With Anderson joining Jorge Prado on the sidelines, Kawasaki is now the second OEM in this series that lost both 450 riders. Earlier in the season both Jett and Hunter Lawrence were knocked out, and Honda HRC Progressive only had their two 250 riders (Shimoda and Chance Hymas) in the series. Now their bringing the veteran Dean Wilson on, having announced it on April Fool’s Day after a funny visit from Grandpa Earl, and a video announcement (with cameo appearances by Lars Lindstrom and Chris Jonnum and even THE Gary Jones and the rest of the crew) that deserves a Moto Emmy for “the People’s Champ” or an ESPY or whatever. Wilson will be with the team for the last five rounds, and then the plan is for both Jett and Hunter to be back for the Pro Motocross opener (and Prado and El Hombre too).

Speaking of the Lawrences, they were both at the U.S. MotoGP in Austin last weekend, as well as Ken Roczen, who flew down right after the Seattle race. They made the rounds and met up with some of their road racing friends, including Fabio Quartararo, who could be overheard on “This is Lawrence” telling Jett, “Don’t buy so many watches.” But the real news was that Hunter said he got back on the bike last week and Jett said he should be on the bike this coming week—less than 10 weeks after tearing that ACL. Keefer will have more on that injury below, and Matthes will have more on Deano’s deal. 

There was news from Italy as well. Ducati announced that Antonio Cairoli will be stepping in for the injured Mattia Guadagnini at the MXGP this weekend in Sardinia, which is an island off the coast of Italy, and they also issued news about the imminent release of their Ducati Desmo450 MX bike here in the states.

The MSRP for the brand new offering is $11,495 (though that price was likely set before the new tariffs on imports were announced). Also, Alessandro Lupino has been shaking down the Desmo250 MX at select Italian races, finishing second last weekend on it. 

Before we get into the rest of the week, check out this track diagram I found from the 1984 Boston Supercross, which was held at ye olde Sullivan Stadium in Foxboro.

SMX Next - Supercross Notes (Mitch Kendra)

This weekend, the fourth and final qualifying race for the SMX Next – Supercross AMA National Championship will take place on Saturday. Riders have either one final shot to qualifying for the finale or get one more gate drop and gain experience if they are already qualified. In this Racer X roundtable, our trio of Mitch Kendra, Cody Darr, and Travis Delnicki dig into the Birmingham results, preview the Foxborough round, cover injured riders, and talk about the new faces we are seeing in the program.

We also caught up to some SMX Next – Supercross racers during press day today. Check out the video below for updates from Grayson Townsend, Alex Fedortsov, Ryder Malinoski, and New England native Russell Buccheri.

DEANO (Matthes)

What a funny video Honda HRC did with Grandpa Earl, AKA Dean Wilson, to announce he's filling in for the last five races on the 450 side of things. Super awesome to see Honda do this, and although the days of fill-in riders are mostly gone (shoutout Fabian Izroid!), the fact that Honda wants to send Dean off like this is pretty epic.

But is it a send-off? I spoke with Dean for a Renthal Reaction Podcast this week, and we ran the text on this site. In it, Wilson doesn't seem to indicate that this is his last year racing. He strongly hinted that he could put together a program kind of what he did this year with some off-season races, Aussie SX stuff, and then some AMA supercrosses. I mean, if someone is willing to pay you, then why not?

As far as the bike, yeah, it's good. Really good. Although I'm not comparing myself to Dean Wilson, Keefer and I got a chance to ride Jett Lawrence's bike two years ago, and it was pretty amazing, really. Such a powerful yet friendly bike to ride, which Dean agreed with, and yeah, the factory suspension is also pretty damn great. Props to Honda for doing this, and I'm looking forward to seeing how Wilson can do.

PULPMX + PRO CIRCUIT (Matthes)

Went and rode Pala the other day for some Loretta's Regional practice (DC, can I just get in without racing?) (DC: Not a chance.) And then thanks to Mitch Payton for letting us set up in the PC showroom for Monday's PulpMX Show. That was a lot of fun; Ryan Villopoto co-hosted the entire time with Keefer and myself. We had Cameron McAdoo come by fresh off his ACL surgery to talk about trying to stay positive with yet another injury to himself (hint: for Cam, it's not that hard), we had Mitch and Bones Bacon jump on to talk about the early years of Husqvarna, and then I gave him some tips on how to market PC better. Nick and Vincent Wey joined us to discuss amateur motocross, which was awesome, and Aden Keefer also stopped by to share his thoughts on returning to riding. Mike Ulrich from Yamaha talked about the upcoming Blu Cru races and his collaborations with RV, Damon Bradshaw, and Doug Dubach. Finally, Adam Cianciarulo visited to explain that he currently has no desire to start riding again and discussed his work with Justin Brayton in the RDL booth.

It was a blast. RV had a few Coors Lights, so he was loose, Payton was so funny to talk to, Bones is now an off-road manager (who knew?), and laughs were had by everyone. Thanks to Mitch, Camillia, and the crew for letting us do that. Go to Pulpmxshow.com to listen or search Pulpmx on YouTube to watch.

Malcolm Covered (DC)

We were recently cleaning up some old office files and bookshelves when we came across an issue of the excellent Japanese magazine Dirt Cool featuring Malcolm Stewart on the cover a decade ago. (One of the perks of being in the magazine business is collecting other moto magazines from around the world, as well as all of the U.S. mags of yesteryear—Popular Cycling, Modern Cycle, Dirt Cycle, Inside Motocross, Motocross Journal, MX Racer, etc.—which gives us a great resource for old moto facts and trivia.) We also try to share some of the foreign magazines with the riders themselves who end up on the covers, like Malcolm here. When Mitch Kendra handed him his Dirt Cool issue recently, Stewart could not believe it—he probably didn't even know it existed! So basically, Malcolm got two covers this month!

And here’s a preview of what’s in the new magazine: “The Imperfect Storm” that’s been the 2025 Supercross season so far, a look at the long tradition of military appreciation races like the one in Arlington, a tour of the Petersen Automotive Museum’s exhibit on the late Ken Block’s impact on motorsports’ culture, and the beginning of the 50th year of GNCC Racing called “Blackwater Now.”

Another Herlings Comeback (DC)

After a couple of starts and stops and restarts, Red Bull KTM's Jeffrey Herlings will finally return to the racetrack this weekend at the MXGP of Sardinia, the fourth round of the FIM World Motocross Championships. Herlings, the incredibly fast but often injured Dutchman, has been sorting out a knee injury that took much longer to heal than expected. He's got the most wins in Grand Prix history at 107, but he's "only" won five world titles over the years as a result of unfortunate injuries and timing. Even his comeback from this current injury was complicated—he was supposed to do a Dutch Masters race last weekend but pulled out after a scare at a local event the week before. He joins MXGP right as his main rival, Slovenia's Tim Gajser, seems to be at peak speed, having won the last two rounds in Spain and France. The Sardinia track, called Riola Sardo, is a sand track, which means it tilts in Herlings' favor, but Gajser is no slouch in the sand, nor is young Belgian rider Lucas Coenen.

And speaking of Belgium, our MXGP friend Geoff Meyer pointed out earlier this week that the Everts family—Harry, son Stefan, and grandson Liam—are now the only family in GP history to have had three different generations lead the points in the FIM World Championships. Harry won four titles back in the '70s and early '80s, Stefan won ten in the '90s and mid-'00s, and now Liam is leading the current MX2 standings on his Husqvarna. Here's MX Geoff's report on all those red plates.

ACL's (Keefer)

On the latest "This is Lawrence" vlog where Jett and Hunter go to Texas for the Moto GP, Jett reveals that he should start riding in a week and a half. This would put him at just over two months post ACL surgery, which is a crazy-quick time for that type of repair. With that being said my son just had his ACL reconstructed, and he just got back on the bike Tuesday, which was 11 weeks post-surgery.

There have been some new methods of repairing the ACL in recent years, and with a little research, we found a doctor in Nashville (Dr. Bowman) that has done Chance Hymas, RJ Hampshire, as well as Christian Craig's knees recently. Dr. Bowman's new method is reinforcing the ACL via IT band with a patella tendon. Basically, he wrapped Aden's IT band around the new ACL/patella tendon to help strengthen it and hopefully prevent it from tearing easily. The surgery is quite invasive but recovery times have been impressive. Aden was told to start walking on the leg within one week post-op and was in physical therapy two weeks post-op.

I am not going to sit here and say that this surgery is for everyone, and I don't even know what Jett's doctor did (Jett went to Dr. Kramer), but it is possible to do some light turn track riding two months post-op with some of these new ways of repairing the ACL. I understand that some other athletes take up to six months for them to even start back to light training, but I also know that motocross athletes aren't cutting or planting their feet to change directions like football/baseball/soccer players are. Hopefully, these types of surgeries are more successful stories than heartaches, but it is possible to see a 100% Jett Lawrence come Round 1 of the AMA Pro Motocross Series.

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