On the first day of the 2022 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, fans all over the world got an unexpected treat. Lined up for the first time behind an AMA starting gate at Fox Raceway was Antonio Cairoli, one of the fastest and most successful racers in motocross history. The nine-time FIM Motocross World Champion from Italy had decided to cross off a bucket-list item and race an outdoor national in America for the first time, having retired from full-time racing at the end of the ’21 MXGP season—which he capped by finally leading Italy to the win in the Motocross of Nations. The superstar announced that he would race the first two rounds of the AMA Pro Motocross series and then decide if he would continue on. Cairoli acquitted himself well at Fox Raceway, finishing a solid seventh overall. No, it wasn’t quite the dominant performance that the Dutchman Jeffrey Herlings put in when he won the Ironman National in 2017, but Herlings was just starting to peak in his career, while Cairoli, 36, was the oldest man in the race. No matter, he received a warm reception, got to see some old friends like Ken Rozcen and Marvin Musquin, and generally had a good experience—good enough to go ahead and commit to racing a few more rounds.