RJ Hampshire made his Pro Motocross debut in the 450 Class at the season opener at Fox Raceway in Pala, California, over the weekend and he was great, going 6-12 for ninth overall. Even more impressive, he had wrist surgery less than two weeks go. We caught up with him afterward to get his take on his fantastic ride.
Racer X: RJ, first national on the 450. You were really good in that first moto!
RJ Hampshire: Yeah man, I ride this 450 really well. People thought I was crazy even coming here, but I showed a little of what I’m capable of in that first moto. It’s crazy, these dudes you look up to, like Eli, is someone who’s been on a pedestal pretty much my whole life, really. And I was there with him for a little bit in that first moto. I kind of shocked myself. But overall, I qualified sixth, was sixth in the first moto, but the second moto wasn’t the greatest. But also, I kept it realistic all day. I was like, "If we can get out of here with a top ten, I’ll be stoked on that."
Yeah, so if someone told you you’d run top five for much of the first moto, you’d be pumped.
Yeah. But not if I didn’t have this wrist I’m dealing with. That’s where I kind of expect to be, to be honest. I didn’t want to sound cocky coming in here or anything like that though. It’s nice to have that power there and to be able to ride on a level I need to. The first moto was sick, I showed a little bit of what I can do. This track was the worst track for a bad wrist. It was choppy and edgy. Overall, ninth, surgery 12 days ago, yeah. They literally removed half of my bone in surgery. Once my surgeon called me on Sunday night and said, "We’re going to take this plate out and your bone is literally going to fall in pieces. Longterm, taking the bone out is the way to go, but riding in the next two weeks, that’s probably not going to happen." When I came out of surgery I just kept telling myself, "Make it happen. Make it happen. Make it happen. Do whatever you can." I showed up and people thought I was crazy, but I went out for the first moto and showed myself I could do it. It was sick.
I’m looking at your wrist and it’s still all bandaged up. How was the pain?
Pain-wise it’s fine, it’s just weak. I didn’t move it until Monday afternoon. I just took the stitches out after I landed on Thursday night. I mean, what do you expect? It’s not going to be great. But the surgeon did a great job. He was aware of me trying to do this. After Salt Lake City, I was so pissed off and fired up, I just wanted to go racing right away. I almost called off the surgery and just dealt with it, that’s where I was. But I decided to stick to the plan. Give me until High Point and I think I’ll have two solid motos in me.
Is riding and racing slowing the healing process down?
There’s nothing to heal now.
Oh right, because they just took it out!
They took half that bone out. The swelling was the big thing. Motion right now is not the greatest either, but that’ll come back. It’s super sensitive around the incision. The plate I had in there was big and the screws backed out on the bottom. It was messing up my joint pretty bad. When they took that plate out they took half the bone out. Now it’s the end of a fracture healing, but there’s nothing for it to heal onto. The bone is stable and it saves me from having to get a fusion on the rest of the bones in the wrist. Today was a lot better than yesterday, and yesterday was a lot better than when I tried to ride on Wednesday. We’re actually going to test a little bit this week in California and I’ll be stronger next week at Hangtown.
I’d imagine, being in the hunt for the title in supercross, you didn’t get much time to test on the 450.
That weekend off, before Salt Lake, I knew I was going in for surgery so all I did was ride the 450. I had four days in a row on the 450. I had some time on it, but it’s an all new machine for me. You can’t really take anything from the 250 and throw it on the 450. It’s not the same. We made a massive change from press day yesterday. I needed it mellower on the bottom and it was much better today. We haven’t been able to mess with any of that, there’s a lot of stuff we have to go through. This was pretty much whatever Malcolm [Stewart] runs, they gave that to me and I made the best of it.
What’d you think of the pace when you were out there?
Jett and Tomac are on a level that I don’t expect myself to get to any time soon. But from them on, I was up there for quite a while, which was surprising. Just being around Tomac out there, he honestly scared me. I didn’t have the bike revved up one time, and he hit the rev limiter behind me and I was like, "Oh crap, now I know who’s behind me." I let him go a little bit. He got around me but I was able to follow him for a couple laps, which was awesome. I’ll get my strength and grow, and I’ll be better on this 450 than I was on the 250.
Fox Raceway (Pala) - 450
May 24, 2025| Rider | Hometown | Motos | Bike | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Jett Lawrence | Landsborough, Australia  | 1 - 1 | Honda CRF450R |
| 2 |  Eli Tomac | Cortez, CO  | 4 - 2 | Yamaha YZ450F |
| 3 |  Hunter Lawrence | Landsborough, Australia | 3 - 4 | Honda CRF450R Works Edition |
| 4 |  Aaron Plessinger | Hamilton, OH | 5 - 3 | KTM 450 SX-F |
| 5 |  Justin Cooper | Cold Spring Harbor, NY | 2 - 8 | Yamaha YZ450F |
| 6 |  Jorge Prado | Lugo, Spain  | 7 - 6 | Kawasaki KX450SR |
| 7 |  Jason Anderson | Edgewood, NM | 9 - 5 | Kawasaki KX450SR |
| 8 |  Joey Savatgy | Thomasville, GA | 8 - 10 | Honda CRF450R |
| 9 |  R.J. Hampshire | Hudson, FL | 6 - 12 | Husqvarna FC 450 |
| 10 |  Benoit Paturel | France  | 11 - 9 | Suzuki RM-Z450 |
