SX legend Villopoto reflects on the pluses and minuses of fame

By Eric Johnson | January 19, 2025 1:26 PM ET

American motocross ace Ryan Villopoto called time on his racing career in 2014. At that point, the Monster Energy Kawasaki racer had earned four supercross championships, two AMA 450MX championships, three AMA 250cc motocross championships and had been a member of victorious Team USA racing efforts at the Motocross of Nations titles in 2006, ’07, ’08 and ’11. Somewhat shy amid media attention during his career, Villopoto quietly went about his winning ways of becoming and establishing himself among the fastest riders in the world.

At this year’s season-opening Supercross round in Anaheim, where his own career took flight, Villopoto reflected on his amazing career.

Opening night for Supercross. Always good to be at Angel Stadium for the opening round, isn’t it?

Yes, it’s good. Anaheim is always major. It’s the kickoff of the season for supercross and motocross and all of our racing. There is a lot of hype around it. It’s two of our races at an iconic stadium and we’ve been racing in this stadium forever. It’s just 15 minutes down the road from my house, so my kid Gage came out with me this morning and I’ve got the wife and the other boy coming out this afternoon. Gage wouldn’t let me leave the house today unless he was with me.

When you’re a high level athlete, in any sport, it’s sometimes tough to juggle everything everyone is asking for and to get pulled in 20 or 30 different directions. And then also you’re getting pulled in those 20 or 30 directions because you’re producing wins. And that’s always number one — being able to produce wins. So very high level athletes compartmentalize very well. We know the job description is to be the best we can be and win as many championships and races we can.

Whether it was you back in the day, or the Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki riders here beneath the awning today in 2025, to be a racer at this level requires a lot, doesn’t it?

Yeah, I mean think, about it: You have the 250 class and the 450 class. Current rules are that you can turn pro at 16 years old and to be thrown to the sharks inside of a stadium and to be on these factory teams — it’s a lot to take in. And there is a lot of stress that gets brought with that and you still have to perform. That’s what makes the greats, though. It is the ones that can perform amongst all of the pressure and the new and shiny. There’s only a few greats every so often.

The fierce sporting culture here can be hard to deal with, can’t it?

Exactly. It’s obviously great to have a factory team behind you and to have budget behind you, but from a racing standpoint, this is still one of the only motorsports where the athlete is more important than the machine. Even factory teams deal with issues or bike setups being off and guys can still produce wins on a bike that is maybe subpar to their competitors. That comes down to the drive and the will and the skill level that the athletes have.

 

Supercross legend Villopoto reflects on the pluses and minuses of fame

 We all talk about the physicality of this sport, but isn’t there a lot required mentally, too?

Yes, a lot of it is mental with all the pressure, all the people expecting you to produce. That brings a whole set of new challenges with it. And like I said, there is the compartmentalizing and being able to go out and free practice and crash, or with the bike setup being off, or coming back to the truck and downloading the issues and then hopefully fixing those issues. Then you have to forget about in 15 minutes and go back out with an open mind and attack the track. You can’t be thinking, ‘Hey, last practice I was off.’ That’s huge.

This stuff, it’s actually hard to talk on because only a select few ever get to understand what it’s like. For myself, I dealt with it, but to put it all into words, it’s almost even harder. Then you add in injuries and being sick, and, ‘Hey, we’ve been at this for 12 weekends straight already, but we have another four weekends to race before a break, and then there are four more weekends before it’s over.’ So there is just a lot that as an athlete, you have to manage.

That’s where a great team comes into play. Yes, was I fast, great and one of the best? Yes, but it all came with the team. Sure, when you would go down to the qualifiers or for the main event, yes, it’s all on your shoulders. Every day and hour leading up to qualifier or main event is a team effort.

So you have to be all-in, all the time?

It’s tough, you know? They look at us as these special characters or not normal people, but the bottom line is we are all still human beings. Even now people will say to me, ‘I don’t know how you do this.’ Even now, I mean I retired here in the States back in 2015, and I still walk through the pits and it’s hard to get places because people want photos. Can you imagine if you were here to race and you were trying to go from autograph signing to here or there as an Eli Tomac or as a Jett Lawrence? Don’t raise your eyes, don’t raise your head, look down at the ground, and when they call your name 100 times, don’t even flinch. If you flinch for one second, you’re not going anywhere. You’ll be stuck signing autographs for 30 minutes. Which is great because they want that. But Saturday is our workday. That’s the thing that either I wish fans could understand more. It’s just controlled chaos.

That’s why great athletes can compartmentalize. And part of that is to be rude. It’s a rough way to say it, but you can’t just be accessible to everybody every hour of the day, you know? Some guys get a bad rap on it. I’m sure I did. I know I was hard to a lot of people or didn’t give them the time of day. The crazy part about it is when I did turn pro, everybody said, ‘Take it all in! take it all in because before you know it, it will be over.’ And eight years later, I decided that it was over. You go from the bottom of the totem pole to the top of the totem pole. And then you work your way back down and everybody you saw on the way up you see on the way back down.

Whether you’re a mechanic or a truck driver or a racer, everybody deals with it. Everybody is on the road for basically 10 months. I only know these things now at 36 years old. If you would have asked these questions when I was 30 years old, my opinion would maybe be different, so age has a lot to do with that, too. It brings perspective. Now I have kids. When my mom and dad did this with me, it was a struggle to do it. We didn’t have excess funds. My outlook on all this is a little bit different than my dad’s. That means we’re going to do this as a hobby. Yes, my kids like to do it. It’s the only thing I know. And it’s the only thing I know in how to build character with my kids. I never swung a hammer. I didn’t sit behind a desk. From a work ethic standpoint, this is where I teach my kids how to work. If they end up getting a desk job or working for Monster Energy, or doing this, or working for a team, they’re going to know how to bust their ass because this is the only outlet that I know how to teach them the work ethic side of it.

You’re going to have tough days where Dad is going to be yelling at you. And you can get hurt. I grew up doing it and it’s the only thig I know. It’s just like every one of us that work in this industry. It’s the only thing we know. It is super cool.

 

Eric Johnson

Born and raised in the rust belt to a dad who liked to race cars and build race engines, Eric Johnson grew up going to the races. After making it out of college, Johnson went into the Los Angeles advertising agency world before helping start the motocross magazine Racer X Illustrated in 1998. Some 20 years ago, Johnson met Paul Pfanner and, well, Paul put him to work on IndyCar, NASCAR, F1, NHRA, IMSA – all sorts of gasoline-burning things. He’s still here. We can’t get rid of him.

Portugal’s Impossible Motorcycle Climb Lives Up to Its Name

Subida Impossível (Impossible Climb) is a challenging motocross hill-climbing event in Portugal that more than lives up to its suggestive name.

Every year, dozens of experienced motocross bike riders gather in the Portuguese city of Silves for a chance to become legends among their peers. Subida Impossível is one of the toughest motocross challenges in the world, requiring perfect control of the bike in order to complete a 110-meter-long course up a rocky hill. 110 meters may not seem like much for professional riders, but keep in mind that in some places, the gradient is over 80%, not to mention the unpredictable terrain and a very narrow course. Let’s just say that it’s not called Impossible Climb for nothing and that there is a reason why only a handful of participants have completed the hill climb in over two decades.

Because Subida Impossível is so difficult to complete, sometimes riders win just by climbing the farthest up the hill before finally succumbing to gravity or going outside the clearly defined lines of the course. For example, last year, João Lourenço managed to cross the finish line, but he ended up being disqualified for going outside the lines, so first place went to Luís Romão, who climbed 72 meters and 50 centimeters before falling off his motorbike. To complete the course, participants must reach the top of the hill without their feet touching the ground.

The Boss Is Back!

Tomac The Beast!!

After the 2024 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship, we were left wondering if we had missed the opportunity see a peak Eli Tomac race a peak Jett Lawrence. Tomac showed very few flashes of “beast mode,” and was clearly in a rebuild mode coming back from his Achilles injury. Meanwhile, Lawrence established himself as the man to beat, and although he did not dominate points wise, showed the ability to dominate races and have unmatchable speed, even with some to spare. It seemed as though Eli’s freak injury may have robbed us watching these two generational riders dueling at peak performance.

Fast forward January 18, 2025, inside of Snapdragon Stadium, in San Diego, California where we finally got what thought we may never get. A mano a mano battle.

Eli Tomac has been so great for so long that when he isn’t winning, we resort to speculating, guessing, and wondering what the issue might be. Eli doesn’t make excuses and rarely spills the info. We spent a dozen years analyzing a few Eli “weirdo” rides only to find out it’s as simple as bike setup—if he feels like the back of his bike is too low, he pulls on the handlebars too hard and gets arm pump. It was that simple all along.

In 2024, Eli returned from a brutal Achilles tendon rupture. He was out on the track and even snagged a win at the St. Louis Supercross Triple Crown, but it was far from his normal, previous level. Was he finally getting old? Was he afraid to risk it with a wife and kids at home? Had he accomplished enough and no longer had that last one percent?

Nope. He just wasn’t quite fit yet! He needed an entire year to build back from that injury. By the end of 2024, he could go fast, lead laps and win sprint races, but holding strong to the end was the last piece of the puzzle, the one that took the longest to finally get. The San Diego Supercross, where he held off defending Monster Energy AMA Supercross Champion Jett Lawrence in a nail-biting battle, was symbolic. Eli was back on the track last year. But Eli was not actually back until this year.

 

The real Eli Tomac has returned in 2025.Align Media

“This is a huge win to just prove I’m in a better place than last year, and in better shape, and to bounce back from last week,” he said. “Tonight, it was nice to get it done all the way.”

Last week, though Tomac had speed an endurance also, overcoming a first-lap crash to rage from last to fifth. That’s Beast Mode.

“Getting it back in the real deal, not just the sprint races, and coming through the pack, not getting any gifts with it,” he explained. Tomac had not won a 20-minute supercross main event since 2023. “Just making it happen all the way, and improving on areas where I thought I was weak and actually seeing it put into effect and working.”

With Tomac that much fitter, now we get to see the battles everyone wanted, and that includes Lawrence, who wanted the chance to learn from the master, and nearly didn’t get it after that Achillies tear.

“It was cool to watch from my standpoint,” said Lawrence. “I wish you guys got a POV from my angle. It was cool.”

If Tomac had not put in the hard effort to recover from the Achillies injury, and returned again in 2025, we would never have seen a symbolic moment like his Beast Mode blast through the outside of the sand turn, passing Lawrence back early in the race.

“I saw it [a sand berm on the parade lap] and I was hoping they would open it up earlier in the day,” said Tomac. “Because it opened up another line on the track. It’s not often the splits work but they did it in the beginning of the main.”

“It’s cool seeing the different race craft,” said Lawrence. “He was on rails in that one, that’s what I would imagine as Beast Mode! It was unreal.”

“I think the days of getting a big lead and coasting to the win are not going to come often,” said Tomac. “The whole 20 minutes we were wide open.”

After the back-and-forth passes early in the race, Tomac broke free from Lawrence and got to race leaders Ken Roczen and Cooper Webb. He powered through them using a old-school gnarly blitzing line in the whoops. Lawrence, though was on his heels throughout and eventually got to the two-time champ’s rear wheel again. With half a main event to go, NBC Sports’ commentator Leigh Diffey summed it up: “It is on now.”

This second half would be the true test. Tomac had led Lawrence plenty of times last season, but wasn’t able to hold it to the end. We saw glimpses last year that Tomac could run Lawrence’s pace. He hung with him a long way in one of the St. Louis Triple Crown races. As they came through the pack in Foxboro. In SMX. At Motocross of Nations. But could Tomac, once known as the strongest rider in the field late in the race, reclaim his tag for endurance?

Indeed. Jett could get close, but Tomac had better lines in the bermed turns by the mechanics’ area. He was more consistent in the whoops. He never wilted. Only lapped traffic gave him a scare.

“Yeah that was a frustrating part of the race and I honestly thought Jett was going to get me because I sat behind Vince [Friese] for maybe a half a lap,” explained Tomac. “You anticipate where a guy is going to go. There was a ton of track on the left side so that’s where I went, and he just drifted over into my lane. I thought I was hosed! Landing there, it was super close! Man, that’s all I can say, it was wild and I thought I was going to give up the whole race because of that situation. It was so close there, even though there was a lot of track open there for somewhere to go.”

Crisis averted. Eli had the endurance again and of course the experience and race craft to  hold off his rival to the end. It was the race that should have happened many times, but instead, nearly never happened at all. Eli Tomac’s commitment and belief that he could still be the best in the sport—even coming off of a devastating injury, even well past the age of 30—created an unforgettable night of racing.

Tomac will race with the red plate for round three. The last time he had it was the night he tore his Achilles in May 2023.Align Media

Lawrence: “I was trying so hard"

Lawrence: “I was trying so hard just to get close enough to make a pass but dude he was ripping.”

After the 2024 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship, we were left wondering if we had missed the opportunity see a peak Eli Tomac race a peak Jett Lawrence. Tomac showed very few flashes of “beast mode,” and was clearly in a rebuild mode coming back from his Achilles injury. Meanwhile, Lawrence established himself as the man to beat, and although he did not dominate points wise, showed the ability to dominate races and have unmatchable speed, even with some to spare. It seemed as though Eli’s freak injury may have robbed us watching these two generational riders dueling at peak performance.

Fast forward January 18, 2025, inside of Snapdragon Stadium, in San Diego, California where we finally got what thought we may never get. A mano a mano battle between an Eli Tomac in his arguably best form ever, and Jett Lawrence.

After a career worst 450SX finish at the opener, and looking visibly uncomfortable on the bike, Lawrence looked to rebound and hush the talk about the struggles with the new Honda 450. After qualifying P2 in another epic lap time battle between himself, Tomac, and Chase Sexton, Jett went on to dominate his heat race and set the tone for the night with the fastest lap of both 450 heats. He came around lap one of the main event in sixth with Tomac in tow in seventh. The two went back and forth a couple times on laps two and three with Eli establishing the advantage after a signature Tomac pass around the outside in the sand. They would work their way through the field, both passing race leader Cooper Webb on lap twelve and went on to pace each other for the remaining twelve laps, staying within two second or less of each other for the rest of the race. Lawrence could never put himself in a position to set up a pass for the lead but was able to assure us all is well and that we are set up for and all-time championship battle, which is sure to provide more instant classics like we saw in San Diego.

In his post-race TV interview reflected on his first opportunity to race Eli Tomac in a head-to-head battle saying, “That was awesome. He got me at the start, and I was trying so hard just to get close enough to make a pass but dude he was ripping. Sadly, there is no second moto like in SMX,” he added with a laugh.

"He got me at the start there we went back and forth on the first few laps," explained Lawrence in the post-race press conference. "He got me back again. I picked up on it but it took me too long to pick up on it. Those little things, and after the supercross triple he was "race car-ing" it there and I was trying too hard to get back to the right. I’d have to work too hard to get that time back. I like that kind of racing, it was clean. It was cool to watch from my standpoint. I wish you guys got a POV from my angle. It was cool.

"I had a lot of fun," added Lawrence. "You’re trying and you’re thinking the whole time, and I’d rather have that than a big lead. I learned a lot and it makes for better racing in the future. It’s cool seeing the different race craft. He was on rails in that one, that’s what I would imagine as Beast Mode."

When asked about the gains he and the Honda HRC team made during the week he acknowledged that, “100 percent, yeah, we took a big step. I still think we have some improving to go, especially me physically. I just need to get some consistent laps under my belt at the practice track, we have been testing a lot.”

In the post-race press conference, Jett touched more on his week of testing and improvements on the bike. “We kind of just found more control you could say in the forks and the rear, its crazy to think that our frame from last year is actually a stiffer frame so we are able to run softer suspension. Another big change for us was gearing. We went back on gearing for the start because last weekend we were just wheelie boys. I still messed up a bit, Cooper nailed his start in that main but that and just getting that full control and feel where the front is, we had kind of a crust on top at A1 and it would blow through in the front and the rear was pretty stiff.”

Lawrence: “I was trying so hard just to get close enough to make a pass but dude he was ripping.”

He compared the 2025 set up to his 2024 and touched on a big change they made before the night show claiming, “The previous bike was so high in the rear and I like to weight the shock a lot, so in the turns I would almost be a bit lazy and lay back a bit and it would still turn really nice. This (bike) has bit more sag to it, which is better traction, it tracks way nicer, but I have to keep myself forward a bit, so we ended up making a bar change before the heat race. We realized I was being a bit lazy and dropping my head back.”

 

"The previous bike was so high in the rear and I like to weight the shock a lot, so in the turns I would almost be a bit lazy and lay back a bit and it would still turn really nice."Align Media

Overall Jett was pleased with his second-place finish, saying he was, “Pretty happy honestly, it better than twelfth. I’m happy with second, we’re ten positions better, so you got to take the positives when you get them. I like how Eli was saying before, it’s fun racing someone you know isn’t going to chop your front wheel off because you can actually use proper race craft, same with Cooper [Webb]. I had a lot of fun in that battle with Eli and coming through the pack and just getting close like at the start and I got around the outside in the sand, and my dumbass went back to the inside, then he got me back. That was a lot of fun, I would have loved first, you always like to win, but you got to take the positives and just enjoy a fun race.”

Lawrence is now fifth in points, just ten back of the red plate holder, Tomac, heading into round three next weekend in the series’ return to Angel’s Stadium in Anaheim, California. Here's to many more battles between these two this season.

Tomac Does It Again!!

San Diego 450SX Main Event Results

1. Eli Tomac
2. Jett Lawrence
3. Cooper Webb

Rarely Seen

Even the very best can get anxious!

I don’t think we need to panic’ – HRC’s Lindstrom

Focused on working past the 450SX results of Anaheim 1.

Image: Octopi Media.

Honda HRC Progressive team manager Lars Lindstrom suggests there isn’t any need to panic after the Lawrence brothers both finished outside of the top 10 at Anaheim 1 on Saturday night.

While 250SX teammate Jo Shimoda delivered victory on debut aboard the new CRF250R, Hunter Lawrence finished 11th and defending 450SX champion Jett Lawrence finished 12th at the opener.

Despite experiencing success in the late stages of Pro Motocross and going 1-2 in the SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) with the 2025 CRF450R upon introducing the revamped model last tear, it’s been no secret that the Lawrences are still searching for an ideal direction in Supercross.

“I’m not sure how many of these bittersweet nights we’ve had in the past, but it was a familiar feeling to have one rider have a great night, and then others have a really poor one,” Lindstrom explained afterward.

“In my opinion, our performance was actually better than it seems, with Hunter moving his way forward in the beginning until his unfortunate crash, and Jett having the fastest lap time by almost a second in the heat race.

“We definitely need to make some improvements, but at the same time, I don’t think we need to panic about our results. It’s a long series, so it’s time to trust in ourselves and come back strong in San Diego.”

After qualifying in second position, Jett finished fifth in his heat race and then recovered from a first turn incident and further trouble in the main event to finish 12th – the worst 450SX finish of his premier class career. Hunter, meanwhile, qualified fifth, then finished fourth in his heat and 12th in the main after also crashing around the midway point.

41 and Billys Back

Supercross rider returns to compete in championship at age 41

Red Bull KTM’s Daniel Sanders takes maiden victory

Daniel Sanders wins the 2025 Dakar Rally for Red Bull KTM – final stage 12 results sees the Australian take victory ahead of Monster Energy Honda’s Tosha Schareina and Adrien Van Beveren.

• The final day at Dakar is never a done deal. A handful of years ago the race was decided by a matter of seconds on the final stage between KTM teammates Kevin Benavides and Toby Price, in favour of the Argentinian.
• Not this year as Daniel Sanders takes a remarkable start-to-finish win for KTM and completes the rare honour of winning the Dakar and ISDE outright with a winning margin of 8m50s after 53h08m52s on his bike across the 12 stages.
• The Tosha Schareina, Adrien Van Beveren and Ricky BrabecHonda red army have sat behind an unassailable Sanders for the entire two weeks. But a confident ride from day one left all Daniels major rivals reflecting on ifs and buts of their own time lost on week one.
• The final 61 kilometres today was long enough, around an hour to complete and with a mass start which is a rarity for these guys who spend so much time alone in the desert.
• Easy enough you might think but as always with Dakar there was just enough jeopardy thrown in to make the butterflies swirl around.
• Sanders the racer set off from teh start and dusted his rivals, leading the pack as it ripped down the flat piste like Dakar of years gone by when it used to conclude on the shores of Lac Rose in Senagal…just up the road from Dakar funnily enough.
• Adrien Van Beveren took his chance to race like he was on Le Touquet beach once again and ran an early lead. But he was to be denied a stage win this Dakar by South African Michael Docherty who clocked in just three seconds faster to take his second stage win of his career.
• But the limelight was reserved for Sanders who completes the round 20 wins for KTM (who could do with a bit of good PR at the moment!).

• Honda will swamp the overall podium in red with four of the top six riders in the factory HRC team. Spaniard Tosha Schareina finished in second place, the youngest rider on the Honda team bettering Adrien Van Beveren who achieves his second podium on the bounce.
• Speaking of good PR for KTM, 19-year-old Dakar rookie Edgar Canet took it easy on the last day to claim the Rally 2 class win and an overall top 10. Not the best rookie appearance by a KTM rider it must be noted, we think Toby Price has that honour, but not half bad from the Spaniard who has a bright future in orange.
• Canet finishes ahead of Tobias Ebster, last year’s Original by Motul winner also on a KTM and Romain Dumontier on the customer Honda.
• The biggest contest today was in the Originals class where just one minute separated Benjamin Melot and Emanuel Gyenes. It was the Romanian Gyenes who pipped his French rival at the post, deciding the race in the last kilometres.
• Shout out to Sandra Gomez, the only female in the ’25 Dakar and who has finished in 43rd place on the Fantic. She clocks a full 15 hours more riding time than the winner Sanders.