#WHIPITWEDNESDAY

Rider: Justin Hill

Justin Hill was a prominent amateur who has gone on to do great things in the pro ranks. Starting in 2001 on 50cc Justin has raced at the Ranch nine different years where he grabbed multiple podium results as well as a win that came in 2011. When he went into the pro ranks in 2013 he rode for Pro Circuit Kawasaki and finished a respectable fifth in his first Supercross race at Dallas. In the following years, he finished fourth overall in the 250 West and finally grabbed a championship in 2017. When moving into the 450 class he did not have as much success as on the 250, however, he has always been a rider near the front. Around 2020 he stepped away and became a Police Officer in Oregon. Ultimately he decided to make a return to racing and has put a lot of effort into his program. At Anaheim last weekend he ended up eighth overall in one of the most stacked 450 classes we’ve seen in a long time.

DEEGAN CHARGES BACK TO FIFTH AT ANAHEIM 1

Haiden Deegan charged through the field, even making passes in the last lap of the race.

Deegan hit the ground running at his home Supercross race and showed speed from the start. After qualifying runner-up, the newly turned 19-year-old fired the first shot with the first heat race win of the evening. Unfortunately, he crashed after the start of the main event and found himself 19th. The defending back-to-back SuperMotocross World 250SMX Champion immediately went to work and fought to the finish, claiming fifth in the final moments of the race.

Haiden Deegan said: “It was a solid first round and a lot better than last year. We got a top-five and are not sitting 16th. I’m not super happy that we biffed it on the start, but that’s racing. It happens. All we can do is go back to work and come back swinging next week.”

PRO CIRCUIT’S ROSTER SWITCH-UP FOR THE 2025 SAN DIEGO SUPERCROSS

Last week during the season opener of the 2025 Supercross series, we learned that Levi Kitchen was battling illness as he missed press day on Friday before the race. As Saturday came Kitchen attempted to ride free practice, but as timed qualifying came around, Kitchen was not on the track. Because he did not qualify for the event he was still eligible to race the 250 East Coast division, which he opted to do. Initially, we thought we might see rookie Drew Adams, fill the spot, but a press release from Pro Circuit tells of Ty Masterpool filling in for Kitchen on the West Coast for the remaining rounds. Though Ty missed a round and will be at a point deficit, it was the best choice for Pro Circuit to get another rider on the track.

LEVI KITCHEN OUT FOR SAN DIEGO

Levi Kitchen in free practice at Anaheim 1.

Levi Kitchen was runner-up in the 2024 Supercross series where the points chase came down to the very last round and RJ Hampshire would take the win. Kitchen was highly anticipated to be one of the top riders on the West this season. A lot were wondering if he could run the pace of Haiden Deegan. During the week, Kitchen had come down with a debilitating virus and would not be able to race in Anaheim. The team made a quick decision to pull him from the West Coast series and race East Coast, which starts in just a few short weeks.

Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Team Manager, Ian Southwell, said: “It was tough to see Levi so badly wanting to race at Anaheim but being unable to have the strength to do so. We had to come together as a team to figure out the best plan of attack for the rest of the Supercross season, and Ty impressively stepped up to help the team as a whole. We’ve seen his progress over the off-season and think he’s got what it takes to make it his best season yet.”

IN COMES TY MASTERPOOL

Ty Masterpool is to begin his season in San Diego.

As we head into the second race of the season in San Diego, we will be seeing Ty Masterpool out on the track with teammate Garrett Marchbanks. Like Garrett, Ty is one of the new riders on the Pro Circuit fleet. He picked up the ride at just the first race of the motocross season at Fox Raceway and his results through the season solidified his spot on the team. Mitch Payton has all his riders prepared to go East or West and does not notify them until a few weeks prior. The decision to bring in Ty Masterpool at the second race of the year means that he was the man for the job and ready to go racing.

SLOW START FOR JETT LAWRENCE

Jett Lawrence finished twelfth at Anaheim 1. 

Jett Lawrence had a tough start to the season, as the gate dropped in the main event, he found himself locking bars with another rider which sent him into the toughblocks. Starting in the back of the pack, Jett quickly went to work trying to run down the lead pack. Unfortunately, his troubles would continue as he entered the sand section and tangled with another rider once again sending him to the ground. At this point of the race, there was no chance of catching the top five and Jett had to resort to saving as many points as possible. Jett would end up finishing twelfth right behind his brother Hunter Lawrence.

WE TEST THE MC85 TWO-STROKE THAT WON LORETTA’S

MXA PHOTO TRIVIA

Who is this rider? The answer can be found at the bottom of this article. 

We’re on to the second race of MXA Fantasy League with all new prizes up for grabs. Currently, we have a new update out that helps revolutionize the gameplay from last year. However, you can still play seamlessly with the current version you may have. Last year we were able to give away a Triumph TF 250-X to the winner of the full SMX season. We were able to get some awesome prizes from our amazing sponsors and supporters. You can download the app today in both app stores and get set up for racing in San Diego. See you at the races!

Download for Apple: Click here!

Download for Android: Click here!

KTM JRSX PRESENTED BY FORD LIGHTNING

If you didn’t know MXA has helped develop a brand new app for the KTM JR SX Challenge that takes place during the “halftime” of the Supercross events. It starts after the heat races prior to the race Last Chance Qualifiers. Currently, the app is only available on Android in the Google Play Store, but we are working on getting it released for Apple. In this fantasy, users will pick ten kids receiving points for the correct predictions in first, second, third, fifth, seventh, and tenth. Throughout the season, KTM and Ford will be giving away unique prizes to the winners. If you’re looking to join the KTM JRSX Fantasy you can do so by clicking here!

DUCATI’S BOLD MOVE TO AMERICA WITH TROY LEE DESIGNS: INTERVIEW

ASK THE MXPERTS: SHOULD THE AMA DROP THE 450 & REPLACE IT WITH THE 350?

Dear MXperts,
Since there is a lot of complaining that 450s are too powerful for the average rider, and even for the standard-issue AMA Supercross or National track, why doesn’t the AMA just drop the 450 displacement and replace it with a 350cc rule? Since Formula 1 and MotoGP change their displacement rules all the time, why couldn’t motocross? That seems like a really simple solution.

This idea has been kicked around since the introduction of the original KTM 350SXF back in 2011. In fact, KTM had planned to drop its 450cc motocross bikes completely and make the 350 their only Open-class race bike, mostly based on the success of Tony Cairoli in the MXGP series. But, when Roger DeCoster moved from Suzuki to KTM, he nixed the 350 idea based on the fact that in Supercross, where the starts are much shorter than in outdoors, the rider who gets his bars in front of the bars of the bike next to him in the first 3 feet will always get a better start. Also of importance to Roger was that he was planning to sign Ryan Dungey for the 2012 season, and Ryan would not sign if he had to race a 350.

Ryan Dungey’s KTM 450SXF (5)  gets a big enough jump to get his handlebars in front of  Eli Tomac (3), Ken Roczen (94) and Trey Canard (41). 

Youthstream’s Giuseppe Luongo and AMA race director Steve Whitelock both heavily pushed the 350 concept on the manufacturers, and, with the exception of KTM, met with strong resistance. The manufacturers were against a wholesale move from 450cc to 350cc for several reasons:

(1) Bike sales: Each manufacturer believed that if they were selling 20,000 units a year split between 250cc and 450cc motocross bikes, adding a 350 to their lineup would result in them still only selling 20,000 bikes a year. How so? Market research showed that adding a 350 to their new-model lineup would steal 250 and 450 sales from their total sales figures. They believed that the most likely buyer of a Kawasaki KX350, Honda CRF350 or Yamaha YZ350F would be a Kawasaki KX450, Honda CRF450 or Yamaha YZ450F buyer. Plus, the cost of R&D’ing a new 350 would just increase complexity in their supply lines, dealer stocking, marketing, product development and new-model budgets.

(2) Displacement: Yes, Formula 1 and MotoGP do change their displacements every couple of years, but these are not production-based machines. No one can walk into a dealership and buy a Formula 1 car or an actual MotoGP Ducati. The engine rules for these race series can be changed, albeit with three or four years of warning, because they don’t care about selling to the public. But, outlawing 450s in the Supercross or AMA National series would not just affect the factory teams, it would impact thousands of riders/owners who have invested heavily in existing and readily available production bikes to ride and race in a myriad of classes and tracks across the country.

(3) Disappearing act: Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki have had 14 years to develop their own 350cc race bikes, but they haven’t done it. And, they haven’t done it in the face of massive sales figures for the KTM 350SXF motocross and off-road models. Plus, what would the AMA tell Triumph and Ducati, who have just spent millions of dollars developing all-new 450cc motocross bikes? “Sorry, Charlie, you need to start all over again.”

(4) AMA rules: The AMA is not really manned by the brightest people in the sport. Do you really want them changing the face of American motocross? They have muffed virtually every rule change they tried to implement. Did they really think that starting with metal grids was a good idea? What about giving four-strokes twice the displacement of two-strokes; how did that turn out? Where is the actual AMA 250 Supercross Championship after 40 years of non-National Championship East/West Regional Championships? Why can’t they write a clear rule about what to do about riders who cut the track and race down the sidelines for 100 feet? How come they haven’t passed a rule banning riders from launching their unmanned 220-pound bikes down a racetrack that is lined with flaggers, spotters, photographers, track workers, medical personnel and AMA officials?

(5) To what point? Do you really think that racing a 54-horsepower, 14,000-rpm, 350cc race bike is going to be safer or cheaper than racing a 450. The 350cc movement has been embraced by Vet riders. They were the only people in the sport who saw the beauty of a mid-sized motocross bike. Let them enjoy it.

To read more of the MXepert articles, click here!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: COOPER WEBB ON HIS RESULT AT ANAHEIM

“Anaheim 1 is always a crazy race. It was an up-and-down day and an up-and-down off-season, but I’m happy. That was a good race. Obviously, being in the top five is important, but I wanted to be on the podium and felt like I was riding good enough to be up front. We need to get our starts a little bit better and be in the mix for next week. It was definitely a good starting point. We’re right in the fight, which is great.”

MXA PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Ken Roczen on the start at Anaheim. A determined-looking Roczen as he did not have the best qualifying times early in the day. But a heat race win would give him the confidence and the rider would finish second overall on the night.

CLASSIC MXA PHOTO

Stèphane Roncada (21) leading James Stewart (259) and Broc Hepler (60) at the start of a moto back in 2004.

MXA Photo Trivia Result: Jimmy Weinert who competed in the AMA Motocross Championships from 1972 to 1980. Weinert won 22 AMA Nationals and three AMA national championships during his racing career.