Main image: East Coasters sure are ready for the first round out here as they lined their chairs up by Thursday afternoon, 48 hours before the race! Photo by Mitch Kendra

Welcome to Racerhead and High Point National weekend, and Happy Father's Day weekend to my fellow dads out there. It's time for our home race, which is taking place just up the road in Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania, so we've all been trying to pitch in where we can to help the Racer Productions crew out. This race has been happening every year since 1977, with the unfortunate exception of 2020, when the state of Pennsylvania locked down tight. This time it marks round four of the 2025 AMA Pro Motocross Championship and follows three very successful opening rounds, two in California and one in Colorado. Honda HRC Progressive's Jett Lawrence is 3-0 so far this summer, though the competition has been closer than the scoreboard may show. A revitalized Aaron Plessinger and Eli Tomac have kept him honest and so has Justin Cooper and his own older brother Hunter. But the 21-year-old Australian is still winning at an all-time clip—he's won 18 of the 19 450 Nationals he's entered, and he's won 34 out of 38 motos. Those are Ricky-in-2004-'05 level stats or James-on-a-125 level winning, and he's coming to a track that he's won at each of the last three times he came here, including '22 while he was still on the 250. (Check out some more numbers on Jett Lawrence's 450 Pro Motocross career in this write up by Mitch Kendra).

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  • Race Day Live (Qualifying) 

    Live

    June 14 - 10:00 AM

    

  • Race Day Live (Qualifying) 

    Live

    June 14 - 10:00 AM

    

  • June 14 - 1:00 PM

    

  • June 14 - 1:00 PM

    

The latest issue of Racer X Illustrated just dropped with Jett Lawrence on the front cover, shot during his win at the opening round at Fox Raceway, and part of the feature "Statements" inside. Another cool feature I think everyone will like is "How the East Was Lost" regarding the drama surrounding the 250SX East three-way title bout, as well as Jason Weigandt's "Closing Night" about all of the behind-the-scenes happenings at the Salt Lake City SX. Steve Matthes writes about how this year's Yamaha PulpMX LCQ Challenge came together in Denver. Look for the new issue in your inbox, mailbox, or on newsstands soon.

I hated missing Thunder Valley last weekend, as it looked like a fantastic event with some good racing, as well as some innuendo. Red Bull KTM's Chase Sexton once again sat out, and there doesn't seem to be anything official from the rider or the team about what the problem is. We do not expect to see him race this weekend, either. Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Garrett Marchbanks was once again very fast, but a faulty transponder had everyone thinking he DNF'd in the second moto after a solid third in the first. He actually finished eighth and tied for third overall with teammate Levi Kitchen, but he lost the tiebreaker and ended up fourth. Drew Adams achieved a career-best fifth in the first moto, and Casey Cochran had a season-best sixth. And here's a cool stat I spotted in Clinton Fowler's We Went Fast notes: while the same five riders have finished in the top five in each of the first three 450 rounds, Haiden Deegan is the only 250 rider to have finished in the top five in all three rounds. Chance Hymas' perfect day marked the first time in 10 years that a 250 rider topped qualifying, holeshot both motos, and led every lap of both motos. The last man to do that was Jeremy Martin back in 2015.

And a shoutout to the Women’s Motocross (WMX) Championship racers in general. After getting their Friday motos canceled due to the weather in Colorado, they were slotted to race after the last 250 moto. It worked out great in that the NBC/Peacock team offered to stay on and stream the racing, and it turned out to be a real crowd-pleaser. Who knows? Maybe that's something we will see again at the last three rounds of the series when the WMX returns later this season for the final three round of their six-race championship.

Finally, best wishes and get-well-soons to American motocross legend Mike Brown, who had a big crash and injured his neck earlier in the week, as well as to our media colleague Lewis Phillips of Vital MX, who's health took a downward turn in the Colorado altitude and he's spending some quality time on the sidelines (we've already painted "Save Lewis" on the local water tower). And in case you missed it on Monday, Trevor Colip's family put out a statement about his complicated situation following a broken femur at Hangtown, and the discovery of a small hole between the upper chambers of his heart. Please keep Trevor in your thoughts and prayers as he deals with this unexpected challenge. Read the full update on Trevor Colip.

As sure as the sun rises in the east, rain will be a worry for the High Point National. It’s almost a certainty that we will see rain at some point during this event's weekend. The question comes in the form of when and how much. Last year, we got heavy rain on Friday, leaving the track soggy and rutty on Saturday morning. That's often been the case: soft conditions fought against all afternoon in hopes of salvaging great motos. This weekend, however, we might get the worst scenario—rain leading up to and through race day. That doesn’t leave the track any wiggle room or a way out. The High Point soil doesn’t soak up water the way Southwick or Spring Creek would. Hard rains turn to mud fast. The track crews will do their best, scraping and pushing mud, but all that will be left is a rock-hard base if the rains really come. That will turn to puddles and standing water. It’s truly a tough setup and not one to hope for.

For the riders, there's not much to do other than prepare mentally. Understanding what's to come and making a plan is the best course of action. The teams and mechanics will prep their motorcycles to handle the worst conditions, but rider psyche matters. I struggled with this, so I know how important it can be. On Saturday, take notice of who is welcoming the rain and smiling at the riders' meeting. They are looking at the mud as an opportunity, not a liability. Sure, some of that is knowing that they have skills in the mud. But even if you're not overly proficient in the mud, ask yourself what's a better likelihood for success: a bad attitude and a "woe is me" outlook or optimism and game-planning for how to capitalize?

Every outlier set of circumstances (mud, extreme heat, etc.) presents an opportunity to make the most of change. Ricky Ryan won the only pro race of his career at Daytona's muddy mess in 1987. Kelly Smith won the only Pro Motocross overall of his career at a muddy High Point in 2000. Jacob Marsack grabbed an unlikely podium at Daytona's mudfest in 2008. Chance Hymas won the only supercross of his career in the muddy chaos at Foxborough. The opportunity is there. Who is going to step up and take it?

That's Jorge Prado's points collected in the first three rounds of Pro Motocross, and hey, since everyone wants to talk about Prado's struggles, why not discuss it here? Seriously though, there's been a lot of social media chatter from fans about the MXGP champ's issues to start the season. The second moto retirement that Kawasaki PR put out seemed to indicate he crashed, but not really? Watch out for those kickers! Anyway, we heard Jorge isn't happy with his motor and needs it to be faster, which sure, maybe the Team Green guys need to add some ponies to it, but there's no way anyone would have thought it would start out this rough for Prado. Now we're heading to High Point, a track where a lot of European riders have done well before, and we'll have some different dirt. Then we go to some sand (not Lommel sand, but sand), so one would think Prado would start to feel a bit more comfortable. I guess we all underestimated how a rider never being hurt could get seriously hurt, moving to a new country, and adjusting to a completely new bike. Can Jorge get better? For sure, but it's hard to see how he and the team can make enough improvements to battle up front with eight races to go in MX. This has been one of the more puzzling things to start the season.

We're working on something for Washougal this year. Friday night, as usual, myself, Weege, and JT will host a live show in the beer gardens presented by 10-Barrel Brewery with some special guests. I'm not sure if you noticed or not, but the Honda HRC Progressive riders Jett and Hunter Lawrence, along with Chance Hymas, are back to pulling great starts on the grates in MX. In fact, it's long been my assertion that Honda has figured something special out with their ECUs/start maps when it comes to these starts. Then, add in the amazing skills of the riders, and bingo-bango, you have holeshot machines. In fact, I've been saying that the bikes are so good that you could take a VERY average rider (i.e., me), and he would beat an ex-professional rider (i.e., JT) on a production Honda. Normally, JT would destroy me on a start, right? Well, not if I was on one of those HRC bikes! Somehow, Honda team manager Lars Lindstrom also wants to see if I'm right, so we're working on doing this contest after press day at Washougal if we can get everything arranged with the proper authorities and Lars can get this signed off on. At first, JT was holding everything up, but he seems to have come around to this. I spoke with Hunter about it, and he's very much "Team JT," which is sad. Come to think of it, most are Team JT, but I'll shock the world on the HRC bike—just wait. No promises, but let's see if we can get this going; should be fun, right?

The last time Matthes spent any time on a Honda HRC bike... 

A fresh Washougal track, three Factory Honda HRC bikes, a pro test rider, and Steve Matthes—what could go wrong?

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We had Canadian MX hero Phil Nicoletti in-studio on Monday's PulpMX Show, and Phil went 3-2 last weekend at round two up there. The series is on a two-week break before picking back up in Quebec. There was a big upset when GDR Honda's Dylan Wright suffered a second moto DNF when his O2 sensor came out of his exhaust and melted a hole in his carbon tank. He lost fuel, and that DNF is huge for the series. Wright and Jess Pettis have clearly been the two best riders to start the year, so it's going to be hard for Wright to win the title without a DNF from last year's champ. But Phil has gone 3-3-3-2 to start the year, sits second in the points, and he jumped a 140-foot quad, so there's that.

We had Chance Hymas, Garrett Marchbanks, Jeremy Martin, and Ryan Gauld on the show as well, and I found it interesting that Marchbanks is riding for a contract and is off to a strong start. The PC Kawasaki team seems to have one spot open, and Payton is probably waiting a bit to figure it all out. With Garrett's strong end to SX and now sitting third in the points, someone is going to come knocking on Garrett's door soon, methinks.

Read this full recap or the show by Travis Delnicki. And you can watch the full show here:

You may have noticed the number of international riders participating in Pro Motocross and the SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) has been ticking up. Several foreign riders joined the start of the series, as Denmark's Mikkel Haarup picked up a Triumph factory ride for the 250 class, and GP veterans Benoit Paturel of France and Valentin Guillod of Switzerland added themselves to the 450 class. Haarup had an impressive ride at Thunder Valley, finishing seventh in the first moto and then going from last to 13th after an early crash in the second moto. He's currently 11th in the rankings. Also, Australia's Kayden Minear made his U.S. professional debut with the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing squad and finished 18-12 for 16th overall. Now another Australian will be debuting, as the Muc-Off/FXR/Club MX squad is bringing up Reid Taylor for High Point.

In the 450 class, there were a dozen international riders in the main motos in Colorado, and of course, Jett did the best of all of them, winning again while big brother Hunter finished fifth overall. A little further back was Guillod, who was the one rider to race both the 2025 Thunder Valley National as well as the 2010 FIM Motocross of Nations. Fifteen years ago, he finished 28th in the two MX2 motos while riding for Switzerland, which finished 11th among all countries. This time, he was a solid ninth overall on a Gizmo Mods Rock River-supported Yamaha. Estonia's Harri Kullas had his best day of the year so far with a 12th, one better than Spain's Jorge Prado, who DNF'd the second moto with a mechanical issue and continues to struggle to find the pace, but has shown some positive flashes here and there. Maybe things will start moving forward at High Point for the multi-time FIM World Champion.

The first three rounds of the Women’s Motocross Championship (WMX) are in the books, and much like the 450 class, the racing has been a lot closer than the results show. Defending champ Lachlan Turner has won four out of the five total motos run so far. However, Mikayla Nielsen was able to secure the second moto win and the overall at Fox Raceway, while Charli Cannon, who is still recovering from surgery on her finger, is getting stronger and put up a fight at Thunder Valley.

As anyone who watched the Thunder Valley broadcast in its entirety already knows, the WMX got rained out on Friday. A massive thank you to the powers that be who decided to squeeze the women’s class in on Saturday instead of canceling it. The WMX ran one moto at the end of the day, and the entire race was aired on Peacock. It’s funny, as I just came across the quote “You can’t be what you can’t see” by Marian Wright Edelman (the first Black woman admitted to the Mississippi bar) last week, right before Thunder Valley. I think it is so important for women’s racing to be covered, not just so they get the recognition they deserve, but also so future generations of girls realize what is out there for them. I was also delighted to see that practically all of the feedback on the women’s coverage was positive. This was a big win for WMX.

For now, these racers will take a bit of a break, as the series does not return until Ironman in August. Cannon will return to Australia to heal up and compete in the MXW series, where she is the defending champion. Other girls will get ready for regionals and the Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch, while Jordan Jarvis will head to High Point to compete in the 250MX class against the guys. When the series returns in a couple of months, I expect to see Cannon putting up a much bigger fight for moto wins once she is able to hold on.

Yamaha supporting LaLa Turner and the WMX with this Cycle News win ad...

It's nice to see a lot of different brands getting behind their racers in this week's Cycle News, and not just Yamaha, as Sarah mentioned above. Honda, of course, swept all four 450 and 250 motos at Thunder Valley between Jett Lawrence and Chance Hymas, as did Yoshimura, so each brand doubled up their ad buys for each rider. (Side note: With the Red Rocks Amphitheater right around the corner from Thunder Valley, we're surprised that the natural tie-in with the Red Riders didn't pop up somewhere.) KTM ran a Mateo Oliveira ad for his win at the Mount Shasta Ski Park National Hare Scrambles, and Beta got in with a Jhak Walker win in the NE Pro2 division at the Flying W National Enduro. And while not actually win ads, it's cool to see companies featuring SMXers in their ads, like Ryder DiFrancesco (Fly Racing), Levi Kitchen (Maxima), and Patrick Murphy (6D)... And we just noticed they might want to check the spelling of Ryder D's last name.

Since I am out on the East Coast more now, I thought why not head to ClubMX for a couple days to check out the facility and ride a bit. While I was there, I thought it would be interesting to see what Max Vohland's YZ250F would be like ride. Max does not use the standard rear brake pedal system on his Yamaha but instead came up with the idea of using a left-handed rear brake system. The guys over there graciously allowed me to spend a couple hours on the 92 machine, and I came away pretty amazed as well as more intrigued after I rode it. Ripper Rob and I created a full breakdown of the handbrake and what it's like to ride (with a couple missed brake moments) but if you just want a brief overview of the braking system as well as what the engine, chassis and suspension is like on Vohland's Mud-Off/FXR/ClubMX Yamaha YZ250F then check this video out here: 

If you were starting to doubt that the oft-injured Jeffrey Herlings would ever get back to his usual form following his latest injury, you were not alone. Herlings started the 2025 MXGP season four races down and posted modest results—modest by The Bullet's usual standards. Well, he's back. Herlings went 1-1 for the second week in a row, this time at Kegums in Latvia. The Red Bull KTM rider held off 18-year-old Lucas Coenen from Belgium and current MXGP points leader Romain Febvre in each moto to post his 109th career Grand Prix win, extending his own record. While Herlings can't possibly win the '25 title, he is certainly showing he has the speed to do it, at least in the last half of the season. There are nine rounds left, and Herlings said after the race, "Let's repeat this nine more times!"

In MX2, it was the other Coenen on top—Lucas' twin brother Sacha—with 1-2 moto finishes. Sacha is known for his great starts and epic crashes, but this time he stayed on two wheels while Simon Langenfelder, his German KTM teammate, more or less threw the overall win away with a last-lap crash while leading the second moto. However, Langenfelder did get the red plate back on his bike as title rival Andrea Adamo had a rough day and only scored 22 points.

MXGP is taking this weekend off but will return on June 22 to Matterley Basin in Great Britain, which was the site of last year's Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations. And speaking of that...

Normally the headline below would be in our Head-Scratching Headlines section, but this one cuts a little close to home:

"MXGP of Great Britain Hit With Alcohol Ban After 2024 Incident Reports!"

Yes, the powers that be at Great Britain's main Grand Prix circuit, Matterley Basin, near Winchester, and host to several FIM Motocross of Nations, including just last October, are banning alcohol from the June 21 British Grand Prix. According to a story on the website DirtBikeLover.com, local police are saying they have "long-standing concerns over the safety and conduct at the event — issues they claim have gone largely unaddressed for more than a decade." They also mentioned the MXoN of last October: "Police referenced the 2024 Motocross of Nations event, where they observed several serious incidents: underage drinking, fireworks being launched near crowds without proper security or fire protocols, reckless driving within the site, and multiple breaches of license conditions." There was also an assault on an event worker, and then a fatality that the police say was caused by "MDMA toxicity and biventricular cardiac hypertrophy."

FULL MOTO! Huntah Arrives! Lawrence Duels with Cianciarulo, Cooper at 2019 High Point National

“Runaway zebra named Ed caught after a week on the run in Tennessee”—CBS News

"Hammerhead shark falls from sky in South Carolina, interrupting disc golf game"—Live Science

"British doctors are prescribing ‘poo pills’ with freeze-dried feces for ‘very exciting’ new treatment"—New York Post

"Sean 'Diddy' Combs tells courtroom artist he looks like a 'koala' in sketches"—Reuters

"Domino's pizza driver filmed doing wheelie down high street sparks investigation”—Independent