RJ Hampshire has had one heck of a season so far in 2025. He was unable to defend his 2024 250SX West Division Championship because he was still recovering from a wrist injury. At the opening 250SX East Division round in Tampa, Florida, he came in as a favorite to win, only to put himself a lap down when he got seriously hung up on a Tuff Block. From there he clawed his way back into the points chase with help from a win in Daytona, only to reinjure his wrist in Philadelphia. After sticking it out for the rest of supercross and narrowly missing out on the championship (and ruining Seth Hammaker’s championship hopes in the process), there were rumors he needed surgery. So, it was a surprise to see RJ line up at Fox Raceway, on a 450, even more surprising to see him running top five in the first moto. After the race, Steve Matthes caught up with Hampshire to discuss his surgery, his 450 Pro Motocross debut and of course that pass attempt on Hammaker back in Salt Lake City.
Racer X: Okay RJ, I don’t know what your deal is, you had surgery like 10 days ago. I asked you at Salt Lake if you were doing outdoors, you said you were but then I heard you were having surgery and I was like, “Wait was he just lying to me?” But I guess you just got a plate taken out? Please explain.
RJ Hampshire: Yeah, so when I was in Salt Lake the plan was just to get the plate taken out. Get the plate taken out and my bone was broken, I rebroke it at Philly. So, my surgeon called me Sunday and honestly after Salt Lake ended, I was so pissed off and “I’m not getting surgery, screw this, I can hang on to it.” Emotions calmed down and I’m like, “All right, I’m sticking to it.” Surgeon called me Sunday and was like, “Dude I am going to take this plate out and your bone is going to fall into pieces. That’s where you’re at right now, it's not going to feel much better. So, let’s take the plate out, and let’s take half the bone out, the bone that’s obstructing blood flow.”
That’s like the tooth sized navicular thing right?
It's like a peanut almost. They call it the distal radial whatever. So, half of it, he’s like, “Let’s take this thing out, but you riding in two weeks is insane.” But no one knew that besides Nate [Ramsey] and Murph [Sean Murphy], I called them Sunday night, I was going in Monday morning. So no one knew the plan might change.
So, it was a question of when he got in there then he would decide what he was going to do?
No, he saw the CT [scan] and he was like, “Dude it's broken.” The next step is a partial fusion and a full removal of the scaphoid. If I just leave this bone in here broken, it's not going to feel great. So, I kind of risked it and said, “All right, long term, let’s take this thing out, half the bone out, take the plate out and, you know, I am going to do everything I can.” So, I came out of surgery, and they gave me my phone right after surgery and I posted something on Instagram and deleted it right away. Like I didn’t even know I did it and my wife told me. [Laughs]
Which only adds to you being RJ.
Yeah so, that happened, but ever since then I’ve been saying I’m racing. I lived in a hyperbaric chamber every day. There were times where I was like, “This is stupid. What am I doing?” Rode a little bit Tuesday, was like, “Man, it's possible.” Rode Wednesday was like, “Okay let’s do this.” I still had stitches in at this time, took them out Thursday morning, showed up here, rode press day, was like, “What am I doing? Why am I here?”
No offense, you are probably not a title contender your first year, so you could have waited three or four rounds and then jumped in. Why the rush? Is it just you are a racer and that’s what you do?
It's my choice, and I made a choice to ride supercross with my wrist the way it was, these guys pay me to go racing. I wish I could have gotten it fixed earlier than what I did, but I was in a championship so of course it keeps getting pushed back, pushed back. And I am a man of my word, I said I would race outdoors, and I feel like the experience I learned racing this, like today I learned that I should not have ran a paddle [tire] second moto at Pala. Like it is a learning process for me again right now. But also I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t feel like I could be competitive.
I think you were.
Exactly. So, if I wasn’t competitive the team probably would have called me an idiot. Which I mean, sometimes I am. But yeah, I believe I can ride a 450 really well. Again, it's my choice, I’m not out there to make excuses. That’s how I rode the whole supercross. It’s my choice to go race so why am I going to complain or whatever else? It was my choice to race today, and first moto was sick. I qualified sixth.
So, first moto you were happy with? Because I was really impressed considering everything you went through. Your speed was good, your fitness was good.
Yeah, it was just weak there at the end, you could probably tell. I ran top five there for a while. I was around Tomac there for a bit, which was just insane to me. I knew, my starts, man, that’s another thing I told the team, “Man it's going to be gnarly because I’m gonna get starts on this 450,” that’s just how I’ve been on it. Even with AP during the week, it's just been unreal. So, I knew I’d get starts and I’m like man I have to tell myself to chill. Tame. And that’s something I can’t do. So, first moto that’s what I did, I got a good start and was like, “All right, lets ride with these guys.” I missed a lot of the ruts because things got carried away and I’d be way the heck out. But overall, showing up here with a bum wrist, that was solid.
You gotta figure it's going to get stronger. Can you still practice during the week?
That’s the thing, I am not making anything worse now because the bones out. Bone out, plates out.
So, you just tape it and deal with the pain?
Yeah, tape it up. The thing was it just kept getting worse. In supercross, man Alabama I was so bummed, I thought I was gonna go in for surgery that’s how crappy it was. And then it just got worse and then Schock rebroke it [in a first turn pile up] in Philly and I was like “Dude, what else can happen?” It was just constant getting drilled down. Now the thing is I’ll actually get to test a bit with the bike, because I haven’t done that. Give me until High Point, I think that is realistic where I can be battling both motos.
It must be nice for you to be on a 450 and not have to worry about nailing every turn perfect to carry speed, you can square turns up and dive underneath someone.
I sat in the rig watching those 250 motos and was like, “thank God, THANK GOD I am not out there.” And that’s the thing, you can pick and choose lines. I am changing lines, and you can stick it and hop out and get sketchy and I am right back to it. It is so different riding. And people can say whatever, like it took me so long to get here, so no one is gonna give me a factory ride if I don’t. So yeah, it took me long enough but I expect to grow this outdoor season. The real goal for me is to get into SMX on the 450 and spend some time on it and get going for next year. So, that is the main goal right now is just everything I can to be ready for next year. Wrist really can’t get worse now so just keep getting stronger. Who knows, I might be an idiot, I might not. But man, it's just going to be crazy, I think I’m gonna battle quite a bit this year on the 450.
Okay I have to go back to Salt Lake, any regrets or anything, obviously everyone is going to have different opinions on that move on Hammaker.
I should have never been in that position, I started 15th, of course my adrenaline is through the roof. I am passing all these dudes. Seth didn’t know I was there, I really wish he would have stayed inside and actually raced the corner. He went out a little bit, and this is going to sound terrible but I was too nice. I went for the front wheel instead of contact. I don’t wanna hurt the guy, of course you don’t. But if I would have hit him, I ricocheted off and I am fine. I went for the front wheel, and he falls on top of me. It looked so much worse than what it actually was but… I mean I don’t regret it, of course probably about 700 grand I threw away in two and a half laps.
Seth swung out there and you were probably like, “What are you doing?” But it proves his point of “I didn’t know he was there.”
Exactly. If he knew I was there, he checks up lets me go and cruises in to win the championship. Tom was fading, Juju was back. I mean I just passed these guys, I am going forward, yeah, I could have passed him and gone but then I expect my championship to be won by someone passing him. I was pretty torn up about it too, I’m not gonna lie.
I heard you talked to Mitch [Payton].
Yeah, I went over there, and he wasn’t stoked, I wouldn’t be either. But also, you don’t get that chance a lot. And just how my year went, I should have had surgery four weeks ago and I still have a chance to win it. Even coming down to my day, my heat race, my knee was shot… But if that sticks and I run out of there, I have one of the best comebacks. It just didn’t turn out, and that’s how my whole career's gone. What do you expect? I have been around long enough you should expect that crap.
