Should Supercross Limit Whoops?

Riders Comment

Argentina GP - More Than Motocross

“Patagonia is all about nature,” De La Fuente said. “The first locations we looked at for this event were closer to town, but we put a lot of effort to find the right location. As you could see, it turned out well, but when we first found that location, it wasn’t like it is now, we put a lot of work into getting it to look like that. We wanted it close enough to the town, but not close enough to bother the town itself, and we wanted that feeling of the natures and to show the nice things of this location. 

“From where we are here in Patagonia, it’s 2500 kilometres to the north, and almost the same to the south. It is incredible, because you have people coming from everywhere, driving more than 2.000 km, and you have people flying in from Buenos Aires. We have a lot of small motocross and enduro tracks in Argentina. For our country, this is the event to attend. People plan months ahead to make the trip and you see the spectators also hang around to enjoy the area. That is why it is the correct thing to do to run the event in this tourist area. People don’t just come for the weekend, they make a week of it.”

Now retired Thomas Covington loved visiting Argentina and made sure the trips were not just about racing. Now missing out on the trips to this great spot, he did remember when he raced there spending time with his father.

“Yes, I loved going to Argentina and my dad and I try and plan a fishing trip. It’s probably my favourite place on the calendar. I didn’t have time to go fishing this trip one time, we were meant to go on the Thursday of the weekend, but I was too tired from the trip, but he went down two days earlier the next year and went fishing. One year we stayed an extra week and went fishing."

Journalist David Bulmer also has good feelings about his return to Argentina, one of the highlights of his travel experiences for the MXGP championships.

“I think that first time I went to the Argentina race in Patagonia was one of the highlights,” Bulmer said. “I flew to Chile and I travelled down along the Andes and that is an amazing area. People have seen the photos of the track and the social media of the riders, and that stands out. It is just interesting place and for me, seeing the area where the track is, and the culture, that is why I enjoy the sport so much.”

So now, just a days away and the MXGP and MX2 riders have arrived in Argentina, and once again, to enjoy the amazing nature and that beautiful circuit hidden in the Patagonian forrest.

From mxlarge.com

And we thought Supercross was rough!

This is gonna hurt

RC on Triumph

A Candid Conversation with Ricky Carmichael on Triumph’s All-New TF250-X Dirt Bike

Ricky Carmichael's role at Triumph America is much more than you'd think. He's not just taking pictures and signing autographs, but he's helping test and develop the all-new 2024 Triumph TF250X, he helped develop the new 250F, he's currently helping them develop the 2025 Triumph TF450X and he's helped steer them in the right direction with their race team as well. We enjoyed hanging out with Ricky at the Triumph intro in Florida the other day, he was very open and easy to talk to about the exciting new venture for Triumph. This is a candid interview between Josh Mosiman and Ricky Carmichael, with an impromptu visit from Dennis Stapleton jumping in for the later portion of the video.

Jett Lawrence Daytona

Jett Lawrence is Jett Lawrence’s biggest competition

By Dan Beaver

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida — Anyone who follows the sport of SuperMotocross has been waiting to see how the rivalry between Jett Lawrence and Eli Tomac would develop. That question is beginning to get answered.

Jett Lawrence has now spent one full season in Pro Motocross and one in the SuperMotocross World Championship in the premiere 450 division. Lawrence easily won both titles, for the first time scoring a perfect rookie season in the outdoor season. There have been very few signs of weakness from Lawrence in his meteoric rise through the ranks.

But Lawrence did not have to face Eli Tomac, who ruptured his Achilles tendon with one round remaining in last year’s Supercross season. Without that injury, he would have easily won the 2024 Supercross championship, which would have been his third championship in the last three season.

Lawrence has faced challenges in Supercross this season — including last week when he fell twice and finished off the podium. Tomac has also struggled and those have conspired to keep the keep the two riders apart for most of 2024

Daytona would finally showcase these two riders at their best.

To say Daytona has belonged to Tomac is not even remotely hyperbolic. He entered the weekend with a five-race winning streak and has not finished worse than second in nearly a decade.

Lawrence was aware of those numbers but still didn’t think Tomac was the rider to beat.

The only rider Lawrence needed to beat was Jett Lawrence.

 

“The biggest thing was focusing,” Lawrence said after becoming the first rider in six years to beat Tomac in a Supercross race at Daytona. “The previous weekend my mistakes were in the basic rhythm stuff where it wasn’t very difficult kind of section. I would just go through the motion. That’s what cost me the most on the easiest stuff. It’s so easy for me to do, especially with the 450 power in the rhythms, you use it to go and catch your breath and it cost me.

“It was good this week to work on staying focused, hit your marks — and having those times when if it ain’t right, being okay to lose a tenth or so. Normally, being young, I just want to be perfect always and not lose any time, and gain time and not give up any time to guys behind me or in front of me. If I’m a bit off, I will still try going for stuff. This week (I decided) if I’m not perfect, just back out of it and learn from those mistakes.”

That is easy to say after a race but it was also what was going through Lawrence’s mind while he raced behind Tomac. In Round 8 at Daytona, Chase Sexton took the lead early with Tomac in tow. As those teammates tried to settle their differences at the front, Lawrence closed in rapidly, got a fast run through the whoops and passed both in the same corner on Lap 4.

“I was more focused on not trying to die in those rhythms, really,” Lawrence said. “I was so focused on hitting my marks. (I wasn’t) really focused on ‘I need to pass the person in front of me’, it was more so I need to make sure I hit my marks and if I got close enough to the person, it was I can maybe get him in this rhythm and I just have to follow him through this section. So I wasn’t focused on I got to get past Eli or and got to get by Chase.

“I didn’t really have any set plan on okay I’m going to pass him here. I was kind of let’s get as close as we can and see if we can find a way around them and if not, that sucks, but we’ll see how it goes.”

One lap after making this pass for the lead, Lawrence built a 3.6-second gap. By Lap 10, his advantage grew to nearly 12 seconds on a 98-second lap.

After the race, Tomac said he was not aggressive enough.

“Thinking back to the race, [I’m] frustrated I didn’t do the quad,” Tomac said from the second seat on the podium. "[That] cost me. So got to take more risks next time. That’s that. So, yeah, second place.”

Tomac finally got around Sexton with two laps remaining.

His determination to catch Lawrence showed in the lap times that came after he moved into the runner-up spot. Tomac took nearly a second off the advantage on the next-to-last lap. On the white flag lap, he shaved another three seconds off.

There is still an open question as to how the rivalry between SuperMotocross’ winningest active rider and the Australian upstart resolves, but on a soggy Saturday night in Daytona, Lawrence made a statement.

Famous Desert Racer from the old days!

 John McGown & Kookie

Chase Sexton on Daytona

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Chase Sexton returned to the podium in Daytona, Florida, but he is still searching for more. Here, he offers a candid look at his weekend at the famous speedway.

From Vitalmx

Herlings 1-1 in Lierop

Red Bull KTM Factory rider Jeffrey Herlings has won the Dutch International race today at the Lierop circuit in The Netherlands. The five time World motocross champion took an easy opening moto, but then had to follow Jago Geerts home for most of the second moto, but really turned on the heat in the final few laps to close down a gap of around 10 seconds, to claim 1-1 results and the victory. Calvin Vlaanderen was second overall with 3-3 scores and Geerts was third with 6-2 finishes.

Kay De Wolf has won the overall for the MX2 class with a stunning 1-1 performance. The Dutchman, who races for the Husqvarna factory team looked brilliant around the treacherous sand circuit of Lierop. Cas Valk was second overall with 2-4 result and third overall was Lucas Coenen with 6-1.

In the second MXGP moto it was Geerts who led early from Vlaanderen and Herlings, then Van Doninck, Jacobi, Ludwig, Nagl, Platt, Knuiman and Van De Essnburg. Herlings quickly moved into second and was a couple of seconds behind the leader, but that changed quickly as he took the lead a lap later. As quickly as he made up the ground and took the lead, he was 2.3 second ahead and clocking lap times more than a second better than everyone else.

Van Doninck in trouble as he dropped to 13^th place and Geerts back into the lead as Herlings was suddenly four seconds off the pace. Vlaanderen was in third some seven seconds back from Geerts and Jacobi was 15 seconds back in fourth place.

Herlings closed up the lead a little on Geerts, but the Yamaha factory rider doing very well in the front position. Van Doninck back in 25^th place and struggling. On lap five the lead was 1.7 seconds and the Dutchman was charging hard, with a lap time two seconds better than Geerts.

Lap six and the lead was suddenly 3.1 seconds and Vlaanderen in third was a further 10 seconds off the pace of Geerts. Seventh placed Nagl was already a minute off the leader. Lap nine and the lead by Geerts over Herlings was 13 seconds, with Vlaanderen 20 seconds back.

On lap 10, Geerts clocking laps around 1.52.845 and Herlings doing 1.55.433, so no doubt the Yamaha rider is on it. Two laps later it was Herlings with around 1.51.000 and Geerts went 1.54.215, go close the gap up a little.

A lap remaining and the lead by Geerts was 8.3 seconds, with Vlaanderen 37 seconds back in third and the rest of the field more than a minute off the pace of the Belgian. Herlings clocked a time of 1.49.309 and Geerts 1.54.506 in the second last lap.

“The Bullet” cut another five seconds off the lead and with a lap to go was 3.8 second down on Geerts. Vlaanderen now 42 seconds back in third and Jacobi around one minute and 20 seconds back in fourth. Tom Koch fifth. Herlings incredibly wins the moto with 1.4 seconds in hand. Geerts second and Vlaanderen third.

• SuperMotocross Reveals 2024 Playoff Track Locations With Vegas Hosting The Finals

The SuperMotocross Final is coming to Sin City.

During tonight’s Round 8 of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship and SuperMotocross World Championship from Daytona, the broadcast team revealed the 2024 SuperMotocross World Championship Playoff Rounds and Final locations.

Broadcast analysts Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart revealed that zMAX Dragway at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, and The Strip at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway will host the races this year. The Final will mark the return to Las Vegas where the Supercross has historically hosted their Finals in the past.

“Last year, we created a completely new off-road motorcycle racing playoff series that combined both disciplines of indoor stadium racing (Supercross) and outdoor motocross racing (Pro Motocross) that was fully embraced by the teams, athletes, industry and fans,” said Dave Prater, Vice President of Supercross, Feld Motor Sports, Inc. “Collectively, more than 110,000 fans from all over the world made their way here to attend the inaugural three round SMX World Championship Playoffs and Final and for the first time in the sport’s history witnessed the crowning of a true World Champion. The SuperMotocross World Championship is where the world comes to race.”

The 2023 season marked the first time Lucas Oil Pro Motocross and the Monster Energy Supercross series partnered to create the SuperMotocross World Championship where leveraging the two created the playoff series that combines elements of the wide-open outdoor series with the more compact elements of Supercross which is largely in stadiums. Last year’s Final was hosted at the LA Coliseum as a nod to the earliest Supercross events. Feld informs that moving to new locations each year is by design to add excitement to the playoffs.

zMAX Dragway next to the Charlotte Motor Speedway hosted last year’s part of last year’s SMX World Championship Playoff. The location created a unique track designed never seen before. The track was built on the famous four-lane dragstrip with dueling grandstands on each side putting fans right on top of the action.

“Last year, we transformed a four-lane drag strip into the ultimate off-road playground and fans were treated to a full day of action-packed racing at the opening round of the inaugural SMX World Championships,” said Greg Walter, executive vice president and general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway. “Building on that experience, we’re excited to once again partner with Feld Motor Sports to bring together the top Supercross and Motocross riders from around the world at zMAX Dragway to put on a high-flying, white-knuckled show for the fans.”

Feld Motor Sports informs that renderings of the track layouts will be forthcoming in April.

On top of the 110,000 fans that attended the SuperMotocross playoffs in Concord, North Carolina, for SMX Playoff 1, Joliet, Illinois, for SMX Playoff 2, and in Los Angeles for the SMX World Championship Final, an additional 192,000 attended the 11 rounds of the Pro Motocross Championship, sanctioned by AMA Pro Racing during that summer.

Domestically, NBC Sports’ coverage of the 2023 SuperMotocross World Championship season surpassed 23 million hours of viewership consumption across NBC, USA Network, and Peacock, up 111% versus the comparable programming in 2022. Powered by Peacock, over 17 million digital hours of viewership were consumed – up 307% compared to last year.

Supercross is seeing a strong start to the 2024 season.

The Daytona event this weekend makes four consecutive markets setting record high attendance, highlighted by Arlington and AT&T Stadium last weekend doing over 67,000 fans. The San Francisco Supercross event on Jan. 13 registered as the most-watched SMX race on Peacock to date, surpassing Anaheim 1 this year which set the previous high. Round 5 in Detroit aired live on NBC at 3pm and averaged over 700,000 viewers, making it the highest performing live broadcast ever on the network for Supercross or Motocross.

Feld Motor Sports, Inc. and MX Sports Pro Racing schedule for the SuperMotocross Playoffs and Final locations this fall:

• ·         Playoff 1: zMAX Dragway at Charlotte Motor Speedway | Saturday, September 7
• ·         Playoff 2: Texas Motor Speedway | Saturday, September 14
• ·         SMX Final: The Strip at The Las Vegas Motor Speedway | Saturday, September 21

Round 8 in Daytona Beach

Daytona Supercross