Main image is from the 2024 RedBud National

Welcome to Racerhead, and Happy Birthday, USA! Today is July 4, marking 249 years of our nation. For motocross fans, Independence Day weekend means RedBud—more like ReeedddddBuuuudddd! The centerpiece round of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship signifies the halfway point of the 11-round series and further progress in the whole big SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX). RedBud is always among the biggest and best rounds of all, and this year promises to be no different, especially with the added storylines of the U.S. debut of the Ducati Desmo450 MX in the very capable hands of Antonio Cairoli, the ongoing pursuit of Jett Lawrence and Haiden Deegan in their classes, the return of 450 Pro Motocross #1 Chase Sexton, another live TV window on NBC tomorrow, an SMX Next – Motocross Scouting Moto Combine this afternoon, and everything else that makes the RedBud round an absolute banger. It's going to be hot, crowded, loud, and fun here in Michigan.

• Motocross

  RedBud

  Scouting Moto Combine
  Live Now

  • Race Day Live (Qualifying) 

    Live

    July 5 - 10:00 AM

    

  • Race Day Live (Qualifying) 

    Live

    July 5 - 10:00 AM

    

  • All 4 Motos (450s first) 

    Live

    July 5 - 1:00 PM

    

  • July 5 - 1:00 PM

    

  • July 5 - 3:00 PM

    

Unfortunately, that's not the case out in California right now, at least not in the moto community. Instead, they are still reeling from the tragedy that unfolded last Saturday at the Mammoth Mountain Motocross Classic. Sixteen-year-old Aidan Zingg lost his life following a mid-race crash while participating in a 250 B moto. Aidan was a top young prospect for Kawasaki Team Green who was well-known and very well-liked. The news came as a gut punch to pretty much the entire amateur motocross community, and not just in California but nationwide. When the terrible news reached the press tent and the paddock at Southwick on the other side of the country, it brought the whole event down. Godspeed, #39.

Kris Keefer and his family were friends with Aidan and his family...

I am not going to sit here and act like I have all the right words because I don't. Aidan was one of those kids who was older than his age. He could blend in with a group of adults, and you wouldn't even know he was 16 (unless, of course, you saw how young he looked). I have known Aidan and Bob Zingg (Aidan's father) for almost six years and have watched Aidan grow into a very fast racer as well as an amazing young man. Our sport is very dangerous, and we all know this, but when something like this happens close to you, it almost feels unbelievable. Aidan and my son, Aden, had grown into close friends over the years, and Aidan was someone I loved having around my son. I liked watching their interaction with one another. The two of them together complemented each other, as my son was more of the instigator with the trash talking, but then Aidan would challenge him back in a more intelligent way. It always made me laugh. He was just a clever kid that I loved to be around. I told a few stories about Aidan on Monday night's Pulp Show and wrote this short caption here on Instagram:

Vital MX devoted their Social Scoop to Aidan Zingg and his family this week.

The Zingg's family friend, Paul Perebijnos from Renthal, sent out an email last night with some logos that were created in Aidan’s memory. His parents, Bob and Shari, said they would love to see this logo utilized and shared in support of their son over the race weekend.

Tomorrow, SMX will be joined by its 10th current manufacturer. Ducati will join the four Japanese brands (Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha) and the pre-existing European brands (KTM, Husqvarna, GasGas, Triumph, Beta) on the AMA starting gate. Nine-time FIM Motocross World Champion Antonio Cairoli will line up on the #222 Desmo450 MX tomorrow, as well as next week at Spring Creek, if all goes according to plan. Cairoli has been in the U.S. for more than a week, and I actually got to visit with him last Friday as he was riding at a private and very beautiful practice track about an hour from The Wick 338.

As for the AMA’s homologation rules, Ducati was able to start the “early homologation” process on their 2026 model. The kick-off date is today, and then they have 90 days to get 400 units to the American market, or they will receive both sporting and financial penalties. Representatives of the company assured me that they will easily meet the target date.

Cairoli and Ducati are working with Factory Connection on the bike here in the U.S., so he spent a few days after the Southwick National at the track, which 'Wick boss Keith Johnson didn't touch after the race. As you may have seen in the excellent preview clips by Kylie (@eighteenphotos), the Italian looked very good and fast. (Someone who was there told me his times would have had him in the top five in the second 450 moto.)

Cairoli has raced RedBud before. He competed in the 2018 MXON for Italy and led them to second overall, though the whole team was DQ'd months later after Cairoli's teammate Michele Cervellin's fuel was found to have too much lead for the FIM. Then, in 2022 at RedBud, Cairoli, at the end of his full-time racing career, led them to fourth overall.

Antonio Cairoli is motocross royalty in Europe, and it was cool to see how many fans knew him at Southwick. He also got to chat with some old friends like Chad Reed and James Stewart, and his very presence seemed to inspire fellow multi-time world champs Jorge Prado and Tom Vialle. Prado had his best race yet in America, and Vialle was solid. (Prado has been here before too. He went 3-3 in the MX2 class at the ’18 MXON and 6-7 in the MXGP class in ’22.) As for Vialle, after all the sudden reports that he might be going back to Europe next year with HRC, he slyly posted, "Southwick always fun!!! Excited to ride it on a 450..." which sounds like he's staying in America next year, but nothing seems concrete either way.

And while we're on the MXGP beat here, there is again no sign of Lucas and Sacha Coenen at RedBud. Like Southwick last week, there are no entries or AMA Pro Racing licenses for them, though they were also in the rumor mill, along with MX2 World Champ Kay de Wolf. Nothing concrete, just in the mill...

So how will Cairoli do? I think a top seven would be like a win for him and Ducati, and it’s not impossible. As one of the all-time greats, Tony has always been a gamer, and that bike looks like an excellent first offering by the manufacturer.

Honda is also bringing a GOAT to RedBud in the form of 37-time FIM Trials World Champion Toni Bou. The Spaniard was coming for a couple of exhibitions and some fun riding with the Lawrence brothers here after press day. As I understand, the President of HRC is also going to be on hand for the Honda RedBud National. Tthen I got an email from Honda PR man Chris Jonnum with the disappointing news that Bou’s flight from Spain was canceled, and he won’t even arrive in Chicago until late this afternoon.

Back to that note on Vialle. Having asked someone who would have a better idea of the situation, while nothing is done for sure, there is a good chance that he does indeed end up back in Europe in 2026 after all.

Speaking of Honda and Trials, here is an ad from Honda in 1975.

RedBudddddd! It’s that time, and America is ready to celebrate. It’s also halfway through the AMA Pro Motocross Championship and over two-thirds of the way through another SMX World Championship. This is American motocross at its finest, and one of the rounds that the riders truly enjoy. Some tracks simply feel more like work than play. That’s the nature of it, and RedBud is just more fun than that. The ample traction and floating jumps give riders a chance to enjoy the job at hand, and fans are downright wild.

This weekend is going to be a tough one, though. With temps in the 90s and humidity cranking, riders will be feeling the burn of both the sun’s radiation and lactic acid. The track will be fun, but the temps will cause everyone to suffer. Life is weird like that. Days like Saturday are a test of who’s actually fit and who only thought that they were.

The 450 class has many questions to answer; the 250 class has far fewer. Can Chase Sexton immediately regain his lofty placing among those with momentum? Can Jorge Prado find continuity in the progress he showed last Saturday, or is it back to George? Can anyone do anything to slow the runaway train that is Jettson Lawrence? All of these questions will be answered on Saturday, and I, for one, absolutely can’t wait to learn the answers alongside all of you.

RedBud is a great race for sure, the second-best track of the series, with an amazing crowd and atmosphere for all the obvious reasons, but I will not be attending the race in 2025. I think this breaks a string of over 20 in a row for me, but I wanted to head up to Canada to check out that series. My fellow Racer X employee Phil Nicoletti is up there again racing; the owner of Gopher Dunes Raceway, Derek Schuster, has been inviting me for years, and heck, I finally took the plunge. Also, I'll be racing amateur day on Saturday! It should be a good time, and as far as that series goes, well, it's been a lot of BLU CRU. MX 101's Preston Kilroy and past two-time champion, GDR Honda's Ryder McNabb, swapped wins in the first two rounds. Kilroy got it last weekend in Quebec and has an 18-point lead on McNabb as of now. In MX1, it's defending champion Jess Pettis on his Yamaha who has won the last two rounds in dominant fashion after multi-time champion Dylan Wright won round one but then crashed during the week before the second round, which has affected him.

Our guy Phil is second in the points, some 29 back of Pettis. Pettis switched to MX 101 this year after years at KTM and appears to be even better so far. Phil is Phil; he's been the third-place guy for most of the year, which is pretty good, but he's still complaining, of course. This week in Gopher Dunes, it's deep, deep, deep sand—think Lommel—and one would think Phillip might get some competition from Dutch beach race hero Lars van Berkel, who's doing the whole series and has been just outside the top five at the first three rounds.

(DC Note: Matthes has a one-race bye on his RedBud streak as he attended both rounds of the doubleheader during the COVID-19 season.)

We got a note from Racer X reader Kyle London asking about the history of the Polka Dots Motorcycle Club in Michigan and about the outdoor nationals the club hosted at their Midlands, MI, club grounds in the 1970s. This is the kind of question I like to really dig into!

RedBud has been a key stop on the AMA Pro Motocross schedule since 1974, when Gene Ritchie hosted his first RedBud National on April 28, 1974. It was a 250/500 National, and the winners were Bultaco’s Ken Zahrt in the 250 class and Michigan’s own Mike Hartwig in the 500 class. The following year, RedBud was not on the AMA Pro Motocross schedule, but they did host a Trans-AMA race in the fall. They were back in 1976 and have been a centerpiece of the series ever since.

But in 1975, there was another outdoor national in Michigan, at a place called Midland Motocross Park in the town of Midland. It was 200 or so miles north of RedBud and run by the Polka Dots Motorcycle Club, which was founded in 1963. They purchased the land that the Midlands track is on in 1967. In 1975, when Ed Holzhausen was the club’s chairman, Midland, which was a sand track, hosted a 125 National that was won by Team Honda’s Marty Smith. Believe it or not, there is footage from the event!

The Midland 125 National ran one more time in 1977, with Hannah again winning the race. In fact, he won each moto by more than 30 seconds on what Cycle News described as “the roughest track on the circuit.” But that was it for the track as far as holding Pro Motocross events goes. However, the Polka Dots are still there, and they are still holding regular amateur events. Here’s their website.

Ironically, on the evening that I was researching this, Kyle was voted in as a member of the Polka Dots Motorcycle Club. Congratulations, Kyle!

Here's a note from our Racer X Publisher Scott Wallenberg: The story I remember from Midland '75 (I'm in that video at 4:08 and 4:23, but I did not transfer to the main) was that the starting malfunctioned, and all the Honda 125 riders smashed their downpipes. The AMA gave a 5-minute time limit to reset the starting line, and Donny Emler ran back to the truck and grabbed two armloads full of pipes, a socket wrench, and a pipe spring-pulling tool and started changing pipes on all the FMF riders, like Warren Reid. Marty Smith's and Tommy Croft's factory bikes had high pipes. The other story was in '76 when Chuck Sun told my dad he had to win as he flipped a quarter and said, “Because this is all the money I have, and I need gas money to get to the next race!” He won the 250 Support class!

Over in Romagne, France, the FIM Junior World Cup is this weekend, and Team USA has a strong presence in all three classes. In the 65cc class—the class that a young Jett Lawrence won in 2014 over Jo Shimoda—the first girl to ever represent Team USA at this event, Raycin Kyler, will be joined by Levi Geis and Kannon Zabojnik, with all three aboard Cobra minicycles. In the 85cc division, there are five Americans: Easton Graves (Husqvarna), Gauge Brown (KTM), Jackson Vick (KTM), Maddox Temmerman (Husqvarna), and Colt Martin (Gas Gas/KTM). And in the 125 class, Braxtyn Mes (KTM), Brady Olsen (KTM), and Tristan Prueitt (Husqvarna) will race on behalf of Team USA. The team manager is once again Jeff Cernic, and you can watch the motos streaming live on MXGP-TV.com. Go Team USA!

Back in January, I was able to track down an American motocross pioneer named Bryan Kenny from Cleveland, Ohio, for a magazine feature. Bryan was a man who was way ahead of his time. He started racing off-road and transitioned into a fine motocross career, racing all over Europe in the days before motocross really gained a foothold here in America. He traveled all over Europe as an American racer of fortune, going up against motocross legends like Torsten Hallman, Joel Robert, Åke Jonsson, Roger DeCoster, and more. He won the '71 Daytona Motocross, the same race that is now the Daytona Supercross. He raced on the first official Team USA at the '71 FIM Motocross of Nations. Then, Kenny won a 500 National in 1972, the first year of the AMA Pro Motocross Championships. Just as the sport was really picking up steam here, he decided to retire and take over a motorcycle dealership. That was just part of his incredible journey through what can only be described as a great big life.

When I sat down with Bryan and his wife Ann at their home in Santa Barbara, he opened his archives for me to scan, and the images were just amazing. He also told me about an adventure tour they were doing this summer over to Europe to his old stomping grounds. I promised him we would post the magazine feature here online. If you missed it in the mag, follow this link to read all about Bryan Kenny's Great Big Life.

American motocross pioneer Bryan Kenney’s journey through life has been an incredible adventure—and it’s not over yet.

Read Now Preview Now

Here’s the PDF link for non-subscribers.

Jeffrey Herlings may very well be the fastest Grand Prix racer of all time, with a record 109 wins between MXGP and MX2 racing. But there is no doubt that he is also the unluckiest GP rider. The oft-injured Dutchman was just coming into his own again after missing the first quarter of the MXGP season due to injury. Herlings had just reeled off a couple of wins in Germany and Latvia, and with several sand tracks ahead, including the one in Finland and, of course, Lommel, Belgium, he was probably chomping at the bit to keep the renewed momentum going. Unfortunately, his bad luck knocked him down again. Herlings was practicing near Arnhem, Belgium, earlier this week when he crashed and suffered a broken collarbone, according to our friends at MX Large. He will likely be out for at least a month. While this crash did not cost the Bullet an FIM Motocross World Championship like several others have, it does come at a lousy time as Herlings will be a free agent at the end of the season. He's been on the GP circuit since 2010, and he has won five world titles, which puts him among the all-time greats. But he really should have twice as many, at the least, as freak crashes and injuries have wrecked his shot at Stefan Everts' all-time record of 10 world titles. Herlings has crashed and gotten hurt in a charity minicycle race, while doing a photo shoot, practicing, and, of course, racing. Some of those racing injuries weren't even his fault, though. (Herlings, by the way, is also a FIM Junior Cup World Champion from back in the day, as is Eli Tomac.)

Looking ahead, he should be ready to go by the 2025 Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations at Ironman in October, and his Dutch team will be strong, with MX2 World Champion Kay de Wolf and Fantic factory rider Glenn Coldenhoff as likely teammates. But Jeffrey has to be back, fit, and healthy for the Dutch to have a fighting chance in the MXoN.

The song remained the same at Southwick, as Haiden Deegan and Jett Lawrence pretty much led every inch of the way in each of their motos. Deegs has now won four out of five, while Jett has won five in a row. The real battle of summer so far has been between the respective advertising agencies of Yamaha and Honda, as well as FMF (Haiden) and Yoshimura (Jett), over who can come up with the best ways to say the same thing, only differently, week after week. There is some common ground, though, as both ride on Dunlops.

In the off-road sector, hats off to Kawasaki for the very cool ad for Stu Baylor's Rocky Mountain ATV/MC Red Bear team, which went 1-2 at the Little Raccoon National Enduro, with the very versatile Josh Toth beating his boss Baylor. Toth had raced Southwick the previous day! Then teammate Nick DeFeo won Pro 2 and Rachel Archer topped the Women's Elite. And finally, KTM was able to get in on the action as Dante Oliveira clinched the AMA West Hare Scrambles Championship.

James Stewart and Jason Weigandt teamed up again, this time for the Inside Line (regular co-host Clinton Fowler was out this week):

"Minor league team in Reno has a rabbit throw out the ceremonial first pitch"—AP News

"That's Enough Science Today: We Had The First Ever Robot Soccer Tournament And Even They Flopped, Had To Get Stretchered Off The Field"—Barstool Sports

"Yamaha Press Release: Burbank Police Department Receives Yamaha Outdoor Access Initiative Grant with Help from Jay Leno"—Yamaha

“Crazed Diddy fans are removed by riot police after spraying each other in baby oil outside courthouse”—Daily Mail

“MOZZARELLA MISHAP | Tractor-trailer crash leaves shredded cheese scattered across I-80 in Centre County”—WGAL

“A cheesy situation: Mozzarella spill shuts down Pa. highway”—PennLive

“Crash splits open tractor-trailer, spilling mozzarella cheese all over Pennsylvania highway”—WPXI 

RedBud plates...

Pat Schutte sent us a note about an aspiring young Michigan motocrosser getting ready to enter the professional ranks, having already battled one of the toughest opponents of all: leukemia. Eighteen-year-old Christopher Schroeder hails from Baroda, MI, and has been competing since he was six. Schroeder will be racing on amateur day this year but plans on being on the starting gate for the 2026 RedBud Pro Motocross. Check out his story right here.

Thanks for reading Racerhead. Happy birthday, America! See you at the races.