That's not the only international flavor we're getting at the 'Wick. Italy's Antonio Cairoli, nine-time FIM Motocross World Champion, is in the middle of his three-race return with the Red Bull/Troy Lee Designs Ducati team. And the Venum Bud Racing Kawasaki team—a French program very similar to Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki here in the U.S.—is using the off-weekend from the European Motocross Championships (EMX) to bring top Spanish prospect Francisco Garcia and Australia's Jake Cannon to make their SMX debuts. Pro Motocross PR and media man Brandon Short pointed out, "Jake Cannon of the Bud Racing Kawasaki team from EMX250 is the brother of Charli Cannon of the WMX. This weekend, he will compete against Lux Turner at Southwick, while at the same time Charli and Lala Turner, #1 in WMX, compete against one another in Australia for the next round of the MXW Championship at Traralgon in Victoria, Australia. It's quite the happenstance for each pair of siblings to race against their counterparts on opposite sides of the world, particularly with Jake racing in Europe full time. Could be something we never see again!"

Garcia and Jake Cannon currently sit first and second in the EMX250 Championship. They are two of the brightest young stars in the MXGP system. Garcia has been on a tear recently, winning the last seven motos in a row, with five overall victories through the first eight rounds of the season. Cannon, who is Australian, has enjoyed a breakthrough season of his own, taking his maiden win earlier this year in Italy.

Check out Garcia's aura (as the kids say) here.

Now take a look at how Southwick is looking here on Friday.

Wait, there's more. Monster Energy Kawasaki here in the U.S. announced they have signed Norwegian rider Cornelius Tøndel to fill in for the injured Chase Sexton. Tøndel has been impressive in the races he's done here so far, and last year at Southwick, he qualified third. He will join Garrett Marchbanks on the Kawasaki factory team for the rest of the season.

Back to the Coenens for a minute. Last weekend in South Africa, Lucas was perfect, winning the Saturday qualifying moto and both motos on Sunday. It's now been three times this season that Lucas went 1-1-1 to sweep a weekend, out of the first 11 rounds. South Africa was also his 21st career MXGP win. He leads Honda HRC Petronas' Jeffrey Herlings by 68 points (566 to 498). In MX2 (250 class), Sacha finished fourth overall with 2-6 finishes but remains the points leader. He leads Spanish Triumph rider Guillem Farres (who used to race here for Yamaha Star Racing) by 14 points, 518 to 504.

Speaking of Triumph, the team bid farewell to one of the best 250SX riders of all time, Austin Forkner. The 27-year-old announced his retirement from professional racing after a very long and unfortunate run of injuries. Winner of 13 250SX main events, Forkner probably should have had at least a couple of titles, as well as a healthy chance to show what he could do on a 450, but things did not turn out that way. Here is the team's statement on Forkner's retirement.

Okay, here are 10 things to watch at Southwick. And here's Jason Thomas with more on this international moto invasion...

PRO PERSPECTIVE (JT)

The Euros are here! In a week that already saw Belgium send the USMNT home from the World Cup, here come two more Belgians and a bunch more MXGP regulars. The Coenen twins headline the MXGP invasion and will undoubtedly be in the fight at the front in their respective classes. While I personally believe Lucas is more of the sand master versus Sacha, the ask to win in the 450 Class is simply much tougher than in the 250. Beating Jett, Hunter, Jorge, and Deegs is a brutally difficult ask compared to beating the likes of Davies and Shimoda. Neither sounds inviting, but it's an interesting quandary as to "who's more likely to win?" Is Lucas' sand mastery more potent against tougher competition versus Sacha's theoretically lesser advantage against the younger, less experienced 250 guys? As counterintuitive as it sounds to have to beat the very best, I think it may be better odds. Time will tell, but it's a dynamic I have been thinking about this week.

They aren't the only Europeans getting sandy this weekend, though. Roan Van De Moosdijk, Anton Nordstrom, and nine-time MXGP champ Antonio Cairoli join series regulars like Cornelius Tøndel and Valentin Guillod in the fray. Van De Moosdijk is particularly interesting as he is a Dutch sand hero, battling for wins in the MX2 class during his time there. He won't be in the fight at the front, but he could very well be somewhere in the 5-8 category, which would be a career highlight. There are always variables that could derail a good finish, but on a pure speed and ability level, watch for him to put in quality lap times on Saturday. He is that level of talent in the sand.

Overall, this could be the heaviest international percentage of talent this class has ever seen. I will try to get confirmation of that before Saturday's broadcast, but between the Lawrences, Prado, Coenen, Ferrandis, Haarup, Guillod, Cairoli, Tøndel, Locurcio, Van De Moosdijk, Nordstrom, etc., you get the idea. While the schedule is domestic, it's very hard to argue that this is anything but a world championship.

Coenen's Return, and More! (Jason Weigandt)

The Coenen twins picked up a ton of new fans in America after their awesome rides at Thunder Valley (second overall in the 450 Class for Lucas, moto win in the 250s for Sacha), and now we've got something special for them. Acclaimed filmmaker and director Troy Adamitis followed the boys from the Latvia GP to California and then Colorado to put together one of his classic films, just like his seminal The Great Outdoors series. Go give Two Brothers, One Dream a watch on our YouTube channel. You'll learn, quite quickly, that these boys are both fast and friendly.

Of course, everyone wonders how they will fare this weekend at Southwick. Lucas has straight-up beaten Jeffrey Herlings at sand races this year, which is basically unheard of. But these guys aren't the typical Belgian-born racers who log endless sand laps at home. Their dad wanted them to become more versatile, so they moved to France a few years back so they could learn hard pack. They ride sand occasionally, but they're not stationed at Lommel every day like a lot of other GP riders. Apparently, though, once a sand rider, always a sand rider! Of note, Jorge Prado, raised on Spanish hard pack, did the exact opposite when he was a kid, moving to Belgium so he could learn sand. Versatility is key for MXGP, so that's why both Prado and the Coenens should be very, very good this weekend in the sand.

They're not alone. Dutchman Roan Van De Moosdijk was once a rising star with race-winning speed in MX2. He has since aged out of the class and now finds himself racing the German motocross series full-time, but when he jumps into MXGP in guest rides, he's still very fast. Then he showed up to RedBud and qualified in the top ten of the 450 Class! His fuel pump went out in the first moto, but his crew swapped in a stock engine for the second moto. Roan crashed in the first turn...then charged all the way back up to 11th! He is very good in sand and will have a lot of people wondering who he is this weekend at Southwick.

One fun fact is that Roan is coached by Marc De Reuver, who once showed up for Southwick and finished second in a moto. Dutch riders know how to ride bottomless sand tracks. Southwick is a little different with a harder base, but De Reuver has his man ready. Van De Moosdijk talked to our man Matthes about it after RedBud. "Yes, Marc came over and he got second in a moto, but he was also telling everybody, hey, this (Southwick) isn't really sand, you know, you'll see next week, it's different. We have some tracks that he said are similar to Southwick, so we will see, but I'm really looking forward to that."

Matthes then asked Roan if he is on Jeffrey Herlings' level in sand, to which Roan replied, and I quote: "No, no, no, no!"

Sixteen Years and Sand (DC)

In the first 250 moto at RedBud, Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing's Caden Dudney, 16 years old, led much of the first moto. He ended up getting passed by teammate Cole Davies at the very end, but his second-place finish may have been historic. With the minimum age for a pro license in SMX having moved up to 17 this year and 18 next year, Dudney, who turned 16 on July 24 of last year, got his pro license before the end of the '25 season, thus grandfathering him into this year. Unless he gets another podium before July 24 (which means either this weekend's Southwick or the following weekend's Spring Creek), his RedBud podium finish in that first moto could very well be the last ever for a 16-year-old....

Unless his even younger teammate Carson Wood gets one. He too turned 16 last year, on October 26, and got his SMX Pro license. He will have the rest of the season to get a podium. He is planning on racing Loretta Lynn's, then will have the last three rounds of the series—Unadilla, Budds Creek, Ironman—to become that last 16-year-old to podium, or even win. Because after this season there will be no more 16-year-olds out there, ending the era of the rookie phenom that started with Marty Tripes and included Ron Lechien, Damon Bradshaw, Robbie Reynard, Travis Pastrana, James Stewart, Davi Millsaps, etc.

And speaking of Caden Dudney, we received a note from longtime industry man Larry Hughes, currently Kawasaki district manager in Texas and FCA Motocross state director, regarding Dudney's sand skills.

"Wanted to give you a little background on Caden Dudney for a possible story before Southwick. While he was born in Iowa, he grew up in the East Texas town of Athens. While there are several tracks in Texas with a lot of sand, the track in Athens is loaded with sand! When the rest of the tracks are rained out, you can always count on Athens being open because it's so sandy. He basically grew up riding on that track, and his sand riding skills are amazing. Just wanted to pass that on as a possible story. He could be more of a factor at Southwick because of that."

Tøndel (Matthes)

Well, I don't think anyone in January thought to themselves, "Hey, I bet if a Monster Kawi rider gets hurt, they'll reach out to Cornelius Tøndel to get the spot," but here we are. With Chase Sexton's ACL injury, Kawasaki grabbed the Norwegian Tøndel after he had put in some good rides for the ISRT Kawasaki guys, and I'm sure him being on a Kawasaki was a big part of it. But he's got to be the most unlikely fill-in since our guy Alex Ray at Factory Yamaha, right? I don't know, man, but it's a cool story for sure, and it'll be interesting to see how he does. He rode a privateer Honda last year for a bit, and of course, he raced MXGPs for a long time. As a matter of fact, it was his bike that JT used in the Washougal Holeshot Contest (that he just edged me out in, BTW), and his best race was Southwick last year with a 17th. But he's been riding better than that this season with a 12th and a 13th. At RedBud, he was 10th in one moto and just outside of the top 10 in the other when his motor let go in both motos. So this will be interesting for sure—cool story for Cornelius!

From what I understand, the Kawasaki guys will help out the Bubba Pauli-owned team with some more support for taking their #1 rider, so it's a win/win for sure. Maybe Derek Rankin, the team manager there, can get some Kawasaki-affiliated "Stone Cold" Steve Austin merch? (Kawasaki has an ambassador deal with Austin.) No one on Earth is a bigger wrestling fan than Derek. So I reached out to Derek for his thoughts on this, and he sent me back a very professional quote about the whole deal.

"Cornelius is a high-level talent, and having him on our program has helped bring more eyeballs to our team and the attention of Kawasaki. Having him fill in for Chase is an opportunity for him and both teams to help and learn from each other." He also confirmed that he needs to help Stone Cold with a clutch issue on his Kawasaki H2 side-by-side!

Troubleshooting Holeshots (DC)

After last week's first-turn crash in the first 450 moto that took down Haiden Deegan, Aaron Plessinger, and more, there was plenty of talk on social media about changing things up to make starts safer. Suggestions included getting rid of everything from holeshot devices to metal grates to scoop tires to fewer riders, or some combination of all of those changes. There was even a suggestion to get rid of the first turn and go right to the second turn... To which Vital MX member @KennyT posted this reimagined RedBud track map.

And here's another funny bit by our buddy Denny Stephenson: "I think it's safe to say the 250MX series is now down to two riders: The Vet vs. The Kid. Cole vs. Jo. Davies vs. Shimoda. Japan vs. New Zealand. Let's get it on!"

The Shoulder Pad Kid, Christopher Schroeder (Keefer)

While my family and I were at RedBud, we inadvertently came across a kid wearing full protection similar to what an off-road rider would wear. Now, this seems common to most, but in the world of professional motocross, you normally don't see full chest protection (with shoulder pads) as well as a neck brace. Aden told me about a kid who was on the start with all of this, as it reminded him of what we made him wear growing up in the high desert of California. Once he told me this, I was glued to learn more about "The Shoulder Pad Kid" and what his story was. To our surprise, "The Shoulder Pad Kid" was Christopher Schroeder, and he was an absolute local ripper from Indiana. Chris qualified second in the LCQ to get into the show at RedBud.

Fast forward to our weekly podcast, which my family and I do after each round to talk about what went down over the weekend, and we talk about "The Shoulder Pad Kid" and how cool it was to see a kid make it into the show without all the bells and whistles of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship. For some reason, I flock to kids like this because it really reminds me of how I grew up and how my family did what they could to get me to the races, so I have a soft spot for riders who are there on a shoestring budget and still send it.

Monday morning I woke up to several DMs about Chris and an email from Chris directly, telling me how thankful he was that we mentioned him in our show. What I wasn't expecting was the backstory of the challenges he has had in his life. Chris suffered from ALL (Acute Lymphatic Leukemia) when he was younger. He went through chemo for 3.5 years, all while he raced when he could. It was Chris' dream to make a pro national, so with the help from his grandparents (to get his pro license for his 19th birthday present) he signed up for RedBud two weeks prior. Sure, he didn't have the cool gear (he actually got his Fox pants from a discount online store), but he didn't care. He went out and made a lot of other guys who had cooler gear and bling on their bikes look bad. He qualified for his first PRO NATIONAL! To me, that's as cool as you can get! This kid is braver than I could ever be (dealing with/fighting off cancer and still chasing his dream).

What makes me love this story even more is that the kid isn't blasting out his "sob story" to everyone. He just goes out and races his dirt bike with the help of his family/friends and a couple of local sponsors. Some of the people who I have spoken with who have run across Chris at local tracks didn't even know his backstory, which makes me appreciate him even more. I wrote something about Chris on my Instagram account because when I see/hear about these things, it really hits home for me. These are the stories that need to be told and what makes our sport of motocross so awesome. These are stories that inspire others and make us want to go ride our dirt bikes. Sometimes in a world of factory riders, money, and cool gear, it's these stories that bring us back to center, to understand why we do this damn thing! BECAUSE WE ALL LOVE TO RIDE!

Chris is headed to Loretta Lynn's in a couple of weeks and is planning on attending the Ironman National, so make sure to get your towels out to whip for number 889! Thank you Chris for unintentionally telling us your story and for being someone we can all look up to, no matter what age.

Best Toy Ever? (DC)

If you're a fan of Legos and Ducati Desmo450 MX motorcycles, like the one Antonio Cairoli is racing right now in Pro Motocross, we've got good news for you. Lego is expanding its partnership with Ducati to present a factory bike for your building/playing pleasure. The 457-piece set is for "kids" 10 years or older, "but is likely to appeal to just as many adult motorcycle and motocross fans." The Cairoli Ducati by Lego features working front and rear suspension, movable handlebars, and a detailed engine that transmits power to the rear wheel via a chain drive. They go on sale on August 1, so keep an eye out for what might just be the coolest toy ever! Our friend Juan at @lego.mx is going to love this little gem.

Halftime for GNCC (Kate Stiller)

With the Progressive GNCC Racing Series on summer break, we asked Kate Stiller to give us an update on where things left off after the last round, the wild Snowshoe GNCC in the mountains of West Virginia.

After years of near misses, Rocky Mountain Red Bear Kawasaki Team Green's Steward Baylor finally got his Snowshoe Snowboard at the Yamaha Racing Snowshoe GNCC, but it didn't come easy. A mid-race tire change forced Baylor to give up valuable time, yet the veteran charged back through the field to claim one of the most sought-after victories on the GNCC schedule. The win not only added another chapter to Baylor's storied career but also checked off one of the few accomplishments that had eluded him throughout it. And after three early-season DNFs out of nine rounds to date, Baylor goes into the break just 12 points out of the lead.

Behind Baylor, Gus Riordan delivered the best ride of his GNCC career, finishing second overall while capturing the XC2 class victory. The Phoenix Racing Honda rider now heads into the summer break with the XC2 points lead and shared that fans can expect to see him lining up at select Pro Motocross rounds later this summer.

Phoenix Racing Honda's Jordan Ashburn completed the overall podium in third, a finish that allowed him to reclaim the overall points lead. If Ashburn goes on to capture the overall national championship, he would become the first Honda rider to do so since Scott Summers in 1997! Grant Baylor, coming off his overall victory at the previous round, crossed the line fifth overall to finish third in the XC1 class.

Behind Riordan in the XC2 class, Jhak Walker earned the best overall finish of his GNCC career with fourth overall and second in class, while Jason Tino rounded out the XC2 podium in third.

The amateur ranks put on a show of their own as the Whitmer brothers turned the battle for top amateur honors into a family affair. Cole Whitmer claimed top amateur honors with an impressive 11th overall finish and took the Open A class victory. His brother, Lane Whitmer, followed in 13th overall to win the 250 A class, while Cooper Jones rounded out the amateur overall podium with a 16th overall finish and second in the 250 A class.

One final fun fact from Snowshoe: all three overall winners happened to have their photos featured on this year's snowboards!

Dylan on the Ducati (Matthes)

We had Dylan Ferrandis on the PulpMX Show Monday night, and he rode very well at RedBud without all the results to show for it. Also, although this weekend is stacked, he's never in his career finished outside the top five at The 'Wick! Of course, he also won it back in the 250 days, so along with the usual guys, maybe the #14 will break out this weekend. He also confirmed on the show something I had heard a while back in that he gets an auto-renew with the team if he gets top 5 in the points, which he sits 24 back of RJ Hampshire right now. But he mentioned that he's talking to the team now about getting a new deal done; he's happy with the progress of the bike and that if he doesn't get a deal with Ducati, he'll probably retire! One thing about Dylan, you ask him a question and he tells you how he feels—that's for sure!

This Week's Win Ads (DC)

Hey, Watch It!

The very first Southwick National in 1976, shot by Lyndon Fox:

An epic Weege Show after an epic RedBud, and looking ahead to Southwick with Jorge Prado:

This is Lawrence goes to RedBud, their Factory Fan Zone gets blown away, and Hunter goes back-to-back:

The Blair Matthes Project looks ahead to RedBud:

FULL DESCEND: What Happens When FMX & MTB Share the Same Course?

Head-Scratching Headline/s of the Week 

"Brooklyn Bridge Catches Fire During Fireworks Display" - NY Times

"England's Henderson hospitalized with wrist injury during celebration" – ESPN

"Soccer fan who vanished while traveling to World Cup found in pub 10 days later ‘blissfully unaware of search’" - NY Post

"Big 12 will add Monster Energy jersey patch for every team across football, basketball" - On3

"Court docs: Indiana man charged with arson cut off genitals, set them on fire" -Fox59

Random Notes

Check out some great shots from RedBud by our friend Dave Zielinski.

Cycle World magazine, once the biggest publication in the motorcycle world, is no more—not even as a website. Dean Adams of Superbikeplanet.com explains how and why it happened here.

They went all-out in saying farewell to Keith Thorpe, the father of multi-time FIM 500cc World Champion Dave Thorpe, as well as team manager for the HRC Honda team in the 1980s. He was affectionately known as "the Colonel" and was quite popular in the British and Grand Prix paddocks.

Finally, Monster Energy has announced the passing of Skarlent Rodríguez, whose life was tragically cut short during the devastating earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24. At just 23 years old, Skarlent was more than a familiar face at motorsports events—she was a beloved member of the Monster Energy family whose radiant smile, infectious energy, and genuine kindness left a lasting impression on everyone she met.

After several agonizing days of searching, rescue crews recovered Skarlent and her boyfriend, José Castro, from beneath the rubble of their collapsed apartment building in Catia La Mar, one of the areas hardest hit by the disaster. Their families shared the heartbreaking news that the couple was found side by side, together until the very end. The tragedy claimed even more lives within José's family, including his father, grandmother, uncle, and aunt.

Originally from Venezuela, Skarlent earned recognition after being crowned Miss Grand Orlando in 2025, becoming a rising star in the pageant world before joining the Monster Energy family. Whether she was representing the brand at races or brightening someone's day with her warmth and positivity, Skarlent made an unforgettable impact. Monster Energy said her beautiful spirit and smile will never be forgotten, while those throughout the motorsports community continue to mourn a life taken far too soon.