What a difference one racer makes. Welcome to Racerhead and what feels like a brand-new season for the AMA Pro Motocross Championship. Jett Lawrence finally lost a 450 Pro Motocross race for the first time in his career, and Chase Sexton served notice on the very same day that he’s up for the challenge. Round two of the series was the biggest Hangtown Motocross Classic ever, and certainly one of the most exciting, as Honda HRC’s Lawrence made a fateful error on the first lap of the first moto and threw away the lead and his perfect record of 24-0, as far as 450 motos go. And when Jett went down Red Bull KTM’s Sexton pounced, winning the first moto from Jett’s older brother Hunter and then pulling an epic last-place-to-first-place ride in the second moto. He now has a 24-point lead on Jett, and seemingly the momentum as well. Jett was too banged up to make a run in the second moto (and even finishing the first moto after that banger of a crash was impressive, because while he only reached 24th place, he did get a middle-of-the-pack pick on the starting gate in the second moto) but seemed in decent spirits after the race. What happens from here will be incredibly interesting.
Someone asked me earlier in the week if I thought Jett would have beaten Sexton had he not gone down. I really didn’t have an answer, because Lawrence has been excellent on the 450 ever since last May, and I still don’t think we’ve seen just how fast he can go. But we’ve now seen exactly how fast Chase can go, so I guess I don’t have an answer, but it’s a race I can’t wait to watch, and hopefully that’s tomorrow at Thunder Valley Motocross Park in Lakewood, Colorado. An inspired Sexton, finally looking 100 percent comfortable on that KTM, and a motivated Lawrence are all the ingredients of an early Ricky-vs.-James battle in 2006, and I’m here for it!
The 250 race was not quite as interesting or exciting, though I can’t remember the last time two points leaders threw away leads with huge crashes on the same day. Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Haiden Deegan banged his helmet with his clutch hand after he landed from the finish line with the overall win last Saturday. He was angry because he had what appeared to be a momentary brain fade and crashed all by himself past the halfway point of the moto. Red Bull KTM’s Tom Vialle was coming up fast, and it was another battle we couldn’t wait to see—would Vialle have caught Deegan? But it will have to wait until at least tomorrow. Unlike Jett, Haiden got to keep the red plate, but Vialle served notice that he’s got the speed to run with the kid. Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Levi Kitchen was just a tick off, but Deegan seems to have his number right now. Had Haiden won that second moto he would have had a huge amount of momentum going into the third round tomorrow. If he goes 1-1 again right away, look out.
There’s been some grumbling this week about the fact that one of the team managers, Red Bull KTM’s Ian Harrison, asked us to come by his rig after the first practice sessions and talk to his four riders—Sexton, Aaron Plessinger, Tom Vialle and Julian Beaumer—because they thought the two downhill doubles coming down through the infield were too fast and too sketchy. So, MX Sports Pro Racing’s Jim Perry and myself went over to the rig to talk to the riders, and all four expressed serious concerns about the obstacles that, quite honestly were not meant to be jumped, but to actually slow the sections down. But the previous evening as the track was being prepped for race day one of the dozer operators made the faces bigger than they were for press day. As a result, a couple riders were jumping the first one, and at least one rider—Jett Lawrence—was jumping the second. After we spoke to KTM, Perry and I went to the Honda rig, where Lars Lindstrom and his four riders—Jett and Hunter Lawrence, Jo Shimoda and Chance Hymas—were all up in the rig. We asked what they thought of the down hills and Hunter and Jett both said to let them get rougher and maybe that would both slow it down and make for more lines, and Jo and Chance both agreed. We told them we had already decided to cut down the takeoffs for safety, as they were not supposed to be jumpable. We did not get to talk to the other teams as the second 250 B practice was starting. Track architect Shane Shaffer and his crew were already cutting the first one down, but not enough, and soon a half-dozen riders were jumping it. It was honestly scary—and I’ve been around enough motocross tracks and races to know that if they kept doing it, everyone would soon be doing it, and someone was going to miss. So, Shane Shaffer and his track crew (who did an excellent job overall on the best Hangtown track I think I’ve ever seen) worked on it again before the 450 practices to make sure it wasn’t jumpable. They also worked on the second downhill in order to do the same.
A couple hours later, after the LCQs and the first 250 moto, the 450s went off and Jett tried to do the second double anyway, even though the face had been cut down. It was a scary crash and we’re of course all thankful he’s okay. I don’t think anyone else crashed on either of the downhills all day long. And I don’t think we would have had the same outcome if those doubles were still there. As I said on “Title 24” as guest-host for Ricky Carmichael, I am allergic to downhill doubles, having been right there in 1992 when Jeremy McGrath broke his leg on one at High Point, and then in 2006 when James Stewart had a similarly scary and ugly crash that ended his day (and almost his career). The risk-reward of a high-speed downhill double is just not worth it, and those Hangtown hills were fast enough and challenging enough with the guys keeping their wheels closer to the ground. It wasn’t KTM’s idea to change them, they just happened to be the first team to say something—their truck was right across the paddock from the AMA and race control rigs. Several other team managers and a couple of the riders mentioned to me that they were glad we made the decision to make the adjustments and the track was incredibly raceable all day long.
There was also a terribly unfortunate incident on the second lap of the very first 250 B practice of the morning when Matti Jorgensen launched the hip jump atop the hill they call Big Moe and over-jumped it to the point of almost landing on the outside fence. Unfortunately, Tyler “Otter” Mickelson, one of the crew members from Bar X Suzuki, was walking up the hill on the water truck late to spot the team’s riders in the next practice and Jorgensen landed on him, breaking both of his legs. The crash also nearly took out the AMA official in charge of spotting in that section and controlling the safety lights that were atop the hill. Gerrit Stillmock (@underground_moto_424on Instagram) set up a GoFundMe page for Otter, who was immediately taken to the hospital, where he underwent surgery on both of his legs.
View the Tyker Mickelson GoFundMe.
Matti Jorgensen was not seriously injured in the incident but he was banged up. He qualified for the main program and finished 28-28 in the 250 Class motos for 30th overall.
Finally, and worst of all, two riders lost their lives in riding accidents this past week. Austin Behrens, 28-year-old professional racer and popular riding instructor from New Jersey, crashed while practicing and did not survive his injuries. And out at Lake Elsinore, Brooke Carlton was riding on the kid’s track when she was hit by a rider on a full-sized motorcycle. She was just nine years old. Both accidents were decidedly different, but both were devastating and terrible reminders of how dangerous our chosen sport can be. Godspeed, Austin. Godspeed, Brooke.
How lucky for the sport that this weekend’s Toyota Thunder Valley National was already scheduled as one of the annual live NBC look-ins on the sport, as both the first 250 moto and the second 450 moto will air live on the network. Don’t worry, if you’re a weekly watcher on Peaco*ck or the SMX Video Pass (outside of the U.S.) you can still see every moto in the usual spot, live. But tell your friends who don’t normally watch weekly to give things a look at Saturday on NBC. It’s incredible timing that this race follows the massive Hangtown shakeup. You know the storylines. Did that Hangtown comeback push Chase Sexton to a new level? How will Jett Lawrence respond? Did this open the door for more hope for other 450 contenders? Plus, it’s good to get a two-hour network window to also shine some light on the 250 class. The series has gotten a few motos per year airing live on NBC for 15 years now, but the 250s were only added to that NBC program last season. Think there are some Haiden Deegan fans out there?
This week on our SMX Insider show, Jason Thomas and I were joined by none other than Kevin Windham. K-Dub has been nominated for the AMA Hall of Fame, and he joked that the HoF already has lots of winners in it, so many it’s time to elect a guy who has collected a lot of second-place finishes! Yes, racing against Jeremy McGrath, Ricky Carmichael, Chad Reed, James Stewart, Ryan Villopoto, and Ryan Dungey made titles hard to get. But Windham, now 46, says as he gets older you get more real with yourself. He says that, yes, he did face great competition, but today’s riders are great, too. His issue was that while he was great on his best days, his bad days were too frequent and not good enough. A guy like Carmichael was getting second or third at worst, Windham was further back than that when things weren’t perfect.
Windham does try to share that with riders that he coaches and trains now, trying to push that championship mentality. He also loves watching today’s races, and he’s very intrigued watching Deegan throwing some shade toward Levi Kitchen here and there, but then also acting friendly with him at times. As Windham learned, it’s really easy for someone to be friendly when they’re the one winning the races and getting the million dollars in bonuses. They like everyone as long as they’re the one winning! He’s very curious how Levi will respond to all these head games from Deegan.
Some things change in this game, some do not, and Windham knows the head games at the highest level all too well. It sure will be fun to watch it all unfold. Tune us in this weekend, I’ll be in the booth with James Stewart, who was absolutely on his game last weekend while we watched Sexton roll through the pack. What a great time to get a big network look in on this series.
Motocross
Thunder ValleySaturday, June 8
Qualifying
Live
June 8 - 12:00 PM
Qualifying
Live
June 8 - 12:00 PM
Motos
Live
June 8 - 3:00 PM
Motos
Live
June 8 - 3:00 PM
First 250 Moto, Second 450 Moto
Live
June 8 - 4:00 PM
Motos (Re-Air)
June 9 - 2:00 AM
Thunder Valley
There is just one week left in the voting for the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame's Class of 2024. Among the nominees are some close friends of the motocross world, like superstar Kevin Windham (as mentioned above), legendary minicycle maker Bud Maimone of Cobra fame, and Deb Matthews, a pioneer and longtime champion of women's motocross. In my opinion, all three deserve to be in the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame. Like Weege said, Windham was one of the all-time best riders, though he had the misfortune of racing during the heydays of guys like Jeremy McGrath, Ricky Carmichael, Chad Reed, and James Stewart. Bud Maimone changed amateur and youth motocross forever when the Ohio-based engineer wanted to build a better junior mini-cycle than the existing pee-wee offerings. As a result, the Cobra became a vital training bike for young riders everywhere. Matthews has been a tireless promoter of women's motocross for many years, advocating for girls classes and events ever since she was racing herself. And don't forget about enduro legend Mike Lafferty, who is on the ballot too. If you are an AMA Life or Charter member, please vote:
Visit the AMA website to vote now
We had Chase Sexton on the PulpMX Show this past Monday after that amazing ride by him and he talked about how he was marking himself catching the front runners and once he got by Hunter Lawrence, he knew he had the overall. He mentioned that he took a couple of laps to sort of regroup and then, hey, what do you know, Justin Cooper was right there. And then Aaron Plessinger wasn't far ahead either! So, Chase sent it to win the moto and get the 1-1. He said it was his best ride of his career as well and that's hard to argue. I think this ride will help him a ton in terms of knowing and trusting the KTM. It's no secret that he hasn't had the same speed he had on the Honda and that he's been searching. In fact, the maybe-too-honest Sexton admitted on the show that he had a melt-down at Pala before the national when he crashed very early into a test.
So anyway, I think on this hard-packed track that got square edged, he'll know that he's got a bike that can win. And then, like his buddy Levi Kitchen told me after the race, he'll trust the bike. I'm not saying Sexton is going to just start racking up moto win after moto win against that Jett kid, but I think this helps him trust the bike can go the speed he needs to go to win.I guess we'll see, right? I know one thing, this 450 Class season just got great.
I headed down to Glen Helen on Tuesday to do some riding on the YZ450F. My friends Kris Keefer and Jamie “Darkside” Guida were there as well to hang out. Of course, I was shredding but that's not the point of this post. No, it's the fact that the entire Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/GasGas team was out there doing some testing. In particular, Justin Barcia was riding during the week for the first time since before the Salt Lake City SX when he hurt his knee. When he was on the PulpMX Show a couple of weeks ago he said that he hadn't gotten a diagnosis for the knee yet because it's good enough to race with and he didn't want to know! Typical motocrosser, right? Anyways, Barcia's off to a good start this summer without doing any practicing. He went by me at The Helen like he was shot of a cannon so no problem with his speed from my end of things. Of course, he came in hot underneath, almost hit me, kicked his rear wheel out at me, looked back, laughed, and then roosted me as he took off. Whenever you get on the tracks with guys like #51, you realize how incredible they are at riding a dirt bike.
The FIM Motocross World Championship has been quite strange so far this year. Don’t get me wrong, they have been very exciting, but strange in that Jorge Prado, the defending MXGP champion, and Tim Gajser, the former multi-time champion, keep trading the red plate back and forth! Yet Prado has won six of the eight rounds to date and seems like he should have a massive points lead, but he only leads Gajser, who has won a single GP (and that was after a couple of guys got docked for jumping on yellow) by just two points. Prado totals 402 to Tim’s 400, with Jeffrey Herlings another 64 points back.
In the MX2 class for 250s, Husqvarna teammates Kay de Wolf and Lucas Coenen are 1-2, with de Wolf out front by 59 points, yet Coenen has won the last three race overalls in a row.
This weekend they are in Latvia, and you can watch the motos live on MXGP-TV.com or on CBS Sports Net.
And here's a good read on Pennsylvania’s Gavin Towers' first race of his new deal in Europe, in which he went 6-2 in the EMX250 class at the MXGP of Germany, just missing the overall podium.
MXGP
MXGP of LatviaEMX125 & EMX250
Sunday, June 9MX2 Qualifying
Live
June 8 - 9:25 AM
MXGP Qualifying
Live
June 8 - 10:10 AM
MX2 Race 1
Live
June 9 - 6:00 AM
MXGP Race 1
Live
June 9 - 7:00 AM
MX2 Race 2
Live
June 9 - 9:00 AM
June 9 - 9:00 AM
MXGP Race 2
Live
June 9 - 10:00 AM
MXGP Race 2
Live
June 9 - 10:00 AM
MXGP of Latvia
I don’t know much about the amateur scene but one kid from New Zealand that Orange Brigade manager Daniel Blair pulled me aside at Anaheim 1 to talk about was Cole Davies. A soft-spoken kid, DB told me he and his family’s story of coming from way down under to risk everything for a sort of Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/GasGas “try-out” in the SX Futures class. And well, yeah it paid off! Davies won the A1 race, performed very well in the others, including winning the SLC championship finale. Drew Adams was probably better race to race but in the end, Davies won the title. He also beat a Monster Energy/Yamaha/Star Racing rider named Gavin Towers a bunch. Well, like a shark in the water, Bobby Regan at Star Yamaha dropped Towers (now in Europe racing EMX) and picked up Davies, which I believe will start at the Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch this year, carry on in amateurs next year, and a two-year pro deal from there. Davies rode Yamahas down under for Josh Coppins' team [Editor’s Note: and in 2023 SX Futures and the MX Sports Scouting Moto Combine events] so he’ll be back on blue. And although jumping into the biggest race all year on a new bike is a bit risky, I’m sure he’ll be fine. Also, in talking to DB earlier, Davies is better indoors than out so he’ll need to sharpen those skills a bit but once again Star Yamaha gets aggressive and lands the rider they want. Whether it’s Haiden Deegan, Daxton Bennick, or now Davies, they’re out for results.
I expect Cole Davies to be on a Star Yamaha at LL’s as he’s set for a multi-year deal w them for amateurs and pros
— Steve Matthes (@pulpmx) June 7, 2024
Every year I get to talk to a few mechanics about their riders’ bikes and this year at Fox Raceway we did four really interesting bikes. Haiden Deegan, Christian Craig, Joey Savatgy, and Chance Hymas all have interesting setups to me, and each video is right here on Racer X's YouTube channel for you to watch. I think my favorite one had to be Joey Savatgy's factory Triumph, as he is an interesting rider who is quite particular with his set up, especially when it comes to seat bumps. Check all of them out right here!
Last Friday, while were looking at the new signaling area at Hangtown, I noticed a guy doing wind sprints up the drop-away hill by the old oak tree, the top of the section where Deegan would crash the next day. The guy would trot down the hill to the bottom, and then turn around and sprint back up. It was hot and I was thinking, 'Now is a weird time to be training, right?' Later that evening me and some media friends were doing our annual bench-racing session in the bar at Cattleman’s Restaurant when the same kid walked in with Caleb Tennant, the trainer who helped whip Haiden Deegan into shape. He introduced me to Stav Orland, who hails from Uganda and is racing here this summer. I mentioned the wind sprints and Caleb laughed and said this whole summer is a training and learning session for Stav, who’s whole family is into motocross. He’s 18 years old and one of three brothers. When he’s not racing or training, he’s flying—literally. Stav has airplane helicopter licenses to fly, and he plans on a career as a commercial pilot when he’s done racing. He plans on racing all eleven nationals and he ended up qualifying on Saturday in the 250 class but did not score any points. Tomorrow he will be joined by Dalton Venter, his friend from South Africa who also hopes to qualify and maybe get some points in Pro Motocross.
We mentioned before that we were lucky enough to get our hands on Thom Veety’s vast collection of photos from the last four decades of East Coast motocross. Thom is retiring and downsizing and gave them to us to share, and man have we been sharing! I’ve been sending photos to Jeff Emig, Ron Lechien, Jeff Stanton, Gary Denton, Larry—even Jason Lawrence! It will take YEARS to go through and sort five giant crates of photos albums that are so heavy they can barely be lifted! So, every now and then look from some random and cool Action Photos, as Thom called his company, just because we can!
DC got the call to fill-in for Ricky Carmichael on this week’s “Title 24” Hangtown Show, RC being 15 of those 24 titles, Ryan Villopoto the other nine, so it was “Title 9” with RV and DC!
Between the Arrows: 2024 Parts Unlimited Mason-Dixon GNCC Motorcycles
Dean Wilson in Manjimup, Australia: FASTEST MOTOCROSS TRACK IN THE WORLD?
GoPro: Two-Stroke Pinned at Lincoln Trail
MXA's Josh Mosiman: Why I Switched from 350 to 450 (Pro National Comparison)
Grit and Grind - Overcoming Adversity | Husqvarna Motorcycles
Tristan Purdon hails from South Africa and ride’s for Neil Prince’s British-based Husqvarna team. Hangtown was his first national and he made the 450 main. Here’s his vlog from the day:
"South Korea vows 'unbearable' retaliation against North Korea over trash balloons"-Politico.com
"A Remote Amazon Tribe Connects To The Internet For The First Time, Instantly Becomes Addicted To p*rn, Social Media, And FPS Games" -Barstool Sports
"Shocking End To Monster Truck Rally After Lobster-Themed Truck Pulls Down Power Lines"
Carson Brown's update from theRed Bull Erzbergrodeo
The motocross world lost a former standout rider when Justin Guthrie passed away. He was Caitlin, Illinois, and one of the top minicycle riders in the country in the mid-nineties—he finished fifth at Loretta Lynn’s in the 85cc (14-15) class which was won by Ricky Carmichael, who was also a friend of Justin’s. Godspeed, Justin.
Thanks for reading Racerhead. See you at the races!
