Reed's speech was last. He spoke very openly about family struggles with his dad, the idea of traveling to races in places like Indonesia and New Zealand by himself as an 11-year-old, moving to Europe at age 17, and then being made an offer by former 125cc World Champion-turned-agent Bob Moore to move to America and race for Yamaha of Troy in 2002. Within a year, Reed was the 125SX East Champion, within the second year he was winning 250SX main events, and in his third season he won his first AMA Supercross Championship. From there he talked about his many teams and rivals, his wife Ellie, who was with him throughout, and his three kids, all of whom are now racing. At just 43 years of age, Reed has had a wonderful and very full life, though the difficult relationship with his father, who passed several years ago, still obviously stings.

Reed had an incredible journey through the sport, going from modest beginnings in Australia, to moving to Europe as a teenager, where he spent a season honing his motocross skills on the late Jan De Groot's Kawasaki team. Reed won the sandy, notoriously rough Dutch Grand Prix. He then signed a deal to move to America with Yamaha of Troy in 2002. This began a 20-year journey in Monster Energy Supercross in which Reed won two championships, the first on a YZ250 in 2004, and the second on a Yamaha YZ450F in 2008, making him the only rider besides Ricky Carmichael to win SX titles on both a two-stroke and a four-stroke. By the time he finished in 2020 Reed would win a total of 44 SX main events in the premier class, currently him fifth all-time. However, he is #1 in several other categories, including starts (265), runner-up finishes (59), podiums (132), and points (4,503). He accomplished all of this against some of the toughest competition in the history of the sport, including Ricky Carmichael, James Stewart, Mike LaRocco, Kevin Windham, Ryan Villopoto, and Ryan Dungey-all of whom are already in the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame. (And so are Jeremy McGrath and Travis Pastrana, who Reed raced briefly with towards the end of their respective careers.)

Here are a couple of other little factoids about Chad's career...

-Back in 1999 he raced the 125 class at the San Diego SX and finished a modest 17th place. 

-In 2001 Reed became the first Australian to ever win a moto in the FIM Motocross of Nations, winning the 250 class at the Citadelle at Namur, Belgium.

-When the 2002 MXoN at Competition Park was canceled, Reed led his Australian team to the win in the World Cup of Motocross at Glen Helen.

-Reed did not get his first 450 Pro Motocross win until 2009, the year he would win the title. 

-Reed would lead Australia to its first-ever MXoN podium in 2011 in France, adding his second outright moto win in the MXoN, in which he topped Germany's Ken Roczen and Team USA's Ryan Dungey.

-Reed won the King of Bercy honors at the Paris Supercross in 2007, becoming the first Australian to win the most prestigious of all international supercross events.

-Chad Reed is the only rider to have won supercross main events on four different brands of motorcycle: Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, and Honda. 

-It was Reed who broke Carmichael's 31-moto winning streak in Pro Motocross, which began towards the end of 2003 and came to a conclusion in 2005 when Chad topped him in the first moto at Southwick.

-And Chad Reed also won the 2002 AMA 125 East Region Supercross Championship, as well as the 2009 AMA 450 Pro Motocross Championship. 

On a broader scale, Chad Reed paved the way for Australian riders for generations to come, just as Jeff Leisk did for him when he moved to America and then Europe in the 1980s. Reed and his peers—Michael Byrne, Brett Metcalfe, the late Andrew McFarlane—led the first big wave of Australians to come and find success in America, opening doors for others to follow, including the Lawrence brothers. Chad mentioned a text he had this week with Darren “Dazzy” Lawrence, father to Hunter and Jett, congratulating them on their success this year and Reed said Dazzy basically told him that he had paved the way for his boys to have the many successes they are now enjoying. Afterwards, Reed told our Mitch Kendra it was a very special comment for him to hear.

On a personal note, I've known Chad since the fall of 2001 and he's always been a straight-shooter, not afraid to share his opinions and criticisms, with a competitive streak to match his hero Jeremy McGrath, as well as his main rivals Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart. We didn't always see eye to eye, but his passion for what he believed in was always in sharp focus. The fact that he's now a moto dad, he and Ellie raising their kids on dirt bikes, is a testament of how much they live and love moto. Congratulations #22, on a well-deserved honor.   

Here's a look at the whole ceremony:

Ironman Raceway's Season Finale (Mitch Kendra)

Ironman Raceway has one more race of the year this weekend: the Yamaha Ironman GNCC. The 13th and final round of the Progressive Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) Racing season will take place at the Indiana venue, which has now hosted a handful of different events in 2025. First, the Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch Regional back in the spring, followed by the Hoosier GNCC round in May, then the Ironman National in August, round nine of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship (plus the SMX Next – Motocross and WMX races that weekend as well), then the 78th edition of the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations the first weekend of this month (which included the YZ BluCru World SuperFinale amateur racing as well). Now, the venue will return to its roots for the GNCC season finale—the biggest GNCC of them all—the Ironman GNCC season finale. This round is so packed, the morning bike race is broken into TWO different races! Not only are there hundreds of more competitors than normal, but the fans show out here as well. Pretty cool for one venue to hold so many different events like this, especially when you think about how this track was initially a GNCC-only event nearly 30 years ago! Pro Motocross started coming here every year since 2014 and this year's MXoN event was a huge step for the venue. Congrats to the Shaver family and everyone involved with the facility over the years. Here's to many more events at Ironman Raceway!

All eyes will be on the KTM duo out front: XC2’s Grant Davis leads XC1 competitor and fellow KTM Ben Kelley by seven points heading into Sunday’s PM race. If Davis can hold on and finish ahead of Kelley, Davis would become the first ever XC2 rider to win the Grand National title.

You can tune in live for free both on Saturday (quads) and Sunday (bikes) at 1 p.m. Eastern/10 a.m. Pacific to watch the action live. 

November is the New October for Silly Season (Jason Weigandt)

The old rule said new riders and teams would get officially announced on October 1. More recently, though, factories have pushed contract end dates back to accommodate the Monster Energy SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) Playoffs and the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations (which for years had existed in a nether-world of new team/old team for AMA-based riders). So now you can consider November 1 the new October 1, and that's why we're yet to see Chase Sexton on a Kawasaki or Eli Tomac on a KTM. I think this delay is causing some fans to wonder if maybe these deals are hitting snags. Maybe Tomac is actually NOT going to KTM and is scooping up that vaunted second Monster Energy Kawasaki 450 slot? No, he is not. From what I hear, Tomac's Yamaha deal doesn't expire until the end of October, so that's why he can't be seen on a KTM yet. KTM, not coincidentally, will announce its 2026 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team a few days after that, on November 4. When Monster Energy Kawasaki announced Jorge Prado's departure, it said the 2026 team will be announced in November. Meantime Sexton did an interview with video documentary director Troy Adamits (of The Great Outdoors fame) talking about leaving KTM...but he did not yet mention Kawasaki. You'll just have to wait another week or two. I also believe the Troy Lee Designs Red Bull Ducati squad with Justin Barcia and Dylan Ferrandis will be announced in early November. For off season news, it's hurry up and wait at the moment. There's nothing happening, but soon, it will all be happening at once!

By the way, an all-time bench racing what if: Go back to the Salt Lake City finale for Monster Energy AMA Supercross. If RJ Hampshire doesn't take himself and Seth Hammaker out trying to dig out the 250SX East Championship, Tom Vialle does not win the title. If Tom Vialle doesn't win the title, he doesn't get booted to 450SX, and surely just stays at Red Bull KTM for another season of 250 racing. If so, KTM never has to put a 450 deal on the table for Tom, and Tom also doesn't go shopping for other options, including Honda HRC in Europe. As we know, Vialle took the Honda MXGP deal which meant KTM had a 450 slot sitting there for Prado, who really needed it. If Hampshire doesn't take out Hammaker and Vialle doesn’t win the title and stays in America with KTM....where does Prado end up going? We'll never know!

COLT 45 (Matthes)

We had Colt Nichols call into the PulpMX Show Monday night to talk about him re-upping with the Pipes Motorsport Group and more. There's some vagueness on which rounds of the FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX) Ken Roczen is going to do so it sounds like Colt might jump into some of the ones that #94 doesn't do. Nichols is always a good interview, he's well-spoken and a very grounded guy so our conversation wandered into post-racing life. And yeah, there are lots of racers who struggle when the music stops and also, although a lot of them earn good money, it's not enough to stop working. We had Travis Preston in-studio and both he and Nichols won 125/250SX titles and held factory rides but both guys didn't make enough to live on, so Preston has gone to Yamaha R&D and Nichols says he needs to figure out his post-racing life. Interesting conversation about life as a racer and what to do when it all stops. 

Watch it here:

Pro Perspective (Jason Thomas)

Much ado has been made about Haiden Deegan's initial foray into 450 racing. News broke in the last months that he will participate in two off-season races, namely in Argentina and Australia (both are WSX events). Yes, these are profitable appearances and the main driver, but they do give him valuable gate drops and experience. They allow a "dipping a toe in the water" before making a decision about SMX 2026. That decision comes down to whether he will or won't make select appearances on the 450 while racing the 250 on the opposite coast. The rumor mill contends that he could possibly race the first few 450 rounds to learn before dropping back into the 250 East, hoping to win the other division title. That would give him a championship on all things 250, something logic says he would like to tout. The 450 experience, though, is an interesting topic. While it may seem a no brainer to grab some much-needed seat time against his future rivals, I think this may be easier said than done. See, Haiden doesn't get to ease into anything. His larger-than-life persona, one he very much leans into, makes it difficult, or more likely impossible, to go learn without unfair expectation. His success and personality have created an expectation of excellence and “win only.” That doesn't leave much room for a learning experience that could be challenging

The detractors would be out in full force, jumping on any chance to take Deegs to task. While he and his collective team may understand that winning straight away isn't a fair ask, that's not reality for a figure so public in modern day sport. His fans will expect the world, and his naysayers will jump on any opening. Fair? No, not at all. But that's the downside of being Haiden Deegan (there aren't many I'm guessing). The decision to test the waters becomes so much more difficult because of this aspect. A lesser star would do this and shoulder shrug if things don't go swimmingly. Deegan will have to answer to the social media world if he doesn't battle at the front. The madness that his excellence and also questionable actions create is indeed a double-edged sword. Is the experience of a few 450 rounds worth the potential noise if it is tougher than hoped? Is the upside of immediate success worth any other risk? It's not unrealistic that he comes out swinging and is fighting for the lead. There's also the part of this that says Deegan's existence thrives on noise of any type, good and bad. Racing the 450 at A1 would reverberate worldwide and capture every headline, full stop. Maybe that, in and of itself, is the only variable that matters.

George Cohan once said, “I don't care what you say about me, as long as you say something about me.” Hard to imagine Team Deegs can't relate.

Triumph (Keefer)

One brand that a lot of people haven't been talking about this off-season is Triumph. From what I know, it looks like Jordon Smith will be handling the 450 SX/MX duties for the team and Mikkel Haarup will be joining him on a 450 next summer in outdoors. No, it doesn't look like Haarup will ride SX but will be helping develop the 450 for Smith as they go. This doesn't mean that we may not see Haarup at a couple SX rounds but from what I heard, it is a MX only 450 deal. Jalek Swoll had surgery before outdoors ended so he will be healed up and ready to tackle either the 250SX East or West Championship alongside Austin Forkner. What we don't know is who or if the team will be getting two more 250 riders to join Forkner and Swoll. Deacon Denno will be doing SMX Next - SX rounds and one final year of amateur racing but that could also change if the kid just kills it the first round. Denno just came off of his first amateur event with Triumph Racing at Ponca and won the 250 Pro division. Like Weege said above, look for more news soon coming from the Triumph camp in November.

SMX Points Story (DC)

When the new Monster Energy SuperMotocross World Championship was first announced back in the fall of 2022, with its unique playoff points system that saw value increase over the three rounds from single-race values (round one) to double (round two) and then triple in the finals, we've been bench-racing and debating over the escalations really make a difference. Did the final round, with its three times value, have an outsized effect on the final tally? Or did the points reset at the beginning of the playoffs, based on combined SX and MX points throughout those series, make for the bigger change?

This week I took the results from Charlotte, St. Louis, and Las Vegas and assigned them all the same value: 25 for first, 22 for second, 20 for third, and on down. Starting with the reset values—25 points for Justin Cooper, 22 for Jett Lawrence, 20 for Malcolm Stewart, on down—the new math didn't really make a dent in the 450 SMX results. Jett still would have won the title with 96 points (rather than 166 points with the double and triple values), Hunter was still second with 82 (compared to 151), and Eli Tomac was still third with 75 points (135). 

The first change in final positions comes between fourth-place Ken Roczen, who tallied 63 points, and fifth overall Justin Cooper, who notched 67. Turns out that Roczen's low reset tally, 11 points, compared to Cooper's 25 as top seed, would have had more influence on the final rankings than they did with single/double/triple points. Coincidentally, Roczen finished in front of Cooper in all three playoff rounds, but they were close. The difference between fourth and fifth in the final standings was $50K: $200,000 for fourth and $150,000 for fifth.

On the other, the 250 class would have been very different, based mostly on Haiden Deegan's controversial last-moto DNF in Las Vegas. Honda's Jo Shimoda would have won the 250SMX title regardless, but rather than fifth overall in the standings with the escalating values of each round, Deegan would have finished second overall, even with his ninth overall in the final, which really torpedoed his points haul. That would have been a $200,000 difference, as Deegan would have leap-frogged Nate Thrasher, Tom Vialle, and Seth Hammaker with traditional math—his new total of 79 would have out-pointed Hammaker (78), Vialle (60), and Thrasher (62).

Moto Nineties (DC)

There is a really cool documentary in the pipeline that's still being filmed and edited that a lot of people are going to love. It's called Moto Nineties and the principles in the project are none other than Jeremy McGrath and Jeff Emig, along with Lawrence Lewis, as well as Adam Barker of Fresno Smooth fame, and the team at www.TheHammerFactory.com  For the past year they have been collecting old film footage, photographs and memories of that sometimes wild era of supercross and motocross—the one epitomized by the rivalry of McGrath and Emig, after-parties, off-weekends at Lake Havasu, the rise of freestyle motocross, the circle bar at the Hard Rock Casino in Vegas, and of course the Great Western Bank team. The production team even visited the Racer X office here in Morgantown, West Virginia for a deep-dive into our archives, finding many never-before-published photos of the whole scene, many shot by the great Chris Hultner. Here's a preview they posted on Instagram, it's definitely worth a follow, and we can't wait to see what all we missed in the Moto Nineties!  

Hey, Watch It!

Jeremy McGrath Weighs in on The Jorge Prado Drama

Mikkel Håarup was one of the more pleasant surprises in Pro Motocross this summer, as the Danish rider was in the top-five mix in the 250 class. Here's "The American Chapter" of his season:

Check out Ryan Breece's video of the Huntington Beach Arenacross event, which was a very unique race:

Another look back at the 2025 Motocross of Nations, from the Behind the Gate MXGP channel:

Matt Burkeen covered the Taylor Condon Memorial Pro-Am race from the very good track Tomahawk MX in West Virginia:

Cut to the Chase | The Switch

Stav Orland's MXoN vlog: MXON 2025 | The Biggest Race of The Year

Chad Reed wins the moto at the 2001 FIM Motocross of Nations at the epic Citadelle circuit in Namur, Belgium.

Head-Scratching Headline/s of the Week 

"Patrol vehicle hit by shrapnel as Marines fired live artillery over California interstate, highway patrol says"

"Alabama man with a more than 3.5-foot long beard earns world record" -NY Post

"Police in Maryland are asking volunteers to smoke weed"

"Michael Keaton's name misspelled on Pittsburgh Walk of Fame" - WTAE

"Man uses numbers from a license plate to win $50,000 lottery prize" -UPI 

Random Notes

The Indian Supercross Racing League (ISRL) opens its second season this Sunday at Shiv Chatrapati Sports Complex Mahalunje Balewadi in Pune. The Indian Supercross Racing League (ISRL), is set to return with the opening round for the second season  Fans can expect an electrifying weekend as top international and Indian riders battle for glory in the world’s first franchise-based Supercross league. 

ISRL Season 2 will be broadcast live on Eurosport India, streamed globally on ISRL’s YouTube Channel, and available on-demand via FanCode. Supercross fans in Canada can tune in to Rev TV for exclusive access.