2021 HIGH POINT NATIONAL PRE-RACE REPORT: INJURED LIST, TV SCHEDULE & MORE

2021 HIGH POINT NATIONAL PRE-RACE REPORT: GNCC STAR KAILUB RUSSELL TO MAKE 250 DEBUT

The 2021 Pro Motocross season makes its way to High Point Raceway located in Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania, for round three of the series. The 450 class has kept us at the edge of our seats as the top 10 battle for the entire 30 minutes plus two laps. As of right now, Ken Roczen leads the premier class after a superb performance at Thunder Valley, where he qualified the fastest and won both of the Motos. In the 250 class, Justin Cooper grabbed the overall, but it was Jett Lawrence who made his way to the top of the points leaderboard, with a ten point lead over the rest of the competition.

2021 HIGH POINT NATIONAL | FULL COVERAGE


KAILUB RUSSELL TO MAKE 250 DEBUT AT 2021 HIGH POINT NATIONAL 

KAILUB RUSSELL 2021 AMA NationalsAmazingly, Kailub Russell has recovered from his broken jaw and ribs. He’s slated to race the rest of the Nationals in the 250 class alongside Red Bull KTM’s Max Vohland.

Amazingly, Red Bull KTM rider Kailub Russell is back from his brutal jaw and rib injuries and he’s slated to make his 250 class debut at the 2021 High Point National this Saturday. At 31-years-old, Russell is known for his GNCC skills, but he actually has raced an AMA National before and he did exceptionally well at it! Kailub showed up to the extremely muddy 2018 Unadilla National and scored an impressive sixth-place in the first moto. Unfortunately he crashed and hurt his shoulder in moto two and wasn’t able to compete at Budds Creek or Ironman, the final two races of the season.

Now, after retiring from GNCC in 2020, Kailub is excited to make his 250 debut. He would’ve been at the Fox Raceway season opener, but unfortunately a crash at that same track while testing with the Red Bull KTM team in April set him back. He explained the crash: “I lost the front end just before this big roller and my clutch hand came off the bike and I whiskey throttled clear into the fence.” Russell went on, “I was unconscious until the ambulance arrived, was diagnosed with 3 broken ribs and a broken jaw. (Which is wired shut now.)” 

Kailub Russell injury 2021Kailub Russell shared these photos on instagram after his wreck. 

Kailub Russell is a living legend coming from the GNCC off-road scene with 8-Championships to his name in the premier class. Kailub announced his retirement from GNCC racing in 2020, but he didn’t shut the door on racing forever. At 31-years-old, Kailub is switching over to motocross to battle for the summer against the up and coming generation. Jeremy Martin (who’s now injured) is considered one of the veteran of the class and he’s 28-years-old. Kailub Russell holds GNCC’s all-time bike wins record with 67 overall wins and eight consecutive titles in the series, in addition to countless accolades in the off-road discipline.

KEN ROCZEN LEADS THE PREMIER CLASS

Ken Roczen was incredibly strong all day at Thunder Valley.

In years past, Ken Roczen has performed incredibly strong at the beginning of the day while slowly falling off through races. At Thunder Valley, that simply was not the case as Ken qualified the fastest in the morning and proceeded to win both motos in the premier class. To keep the racing close, we’re crossing our fingers that this isn’t a similar scenario to the past 2021 Supercross season, where Ken had jumped up to the top of the leaderboard at the beginning of the season but mistakes would let Cooper Webb make passes. While Ken and Dylan have dominated the 450s, we wonder what is going on with many of the top riders such as Webb, Tomac, and more as they struggled to keep up with the top five.

JETT LAWRENCE WITH THE RED PLATE


The young Honda rider gets to keep his red plate heading to Mt. Morris.

Heading toward the second round of the season, both Jeremy Martin and Jett Lawrence were tied for the red plate in the points chase. Unfortunately for Jeremy, and his brother Alex Martin, the two had crashet that dropped them out of the foreseeable season . Jeremy Martin won the first Thunder Valley moto, but it was Jett Lawrence who grabbed the second moto win. Justin Cooper scored a 2-2 at the end of the day to take  the overall win, but it was the 17-year-old who walked away with the red plate.

INJURED LIST:

JASON ANDERSON | BROKEN HAND

A bad get-off in practice would result in a broken hand. It is uncertain when he will be back.

JEREMY MARTIN | FRACTURED WRIST

A crash in the second moto at Thunder Valley would reignite an injury Jeremy has been trying to heal. 

ALEX MARTIN | BROKEN ARM

One of the gnarliest crashes in the 2021 season occurred when Alex Martin landed in a soft spot heading down Thunder Valley’s massive hill, derailing the Troll Train and leaving one of our favorite 250 vets injured and out of the season. 

CAMERON MCADOO | FRACTURED TIBIA

The 31 of Cameron McAdoo was decommissioned after a very unfortunate crash during the second moto at Fox Raceway, fracturing the top of his tibia and pulling his ACL. Cameron has already begun the surgery and healing process and we’re hoping to see him back on the track.

HIGH POINT TRACK MAP


High Point is a pretty twisty track on the 2021 circuit that we haven’t been to since 2019.

HIGH POINT TV SCHEDULE


The first motos s will be shown live on MavTV and Peacock, but the second motos will bedelayed on NBC Sports. 

QUALIFYING SHOW – 7:00 AM Pacific, 10:00 PM Eastern – Peacock Premium

250 MOTO 1 – 10:00 AM Pacific, 1:00 PM Eastern – MAVTV & Peacock

450 MOTO 1 – 11:00 AM Pacific, 3:00 PM Eastern – MAVTV & Peacock

250 MOTO 2 – 12:00 AM Pacific, 2:00 PM Eastern – Peacock

450 MOTO 2 – 1:00 PM Pacific, 3:00 PM Eastern – Peacock

DELAYED* 250 MOTO 2 – 7:00 PM Pacific, 10:00 PM Eastern – NBCSN

DELAYED* 450 MOTO 2 – 8:00 PM Pacific, 11:00 PM Eastern – NBCSN

2021 450 NATIONAL POINT STANDINGS

Ken Roczen now has the red plate after a dominant performance in Thunder Valley.

POS. # NAME Total Points
1 94 Ken Roczen 90 
2 14 Dylan Ferrandis 89
3 7 Aaron Plessinger 74
4 51 Justin Barcia 69
5 23 Chase Sexton 67
6 9 Adam Cianciarulo 58
7 2 Cooper Webb 52
8 29 Christian Craig 51
9 25 Marvin Musquin 51
10 3 Eli Tomac 46

2021 250 NATIONAL POINT STANDINGS

Honda leads the way in both the 250 and 450 class.

POS. # NAME Total Points
1 18 Jett Lawrence 90 
2 32 Justin Cooper 80
3 6 Jeremy Martin 72
4 41 Hunter Lawrence 67
5 48 Garrett Marchbanks 56
6 24 RJ Hampshire 54
7 30 Jo Shimoda 50
8 64 Colt Nichols 49
9 38 Austin Forkner 48
10 42 Michael Mosiman 46

2021 HIGH POINT NATIONAL | FULL COVERAGE

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