Kickstart Kenny Gets Kicked Off

Ricky Carmichael

"The sport is brutal and often unnoticed just how gnarly it is. At times it will chew you up, and spit you out, with zero remorse. I hate it for our incredible athletes when they are on the wrong side of that equation."

2 STROKE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP LIVE FROM GLEN HELEN Today

The 2024 2-Stroke World Championship will be hosted LIVE from Gelen Helen by a full production crew giving you all the jam-packed action and coverage straight to your living room. The times are below:

Plessinger and Red Bull KTM extend contract into 2025

Share

Section: Competition Post: Kellen Brauer

New deal for the fan favorite sees him remain in orange for 2025.

Aaron Plessinger has signed a one year contract extension with Red Bull KTM Factory Racing to remain with the team through the 2025 season. The 28-year-old Ohio-native will remain with the team through the entirety of Monster Energy Supercross, AMA Pro Motocross, and the SuperMotocross World Championship in 2025.

“I’m really excited to be staying with Red Bull KTM through 2025,” said Plessinger. “It is an awesome team and I think we’re going to do some big things together in the future – even bigger and better than what we’ve achieved so far. I couldn’t be more stoked to be staying within this family and building upon where we’re at, the level that we have been able to reach this season. For this year we made some major changes in the pre-season and really haven’t changed the bike at all since, which has really, really worked out in our favor. I’ve won my first Supercross Main Event, have gotten three podiums in total, and something’s clicked for us this year. This is the most enjoyment I’ve had in my entire 450 career and I’m just enjoying the ride, which is rare, and I’m very fortunate. I’m stoked to be back for 2025, so hope we keep progressing and I will be doing my best to perform to the level that we aim to once I am able to line up again outdoors. I’ll keep riding my heart out when I’m back from injury and am really blessed to be staying with the crew.”

Plessinger was having his best season on a 450 through the first 12 rounds of Monster Energy Supercross in 2024 before fracturing his elbow in practice for the Foxborough Supercross. Though he will miss the end of this year’s supercross racing, Plessinger plans to return for AMA Pro Motocross in just over a months time and will continue on to compete in the SuperMotocross World Championship as well. Now another potential free agent is off the market though as KTM is locked in with Plessinger and Chase Sexton through the 2025 season.

Triumph Racing and Evan Ferry Part Ways

Triumph Racing and Evan Ferry have mutually decided to part ways with immediate effect. Triumph Racing would like to wish Evan all the best in his future endeavours.

It is with regret that Evan Ferry will no-longer race for Triumph Racing in the SuperMotocross World Championship. Evan joined the team during the creation of the global motocross project, a historic step into a new segment for Triumph, which included the development of the all-new TF 250-X. The British manufacturer has supported the 19-year-old throughout his time in the lead-up to the launch of the new US Racing team, and brought in a number of seasoned professionals as part of the programme.

Evan, an AMA Supercross rookie, lined up in what was a proud moment for Triumph and its team at the opening round of the 250SX East Championship in Detroit on February 3rd. With a tough qualifying, the young Floridian dominated the Last Chance Qualifier to make it through to the Main Event with his teammate. Evan was unlucky to be taken out in the first turn, but the young racer had already shown grit and promise in what was an exciting first event. Ahead of the second round in Arlington, Evan was ruled out with an unfortunate injury, and it was the team’s hope he would return to action as quickly as possible.

Despite the efforts of Triumph Racing to support Evan and adapt the programme for the remainder of his rookie year, including the offer of focussing on the Pro Motocross series, Evan has decided that he will step away from the team.

Everyone at Triumph Motorcycles and Triumph Racing wishes Evan all the best for his future.

Eli Rumors...Not Likely

Rumor: Eli Tomac To Race Some MXGP Rounds This Season!

A few weeks ago, Eli Tomac of Star Racing Yamaha expressed his interest in racing at Lommel, among all the GP tracks. Now, there are discussions about the possibility of Eli participating in some GPs this year, depending on his final decision for 2025. He has kept the option open to race for another season.

Lewis tentatively mentioned on Vital’s MXGP podcast that there are strong rumors suggesting discussions about the potential for Eli Tomac to race in some GPs this year. However, this possibility also hinges on his decision regarding the Outdoors series.

Fans may get to see some Herlings v Tomac again – and of course Prado in his prime along with Gajser and Febvre. 

RC on Triumph

Phil to Hangem Up!

Phil Nicoletti to Retire from Full-Time Racing

At the conclusion of the 2024 racing season (Monster Energy AMA Supercross, Pro Motocross Championship, SMX World Championship) Phil Nicoletti, age 35, will retire from full-time competition. Phil is one of the most popular riders in the sport. Here are his own words on how he came to this decision.

Why Lawrence must instantly fight back in 450SX title race

Motoonline Competition Post: Kellen Brauer

Hard charge to P5 in Foxborough wasn’t enough to remain sole points leader.

In three races, Jett Lawrence’s 21-point lead in the 450SX championship has evaporated and it’s all evened up heading into a four-race sprint to the finish. Each week, it’s been little things that have kept Lawrence from battling for the win and Foxborough came down to the start for the reigning 450SMX champion. Now Lawrence is eyeing a quick turnaround heading into the 14^th round in Nashville.

Lawrence started between Cooper Webb and Eli Tomac in Foxborough, and both of the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing riders got a slight edge on Lawrence off the start. The resulting pinch between the two caused Lawrence to back out of it and in doing so, he locked bars with Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Malcolm Stewart going into the first corner. Lawrence was officially credited with 12^th on the first lap, but he seemed much further back than that.

Image: Octopi Media.

“This was not the end result we were looking for tonight,” said Lawrence. “The bike felt great, and my riding felt awesome—I just couldn’t link it with a start. I got a good jump, just slipped on a harder spot about 20 feet out. Unfortunately, in this class it’s game over without a good start. That’s a shame because I felt like I could be up front this weekend. We’ll move on to next weekend.”

Between the start, unintentional contact with Justin Barcia in St. Louis, and a perhaps rushed past on Cooper Webb in Seattle, it hasn’t been one main issue for Lawrence. When a championship lead disappears in a short span, usually there’s a crash or DNF of some sort, but not in this case.

The one catalyst that Lawrence has been struggling with is consistency in his starts. During a three-race win streak from round eight to round 10, Lawrence was strong off the start. Even in the Triple Crown in Indianapolis, he was up front each time. But Seattle, this past weekend in Foxborough, and two out of the three Triple Crown starts in St. Louis were not ideal for the Honda man.

“We’re going to come into the next round and work on starts, obviously,” said Lawrence about his workload heading into Nashville. “I want to show that I’m meant to be up there.”

Allowing Cooper Webb back into a title fight is never ideal. While Webb has taken several 450SX titles down to the very end, including winning two of them, this is all a first go around for Lawrence who has never competed in a supercross series longer than 10 rounds.

In those two championship years, Webb only once finished off the podium in the final four race run. He won three races in those closing stages of the championship as well. Having done it before and to have momentum on his side, Webb might have hit his stride at just the right time.

“It was an unbelievable night to get another win and to be tied for the points lead,” said Webb. “It’s an amazing feeling. We’re going to give it all we can in these last four.”

So how does Jett Lawrence turn this around? Well, he must stop the bleeding. Webb has chunked away points while Lawrence has been left frustrated. One big way to change this entire narrative for the title fight in a hurry would be to win in Nashville this weekend.

Another round where inclement weather could come into play, there’s certainly belief that it could play into Webb’s hands better. But Lawrence did win a mixed conditions race in Birmingham rather convincingly and the dirt in Nashville will certainly be a bit harder packed than the last few rounds.

The reality is momentum will play a big part in the final four races as the confidence flowing out of Webb is what ultimately Lawrence must put an end to. Nashville won’t decide the champion, but it very well could decide which trend we will see down the stretch run of the series.

World 2 Stroke...Glen Helen Saturday

In This Week in MXA, episode 174, presented by O'Neal, Josh Mosiman previews the upcoming 2024 Wiseco World Two-Stroke Championships at Glen Helen, where there will be money on the line for the Open Pro class as well as the three Pasha 150 Open classes (Pro, Over-30 and Over-50). We talked to Carson Brown about which bike (or bikes) he'll be racing, Ryan Villopoto about his giveaway bike, and Justin Hoeft about his new job at Water World and racing this weekend. Also in this video, Josh talks about the new GasGas ECC6 Electric Mountain bike, and shares some footage from the California Classic Amateur National, presented by 2X Promotions, at Glen Helen this past weekend.