Marshal Weltin’s 2025 started off subpar, with failing to make the mains in the 450SX Class of Monster Energy AMA Supercross at the beginning of the year and then suffering a head injury. He then decided to have a much-needed knee surgery since he was already taking time off to recover. He came back to racing halfway through the AMA Pro Motocross Championship and has been making up for lost time during the off-season. From big money races to European supercross races, Weltin has been busy. We caught up with Weltin after he came home from Paris Supercross to talk about his off-season races and his plans for 2026. He will be sticking with the MX6 team, but the team is switching from Yamaha to Kawasaki, he will also be dropping down to a 250F again for supercross. So, he is about to get even busier as he learns the new bike.
Racer X: Okay so you just got back from Paris Supercross where you got eighth overall, even took fifth in the first moto, congrats.
Marshal Weltin: The whole Paris trip it was definitely put together on a tighter time schedule, a week before Erik Peronnard gave me a call and he mentioned that Jess Pettis who was supposed to be racing but he got hurt and broke some ribs. So, I was the first fill in call for them, and it has been a dream of mine to race Paris for my whole life. And in the 450 class it's especially special, I think. So, I was stoked to do it. I raced Germany Supercross the week before, so I ended up just staying in Europe and I was able to race Paris, so it was really special for me.
That’s awesome, so how did it go in Germany?
Less than good. Just crashes and bad starts, I dug myself into a hole. The Meyer Racing Team gave me everything that I needed to succeed, we just didn’t have luck on our sides when it came down the starts, and my qualifying times just weren’t where they needed to be. The qualifying times really reflected the race night. Night two was better but I had a crash and it put me out of the main, but it was cool to rebound in Paris and have some good results.
Yeah, huge difference between the two races, because in Paris you had some great results [he went 5-7-7-9-9-8].
Yeah, and Paris was more of a real supercross track, where in Germany it was a 28-second-long track and they had amateurs racing on it. It was more just an indoor track, not so much a supercross track. Racing Paris was definitely a little more at home for me.
Less arenacross, more supercross.
Yeah, the whoops were definitely super intimidating in Paris, the rest of the track was super fun and flowy. The whoops were actually built great too, it's not like they were built wrong, they were just big whoops. It was definitely a challenge every lap to get through them.
Yeah, I watched the race, and afterwards everyone was talking about how hard the whoops were, it almost seemed like survival, and then there was Malcolm Stewart who just blows right through them.
Yeah, he makes it seem so easy. And kudos to him because it is nothing less than impressive and it tells you where the bar is at. With where the sport is at, he makes them look like not a problem. So, it is something I am going to work on these next few months coming into the first round of East Coast [Supercross].
So that leads me into my next question, but first, you are staying with the same team for next year? And also, east or west?
So I am staying with the MX6 Racing Team, but we are going to switch to Kawasakis so I will be doing 250 East Coast on Kawasakis.
Oh, have you been on the Kawasaki yet? I mean you just raced last weekend on a Yamaha.
No, I haven’t been able to get any time on it, I will be starting, I think, first week of December will be my first ride on it. I do have a good bit of history on them though, I raced in Canada on Kawasaki and in Europe. So, I have a little bit of time on them, it's not a completely foreign bike. But it will for sure be a big switch going from the Yamaha 450 to the Kawi 250.
So, 2025 started rough for you in supercross and then you got injured, correct?
I was in it at the beginning of the year, I just wasn’t able to perform on the 450 in supercross, where my goals were set. I was just a little short of making the main every weekend, and that kind of led to riding outside of my means. Where I was at with the bike, I just wasn’t able to go the pace I needed to go and I had some crashes, resulted in a head injury and had to take a few months off. And then I ended up getting a knee surgery to repair some old injuries. I didn’t repair my ACL, but I had some hardware taken out. With that head injury recovery, I took it as time to repair my knee too. So, I came into outdoors fresh halfway through the season and kind of rebound my year, just reset. It was for sure a build back, I wasn’t where I needed to be starting out at RedBud but as the season went on, I was definitely getting closer to where I was hoping to be. So, I was stoked to get into the SMX [Playoffs] there at the end and be able to perform at the end of the year when I needed to.
Yeah, so did you make some good money at SMX?
Yeah, it was definitely nice, I am glad that they are able to give us guys an opportunity for the end of the year at SMX because it really goes a long way.
Speaking of big money, have you guys been hitting a lot of big money races in the off-season?
It was nice, the MX6 Team, they provided a platform for me to go race with my mechanic, and they supplied a van to go race some off-season races. And we even had the semi in Pleasure Valley, so it was nice having some support. I did three local races, Pleasure Valley starting out, it went great there. I was able to do the Cody Gragg race in Tennessee, on the two-stroke, which was awesome, I was able to the win there. I have raced it a few times and never even came close to the podium. Sometimes I am hot on a two-stroke and sometimes they are foreign to me. It was nice I was able to put it together there, get a good start and check out. And the last one that I did was at Tomahawk in West Virginia. That was a fun one there, there was some good competition. I actually raced Jess Pettis there and Sebastian Racine, we battle every moto for a podium together. So, a little America verses Canada rivalry.
Then coming into that I knew I had Germany planned but Paris wasn’t in the plans at that time. And kind of everything fell together for me and unfortunately for Jess he had to go through an injury there. But I was stoked to jump on the opportunity for it.
That’s awesome, so where are you now, and are you getting ready for supercross?
I’m in Tallahassee right now, I bought a house here and I’ll be here for the foreseeable part of my off-season. With the MX6 Team we will be doing some testing in California periodically before the season starts. So, I will be popping in and out of California and then for the majority I will be at MTF here in Tallahassee.
And looking to 2026, you will ride 250 supercross but what about outdoors will you ride 450s again?
Yeah, I will transition back to the 450 for outdoors and still set my goals on that 450SMX at the end of the year.
Everything has been good, I have been healthy and it seems like it's been turning in the right direction for me, I just had a rocky start to the year. Honestly, I don’t have anything to blame for it, I just didn’t put it together. I don’t feel like I was on with my set up and I put a lot of laps in in the off-season, but it just wasn’t enough prep, I guess. So, I am going to rebound this year with being healthy, I feel like getting my knee fixed has opened a lot of doors for me, having a healthy knee.
Definitely, sometimes just having some time off, to let your whole body recover, as well as mentally is just what you need to come out swinging.
I am stoked too, last year I was with the Rock River Yamaha team, but just having a clean slate with a new program with MX6, I feel like they offer a really good platform for the riders. It's a new team so I am sure we are going to have our hurdles to jump over but everyone has the same goal, same vision, and we are going to work with Olly Stone as the team manager. He’s a huge name in the industry, and he holds himself to a high precedence with professionalism, so I am stoked to be on that wave with him.
