It's a two-moto format, with a boatload of money going to the privateers. And coolest of all is the fact that Kyle Chisholm will be racing for the injured Jerry Robin, donating all of his prize money to #77. The Privateer LCQ Challenge has grown into a really cool event, and Steve Matthes deserves a big pat on the back for pulling this together every year, with support from Yamaha and a bunch of other sponsors. And thanks to everyone at Feld Entertainment for giving Matthes and the 450 privateers the use of the track and the stadium this afternoon for a very good cause. Here's more on who all is in the race and how it works.

The big race is tomorrow, and Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing's Cooper Webb is definitely in the driver's seat after last weekend's big win in Pittsburgh, where he thwarted Red Bull KTM's Chase Sexton's late-season surge. Webb now controls his own fate and can win his third 450SX Championship without having to beat Sexton in either of these last two rounds. And at 12 points down, even if Sexton wins out, he needs to have Webb finish outside the top three in both races to win the title. With #2 having been on the podium in all but three rounds up to this point, that seems highly unlikely. Of course, Webb could also have a bad night at one of these rounds, or something worse—remember that Eli Tomac went into this same round with an 18-point lead in 2023, only to tear his Achilles...

The 250SX West returns with Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammates Haiden Deegan and Cole Davies in first and second place, respectively, 17 points apart. Deegan is working on his first 250SX title, which would give him a current sweep of all three #1 plates, as he's already the defending 250 Pro Motocross Champion and the two-time SMX World Champion. However, young Davies was on a hot streak when we last left the 250SX West, as the New Zealander won two straight races, including the Philly East/West Showdown.

As for last weekend's Pittsburgh Supercross, it was great to finally have it back on the schedule after 42 years, and the crowd turnout was fantastic, with over 58,000 attendees. Who would have thought that Pittsburgh would have the biggest crowd of the entire series? It was wonderful to see so many old friends and riders from our area turn out for the race, and the racing itself was excellent. Besides Webb's clutch win, Tom Vialle became the 12th 250SX winner of the season and the 19th overall, both of which are new records. He achieved this after a scary crash in timed qualifying that saw him land flat on his back—thankfully, on a Tuff Block. Vialle avoided injury, got up, and then went out and won, giving him the points lead again with a single round to go, the East/West Showdown in SLC. He's one point ahead of Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Seth Hammaker and three points ahead of Rockstar Energy Husqvarna's RJ Hampshire. If either of these three wins in SLC, they will win the title, regardless of how the others finish.

Check out some awesome photos by our local Pittsburgh friend Brandon Croney.

And as we were finishing up this column, we got the news that Ken Roczen will miss the last two rounds of the series from H.E.P. Motorsports and Suzuki Motor USA, "Due to additional damage to an already injured right ankle suffered during a midweek practice session."

Roczen was ranked third in the series, despite having to deal with shoulder and ankle injuries here late in the season. He was hoping to complete the series but significant further damage to the ankle, including a torn ligament, means that he needs surgery.

“It's tough to step away with just two rounds remaining,” said Roczen in the PR. “But with the new injury, I need to prioritize long-term health and recovery. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished so far this season and I’ll be supporting the team as they head into the final rounds.”

Roczen is 30 points ahead of Justin Cooper and 34 ahead of Malcolm Stewart. Unfortunately for Kenny, with the depleted field we have at this point in the series, the veteran could end up losing two spots in the last two weeks of the championship.

Okay, we're trying to get this wrapped up early to watch and support the PulpMX Yamaha Privateer LCQ Challenge, so let's get into this...

It’s Here (Matthes)

By the time you read this, the 2025 edition of the PulpMX Yamaha Privateer LCQ Challenge will be over, and we'll have paid out a bunch of money to 22 deserving privateers. Stoked to do this again, we'll be at almost $900,000 passed out over the years to the riders in the race/LCQ series. Now it's time for the thanks, and first of all, thanks to Yamaha for putting up the new YZ450F that we give away as the grand prize. What a partner they've been, and for the moto media in general. Great guys there, and they really do support the sport in a huge way. Thanks to the companies putting in the other twenty prizes besides the bike we give away! Thanks to Dave Prater, Mike Muye, Harv Whipple, Sean Brennan, and everyone else at Feld/AMA who helps with this race and gave me the blessing to do it. That's pretty cool, right? Heck, they even put my logo on the stadium banner AND play Creed and Van Halen for me before the mains! Thanks to the Vurb Moto guys for going through the work to live stream this, and also Kellen Brauer, Justin Brayton, Jason Thomas, Jason Weigandt, and Phil Nicoletti for their (free) labor for the live stream as well. And most of all, thank you to the people for buying the raffle tickets and supporting the privateers!

New Magazine Drop (DC)

A quick note on the newest issue of Racer X Illustrated, which dropped earlier this week. Haiden Deegan is on the cover, shot by Mike Emery of Align Media, and is part of Jason Weigandt's feature "Next Man Up," about what's been a tumultuous season of supercross. There's also a feature from our friend down under, Steve Hale, on the FIM Oceania Women's Motocross Cup, featuring the Team USA girls and a very fast Australian named Charli Cannon, along with a feature I wrote about an all-but-forgotten American motocross hero from the early days of the sport, Bryan Kenney of Cleveland, Ohio. He began racing in Europe in the mid-sixties and made quite a career for himself as an international competitor. He won the first Daytona "Supercross" in 1971, raced on the first official Team USA at the Motocross of Nations in '71, and then became the first American to score a point in the FIM World Motocross Championships in 1972. Then he pretty much retired from MX racing in 1973. I tracked Bryan down in Santa Barbara, California, and man, did he have a cool story to tell!

Max Vohland's First Podium (DC)

It was cool to see Maximus Vohland on the podium in Pittsburgh after such a long road to recovery. It was the first time ever on the box for the second-gen Northern Californian in Monster Energy AMA Supercross, and he did it without a rear brake pedal—Max uses a special hand brake mounted by his clutch lever due to nerve damage following the massive hip injury that ruined pretty much his entire 2024 season. Vohland's podium in Pittsburgh was the second this year for the Mac-Off/FXR/ClubMX Yamaha team, as Coty Shock got on the box with a career-best runner-up finish back in Arlington.

Also, my friend Jorge Ro' Jr. pointed this out: Vohland's first 250SX podium came 35 years and four days after his father, Tallon Vohland’s, first 125SX podium, which came at Pontiac 2 on April 22, 1990. And here's something else: One week later, at the 1990 Tampa SX, Tallon Vohland won. Of course, Max won't get that chance as the 250SX East is off this weekend, and the 250SX West returns in Denver, but there's Salt Lake City next week when both divisions are combined for the last supercross of the season!

Home Race Vibes in the Steel City (Mitch Kendra)

Look, we all love going to the races but there is nothing cooler than having a true home race. Traveling across the country to cover races is awesome do not get me wrong, but sleeping in your own bed at home, visiting familiar restaurants, and not having to look up directions in a new city is the ideal situation. California locals always get two, if not three Anaheim SX rounds, plus one or two other close rounds in the Golden State, but us on the East Coast—specifically Pennsylvania—do not get that luxury year after year after year. This year’s historic, four-race swing in the Northeast was capped off with Monster Energy AMA Supercross’ return to the Steel City, and, damn, it truly was awesome.

For the last few years now, I have been telling Supercross Public Director Sean Brennen how we need a Pittsburgh Supercross. Brennen is a Pittsburgh native, and I grew up about 30 miles from the city in Washington, Pennsylvania, so I kept telling him—half kidding, half serious—that we needed supercross to return to the Steel City. While working early morning and late nights in other cities, we daydreamed about having a Pittsburgh SX round weekend after weekend, year after year (really since I started with Racer X here a handful of years ago). Little did I know, the return to Pittsburgh was already in the works. Finally, the race was announced last fall. There was instant hype with ticket sales literally skyrocketing. And after an already exciting season and championship battle in both 450SX and 250SX East, Pittsburgh was up next.

Brennen and Senior Public Relations Manager Joe Weber put in a lot of work behind the scenes each and every week (actually, hundreds of people put in work behind the, just to clarify, but I got to see their efforts up close this week) but I know Sean put all of his heart and soul into this one. Working on no sleep for the few days leading up to the race because of a busy scheduled he orchestrated, Brennen finally got to see all of his hard work pay off. Well done, Sean.

And when it was time to finally drop the gate, Acrisure Stadium was PACKED! I have been to Steelers games with less people, it was truly awesome. As Davey mentioned, over 58,000 people showed up. Safe to say people were excited for this one! The crowd loved it when local Vinny Luhovey was leading the 250SX LCQ in his locally made Steelers inspired gear.

I got to share my yinzer knowledge with some of my media colleagues, including some fun facts about the city, random memories I have had here over the years, and local restaurants, and more. I have so many memories from this Northeast swing, which was capped off with the return (home) to Pittsburgh. Thank you, Pittsburgh. Hope to see you again on the SX schedule soon!

MXGP of Portugal (DC)

The FIM Motocross World Championship is in Portugal this weekend for their seventh round. Honda HRC's Tim Gajser is the MXGP points leader, but his big crash two weeks ago in Switzerland has him on the sidelines for this weekend. Gajser hit an artificial mound right next to the track and went down hard on his shoulder, leading to a DNF. Needless to say, the five-time World Champion was not happy about the whole incident. Now he's going to miss Portugal and likely lose his points lead, as Gajser leads French Kawasaki rider Romain Febvre in the standings by 27 points, with Swiss MXGP winner Lucas Coenen another 50 or so back.

According to the PR that went out from MXGP regarding Tim's absence, "Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the rider and all the medical personnel helping the Slovenian since leaving Switzerland, the injury hasn’t improved enough to cope with the rigors of world motocross racing."

Interestingly, the bad news of Gajser's injury seems to have had a positive effect on the injury of Maxime Renaux, who also crashed hard in Switzerland and had previously announced he would miss both Portugal and next week's Spanish MXGP. This morning, MXLarge.com posted this update about the French Yamaha rider's condition:

And the team announced this morning that Renaux, who won the opening round overall in Argentina in March, is in for this weekend’s race in Portugal.  

Another storyline here is the modest results that Jeffrey Herlings has been getting since he returned to racing after missing the first month of the series. Herlings finished seventh overall in Switzerland with a season-best fifth-place finish in the second moto, though he did express on his social media what everyone else was thinking: "What a horrible track." With his KTM contract up at the end of this season, people are starting to speculate as to whether or not KTM will bring him back—he's been with Red Bull KTM ever since he turned pro back in 2009.

Things are much closer in the MX2 class, where Husqvarna's Kay de Wolf, the defending champion, has a scant three-point lead over KTM's Simon Langenfelder, who went 1-1 in Switzerland. Andrea Adamo is another 20 points back; then it's de Wolf's teammate Liam Everts in fourth.

You can watch the motos live on MXGP-TV.com or see the second motos (delayed) on CBS Sports Network at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. ET on Sunday afternoon.

Pittsburgh Winners (DC)

Check out this week's Cycle News ads, where we saw the first champion of 2025, SMX Next Champion Alexander Fedortsov of the Muc-Off/FXR/ClubMX Yamaha team, get a spread from Yamaha, as well as Pittsburgh 450SX winner Cooper Webb, who took a big step toward what would be his third 450SX Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship. KTM finally got to run a win ad for #1 Tom Vialle, and Dunlop got to celebrate both Webb and Vialle. Finally, there’s an FMF win ad for Cooper Webb, as well as Dante Oliveira and Trystan Hart from the off-road side.

Godspeed, Joel Evans (1994-2025)

Tragic news came out of Australia last weekend. Joel Evans, a popular and highly respected privateer, crashed hard at round three of the Australian Pro Motocross Championships. The race was immediately suspended as he was rushed to a nearby hospital. Unfortunately, he did not survive the crash. He was 30 years old. Evans was a journeyman who raced in many countries, enjoying the moto life to the fullest. He had a popular YouTube channel where he posted videos of his various racing adventures. Here was one that he posted last month from a race in Thailand:

2025 Love Moto Stop Cancer Auction Now Live

The annual Love Moto Stop Cancer Online Auction is now live, with over 200 unique items available. Check out some items below and view the full list of items below.

2025 Love Moto Stop Cancer Auction Items

Hey, Watch It!

Alexander Fedortsov Wins 2025 SMX Next — Supercross AMA National Championship Season RecaP

ClubMX's Against All Odds EP15: Pittsburgh

Last Thursday, at the Hopewell High School Supercross Assembly, local privateer Jared Lesher unloaded his #412 Yamaha YZ250 from the McGinley Privateer rig that was on hand and let some of the students give the throttle a twist, putting huge smiles on everyone’s faces. Lesher then raced the same bike in the Pittsburgh SX on Saturday night and ran a camera on his chest; check out the footage:

This week’s Weege Show on Webb vs. Sexton:

2025 Denver Supercross Preview & Injury Report

Off-road icons Rodney Smith and Scot Harden, both AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famers, are teaming up for another cool trail-riding adventure, the Yankee Fork Rendezvous in Idaho, which will take place September 5-7. Here's a preview:

Head-Scratching Headline/s of the Week 

“Man sets off fireworks in Philadelphia restaurant ATM”—WGAL

“Pennsylvania lake recently stocked with trout being used for wildfire water drops”—ABC27

"A man airlifted from Japan’s Mount Fuji returns to the slope days later and is rescued again"—AP

"Real Headline: Patrick Starr's Kangaroo Escaped Home, Caused a Two-Vehicle Crash, Shut Down Both Sides of The Interstate in Alabama"—Barstool Sports

Random Notes

Congratulations to young Ryder Yeckley. He's a Pittsburgh-area racer as well as an aspiring moto journalist. He's been writing about supercross this season in his Baldwin High School newspaper The Purbalite and was able to secure a press pass for the Pittsburgh SX, thanks to Sean Brennan of Feld Entertainment. Ryder got access to the press room and shot photos from the stands. Here is his race coverage article.  

As well as a story about what it was like to be there as an actual race reporter.

“May is AMA Take a Kid Dirt Biking Month!”
The AMA encourages kids to get out and ride this month. Read the full press release.