Welcome to Racerhead, the Official Home of the off-season. Or maybe Surreal Home. It’s late October and everyone should be recharging their batteries, visiting family and friends back home, and leaning into whatever comes next, where it’s a team change (Webb, Hampshire, Barcia, Plessinger, Thrasher, Mosiman, etc.), a continent change (the Coenens, the Townleys, the Kingsfords, the Cannons), a well-earned retirement (Eli, Dylan), and just a nice reprieve from a very long and eventful season (the Lawrences and Ken Roczen, Deegan and Davies fit here). The music on silly season has pretty much stopped, and the countdown to Anaheim 1 has already begun…  

Wait, there is still a whisper of music still playing. I heard it on recent visits to a few of the factory teams. It was loudest—and clearly visible—at Kawasaki Motor Corps. In their lobby is an amazing museum of old race bikes, watercraft, street bikes and many other products. Their proud heritage in moto goes back to bikes raced in Japan in the sixties, by Brad Lackey in the ‘70s, Jeff Ward in the ‘80s, Ricky Carmichael in the ‘90s and early ‘00s, all the way up through Ryan Villopoto of recent vintage. However, hanging above it all, dangling down from the ceiling above the lobby staircase, is Chase Sexton. And that’s where the music is still coming from.

In one of the strangest silly season situations that I can ever remember, one of the best riders on the planet is still a question mark in regards to the upcoming season, and it’s almost November. Sexton remains uncommitted, it would seem, to both returning to Kawasaki, with whom he still has a multi-year contract, and a possible switch to another team. But those other teams, it would seem, are all full. There’s no room at the inns, apparently. So Sexton, who has been with—and left—first Honda, then KTM, and seemingly now Kawasaki, doesn’t seem to have a place to land. Which is why he may yet return to Kawasaki. Or go back to KTM, just like Jorge Prado recently, famously, and successfully did over in the past 12 months.

Confused? So am I. And so, apparently, is Kawasaki, who despite the rough year, still have Chase and his #4 bike hanging above them (as you see in the main image for this post). They have already extended Garrett Marchbanks’ contract, and seemingly have Malcolm Stewart moving forward (both still unannounced). Are they moving on from Sexton? Have they saved any room in the semi for a third rider—and arguably their best rider? Is a return to KTM even possible? Would Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing put him into the spot vacated by Cooper Webb? Is there even enough room at the GOAT Farm for both Brian Deegan and Kier Sexton? Can Star afford another 450 rider of that caliber?

Thirty years ago, the silliest of silly seasons ever culminated in the most unexpected signing of all time: Jeremy McGrath left Team Honda just two weeks before Anaheim 1 to ride for a semi-private Suzuki program. It did not go well. McGrath went from the most dominant four-year run in supercross history to winning just a couple of races and losing his title. But then he came back on a Yamaha one year later and started another long run of dominance. Suzuki was his gap year, in hindsight, though at the time we never really saw it coming.

The music will stop on this silly season, sooner or later—that’s the one sure thing. But where Sexton finds his seat—and he will, also a sure thing—your guess is as good as mine. And Kawasaki’s. And KTM’s. And Yamaha’s…

Okay, back to the off-season.

What’s old is new again, as the old Joe Gibbs Racing supercross test track in North Carolina is back in the mix this off-season. A few years ago, the Gibbs family sold the property to the Riordan family, which races enduro and the Progressive Grand National Cross Country GNCC Racing series (Gus Riordan is the current points leader of the XC2 class). It’s now known as the Aus Ranch (the Riordans are from Australia) and is used as a GNCC training ground for a fair amount of top woods riders. When Cooper Webb started exploring options to ride and train in his home state, though, he reached out to Aus Ranch to start building his program. The supercross track is still there, so Webb is using that along with his new training partner, Cameron McAdoo, who is with Quad Lock Honda. Also, Phoenix Honda, which is based about an hour away, uses the track. So, this old test track is back online! I got to watch Webb today bashing out laps on his new Rocky Mountain ATV/MC Monster Energy/Team Tedder Husqvarna. For a guy not known for flying at the test track, Webb looked pretty good. Watch for a full Weege Show Wednesday with Coop next week for my full interview, but I can tell you he said he’s surprised how few changes he’s had to make to the Husky to feel ready. He has factory support from the KTM group, and good KYB suspension worked by Enzo. This is a factory-level team and Coop has brought a lot of his familiar helpers with him to make sure it goes smoothy: Rich Simmons, formerly crew chief and team manager at Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing, has made the move to continue working with Coop. Austin Kent, formerly Max Anstie’s mechanic at Star, is now Coop’s practice mechanic, and Coop’s race mechanic Alex Campbell has made the move as well.

Coop has a pretty good program going, as he will also ride the ClubMX supercross tracks in South Carolina, but can also go ride at Baker’s Factory in Florida and the KTM track in California. Yes, Coop is back working with KTM people and potentially back spinning laps at Aldon Baker’s place! You never know in this sport.

I asked Coop about the loss of the FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX), which he planned to pursue, and he said it does hurt him a little financially with that series gone, but it doesn’t affect his AMA program, which is still dialed in. Also, because he feels so good, early, on the bike, he doesn’t feel like he’ll miss much not being able to race the bike overseas, because he’s in a good spot already.

I also asked about him running Team USA some day, which I had been advocating for. He’s very interested in doing that. That’s good news, people.

With Nate Thrasher’s time with Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing officially over now that he has joined Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki, I dug into the Tennessee native’s Yamaha results for the first seven years of his career.

There are some wild things I found:

- For three straight years (2024, 2025, and 2026), Thrasher’s average finish in a 250SX race was 8.9. add in his 2023 average of 7.3, his 2022 average of 8.2, and his 2021 average of 8.1, and Thrasher's average finishing position was 8.4 in his 54 total 250SX starts with Yamaha.

- Thrasher has finished in eighth place in three 250SX races to date.

- He is the first rider to win a 250SX race in six different years—and he did so consecutively, too!

- In his six 250SX opening round races, he has one single-digit finish and, of course, it’s an eighth-place finish!

- How about this wild note, too: from 2021 through 2026, Thrasher had 54 total 250SX starts: landing 23 top five finishes but also scoring 21 double-digit finishes.

Will a change of scenery to a new bike, team, program, etc. help Thrasher in 2027? He will join Levi Kitchen (250SMX World Champion), Seth Hammaker, Drew Adams, and fill-in-rider-turned-contracted-rider Nick Romano. What about Kade Johnson? The up-and-coming racer has shown his potential with SMX Next race wins, and a podium streak this year, but he is without a ride for ’27. Could Johnson be a potential fifth rider option if one of these for guys get hurt?

Read my full deep dive of stats on Thrasher’s career here.

The Quad Lock Honda team may no longer be called Fire Power Honda like they were several years ago, but they do have quite the fire power for 2027! Cameron McAdoo was the first rider announced to the team—now putting an extra focusing on the 250SMX Class in ‘27—and Michal Mosiman’s move from Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing to the squad is official.

That is two former factory riders who both earned at least two podiums in the 2026 250SX West Division Championship earlier this year! Yes, injuries have hindered the results for both riders in their respective careers, but this is huge for the Quad Lock Honda team to add two proven race winners and podium threats just a few months removed from them landing on the box. This team had Max Anstie just a couple of years ago, when the British rider took his first 250SX win and the points lead. Yarrive Konksy has big goals for his team, and he landed two riders who both want to be on his team, on his Honda CRF250R, and want to prove they still have what it takes to win races, get podiums, and battle for titles. Will it pay off?

After the Mason-Dixon GNCC round of the Progressive Grand National Cross Country Series was a non-points paying round, the championship is back in action this weekend at Ironman Raceway. The Indiana venue will host the 12th round of the 13-round championship, as this year the final will take place at the Buckwheat 100 GNCC at CJ Raceway in Newburg, West Virginia, on November 6.

Still, the Ironman GNCC is the biggest event of the year, with the event having to adjust the schedule each year to fit all of the racers that compete throughout the weekend!

In terms of the pro bike classes, Jordan Ashburn (overall), Angus Riordan (XC2), and Brandy Richards and Korie Steede (tied in WXC) lead their respective classes. All three title fights are still pretty close, but the Ironman round has caused chaos in years past. You can tune into FloRacing all weekend long to watch the action!

• GNCC

  Ironman

  MODIFIED WEEKEND SCHEDULE
  Saturday, October 24

  • October 24 - 8:00 AM

    

  • October 24 - 2:00 PM

    

  • October 24 - 4:00 PM

    

  • October 25 - 1:00 PM

    

Just under a month until the Paris SX kicks off yet again. We had one of the key people behind it, Eric Peronnard, on the PulpMX Show Monday night talking about this race. Little difficulty for those guys this year as Eric tells it with Malcolm Stewart. Mookie rode great last year to win the OA and re-signed to go back this year because, I mean, why not? He's raced it a ton, he's the champ and it was all set. Except, well, it wasn’t.

He signed the deal when he was still on his Rockstar Husky team, but then they announced they were folding, and he ended up signing with Kawasaki. However, the Team Green guys have had an aversion to supporting European races for years now, and this was an interesting discussion because Stewart had a signed contract with the Paris SX before signing with Kawasaki.

Peronnard thought that it would be all good but, in the end, with a "new" 2027 KX450 coming out, the factory’s desire won out, and Malcolm will not be lining up this year. According to Peronnard, the Kawasaki guys have agreed to support Stewart at this race for next year in an effort to make good on the deal. I'll believe that when I see it but let's hope so.

So, one man’s lemons are another’s lemonade, and sounds like Triumph's Jordon Smith will be one of the guys stepping up to get some cash for this race next month… Then again, with parts of Paris basically burning right now, maybe 2026 is a good one to miss for Malcolm!  

There are a few new bike intros incoming, so if you're wondering when we get to ride the new 2027 Ducati Desmo 250, KX450, and the 2027.5 KTM 450 Factory Edition below are the dates that we will be getting on our hands on them:

October 28: Ducati Desmo 250
November 18: KTM 250/450 Factory Editions
November 23: Kawasaki KX450

With that being said the Ducati is at dealerships now, the Kawasaki arrives at the beginning of November, and the Factory Edition 250/450 will be at your KTM dealer come December. All of these bikes are new enough to get me excited so look for a geeked out breakdown of each coming to Racer X shortly after each date. Cudby and I will be on it, so make sure to tune in!

From Harv Whipple: Our club Gun Valley MC is hosting the final round of the National Enduro Series, The Bob Reese Memorial next weekend. Thursday Springfield Armory will host a media shoot and bring out several of there weapons to shoot. Friday we will have Moto Armory open, the a very large off road MC museum. The youth race is on Saturday. The Enduro is Sunday and the banquet is Sunday night. 

Normally we would post things like this in Random Notes below, but the news down there is rather somber this week, so longtime Western PAMX motocross man George Sosnick’s daughter Angela and her fiancé Hunter Russell’s gender reveal gets its own entry. Looks like George is gonna be a Grand Pap to a future WMXer in April!

Our young cup reporter Ryder Yeckley's classmates did a feature on his transition from racer to writer, by Max Galentine and Brandon Esek.

And it’s already that time of year—time for Josh Gagnon’s jersey countdown to Anaheim 1. He’s starting tomorrow with #77, which means Saturday will mark 77 days until Anaheim! We will show the jerseys beginning in next week’s Racerhead, but if you want to follow on your own, follow @alwaysbelieve331 on Instagram!

“Press release: 146 Riders, 21 Countries, 56 Spots: Indian Supercross Racing League Season 3 Auction Set for November 4, 2026”

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We are sorry to report on the passing of David Stanfield, the longtime television and live race announcer whose distinct voice was part of the soundtrack of 1980s and '90s motocross and supercross. Stanfield was a racing enthusiast from Southern California with an incredibly smooth voice who called some of the greatest races in the sport’s history. He was on the race call alongside Greg Barbacovi for the epic 1986 Anaheim Supercross. He was also well-known for his work covering surfing, snow skiing, drag racing, and more. Stanfield had been battling cancer. Godspeed, David Stanfield.

Our longtime British friend, the artist and journalist Rob Kinsey, recalled of Stanfield:

"Spent a memorable couple of days with David and Ricky Johnson at his house in Seal Beach, CA, watching them surf, days before the 1987 Superbowl of Motocross at the LA Coliseum. David was best friends with Jim Janard, Oakley founder, and his spare room was full of Oakley swag. He did the voice over on “Rick Johnson Profile of a Champion” video I distributed in Europe. His voice was silky smooth. My sincere condolences 💐 to family and friends."