Cianciarulo Drops Bomb – ‘I’m Hearing Tomac Signed With KTM”

Could be true... we'll wait and see.

In a recent conversation, Adam Cianciarulo and Justin Brayton offered an inside look at the complex team decisions shaping up for 2026—particularly surrounding Yamaha’s star-studded 450 lineup. The main question: How could Yamaha let Eli Tomac walk away?

Brayton broke down the financial challenge Yamaha faces. With Cooper Webb’s 2024 Supercross title, his salary likely saw a significant increase, along with race bonuses in the six-figure range. Add Justin Cooper, a rising talent delivering consistent podiums at a fraction of Tomac’s cost, and Haiden Deegan, the 19-year-old social media sensation and future face of the sport, and the equation becomes difficult.

“You can’t keep four guys making millions,” Brayton said. “It’s a business decision. You either keep Deegan for the next decade or keep Tomac for maybe two more years.”

Cianciarulo echoed the sentiment, noting Tomac’s deep connection with the Yamaha  bike—especially the cable clutch and KYB suspension—but admitted Yamaha likely had no choice but to prioritize youth and longevity. “If I’m Yamaha, I sign Deegan. He could give you a decade. Tomac maybe two, three years.”

Brayton added to the speculation, revealing he’s heard Tomac may have already signed with KTM. While a switch to Ducati or Triumph was rumored, both riders agreed those  bikes come with uncertainty. “Tomac’s coming back to win, not to develop a bike,” Brayton said. “KTM is a proven platform.”

Still, they acknowledged the emotional impact of seeing Tomac leave Yamaha. “It’s just a shame,” Cianciarulo said. “It’s not fair to the fans or Eli.”

Both riders agreed that while Yamaha’s decision makes sense strategically and financially, it marks the end of an era—and the beginning of a new one led by Deegan.

"I keep letting Jett start in front of me."

Martin to make final Pro Motocross start at Spring Creek National

Section: Competition Post: Alex Gobert

'I’ve now decided I’d like to finish out my career with the team'.

Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing 250MX recruit Jeremy Martin will miss the next month of Pro Motocross, before returning at home in Millville for the Spring Creek National where he intends to ‘finish out’ his career with the team.

The former two-time Pro Motocross champion returned to racing in 2025, but it had been unclear if it was for a full season or a short-term stint with the factory Yamaha organization.

A crash in the opening race at Hangtown drew a premature end to his second appearance back after running just outside the top 10 late in the moto.

“Unfortunately, after my crash in moto one at Hangtown, I’ve decided to sit out Thunder Valley this coming Saturday so that I can get back to 100 percent for Millville, which is where I’ve now decided I’d like to finish out my career with the team,” Martin revealed.

“A massive thank you to everyone at Star Yamaha for their support and belief in me, and all of the people out there who have been supporting me. It’s been a privilege to ride under the truck and, as a life-long fan of this sport, I’m excited to continue supporting the Star Yamaha team.”

At 32, Martin had experienced a difficult return after an 11th-hour recruitment, recording a 20-20 moto scorecard at the series opener at Fox Raceway. His parents own and operate the Spring Creek Motocross Park, which will host round seven of the season on July 12.

The Bullet Still Has A Bite

Thunder Valley National

Let the Motos Begin!

Drop the gate real motocross starts Saturday!

Billy Bolt Undefeated 2

Prado Is Ready

Jason Weigandt had a great interview with the reigning MXGP world champ, Jorge Prado on what it has been like rehabbing his shoulder injury and having only a month to get ready for outdoors and on a new bike!

Prado said of his race against time getting the shoulder ready for Pro Motocross: “It’s not a lot of time. Anyway, I’ve been training a lot my physical side of the body like cycling, gym sessions, trying to get my rehab of the shoulder as good as I can. It’s not easy. It was a big shoulder injury. So it takes time to recover us, to get the mobility, to get the strength and the comfort. So you’ve got to work every single day. I’ve been going to the physio every single day just to. Yeah, just to feel better with my shoulder, plus all the training. So it’s been it’s been a couple of intense months of of training.

“It’s a new team, it’s a new bike and we need to build a base, right? And yeah, definitely four weeks. It’s not a lot, but they’ve been working super hard. And I think in the little time we had, it’s pretty impressive all the changes we were able to make and make the bike feel very good.

On how he feels on the bike, and his expectations of a new series coming off an injury, Jorge said: “I think I’m riding pretty decent. So there’s always a lot of room for improvement in the speed, rhythm and everything. But it just takes time and I don’t want to overdo it. We just, you know, take it step by step. And the season, you know, we still have some time. So I will not stress, I think also once the races start, yeah, you will get more into racing and the speed will come. So I’m not really stressed, you know. 

Alex Fedortsov inks deal to go pro with ClubMX

Some breaking news on the amateur scene during the off week between Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the AMA Pro Motocross Championship: Alexander Fedortsov, who won the SMX Next -- Supercross Championship a few weeks ago in Pittsburgh, is turning pro. The #600 has been training at the ClubMX the last few years and joined the amateur racing program, showing glimpses of his true potential last year in the MX Sports Scouting Moto Combines and the SMX World Championship 250 World All-Stars, where he finished third in the main event in Las Vegas, Nevada. Then, he raced the SMX Next - Supercross program in supercross this year, showing speed but not being able to get a podium in the four qualifying rounds, with hard-luck finishes 5-22-17-19. But in the championship finale, a winner-take-all main event, Fedortsov got the start he needed, rode fast but smooth, and took the main event win and the #1 2025 SMX Next AMA National Championship. 

After the race, Fedortsov said he was unsure what was next for him, although we expected to see him race the SMX Next - Motocross (the MX Sports Scouting Moto Combines) again this summer. But now, with the youngster showing speed at the practice track, the Muc-Off/FXR/ClubMX Yamaha team has announced it's time for Alex to turn pro. The 18-year-old will make his professional debut at the Fox Raceway on May 24.

One cool note from the team's announcement is that Fedortsov will not be the #600 he has been the last few years, but instead he will be #784. He chose this number because it was the AMA number given to Jeffery Herlings when the Dutch rider came over to race the 2017 Ironman National.

Cooper Webb Three Time SX Champion!

Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Cooper Webb clinched his third Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah, last Saturday night. It was a hard-fought championship battle with Chase Sexton, but Webb did what he needed at the finale to clinch the title with a fourth place finish.

“To win this championship means the world to me,” commented the 29-year-old, who won five main events and landed on the podium 13 times along the way. “There were a lot of hard-fought days to get where we are now, and being a three-time champion is rare territory.”

And in winning the title, Webb is now only the seventh rider in AMA Supercross history to claim three premier class championships.

“Yeah, it is crazy,” offered Webb, who joins Bob Hannah, Jeff Stanton, Jeremy McGrath, Ricky Carmichael, Ryan Villopoto, and Ryan Dungey on the three-title list. “It’s really cool. I’m stoked. It turned out to be a great year.”

Now the oldest racer to win the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship at 29 years and 6 months, the veteran Webb put absolutely everything he had into nailing down his third title.

 

Cooper Webb and Chase Sexton at Salt Lake City SupercrossAlign Media

“Yeah, 100 percent I put everything into it, man,” said Webb this week, taking a break in testing and training for the rapidly approaching 2025 AMA Pro Motocross Championship opening round set for Fox Raceway in Pala, California, on May 24. “Last year was a great year, but I think it only gave me a lot of fuel for the fire. After getting second last year, I was able to come into this year and really try and go after it, right? I felt like the team and I were in a great spot with the motorcycle, and physically I was getting stronger. I was also stronger mentally with more experience. Yeah, like you said, we went all in. We had a great off-season. In early December, I ended up having an injury that kind of pushed us back a few weeks, but I was able to make it on the gate at Anaheim 1. Yeah, it was just full steam ahead from there. I feel like as a team, we had the same goal all year, and that was to put ourselves in a position to win the championship. We did that from the very beginning. I was able to get on the podium right away and win early in the season and really carry that momentum. Yeah, once we got the ball rolling, it was really rolling.”

Having won the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship in both 2019 and 2021, for Webb, the most recent title triumph is the most special to the native of Newport, North Carolina.

“For me, I definitely think it is the best one yet. I think that mainly just because of the gap between the championships. It has been four years and a lot of ups and downs since the last one. For me, that 2019 title was amazing, but once I won that one, it was kind of like we went on a roll a little bit. I ended up second the next year in 2020 and then won in 2021. I think it was almost something that was expected and it was coming at me really well. I was clicking off a lot of race wins. I was in a great spot. After that championship in 2021, I had a terrible year. In 2023 and 2024, I really came close.

"I think this 2025 championship is the most deserved, as far as the effort I put in and just the emphasis on everything. We were able to give Yamaha the championship that they deserve and the championship that Star Racing and Monster Energy deserve. The first time around in my career with Yamaha, from 2013 through 2018, it didn’t go very well, right? So, to be able to just kind of return the favor to them is great. They took a second chance on me, and I was really able to perform this year. It was special. To do it at age 29, I think I just saw I’m the oldest rider to ever win it now. It’s super special, and like I said on the podium, I wanted to be a champion again, but you truly don’t know if you’ll ever be able to get there again. To be able to get it done this year was a huge relief. And now as a father and stuff like that, you can’t even put it into words how incredible I feel.”

And factoring in the physical attributes and demands brought forth by such a demanding sport as supercross, Webb fully realizes everything that went into his title march.

“I think for our sport, there are so many things that go into it, right? It’s physically one of the most demanding sports in the world. Mentally, it is one of the most demanding. We don’t have the roll cages that the motorsports industry has, right? Injury here is not if, it’s when, so we train our butts off. For myself, my diet is to the T, my sleep and my recovery are to the T. All these things that we do are to win a championship and go all in. It’s not just talent anymore, you know? You have to have the motorcycle that is capable of handling the load. It’s a long series, so you have to have great personnel and mechanics. There are just so many things that have to click for it to really become a reality.

"Like you said, it’s not just one thing that wins you a championship. There is so much little stuff that you put yourself through. You sacrifice everything to do it. If it was easy, everyone would do it. Nowadays, I feel like we have the best racers possibly to ever do this sport racing right now. I think that is also what has been super special. To race against some of the greatest to ever do it – the guys that are a little older than me, the guys that are my age, and the young guns – it feels great. The competition is so stiff nowadays. When you have a goal at the beginning of the year, and you’re able to achieve it, there is just no other feeling like it.”

And Webb believes what he got out of it all in 2025 was what he put into it.

“Yes, 100 percent. This all started back last September. That’s when we started preparation for a championship run, right? Think about how many months you’re sacrificing on your body and your time and your effort and your mindset. You just want to be focused once we go racing in January. You have to be able to focus every Saturday from January through May. You have to show up every Saturday and put solid results in. There are so many things that can happen, and that’s what makes it so special. Just getting five wins this season was awesome. Same with the 13 podium finishes. In both of my other championship years, I was also on the podium 13 times. When you look at 13 out of 17 races on the podium, my consistency was there, and I also won five races. Overall, I think we had a lot of great races, and luckily for me, I really only had the one bad night where I was outside of the top five. I think that’s what helped me win this championship.”

 

Haiden Deegan and Webb celebrate their respective championships in SLC.Align Media

Next up for Cooper Webb will be the 2025 AMA Pro Motocross Championship. The klieg lights, night air, and major league baseball stadiums behind, Webb will now charge at victory through the summer months.

“Yep, that’s the plan right now. We’re doing outdoors this year and next year. Yeah, that’s what we just got done testing for today. We started at 9:30 a.m. testing, and it’s about 7 p.m. here right now. Yeah, long day, but this will be fun, and I’m excited. I haven’t been able to stay healthy enough the last few years to make it to the outdoor series. This will be my first season with the Star Racing Yamaha team racing the outdoors. I’m excited to see where we stack up.”

And Webb’s goals for the 2025 natural terrain AMA Pro Motocross Championship?

“I think for me the goal is, and this is a cliché, but I want to race all the races. I haven’t done that since 2021, but I think for me, that is a great goal to have. I haven’t raced a full outdoor season in four years, so I just want to get my feet wet again and go be competitive. I’m aiming to be top five, and if I can end up the year top three, I think that would be like a win.”