Mike Bell. Team Honda’s Johnny O’Mara would win there in ’84 while on his way to the title. Finally, in 1985, the race returned to Cowboys Stadium, and the overall winner would be Rick Johnson on his white Yamaha, with Bob Moore winning the new 125 class aboard a Suzuki RM125.

Cowboys Stadium would stay on the schedule until 2008 but then would be demolished in 2010. That same year the series would race for the first time at the brand-new AT&T Stadium in Arlington. It’s been on the schedule ever since and actually held three rounds during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. All three of those rounds would be won by Cooper Webb.

And one last footnote: The 1986 Dallas SX winners were Honda’s David Bailey in the 250 class and Keith Turpin in the 125 class. Turpin is going to the race tomorrow night, so keep an eye out for him!

Jeffrey Herlings Injury (DC)

We’ve had a few gut punches to SMX already this season with long-term injuries to defending champion Jett Lawrence, his teammate and brother Hunter, multi-time champion Eli Tomac, multi-time World Champion Jorge Prado, and more. But we’re still having an exciting series, with so many different winners and a few more like to emerge, like Roczen, Kawasaki’s Jason Anderson, KTM’s Aaron Plessinger, etc. Unfortunately, the injury bug is a global monster, as now we know that Jeffrey Herlings is likely to missed the first four or five rounds of the FIM Motocross World Championship (MXGP) with a torn ACL from last fall. And that was only half the story. Herlings also said that unless he can get a contract extension from KTM, this will be his last year. And if he does get one, it will only be for 2026.

Much of Herlings’ career has been interrupted doe to injuries. He’s the winningest rider in Grand Prix history, with 103 wins, but he only has five world titles to show for it. By comparison, Stefan Everts had 101 GP wins, but he has ten world titles; Antonio Cairoli has 94 but nine world titles.

And much like the last time Herlings was unable to go at the start of the MXGP season due to injury, the idea that he might come to America and race the AMA Pro Motocross Championship, which doesn’t start until late May, is already getting tossed around. MX Large’s Geoff Meyer discussed this with Red Bull KTM team manager Joel Smets earlier this week.

“We have always had these stories and that always comes up, but at the moment, and with the financial situation, not yet,” answered Smets, himself a multi-time world champion. “But I do not say it won’t come up, because, for sure, at some stage if might come up, but at the moment, no. As you know, we have Chase [Sexton] and Aaron [Plessinger] and normally with both we can score podiums and we won the championship with Chase last year, so there isn’t a high need to put another rider there, so for now, it isn’t on the table, yet.”

Check out MXLarge.com next week for the full interview with Smets and also look for MX Geoff’s MXGP preview were on Racer X Online next week as well.

GNCC History (DC)

Last weekend the 2025 Progressive Insurance Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) Series kicked off in Union, South Carolina. The race marked the beginning of the 50-year celebration of the series, which began in 1975 as a single race—the Blackwater 100. Well, the VP Racing Big Buck GNCC seemed very much like the Blackwater, as the place was inundated with rain, turning it into one tough mudder. It turned out to be a history one too, as the for the first time ever the podium was swept by XC2 riders on 250F motorcycles. Rocky Mountain Red Bear Kawasaki Team Green’s Nick DeFeo, a 19-year-old rookie in the XC2 Pro class, won the overall in his very first Pro-level GNCC. His teammate Josh Toth, also on KX250X, finished second overall, and FMF KTM Factory Racing Lander’s Angus Riordan rounded out the sweep.

The XC1 class started in the front row, with the XC2 guys taking off one minute later. Within two laps, DeFeo had caught the XC1 Pro leaders on adjusted time, and then physically passed them all. He ended up winning the overall by over three minutes. It was an effort that would have made the first-ever small-bore winner of a GNCC overall—New England off-road legend Tommy Norton, winner of the 1990 Blackwater 100 on a KTM 125—extremely proud. Same goes for Toth and Riordan.

So, how exactly did three 250Fs beat all of the 450s, including defending series champion Johnny Girroir and the back-on-track Kailub Russell? A combination of excellent “mudsmanship” and a deeply-rutted course that seemed to devour bigger engines and clutches. While the leading XC1 guys floundered trying to find their way on the opening lap, the XC2 guys had the luxury of following and finding better lines as the 450s splashed through before them. After the race Russell (who has won a GNCC overall before on a KTM 150 two-stroke) apparently told his AmPro Yamaha team to put a YZ250F on the truck for him in case they have another mudder like the Big Buck. The series’ second round will take place next weekend with the Big Boar GNCC in Palatka, Florida.

This Week’s Win Ads (DC)

There was much to celebrate last weekend, from supercross to GNCC, especially if you were a member of Stew Baylor’s Rocky Mountain Red Bear Kawasaki Team, which earned the cover of Cycle News for GNCC overall winner Nick DeFeo, but also win ads for DeFeo as well as WXC Champion Rachael Archer, who also won at the opener.

Renthal Factory Tour (Keefer)

It took a minute but it's up! We finally got the Renthal Factory Tour up and even though we had some sound issues, I think you will find it very interesting as well as informative. Follow along and take a step by step walk through on what it's like to build a Renthal handlebar from start to finish. I was blown away on how many steps there is to making a handlebar as well as all of the long tenured employees Renthal has. I met so many friendly people that have been working there some for over 30 years. I would say over half of the employees there have been at Renthal over 10 years and quite a few that have been there for 20 years or longer. As you know Renthal not only makes bars, but we learned about how their sprockets, grips, and chains, as well as their bicycle parts, are all handled. It was truly one of the best trips for a handlebar geek like myself. Oh, and the KK bend is COMING!!!! Check the video out here.

ICE TREY (Matthes)

Myself, Weege, and Seth Rarick sat down to do a Re-Raceables Podcast with Trey Canard yesterday on his late season 2014 450MX push after he bolted on the KYB suspension. Funny stuff to hear Canard, who's now testing with Honda and involved in things like what he had to go through as a racer, talk about how secret the switch from Showa to KYB was and how he felt bad for the Showa techs, but that SFF fork just wasn't really working for him. Canard went from some moto podiums to winning four out of the last five motos that outdoor season! You can listen to the show here.

That Muddy Day at High Point (DC)

In watching the tough mudder that the GNCCers had to endure last weekend in their '25 season opener, the gang here at the Racer X office were talking about the 1997 High Point National, which was a particularly muddy race from yesteryear. The race ended up with two unlikely winners, marking the last major win of Damon Bradshaw's career and the first and only win of the late Scott Sheak's career. It was also the first bad day of Ricky Carmichael's pro motocross career as he struggled to a 13th place overall finish, after having dominated the first three rounds of the series. He got stuck in the bottom of one of the valleys and my big brother Timmy had to encourage him to keep trying and eventually helped him unstick his Pro Circuit Kawasaki KX125. Jason Weigandt was there as a young fan, having driven over from New Jersey, and I was there doing the ESPN2 pit-reporting. Tim Cotter was the live pit announcer, with Larry Maiers as the host. Matty Rice posted a video of the race on our Instagram page:

Coincidentally, earlier this week I stumbled upon a tranche of old photos by freelance photographer Mark Lavin, who was one of the few photographers whose camera still worked by the end of the day. He captured Damon winning the second moto and the overall aboard his Manchester Honda CR250. (Yes, Damon was a full-on privateer when he won that race!) He also got a shot of the crowd that mobbed Damon after the finish line, plus the shirtless Bradshaw on the podium celebrating in a driving rainstorm. Sure, High Point '97 was an epic mudder, and just a plain epic day for "the Beast from the East" and all of his fans! 

Hey, Watch It!

Detroit Supercross 2025 From the Floor | Infield Access RAW

Chance Hymas Opens up on Limited Prep Coming into 2025 Supercross

2025 Arlington Supercross Weekend Preview & Injury Report

SMX Insider – Season 3 – Episode 7 – 450 Class Tied in Points

Motocross at 3:14 mark might be nice for Racerhead

One tough mudder, otherwise known as the VP Racing Big Buck GNCC: