Seat Concepts
Wednesday, September 20, 2017 at 9:02PM Steward Baylor Jr. grabbed his second win of the season with an impressive performance at this weekend’s Lead Belt National Enduro in Park Hills, Missouri. The SRT Racing-backed Baylor won four of the six tests, claiming the win by 43-seconds over his brother, Grant, while series point leader Thad DuVall finished third, another 15 seconds back.
Wednesday, September 20, 2017 at 8:59PM
Source: Supplied.
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jeffrey Herlings is aiming for a premier class title after completing his rookie season in the MXGP World Championship in second position behind newly-crowned champion and teammate Antonio Cairoli.
The multi-time MX2 world champion endured a difficult start to the season, bouncing back to score six overall wins, three of which were the final three rounds of the series including yesterday’s finale in France.
The Dutchman revealed entering the top division was a reality check, which he now believes will set him up nicely for an assault at the title in 2018 with additional experience and adequate preparation.
“Six overall wins this year and eleven podiums,” said Herlings. “It has been good and I really want to thank Red Bull KTM. They have always believed in me and stuck behind me.
“The second part of the season we were good and strong and have won five out of the last six and I’m super pumped about that. It was a shame about the beginning and the injury but congrats to Tony [Cairoli] again because he was the most consistent and maybe also the smartest rider this season.
“I have learned a lot and I underestimated the guys. I was living in a cloud in the winter and I should have been doing other things. I had a reality check at the first round and I knew I had to change and stick to my programme. I think I am good to go for next year. Our bike set-up is good now and we have experienced a lot – hopefully next season we can move one step up.”
Herlings rounded out the series with a 3-1 scorecard to capture the final overall on offer, and will now set his sights on the prestigious Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations at Matterley Basin, Great Britain, where he’ll represent The Netherlands at the 1 October event.
Wednesday, September 20, 2017 at 8:55PM 
Two riders stand tall as the winningest riders at the Motocross of Nations. Jeff Smith of Team Great Britain, and Jeff Ward for Team USA have won the event on seven occasions. Ward, who rode in the golden era of Team USA at this event was as tough as they came, and just as determined.
As far as how important Ward looked at this event, it meant everything to him, to be able to represent his country against the best in the world.
“They are high up there (his MXoN victories). It’s a super hard event, you can see it now, we don’t win it every year. There are great riders over there and they can ride those tracks. The outtake it takes to bring all the equipment over there and back in 1983 and 84 when we rode over there, we ran 250s and 500s, so we had two separate classes, that made it even more difficult.”
It seems though as if the MXoN legend doesn’t feel the current generation of riders felt the same as him. A different generation.
“I just stepped up to the plate. I had great team-mates, and we all worked together, and even though most of us didn’t get along through the season, we went there as a team and helped out with everything to make it happen. I don’t know, maybe nowadays it seems a little more individual. Maybe because I was from Scotland, that is why I rode good over there, and we got lucky a few times.”
Of course Ward himself didn’t always make the trip when asked, and like Ricky Johnson in his time as a member of the unbeatables, he stepped aside to make sure Team USA had the best chance of winning.
“The only time I didn’t go was in 1986 in Maggiora, Italy, when they wanted me to ride a 125. Kawasaki didn’t have a rider in the 125 class that year so we didn’t have a really good bike. I hadn’t ridden one in two years. I didn’t have the best year in 1986. I won races and could have got championships, but had bad luck. I just kind of turned it down because I was going to be the weak link.”
Monday, September 18, 2017 at 12:20PM 
America’s leading motocross journalist, Eric Johnson sat down with the GOAT, Ricky Carmichael and asked him a bunch of question for RacerXonline (here) Eric was kind enough to let us have these three questions right here, talking about the MXoN and the current crop of GP riders.
Okay RC, everybody wants to hear what the GOAT has been up to. How have things been going with the one and only Ricky Carmichael?
I have a really busy fall coming up and some really fun, exciting events starting with the Motocross of Nations here in a few weeks. I’m really excited to go back. I haven’t been to the Motocross of Nations since 2007—my last race! That was the last Motocross of Nations I’ve been to. I’m really excited about going there and especially to be going to the UK. I love going to that country. It’s always a great time. I’m really excited to see all the fans and to spend face time with them and maybe do some hot laps with [Stefan] Everts for all the fans. That should be pretty fun. I’m ecstatic about that.
The Motocross of Nations and trying to get our guys to line up for that deal. You always went. Even when things weren’t totally going your way, you always went. What do you think?
I was telling somebody this the other day: I remember in 1997, my rookie year, I had a really healthy points lead. I was the dominant guy when it was time to for the Motocross of Nations team to be picked. They ended up not picking me. They took Steve Lamson over myself. In light of everything, that probably was the right decision, but I was pretty butt-hurt about it. It was an honor to go to the Motocross of Nations and to be invited to that race. In my day, if you could win any title and be selected to represent the USA at the Motocross of Nations, I mean that was one of the greatest honors. So, that was always one of my goals. Times have definitely changed. It’s not like that anymore. I’m not exactly sure why. They’re racing the same amount of races that everyone else did when everyone was going. It’s sad to see. It really is. I’m still trying to figure out why it is the way it is. If they have an injury, then they have an injury. I raced the Motocross of Nations in Zolder, Belgium, and we did pretty good. We didn’t win as a team, but it was one of the best races of my life and I had a blown out ACL. You can’t always blame injuries on everything. It doesn’t mean that I don’t respect our racers. I have a tremendous amount of respect for our guys. They’re allowed to make their decisions, you know what I mean? It’s just different times. I’m still looking into why no one wants to do it, other than they just want time off. And why isn’t it an honor to them to be picked?
Last topic. There has been a lot of talk over the past month or so about how Jeffrey Herlings and Antonio Cairoli and a host of other MXGP guys are taking over global motocross and that the American-based guys aren’t as fast as them and are losing speed and … what do you make of all that?
Well, I think the GP guys are really good. I mean, I love watching them. They definitely have a lot of speed right now. They really, really do and it’s cool to see. As far as the debate centering on if the GP riders are better than the US riders? I think they’re all good. I think they’re both good at what they do. I think it totally depends on the situation, you know? Honestly, I just think it depends on the day. I don’t look into it as much as everyone else does. I do know and feel that there are faster guys coming from the GPs now than there was in my day. There were just a few back in my day when I was coming up. However, those few were some of the greats. I mean, Stefan Everts, the guy is a complete legend in his own right. I think there is more of them now and there are faster guys, for sure. It just depends on the day, in my opinion.
Sunday, September 17, 2017 at 8:38PM 
It was a day of legends at day one of the VMXdN 2017. Take a look at the highlights from the Saturday at the VMXdN at Farleigh Castle. News we have received is that Team Great Britain lead after the two motos.
Neville Bradshaw leading the Brits, winning the two EVO motos from Mike Brown and Kurt Nicoll, then Mike Brown and Brian Wheeler, with the top three scores of each team, counting towards the overall result the Brits look hard to beat.
British legend, Kurt Nicoll won both over 50 EVO races ahead of American Doug Dubach and Australian James Deakin. EMX champion Brad Anderson won both motos of the EVO 500cc class, while former American 125cc champion Mike Brown won both motos of the Twinshock and former American champion and MXoN hero, John Dowd won both motos of the Over 50 Twinshocks
Sunday, September 17, 2017 at 4:37PM Clement Desalle on the road to recovery from broken C6 vertebra
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Clement Desalle is currently recovering at home from his crash during the opening moto of the penultimate round of the FIM MXGP Motocross World Championship at Assen in the Netherlands last weekend.
Until last weekend the 2017 season had been a good one for Clement Desalle and the Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team as they were in contention for a top three finish in the FIM MXGP World Championship.
Winners of two GPs this season Clement and the team were confident before Assen as the Belgian rider had enjoyed his first GP win with Kawasaki at this track one year ago. But the season ended for Clement with a crash during the first heat, when he landed heavily from one of the biggest jumps of the artificial track built in front of the main grandstand at the famous road race facility.
After several examinations, first at the track and later in Belgium, it has been confirmed that Clement suffered a broken C6 vertebra without displacement; he will need to rest for several weeks to recover but according to the medical experts he will not have any more disturbance from this injury once he has recovered.
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"I’m disappointed as I can’t finish the championship and fight for the top three in the series, but I’m also glad as my doctor confirmed to me that I will have no further trouble with my vertebrae in the future," Desalle said.
"We had a good season with the team as I won two GPs and got some other podiums but the goal was of course to do the entire series; there’s a great atmosphere in the team, we know each other really well and we have reached a high level as we are the leading Japanese brand in the championship. Concerning my injury I feel pretty lucky as it was a big crash; the sand was wet and heavy due to the rain and just before one of the biggest jumps I came in a softer part of the track and lost my balance.
"I went over the bars and hit the ground pretty hard; I had feeling in all my limbs and could move them, but I had a lot of pain in my back. Now I have to rest for a few weeks, which is not easy as I’m used to being very active, but there’s nothing else I can do except accept the situation," the Frenchman concluded.
Sunday, September 17, 2017 at 4:34PM Check out the best moments from the 2017 Red Bull 111 Megawatt…some crazy stuff!
Sunday, September 17, 2017 at 4:29PM
These last few weeks have been busy for Justin Barcia. After three years with the JGRMX team, Barcia announced he was parting ways with the North Carolina crew after the 2017 MXGP of USA and that his plans for the immediate future were unclear. After a bit of downtime and a trip to England, Barcia has declared that he will line up for the 2017 Monster Energy Cup aboard a privately funded Honda CRF450R. This is a huge change in pace for Barcia, who spent the majority of his career on Honda equipment and departed the brand to ride for JGRMX in 2015.
Barcia claimed the overall win at the 2012 Monster Energy Cup aboard a Team Honda HRC bike, so he’s no stranger to success at the unique event in Las Vegas.
Barcia’s personal sponsors have a massive impact on his one-race program, as he will receive support from Alpinestars, Monster Energy, SCOTT, Arai as we as a list of new partners. The full list is posted below in Barcia’s announcement message.
Hello Everyone,
Well I have an option or two that I will be looking into for 2018, but for now I am extremely excited to announce my plans for the Monster Energy Cup.
On October 14th I will be riding a privateer Honda. Details are still getting worked out, but so far I am excited and wanted to share the news with the Moto community.
I am extremely appreciative and grateful for all the support that is going into this project and I could not do it without these awesome companies & people:
Alpinestars
Scott
Arai
Monster Energy
Morgantown Powersports for supplying practice bikes
Levi Kilbarger/BONZI
Tim Bennet
TCD Racing for building & prepping the race bike
Twisted Development Motors
Yoshimura
Brian Fleck at Dunlop
Feld Motorsports
The Home Team of Mom & Dad, Amber & Dr. Steve Navarro for all the hard work, phone calls and behind the scenes hustle.
See ya’ll soon, JB51
image: http://cdn.motocross.transworld.net/blogs.dir/441/files/2017/09/2017-Monster-Energy-Cup-Justin-Barcia-Racing-Privateer-Honda_4-600x400.jpg
Sunday, September 17, 2017 at 4:25PM
Series Of Injuries For MCR Rider
We’ve learned that Jake Weimer has suffered a series of injuries after a practice crash. The SmarTop/MotoConcepts/Honda rider went down while practicing at Milestone MX Park and was taken to a nearby hospital with a broken right wrist, broken left scapula, broken left elbow, bruised ribs, a bruised right lung and a collapsed left lung.
This comes just weeks after the announcement that Weimer had signed to the SmarTop/MotoConcepts/Honda team for the 2018 Monster Energy Supercross Series alongside Justin Brayton and Vince Friese.
