As far as the series goes, after last weekend’s Birmingham race Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Cooper Webb’s lead was pretty much cut in half, as Red Bull KTM’s Chase Sexton had one of his best outings ever. The #4 went 1-1-2 in the three races and had a nearly flawless night. Webb, on the other hand, struggled with his starts and traffic. He finally looked comfortable in the last race, which he won, but the 7-4-1 was still only good for fourth on the night. He now leads Sexton by just eight points.

The 250SX East race in Birmingham saw yet another new winner in Nate Thrasher, who became the 15th different winner in the 10 races to date between both classes and coasts. The Tennessee native became the fifth different 250SX East Division winner in just as many races. Thrasher didn’t win any of the three races, but he was the most solid rider over all of them. The fastest rider was Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Seth Hammaker, who went 9-1-1. If not for a first race crash, the Eastern Pennsylvanian would have had two series wins in a row. And the worst news was that early series points leader Max Anstie crashed in qualifying, breaking his leg. We’ll have more on that below.

Of course, by the time the Birmingham SX was up and running the biggest news was about a rider who wasn’t even there, Haiden Deegan. The 250SX West points leader was arrested Friday evening in Florida for “stunt driving” (doing donuts) in a parking lot, something I imagine many, many of us have done in the past. Deegan was only in jail for a couple of hours, but it was long enough to have his mugshot taken, and early enough that quick-thinking and quick-printing fans were actually showing up at the Birmingham race with T-shirts featuring that mugshot. And by Monday, the Deegans themselves were selling T-shirts and hoodies featuring the picture, which was both funny and brilliant.

None of this should have been a surprise. Haiden’s dad raced rally cars when his SX/MX and freestyle moto days were over, and his sister is a professional race car driver as well. His nickname is “Dangerboy” and he’s stacking wins and championships before his 20^th birthday. He has an Audi R8 sports car, and he’s a marketing wiz and content creator. I wouldn’t be surprised if he showed up in Seattle tomorrow with a fake police bracelet wrapped around one of his Alpinestars (prop ones are available over on Amazon).

To me this just wasn’t that big of a deal, though it did get some folks out there upset at Deegan for attracting the wrong kind of attention. In the whole big scheme of things this seems pretty low on the long list of brushes with law enforcement, especially in our sport. And motocross and supercross have had some real doozies over the years. I remember when I was a kid the police came to Appalachia Lake to arrest a couple of top riders in Jimmy Weinert and Billy Grossi for trying to drive their rental car up the old ski slope at Cooper’s Rock State Park. More recently there was the rental car that a couple riders rolled at the Freestone National in Texas, and of course who can forget Jason Lawrence at RedBud spending the night in a nearby jail after causing some general mayhem in Lot B. James Stewart was infamously arrested for impersonating a police officer when he was running late for a flight and decided to pass stopped traffic by using police lights. And one year at RedBud, the late Nancy Ritchie nearly had Bob Hannah arrested for driving his rental car around the track!

The Deegan thing probably belongs in this category of lesser offenses, and not in the much more serious department of violations, which would include Ron Lechien getting busted for pot at the Tokyo Airport in 1985 and being summarily fired by Honda, as well as Jeff Emig getting busted for pot at Lake Havasu in 1999 and losing his Kawasaki ride. Those were deeply costly to the riders themselves and not the public at large. There have also been some much more serious crimes involving more than just stunt driving or partying, but that’s a whole different can of worms.

And then there was Travis Pastrana’s unfortunate crash in a speeding Corvette that left his friend Matt Bigos with a life-changing spinal injury. That made national news back in 2003, just as this thing with Deegan has this week. Fortunately, no one got hurt this time (though Haiden may need some new tires for that R8). I’m sure Haiden learned a lesson or two here. He didn’t (and shouldn’t) get fired or lose sponsors or anything like that, though I have a feeling his car insurance is going to go through the sunroof. But then again, he can probably take care of that for years to come with a win this weekend alone in soggy Seattle.

Hey look, we made People Magazine again: Motocross Star Haiden Deegan, 19, Shares His Mugshot on Instagram After Being Arrested for Street Racing and Stunt Driving.

SEATTLE STUFF (Matthes)

Well, that 15-point lead Cooper Webb had that we all stressed about in terms of this "thing" being over is down to eight points after his podium streak ended in Birmingham, and Chase Sexton took the win. Funny how quick things can turn, right? I think about Seattle last year where, after a Jett Lawrence fall (one of two, I think), Sexton and Webb had a titanic battle for the win and ended up finishing a whopping 24 seconds ahead of Jett. I think when the conditions were like last year’s, and I think they'll be like this year, the skill of the elite really shine. Throttle control, balance, technique—things like that make these guys ride a track with deep ruts and slop like it was dry. It's really something to watch as the "normal" riders struggle to double the simplest things. 

So, I think this weekend we'll see one practice cut back, a shortened mud program, and more battles with Webb and Sexton taking off. Maybe someone like Roczen could get in there but with his AC joint bugging him, I'm not sure about that. Lots of pulling up, etc., and that's where these shoulder injuries hurt riders. 

If it's not 7:30 on the west coast by the time you're reading this, come on down to the Carco Theater in Renton, Washington, for a Seattle LIVE show we're doing. Tickets are still on sale!

GNCC is Back in Action (Mitch Kendra)

The Progressive Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) Racing championship is back this weekend for round four in South Carolina. The series has been exciting so far, with three different overall winners so far and an XC2 rider (KTM’s Grant Davis) leading the championship entering this weekend.

Tune in this weekend for the fourth round Camp Coker Bullet GNCC live for free on RacerTV.com on Saturday (pro ATVs at 2 p.m. EST/11 a.m. PST) and Sunday’s (pro bikes at 1 p.m. EST/10 a.m. PST).

Max Out (DC)

The injured list unfortunately grew last weekend in practice at Birmingham when Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing's Max Anstie suffered a broken leg. That ended the popular British rider's quest to be the oldest 250SX Champion of all time (Max turns 32 next month). It also probably put a dent in his AMA Pro Motocross Championship hopes for this summer, as that series starts in less than two months. The crash happened in the timed qualifying session, and Anstie posted a time that would have had him going to the gate 12th. That led to some chatter about whether the AMA should move Max out of the lineup and take the 19th fastest qualifier, Jack Chambers. Instead, the decision was made to take five riders out of the LCQ rather than the normal four—which, as our Mitch Kendra pointed out, matches the rulebook. Unfortunately for Chambers, after grabbing the holeshot he ended up going down on the first lap. It was also unfortunate for fellow privateer Thomas Welch, as he was leading halfway through and went down. It was a fairly chaotic race, and in the end Lorenzo Locurcio of the Wildcat Race Team got the win while Crockett Myers got the fifth and final transfer spot. Lorenzo made the most of it, finishing the night 14th while Myers ended up 18th. And congratulations to Danville, Virginia's, Hamden Hudson, who qualified for his first 250SX main event and took home a 17th place overall finish.

Here is the 2025 AMA Supercross Rulebook on the Triple Crown qualifying note, with our own highlights.

(Un)Protective Stadium (Mitch Kendra)

Damnit, another top factory rider out with an injury. Max Anstie’s qualifying crash and broken leg takes the Brit out of the 250SX East Division Championship fight with Tom Vialle, RJ Hampshire, Seth Hammaker, and Nate Thrasher. As I mentioned in our breaking news update on Anstie’s crash Saturday, oddly enough, this is the second straight season where Anstie ran into trouble at Protective Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama.

In March 2024, Anstie entered the Birmingham SX round with the 250SX East points lead, but suffered a mechanical DNF and took 21st place finish, giving up the points lead to Tom Vialle. Anstie, then a member of the Fire Power Parts Honda Racing team, came in with a one-point lead over Cameron McAdoo, but did not get a great start to his race. Then, halfway through the race, Anstie’s CRF250R failed, just nine full laps into the race. Vialle took his second consecutive win and took over the points lead. In an instant, Anstie’s P1 and plus-one points lead turned into him leaving Alabama eighth in the standings, 21 points down.

Then on Saturday, in the 2025 running of supercross at Protective Stadium, Anstie suffered his crash and broken fibula (left, lower outside leg bone), ending his championship hopes.

It's a bummer to see anyone go down without an injury because, as Travis Delnicki pointed out on Wednesday in his 10 Things We Learned write-up, Anstie was, for the first 99 percent of the season, the class of the field. Delnicki wrote:

“Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Max Anstie could not have started the 250 East Championship in more dominating fashion. The Brit completed the pole position/heat win/main event win trifecta in Tampa and followed that up in Detroit by dominating 14:54 of the main event until the red flag came out. From the moment that red flag came out, Anstie’s season went into a downward spiral that ultimately went up in flames in Birmingham. After coming up short on a big quad in a rhythm section, he was ejected from his BluCru machine. Anstie immediately grabbed his leg, and it was later reported that he suffered a broken fibula in the crash. It is undoubtedly a devastating blow for Max, and hopefully he can come into Pala at full tilt.”

Travis nailed it. Anstie looked to be set up in a perfect position to make a run at this championship. Yes, he led the points last year for two rounds, but his 2-6-8 finishes to start 2024 were nowhere near his results this year (1-2 at the first two rounds, although that two was almost another win). This year, Anstie looked so much better on the bike, and it's fair to say it would be tough to imagine him having any bike problems causing a DNF on a Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing YZ250F without an outside factor. Anstie noted in an interview with our Tom Journet on Friday before Birmingham, a Daytona media day crash left him banged up. I did not see the crash, but you could tell the #31 was nowhere near his round one and two level in Florida (sixth) or Indiana (seventh in the East/West Showdown). Oh, what could have been. Hopefully we can get Anstie fully healthy and back for the AMA Pro Motocross Championship in late May.

If Protective Stadium is once again on the supercross schedule in 2026, it's fair to say Anstie will be skipping this round by any means necessary.

Max Anstie in 2024 vs 2025.

Seattle SX Rewind (Mitch Kendra)

Seattle has had some wild nights over the last handful of years, like the 2018 mud race where Chad Reed's bike gave up on the final lap and he tried to push it over the finish line jump. That same night, Aaron Plessinger won the 250SX main event then jumped in a puddle!

In 2019, we had good conditions but if you remember we had 1) a gnarly, long set of whoops, and 2) a wild, wild crash to the start of the 450SX main event. Watch it below...WEEGE COVER YOUR EYES! Marvin Musquin went on to win that race.

That same night, Dylan Ferrandis earned his first career 250SX main event win as Adam Cianciarulo and…Jimmy Decotis (!) rounded out the podium. That was the last podium of the Rippha’s professional racing career, and just the start of Ferrandis’ winning.

Other notes:

2022: Eli Tomac led holeshot to checkered flag after an unusually good start left him untouchable for the rest of the field.

In 250SX, Hunter Lawrence barely held off Christian Craig at the finish line by 01.430 seconds! It was the first of three straight wins late in the season for Lawrence, who would come up just short of the 2022 250SX West title (which went to Craig).

2023: Tomac wins in Seattle again, this time charging through the field. In doing so, Tomac earning his 50th career 450SX win, which tied him with James Stewart for second overall on the all-time premier class AMA Supercross wins list.

2024: Cooper Webb and Chase Sexton battled down to the checkered flag, with Webb coming out on top by half a second!

In the 250SX main event, Washington’s own Levi Kitchen won with a 21.051 second gap over RJ Hampshire at the finish line. Kitchen's 20+ second win was the biggest gap at the finish line in all of 2024 supercross when you combine both 250SX divisions and the 450SX class as well. What a big win for the PNW native in front of his home crowd.

What will Seattle bring this year?

MXGP Do-Over (DC)

After what seemed like a rain-splattered disaster at Castilla La Mancha in Spain, the FIM Motocross World Championship (MXGP) got out of the muck and back up to speed with last weekend's MXGP of Europe at the historic St. Jean D'Angely circuit in the west of France. That's the track where Team USA picked up a couple of big wins, first in 2000 (Ricky Carmichael, Travis Pastrana, and Ryan Hughes) and then again in 2011 (Ryan Villopoto, Ryan Dungey, and Blake Baggett). There was a little bit of rain leading up to the race, but the track looked superb on Sunday. Tim Gajser had a pretty much perfect weekend on his Honda, winning the Saturday qualifying race and Sunday's two motos. Tim's up more than a moto in points on former world champions Romain Febvre and Maxime Renaux, as the #243 has claimed four moto wins out of the six motos so far.

The MX2 class is a much different story. Red Bull KTM's Andrea Adamo (Loretta Lynn's Class of 2018) got the win in France, and in doing so became the third different overall winner in three races, and six different riders have moto wins: Adamo, Germany's Simon Laengenfelder, Belgium's Liam Everts and Sacha Coenen, Netherlands’ Kay de Wolf, and Adamo's fellow Italian Ferruccio Zanchi. Everts has the red plate and leads Langenfelder by three points, de Wolf by five, and Adamo by 11.

MXGP is taking this weekend off and will return next weekend at the sandy Sardinia circuit off the coast of Italy. Expected to return is Jeffrey Herlings, who has been out with a knee injury. Herlings apparently lined up at a Dutch race last weekend, only to get stuck in the starting gate and then hit from behind by a rider starting in the second row. He decided to call it a day right then and there, but he told Lewis Phillips of Vital MX that he is fine and will be lining up this coming weekend at a Dutch Masters race, then it's off to Sardinia. The Bullet will start his MXGP season already 167 points down to Gajser. And while right now would be a great place to suggest Herlings wait awhile longer and come to America for the summer, that's just not going to happen... But how cool that would be!?

FINDING RYAN (Matthes)

A while ago Seth Rarick suggested to Weege and I that we find Ryan Mills for a Re-Raceables podcast to talk about his moto win at RedBud in 2005. Mills, a once very promising amateur hotshot and THE first Factory Connection Honda amateur rider, never quite made it as a pro despite that moto win and rides with FC Honda and Factory KTM. After some privateer stints, Mills dropped off the map and I wasn't thinking Rarick would find him, but he did! Ryan was eager to talk about that day in RedBud for the pod and then I caught up with him for a longer form podcast this week. Ryan speaks honestly about his career, what didn't work, and how he even spent time in jail. He doesn't shy away from talking about anything and what I found refreshing was he also doesn't blame anyone for his failure to "make it" either. Even KTM manager Larry Brooks, who definitely didn't gel with Mills, Mills was apologetic to. A good listen and it sounds like Ryan's doing well. He's got a construction job and is in a good relationship, etc. Listen to the podcast here.

Racer X & MX Sports Seeking Graphic Designer

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Hey, Watch It!

The AC & JB Show | Coming Soon!

Here is Tim Gajser’s vlog through Spain and France, “The Wetter the Better”

A Day in the Life EP1 - Different lives, same goal

250s for Overalls? XC2 Contenders DeFeo and Barnes | Weigandt & Gallagher

MXGP has released a preview of the new track in Australia which will host the last round of the 2025 FIM World Motocross Championships, check it out:

Head-Scratching Headline/s of the Week

“Motocross Star Haiden Deegan, 19, Shares His Mugshot on Instagram After Being Arrested for Street Racing and Stunt Driving”—People.com

“Demented Mickey Mouse Knockoff Stalks Disney Princess Types in Screamboat”—MovieMaker.com

"A Mississippi Middle School Student Passed Out Edibles And Hospitalized His Classmates"—Barstool Sports

“Police: Georgia's Nitro Tuggle driving 107 mph before arrest”—ESPN.com

“Kermit The Frog to give University of Maryland's commencement speech”—USA Today

Random Notes

Vurbmoto.com's Brandon Clarke wrote this great piece about Chance Blackburn honoring his father at the Seattle Supercross: Racing Through Grief: Chance Blackburn’s Tribute to His Father at Seattle Supercross

Clarke also wrote this awesome check-in with Alec Gaut, one of the hard working members of the track crew, who also doubles as a great photographer! Read: The Man Who Never Sleeps: Alec Gaut’s Wild Ride from Track Crew to Supercross Photographer too.

Finally, if you're an AMA member and get American Motorcyclist magazine, make sure you check out Mitch Boehm's epic article on the JT Racing juggernaut of the 1970s and '80s and into the '90s, with John and Rita Gregory. It's an epic motocross tale!

Looking for some cool Eli Tomac stuff? FMF Racing has you covered. Shop the FMF Eli Tomac collection now.

If you’ve been noticing more and more riders using those breathing nose strips and mouth tape, it might have something to do with SLYD Strips, which is a company rooted in moto. SLYD (Sleep Like You’re Dead) Strips help you to breathe through your nose instead of your mouth, and it makes a big difference in an athlete’s recovery. Check them out at Slydstrips.com or on Instagram: @slydstrips.

If you’ve ever been to Unadilla MX Park in New Berlin, New York, you’ve been very close to the old Thunder Ridge racetrack. It’s now for sale if you’re interested in purchasing a fully functional motocross track, here’s the listing: