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.

Vialle Salvages FoxboroughPodium

Salvaged podium during off-night for Vialle

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 Competition Post:Kellen Brauer

Only two points lost in Foxborough for Tom Vialle despite being passed by championship leader.

Not too long ago, Red Bull KTM’s Tom Vialle was coming off back-to-back wins in Daytona and Birmingham and looking like he was ready to take hold of the 250SX East championship. Since then, he finished second in Indianapolis and now third in Foxborough to slip to four points behind Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Cameron McAdoo in the standings. On a night where Vialle started in front of McAdoo in Foxborough, the two-time MX2 World Champion lamented that he was struggling a lot on the evening and felt third place was the best he could do.

“I always try to do my best no matter what and I think that finishing third was the best I could do tonight, so we are happy to be on the podium again,” said Vialle. “Next weekend will be really important and the coming races, too. There are only three rounds to go – it is going to be a good fight to the end, for sure.”

Vialle started alongside Haiden Deegan in the main event before Deegan quickly snatched the lead and started to open a bit of a gap. Vialle ran second for a little while before McAdoo came up and passed him near the halfway point of the race. That single pass was ultimately a four-point swing as Vialle had provisionally been tied in the championship with McAdoo if positions stayed status quo.

As McAdoo moved around Vialle, it was apparent that McAdoo was on a mission forward while Vialle remained stagnant behind. Though McAdoo couldn’t get to Deegan for the win, Vialle slipped off the trail of both riders to finish a quiet third place on the night.

“When I started in second behind Haiden, I felt great actually for the first five minutes,” said Vialle. “I was pretty close, and then I had a few mistakes in some corners, and I was losing some time. Cameron passed me and I was still pretty close, but I couldn’t find lines. I was kind of struggling from the first practice session with bike setup. I tried a lot today, but I never really found something great. I feel like I couldn’t ride at 100% and push on the track. When I was in third with like five laps to go, I tried to settle for third. We didn’t lose a lot of points in the championship and we’re going to work this week on the bike and try to find some better settings for next weekend.”

Things happen fast in the shortened 250SX regional championships and suddenly there are only three rounds remaining with a tight points battle heating up. McAdoo leads Vialle by four points and Deegan by 13 points as the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing rider is sneaking back into the picture.

Vialle is the only rider of the three to have claimed a championship from a season long series as Deegan is currently the reigning three-race SuperMotocross playoff champion from 2023. But Vialle has the championship experience in his back pocket as the title fight heads into perhaps the toughest crossroad yet. This coming weekend in Nashville is the first of two 250SX East/West Showdowns, and the importance of these races is not lost on Vialle one bit.

“It’s three races to go and we’re going to have two races like that,” said Vialle. “Those two are going to be important for sure. I think for everyone, we just try to race our best and we don’t really focus on that. There will be more guys up there, the start is going to be important once again, and I’ll just need to focus on my own race.”

As Vialle alluded to, he and the team are going to go back to work this week in Florida to really dial in things on his Red Bull KTM and come out swinging in Nashville. Ultimately, the 250SX East title will likely be decided in how many riders the three championship contenders can put between each other in the Showdowns, but at least for McAdoo and Vialle, they could control their own destiny in a big way by going out and winning them.

Lawrence Brothers - Last Weekend

Following a welcome week off, AMA Supercross returned to action for round 13 in Foxborough, Massachusetts, where Team Honda HRC’s racers rode well but were stymied by less-than-stellar starts in the main events. Jett and Hunter Lawrence were fifth and seventh across the finish line in the 450SX division, while Chance Hymas—despite notching the first heat-race victory of his career earlier in the night—ultimately tallied a 12th-place finish in the 250SX East main event.

Both Lawrence brothers were buried in the pack exiting turn 1 of the 450SX main event, with Hunter in 10th and Jett back in 14th, then up to seventh and 12th, respectively, by the end of lap 1. Jett made it into the top 10 on lap 5, and the top five on lap 12, ultimately missing fourth place by only .205 seconds at the finish line.

During daytime qualifying, Jett Lawrence logged the third-fastest lap time in the 450SX division. In the second heat race, Jett Lawrence was third off the start and quickly moved by Jason Anderson. He passed Cooper Webb for the lead with two laps remaining and then took the win. Valley Automotive’s CRF450R-mounted Jeremy Hand also advanced from the heat, via a ninth-place result. Jett Lawrence’s fifth-place finish meant he lost ground in the premier-class title chase and is now tied for the lead with Foxborough-winner Cooper Webb, with 261 each.

Jett Lawrence: “This was not the end result we were looking for tonight. 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.”

Hunter Lawrence: “It was a bit of a disappointing race, as I wasn’t the best version of myself—good data logging, though. We logged some laps and got some more experience, so that’s a positive. We have some work to do on our starts to just give ourselves a better shot. On to Nashville!”

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2 - Stroke World Championship MX

Deegan on Foxborough

“I rode some motos with Kenny, one-on-one stuff.”

Yamaha YZM500 TWO STROKE TEST

We ride the YZM 500cc TWO STROKE BEAST on a rough track in Southern California with Carson Brown on the handlebars. We were bummed to hear that the 2024 Fasthouse Two-Stroke Championship was postponed. We were pleased to have to opportunity to spend some time with defending champion Carson Brown, though. We got to spend a couple of days with him and his Yamaha/BRC 500. This bike has a ton of custom parts and with Carson at the controls you know its going to be pure chaos. Sit back and enjoy a special video from the Dirt Bike Magazine Crew! Turn up the volume!