Welcome to the Southwick Motocross des Nations! Seems like that anyways, right? We had an influx of foreigners invade the house of Doug Henry and John Dowd this past weekend and it made for a pretty cool race. I didn’t go, wife’s birthday and all but I was glued to the live timing while she shopped and then I watched it all back as soon as we were home. Don't tell the wife I regret not going!
Southwick is the Fenway Park of the series for sure, it’s so tiny and nestled into the middle of a town. You’d have no idea a national track was there, right? Love everything that Southwick brings to the series but no Keith Johnson, you can’t have the jar of sand I have.
I’ll get to the Lawrence brothers in a second but first…
What a show that was huh? The Belgians were back and Lucas and Sacha Coenen were even better than they were at Lakewood despite Lucas crashing out of moto one and taking a DNS in moto two. Sacha dominated the 250MX class with a 1-1 and speaking of 1-1, he had about 111 almost crashes as well. Or maybe it was 109. But that’s how he rides if anyone is familiar with his “highlights.” He was pretty amazing and sounds like he broke his collarbone as well in a big late moto crash. Also Lucas fell in the first turn and passed 29 guys in 7 min. He eventually made it to fourth before he himself had a big one and decided to sit out the day. Both brothers showed serious speed ICYWW.
They were supposed to come back for Ironman but that’s not happening now. If you’re the big bosses at KTM you’ve got your two star riders, who are leading their classes in Europe, and one has a broken collarbone (probably) and one rung his bell. Oh, and there is an MXGP this weekend! Not ideal for sure. The worst thing that could happen was one of the brothers getting hurt and now it looks like both maybe battling something this weekend.
Watching the race back though, it was pretty cool to see the fans really get into Sacha destroying the field in moto one and then passing Cole Davies in moto two, pulling away, having a huge one and then pulling BACK OUT! Without goggles on and, well, with a broken collarbone. The cheers around the track were noticeable and great to hear.
The NESC people know real gritty rides when they see them, no doubt about it and they showed their love to the Belgian kid.
We’ll get back to your regularly scheduled programming but all these Euros doing all these things recently has got me thinking…
With the Coenen’s doing what they are doing, there’s not enough words on the internet for this debate, but it’s clear to me that the American “motocross” system is going to need some time to recover here. The MXGP series has for a long time incorporated lesser classes (Supermini, EMX125, EMX250) as part of their two-day weekend format and we’re seeing the effects now. Simply put, the Europeans and European “system” of motocross is better than what we have here. The proof is in the Lawrence’s, the Coenen’s, Jorge Prado racking up wins and podiums. Heck even the guys that can’t do that “well” in MXGP, the guys like Mikkel Haarup, Valentin Guillood, Cornelious Tondel, Roan Van De Moosdijk, etc that show up here and run top ten in MX with no real adjustment needed, show me that the guys that are “over there” or come from “over there” are better at motocross than the American guys.
Yes, I know why. I understand that the USA riders practice and race supercross for most of the year and they definitely aren't hammering sand tracks as often as the European-based riders. But it’s always been that way and for decades, but somehow the USA riders were the best in SX AND MX, anway. It’s just different now.
Another example: An amateur racer working with Jake Weimer, named Sawyer Geick dominated the 85cc class at Loretta’s last year and has a bright future. Props to him and his family, they headed to Europe to do some EMX 125 races and yes, it’s an adjustment and he got beat pretty badly by a lot of riders and I think didn’t qualify at a round. It was a just a couple of races, things happen, but this is theoretically the best 85 rider in the USA and he struggled.
Folks in the USA are trying to adjust. In the last few years we've seen longer motos at the top amateur races, introducing SMX Next at some nationals (more are needed though) and of course at supercross, as well. This has reduced the importance of Loretta Lynn’s as "only" race that teams are using to scout riders. At least Loretta's has long motos on a rough track in the heat, some other amateur races used to be super short on really smooth tracks, and clearly that wasn't helping anyone. Again, some of those other races are now running longer motos. Changes are coming, as I've explained, and maybe we'll see more of the SMX Next races. We might see the USA riders grab the mantle back as best in the world at SX and MX and there’s always going to be the superstars like Haiden Deegan who will rise to the occasion no matter what but to me, the American system didn’t change fast enough with the times and we’re seeing the Euros just flat out be better in motocross.
Also, I don’t need to point out Team USA’s MXDN results lately, right? This is a country of 300 million and it's a struggle to find three riders to go and compete against countries that are way smaller!
So, to recap, I believe this is the best series in the world and you can just look at all the countries that were represented at Southwick or at the nationals in general as to why. But America, well, we’ve got some catching up to do when it comes to actually winning these motocross races. See you guys at Anaheim though!
Okay, back to Southwick!
Is anyone worried a bit about the Lawrences and them crashing here seemingly a lot? I’m not exactly hitting the panic button here but Hunter and Jett both crashed this week, Jett crashed twice last week, Hunter crashed once (not his fault but still), Hunter crashed three times in Lakewood and there’s probably some I’m forgetting in there. It’s just unusual from the Aussie brothers, that’s all.
Having said that though, they went 1-2…again. This time it was Jett and his funky footpeg taking the overall and taking the red plate back from Hunter. Hunter took the red plate back from Jett after RedBud and around and around we go. Will a “Lawrence” sweep every moto in 450MX? I mean, I think so, right? Unless this crashing gets worse.
I thought Jett’s issues were more from the deep rutted tracks like RedBud and Pala…tracks he can move around on like Hangtown and Lakewood, he’s better at. And Southwick is the same so I think how much was the track and how much was the footpeg can be debated but I’m close to saying that deeper tracks, prepped or just with lots of water on them, can give him a problem.
[Editor's note: Steve, maybe it's not easy to hammer sand bumps while trying to ride of the ball of his foot for 30 minutes? -- Weege]
Pretty impressive that when Jett decided it was time to pass Deegan, he just went warp 9 and blew by him. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss I suppose.
But talking about Deegs, he was pretty good. I think he was better at Lakewood, but some people thought this was his best 450MX race yet and I can’t argue with that. Either way, I thought that Jorge Prado would be better than him but although Prado hounded him in moto two, Haiden beat himm in both motos.
Does Lucas Coenen beat Deegs if he doesn’t crash in the first turn? Yeah, I think so but either way Deegan was good and you've got to think his best chance to get a moto win will be at Washougal right? He's really good there and that track has been tougher for the Lawrences.
Levi Kitchen needed to stop the bleeding here after losing his red plate with two races that were meh. He did that at Southwick in getting second overall and making up some points on Cole Davies. He rode very well in moto one despite a fall and yes, you’d like him to hold onto that third place in moto two and not get passed by a rookie but still, he was top “American series” rider on the podium and grabbed some points back.
BUT…on the other side, if you’re Team Cole Davies, you’re like “dude, we were second in moto one before a fall, we got second in moto two and we have the red plate. Nothing is wrong!” and you’d be right as well. Davies has really been impressing here as he hits these tracks for the first time. This title is going to go down between him and Kitch.
Some silly season news that you may or may not know:
-Aaron Plessinger will be taking his talents to Triumph for 2027 and beyond. Good signing by both, from people I talk to, Aaron wanted a two-year deal from KTM and there was interest from KTM but not for two years and AP decided to check out. No matter how AP is doing, he’s an amazing ambassador for any brand.
-RJ Hampshire will be moving over to Ducati and from what I hear they’re doing a two-man team so either Dylan Ferrandis or Justin Barcia will be out. Seeing as how Ferrandis told us that there’s been some talks about him coming back, look for it to be DF and RJ in 2027. Tough season for Bam, who has been off the bike a ton due to injuries.
-I think Eli Tomac will be back on a SX only deal with Red Bull KTM. He is back for Millville this weekend BTW
-We all thought Pipes Motorsports [Twisted Tea Suzuki] would have Malcom Stewart there with Ken Roczen and Jason Anderson (Colt Nichols is doing WSX for them so I assume he’s back also?) and he still might be as they’ve talking, I think Stewart has tried the bike (Barcia as well BTW). But Stewart’s in a good spot as there’s talks about returning to Star Yamaha as a third 450SX guy and maybe heading to Monster Kawasaki as well for SX only. Whether that would mean Malcolm takes a third spot (Kawasaki hasn’t had a third premier class guy there since the 90’s but hey, you never know!) or to takes the place of Chase Sexton, that’s up in the air.
-If Sexton and Kawasaki part ways, most think he gets a spot at Star and who knows what in the hell else happens. Chase Sexton is the king of the “IDK Man” for 2026!
-If Stewart doesn’t do Pipes Suzuki, then yeah, Barcia could go there.
-Phoenix Racing is signing Jalek Swoll, Nate Thrasher and Casey Cochran or maybe none of them or maybe one of them. They’ve all been linked there. Cochran has some interest from Pro Circuit as well, but I think Nick Romano has that spot. Maybe Mitch Payton adds a sixth bike because he sees what Star Yamaha is doing?
-Speaking of Pro Circuit, Cameron McAdoo is headed to Quad Lock Honda in 250’s. I’ve heard Team Green kid Enzo Timmerman maybe gets put over at MX6 Kawasaki as well, as sort of a holding spot.
-Speaking of Quad Lock Honda, sounds like Shane McElrath is taking his talents from there to Team Beta. Whether that means Benny Bloss or Mitchell Oldenburg is out, I don’t know but I lean towards Mitchell being out. Beta has a 250 coming, they want to put someone on it so maybe kick Freckle back down to 250’s?
-Cooper Webb goes to Tedder Husqvarna alongside Justin Hill with factory services help. He does WSX and SX only. There’s been talk of a third guy but nothing lately.
-Bar-X switches to Husqvarna and keeps Dillion Swartz and Lux Turner from what I hear.
-The Coenen’s are coming to the USA, but it doesn’t sound like Fly Racing is coming with them. Fly is a DeCarli team deal so the twins run the gear there, but if they come here they’re able to shop for whatever they want, and it sounds like Alpinestars is in the lead. Like, seriously Gabrielle, leave some for the rest of us please?
Thanks for reading OBS, we’re onto Millville- the best track on the circuit! It’s also where I got passed by Jean Michel Bayle in 1992 where it looked like I was tied to a post. Yup, I was a pro once. Good times! Email me if you want to chat matthes@racerxonline.com please and thank you.
