The Olympics of Motocross are over! Coming back to the USA for the sixth time in its history, Ironman Raceway was the site for Monster Energy Motocross of Nations. The previous two races at Redbud were pretty epic, even though USA got beat badly at the first one. They won the second one and neither of them had great weather. Still, they were something to take in, that’s for sure.
This one? Well, it was more on the Lakewood level of MXoN’s in the USA. Like, it was good. Was it off the hook like the RedBuds? No, I don’t think so. Myself and a few others I spoke to agreed that the crowd was not as crazy loud as the RedBud peeps but hey, Ironman isn’t that far from RedBud, and you’d think it would draw a lot of the same crowd right?
Also the track was pretty fast and took away one of the great elements of an MXoN: 250F riders getting into the mix. We really didn’t have that, it was pretty much all the top 450 riders, then the top 250 riders battling it out, followed by the rest of the 450 guys. So we didn’t have that huge swing in points that a fast MX2 rider can give a country.
We were also missing Jeffrey Herlings, Jorge Prado, Chase Sexton and Haiden Deegan, which would’ve bumped up the star power quite a bit.
Look, I’m not trying to crap on this Nations. It was STILL the Nations, you know? I’m just saying that it seemed a bit “muted” compared to some past ones, especially when you compare it to the European ones I’ve been to.
Team Australia was the heavy favorite coming in despite Hunter Lawrence telling us on the PulpMX Show Tuesday night that it was “50/50” between USA and them. I think that’s just him being nice, maybe?
The brothers went 1-1 (Hunter) and 3-1 (Jett after a crash) which made it awfully hard to beat the guys. Their 250 guy, Kyle Webster, fell in the first turn in both motos and absolutely crushed it on his way to 6-4 finishes in the MX2 class. (13-15 overall). Webster, in his two motos from a first turn crash, was only 30 seconds back of Justin Cooper in his first moto and 20 seconds back in the second moto. Again, with first-turn crashes. Webster rode so well for the Aussies. Cooper only beat him by eight positions combined, which is only slightly more than half of Team Australia’s lead.
Jett fell in his second moto after making contact with Isak Gifting (Swedish rider) and had to come from way back to third. His first moto he just won in rather typical Jett fashion. He just did enough to slowly pull away from Lucas Coenen and take the win. Jett was great, and did you think anything else would happen?
But to me, the day belonged to Hunter, who went 1-1 in his two races, and that was with two crashes in his first moto! As we all know, Hunter has really come on this year and turned himself into a “guy” that maybe we didn’t think he could be? To win the MXoN in the fashion he did, help his birth country win, in his adopted country must be pretty damn cool, right?
Well, according to Hunter himself, maybe not? He’s so darned practical with his thinking, it comes down to how he felt in the races, not how much the result meant.
“It was a good day, but it definitely wasn’t my best day,” he said. “The first moto was…I don't think I’ve ever fell in two races that I can remember in the last four years, in the same race twice. So, it wasn’t by any means my gold standard. The last moto was a good moto. It was a good weekend. It was really good. Obviously, still on a high from it. It was a really, really memorable, special weekend, as all Motocross of Nations normally are. I think everyone has a pretty good memorable weekend.”
So, good day for him, but great day for his team. Okay then!
One thing Hunter did admit, there was more pressure on the team this year coming in as favorites (my words) or co-favorites (his words).
“I definitely think there’s more pressure this year. I don't think I necessarily felt more pressure. My mental approach is, I’m like, we’re either going to win it or we won’t. It is what it is. I definitely think looking back on it there probably was a little bit more pressure.
“Coming in, you’ve got 1, 2, and 3 on your bike. Obviously there’s a target on your back, just as good as all the other Nations were. Belgium [they] were looking really, really good in that first moto, when Lucas and Sacha were second and fifth. I think it was ten minutes into the moto.
"Kyle went down the first turn, and we were looking at that and kind of scratching our heads going, “Oh, this doesn’t look too good for us.” That’s a tough one. Then the next one obviously Sacha would have been good for another top five, I would want to say. So it was like, that was not on our bingo card! But anything can happen in these races. Then sure enough, going into the last race, we’re a few points, give or take with France and America. So, it’s a special event.”
Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations (MXoN) - Combined
October 5, 2025
| Rider | Points | Race | Class | Bike | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | 19 | |||
| Jett Lawrence | 1 | Race 1 (MXGP + MX2) | MXGP | Honda | |
| Hunter Lawrence | 1 | Race 2 (MX2 + Open) | Open | Honda | |
| Hunter Lawrence | 1 | Race 3 (MXGP + Open) | Open | Honda | |
| Jett Lawrence | 3 | Race 3 (MXGP + Open) | MXGP | Honda | |
Yup, you can’t really count on anything in a race like this, weirdo stuff can happen. It almost did with Webster in those crashes.
“Kyle did everything that we could have asked him to do, and some more, to be racing the event,” he said. “His fiancée is about to go into labor any second now, and he still came over and still put in that big of an effort away from potentially missing the birth of his first child! He rode phenomenal both motos. Turn one on the ground. It’s like the worst freaking thing you could possibly have at a Motocross of Nations, racing against 450s on a 450-dominant track. Really, really happy and proud of him. Just stoked to do it again with him.”
Team USA got second! It took a late race pass by Gifting on Maxime Reneaux to push USA to second but hey, they’ll take it. Again, missing two of their initial three selections, I think everyone on Team USA, in their heart of hearts, would say they would be happy with a second overall, right?
Eli Tomac got better as the weekend went on. His last moto was great, he was actually catching Hunter a little bit at points. His first moto Sunday was good, not great, and his qualifying race wasn’t very good by his standards. So as far as things go, Eli Tomac’s farewell ride for Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing was everything you would expect. Fast, great effort, and good results…#AllClass.
We had Tomac’s now-former mechanic, Josh Ellingson, on the PulpMX Show. Josh is moving to Twisted Tea Suzuki to wrench for Jason Anderson now. Josh brought up, due to injuries, ET’s never actually had a ton of time to ride MX the last couple of years and therefore hasen't really settled on a setup that he’s 10 percent comfortable with. And it’s true I suppose when you break down Tomac's schedule. He missed pretty much all of outdoors in 2023 and 2024, and Yamaha came out with a new bike during that time.
I thought Justin Cooper rode fine. I got some flack for sayin he went backward, which he did, and I didn’t expect Mathis Valin to pull away from him nor did I think Kay de Wolf would get him and pull away away in both motos. I know dropping to a 250 wasn’t that easy for him but he’s a great rider. The dude’s gotten pole positions and podiums in 450MX and rode 250s not that long ago. Again, he wasn’t the reason USA lost and he didn’t ride poorly. He rode, fine (shrugs).
And now, we talk about RJ Hampshire! Seven crashes on Sunday. SEVEN!!!! We praised RJ all year long on how he wasn’t the “old” RJ anymore on the 450 but then he went RJ on us. Well, as he talked about on then PulpMX Show Tuesday, he came in with some rib damage from the Wednesday before the race. He was afraid he couldn’t even ride.
So, yeah. That’s not good. The highlight of RJ’s weekend was positing the second-fastest lap of the race in moto two and then also passing Liam Everts, I think, 43 times.
And that’s about it. Other than that it was crash after crash after crash. Oh wait, another “highlight” might be his gas tank exploding after he hit a camera tower in his seventh and final crash in moto three. Yes, I’m serious.
RJ told us that after his SIXTH crash, where he went to endo-nesia badly and was going to quit, he rode by a Honda on the side of the track and his team was going crazy cheering him on. So he thought that maybe the Honda was Jett’s bike (spoiler alert: it was not) and that the team needed him to keep going with a badly twisted up bike and koo-koo birdies flying around his helmet. So he did what RJ does and pinned it! Until he hit the camera tower and then it was full Roberto Duran (look it up kids).
After the last crash RJ told us, “You fans cannot keep cheering for this at this point! [he was laughing at his own run of crashes] My life is at risk out here! How the whole day was going, that was my seventh crash. Two of them weren't necessarily my fault, but how I was riding was so dangerous.”
Plus, RJ knows everyone remembers that he used to be wild.
“I just finally got over that edge, I feel like, where people don’t think I’m out there going to kill everybody.”
Hampshire didn’t lose the race for Team USA by any means but it was a rough one for him. At least on the show he could explain it a bit and laugh about it. The rib injury really set him back on coming in and it got worse from there.
Some other random thoughts:
I loved that there were a lot of American fans leaning over the fences and cheering for Ken Roczen in his first moto when he fell in the first turn and was dead last. That’s awesome. Kenny is basically an American now!
Buckle up for perhaps a long run of Team Aussie versus Team Belgium at this race in the next five years. Americans saw the Coenen brothers' speed this weekend. If the Coenen brothers can stop crashing (Lucas has figured it out for the most part) then you add in the very solid Liam Everts and they could win this race a lot going forward. JT said on the show he thinks Belgium will win next year in France but I’m not ready to say that. After all, both brothers crashed almost as many times as Hampshire this weekend, but they’ll be in the mix for sure.
Jo Shimoda was awesome on the 450 for Japan. He ran up front with the Lawrence brothers in both his motos until he faded a bit. He admitted to me the 450 got to him. Shimoda was a real eye opener, as his style does lend itself to a 450.
Mathis Valin has been the surprise in the MX2 class in the second half of the GP series and he really broke out at the MXoN. He lost the moto win in MX2 by half a wheel to Kay de Wolf in moto one and then rode well in moto two. His rides helped France get third and I had an EXCLUSIVE interview with Romain Febvre where he told me training with Valin has helped him a ton, as the kid sends it and is full of energy. France, as amazing as it sounds, didn’t miss Tom Vialle out there.
Tim Gajser, in his farewell ride for Honda HRC, did his usual thing out there, which is ride great and show serious speed. The only difference is that his teammates showed up big time this year! Jan Pancar got an impressive third in his moto to tie Tim for the best score for Slovenia (career best fifth for that country!). Afterward Tim told me Jan’s ride was the “ride of a lifetime.”
I don’t want to talk about Canada, Like, at all. Allow me this though, for the 15th consecutive year in a row, we’re better than this.
Thanks for reading MXoN OBS! We’ll be back to talk about Paris SX, Aussie SX and more. Email me at matthes@racerxonline.com to talk about this or anything else.
