Overall, it was a fun and successful event, which usually starts with a good weather forecast, especially at this time of the year in the Midwest. As we saw at RedBud in 2018 and ’22, the weather can dampen an otherwise fantastic weekend of moto. From the crazy Friday parade on the main street of Crawfordsville, Indiana, to the final dramatic MXGP/Open moto, Ironman Raceway was blessed with great weather, even downright hot, which is rare for October in this part of the country. It helped result in a great big crowd surrounding a very tricky track that favored 450s more than most MXoN tracks do. The whole community of Crawfordsville and Montgomery County was welcoming to the visitors who came from all over the world, many decked out in their national colors and costumes for the biggest motocross race of the year. And of course, many of the home team’s fans were covered in red, white, and blue, armed with chainsaws, air horns, and other noisemakers to help cheer Eli, Justin, and RJ on.

In the end, the whole outcome pivoted around the performance of Australia’s third man, the underrated Kyle Webster. Like last year in Great Britain, all he really needed to do was have one good moto, then let the Lawrence brothers do the rest. Webster delivered on Sunday (fighting back from first turn crashes in both motos), and Australia won again. For as long as Jett and Hunter remain at the top of their game and go into this race healthy, their wingman will have all the pressure. And here’s a strange factoid: In the 78-year history of the MXON, this is the first time that the exact same lineup—Lawrence, Webster, Lawrence—won two years in a row!

The race was full of individual efforts that really impressed. Jo Shimoda jumped up to a 450 and showed he will soon be a force in that class on the SMX circuit. The 250 SMX World Champion helped Japan make the finals for the first time in nearly a decade. The Coenen brothers, Lucas and Sacha, were very impressive with their speed, as was their Belgian teammate Liam Everts in his own 450 debut (he did race a 350 at this race a few years ago). When they get their crashing thing under control, look out. Kay de Wolf was another revelation, finishing as the top MX2 rider in both of his motos for the second year in a row—and I imagine he probably would have been even better with the challenge of trying to beat Haiden Deegan, had Deegs not pulled out with that collarbone injury. And all of America can thank Sweden’s Isak Gifting for his last-lap pass on Frenchman Maxime Renaux that clinched second for Team USA.

Finally, there was a very fitting tribute for Roger De Coster, the longtime manager of Team USA and the lifelong ambassador for global motocross. The Roger De Coster Paddock at Ironman Raceway was introduced during opening ceremonies in honor of all that The Man has done for the sport in his 81 years, first as a world champion himself, and later as a team manager. Roger was going to stay home for the weekend after abdicating his duties as Team USA Manager, but at the last minute, he flew in to participate in opening ceremonies and also see his many friends and fans from all over the world. The sport would simply not be what it is without Roger De Coster’s influence, charisma, star power, everything. The honor was well-deserved.

Finally, on a personal note, it was an honor to be part of the organization of this race for the first time ever. Hundreds of people came together from MX Sports Pro Racing and Infront Moto Racing, the AMA and FIM, the community and the sponsors, the TV production team and the whole event staff, all of the past members of Team USA who came out to support the event, and of course all of the competitors and the fans. It made for a very busy time for everyone, but a wonderful weekend to wrap it all up. Now it's a time for a well-deserved break for everyone…

Can’t wait to start all over again!

Pro Perspective (Jason Thomas)

What a weekend that was! It’s hard to imagine anyone left Ironman Raceway without feeling like they got what they came for. The weather was hotter than anyone could have expected, and the racing delivered. On the results side, I think it was fairly predictable, even if it was a wild ride to get there. Australia was the favorite coming in, and they did plenty to earn their second consecutive win. It wasn’t easy, though, as Kyle Webster’s first-turn crashes added a layer of urgency to what would have otherwise been a Sunday stroll to victory. Jett and Hunter were nothing short of dominant, each winning their divisions.

The real battle was for the two other podium spots. France, Belgium, and the Americans were all trading places during the final moto, and tensions were spiking. Each pass was changing the math, and it wasn’t until Belgium’s Lucas Coenen crashed that the pressure lifted for the bare minimum podium spot. The pressure, though lessened, remained for who would earn the runner-up spot between the French and Team USA.

France’s MXGP FIM Motocross World Champion Romain Febvre was trying to hold serve, battling Jett Lawrence on his way to the front. His teammate, Maxime Renaux, was doing all he could, but the narrow defeat to Sweden’s Isak Gifting loomed large when the points were tallied. As Steve Matthes said on his Blair Matthes Project podcast, Gifting will never have to buy a beer in Crawfordsville, Indiana.

Eli Tomac did his part, pushing into second place in his best ride of the weekend. He wouldn’t know it was for the position at the time, but his ride clinched it. Team USA teammate RJ Hampshire retired from race three after several crashes relayed the message to call it a day. All in all, the chaos of fluid positioning in race three epitomized what the Motocross of Nations is like. The unique scoring, team aspect, and mixture of 250/450 riders all make it the race of the year. There’s simply nothing like it.

As predictable as 2025 may have been, the next two years will be more interesting to watch. Honestly, Team USA will likely not be considered a favorite until possibly 2028. France next year will favor the MXGP riders (not to mention the French on home soil), and Assen, the Netherlands, in 2027 will be a sand fest. The Australians will likely be in the mix with the powerful Lawrence duo, but the Belgians are coming fast. Factor in the Dutch team with Jeffrey Herlings on standby and a rising Kay de Wolf; things are getting spicy. In fact, Team USA might have to fight tooth and nail for even a podium until 2028. The other teams are retooling and maturing; it’s going to be a dogfight for the foreseeable future.

Could Team USA Have Won? (Jason Weigandt)

It's tough to cover the Motocross of Nations because it's a team race, and riders are racing for their country, not themselves. No one wants to be mean and tear down a rider who doesn't perform. Thus, you'll see a lot of "tried their best" and "gave it 100 percent effort" post-race analysis from this race. Look at how DC summed up the event at the very start of Racerhead above!

Along those lines, yes, Justin Cooper and RJ Hampshire did try their best and put in 100 percent effort. They were last-minute fill-ins! Then RJ hurt himself in a practice crash before the race, so he was in pain all weekend. J-Coop jumped on a 250! To net second place was actually pretty good for this squad.

What would it have taken for Team USA to win, though? Well, the team lost by 14 points and needed 15 to jump Australia because Hunter Lawrence's moto-three win was a tie-breaker. Where do you find 15 points? For starters, RJ coulda' shoulda' finished second in moto two; that's five points better than where he finished (seventh) after a bunch of crashes. But Team USA still needs ten more points! Let's say RJ finishes fourth in moto three (can't hold off a charging Jett, beats everyone else). Now the team can drop one of Justin Cooper's tenths for an RJ fourth... but that's still only a six point gain, so the team is still down four! Now you're into the margins. J-Coop needs sixth in one of his motos instead of tenth, which is a tall order because even MX2 World Champ Kay de Wolf could only get eighth, and he was the best 250 rider in both races. Or, RJ needs to hold off Jett in the third moto after Jett went down early, or Tomac needs to get Tim Gajser in the first moto and vault from fourth to third. As you can see, it would have taken a lot for the team to win. It's pretty crazy, actually, when you consider Kyle Webster went down in both motos, and both Lawrences went down as well, that the Australians still had this kind of lead. When the Lawrences win every moto, this is what you get.

What really needed to happen, then? Haiden Deegan would have needed a Johnny O’/Lammy/RV-style miracle day in MX2, or Chase Sexton would have needed to make it to the race healthy and win a moto. Expecting any more from Tomac, Cooper, or Hampshire is probably not realistic. Even a healthy RJ going a strong 2-4 doesn't even get it done! The Australians are making it very tough to win in the margins right now—you have to beat them in motos to win the event. That's proving very, very difficult!

MXDN MEMORIES (Matthes)

The best thing about the MXDN (sic) isn't the racing—although that's pretty good—it's really the hanging out part that's the best. You see your media colleagues once a year at this race; most of the American moto media is there as well, and it turns into three days of bench racing. The three days help as well because here in the USA, the whole day is pretty packed. Some of my highlights include:

• Racer X shows Friday and Saturday night where Weege and I welcomed a ton of guests to the stage in front of a huge crowd of people, especially on Saturday since the parade downtown was jam-packed on Friday. Plus, the Jeremy McGrath Holeshot Challenge was going on as we were hosting the shows! We had all the guys come on stage to talk about it and MXDN memories, and me being of a certain vintage, it was really fun to have Jeff Ward and Rick Johnson up on stage talking about hating each other during the SX/MX year and then coming together for the MXDN. I know most of the stories by now but hearing them again makes me laugh and realize how seriously guys took this race back in the day. Jeff Stanton came up later on and also regaled us with stories of taking out Dirk Guerkens in Sweden in the back to secure the USA win in 1990. Wardy's a legend, 7-0 at the MXDN—and 2-0 in the old Trophee des Nations—and included in that is knocking himself out on Saturday and racing Sunday while throwing up and winning! Weege grabbed the audio from the shows, and it's on his podcast, I believe (editor’s note: Listen to the archives here).
• The Alpinestars people always host the media and countries in a great show of hospitality, and there was more of that this weekend. So, hanging out in there and talking to RJ away from the mics, as well as Jett Lawrence coming by Sunday morning for his eggs and bench racing with him, was great.
• I ran into MXGP grand poobah David "Dan" Luongo in the infield on Sunday, and we talked about the event from his perspective. David is a good guy; he listens and responds to things that could be better, and although I don't agree with him on some things the MXGP series does, I do feel like it's in good hands with him.

• I watched most of the first moto with ICE One Kawasaki manager Antti Pyrhonen, and that was when his rider, Frenchman Matthias Valin, led a bunch of other MX2 riders, only to lose it at the line to Kay de Wolf. Antti is a good dude, a gregarious Finn, and he was so proud of the kid for having a breakout ride on the world stage of the MXDN. That was cool.
• Talking to Tim Gajser after the moto about his day, Tim's a great guy, and I think he knows me at this point. Or at least he acts like he does and is a classy interview. He was beyond happy about his team's fifth overall finish, with Jan Pancar having, in Gajser's words, "the ride of his lifetime." Also, in an unofficial poll that Lars Lindstrom and I did, we think the Slovenia team had the hottest chicks of any team.
• A quick moment after the race with Australia's Michael Byrne, who managed his country to a second straight win. I've got all the time in the world for Byrner and am stoked he's getting some MXDN glory after all those years as a rider coming up short. Whatever team he was on, factory Kawasaki or Suzuki or whatever, Byrne never changed or became a guy who thought he was better than others, etc. The dude's always been so cool, and I told him that after the race. Happy for good things to happen to good people, you know?
• My EXCLUSIVE interview with MXGP champ Romain Febvre on Friday, thanks to Kawasaki for setting that up. Romain's now a two-time MXGP champ, has gone 1-1 at the MXDN, and I talked to him about the crazy season, pulling back away from Lucas Coenen mid-season, thoughts on why Prado's year went so badly, and MXDN pressure. Click HERE to listen to the Febvre podcast interview.

Did someone say, "Exclusive?" 👀

Thoughts From The Couch From MXoN (Keefer)

-Team France was a little aggressive in the team introductions when Gautier Paulin was introducing the 2025 MXGP World Champion Romain Febvre. He wanted more applause which from my standpoint there was, but maybe he wanted more excitement for Romain? Also, he wanted a little more respect for the team as it was loud in the back of the tent from onlookers having their own discussions while the interviews were taking place. This all made me chuckle as the French aren't scared to speak their mind.

-This may be an unpopular opinion, but I still think Team USA gets second even with Tomac, Sexton, and Deegan. I know I am speculating here but from what I witnessed from Team Australia as well as the points spread from first to second it would have been really hard for a Team USA win, this year. No hate comms, but right now those two brothers are REALLY good and they can afford to have a MX2 rider be mediocre even though I think if Kyle Webster wasn't on the ground in the first corner for both motos, he would have been top 3-4 overall in MX2.

-Team Netherlands made up of Glenn Coldenhoff, Clavin Vlaanderen, de Wolf was a solid team and I originally thought they could rival France for a podium but that wasn't meant to be as Coldenhoff had that big crash when he hit a downed bike in the sand rollers (which put him out of the motos for Sunday). What I don't think is quite right is the hate that Vlaanderen gets because he replaces Herlings in the Open class. That wasn't his decision! These three riders were the best on paper and makes sense. Herlings has been hurt so having Calvin replace him is the correct thing to do. It's not like Calvin sucks; he is a great rider with great MXoN results in the past. The Herlings fans need to relax. I honestly don't think Herlings is that pissed he didn't go.

-Can we give a huge cat like ninja award to the flagger that ducked at the last minute to have Jett jump over him when Jett got squirrely after the finish! To have the cat-like reflexes to duck at that moment was incredible and should have been in Sports Center's Top Ten plays of the day!

-Jan Pancar didn't do anything too greasy. He braked checked RJ. Fair game, I say. That right hand turn invites brake checking and I witnessed it myself at the national this year. It's one lined and the riders hug the bank so a little stop and go could allow for some breathing room and Jan took it. I think RJ was riding a little RJ to get caught back up and wasn't expecting it at all. I don't think it's a bad move, it's just a move to get someone off of your ass when you're a little tired. No hate comms.

Joel Smets on Belgium (DC)

Our esteemed colleague and contributor over in Europe, Adam Wheeler, penned a feature for the next issue of Racer X Illustrated about the sensational Coenen brothers, Lucas and Sacha, and how they are helping to carry on the legacy of the once-dominant Belgium in Grand Prix motocross, along with Liam Everts. Anyone watching the races at Ironman saw the potential in these three young Belgian riders, following in the bootsteps of Joel Robert, Roger De Coster, Gaston Rahier, the Geboers brothers, Liam’s grandfather Harry Everts, his father Stefan, Georges Jobe, and more. One of Belgium’s legends, five-time World Champion Joel Smets, spoke to Wheeler about the Coenen brothers, why Belgium was so great long ago, and what happened to change that:

“In Belgium, we have a big history in motocross, partly because of our geography and our position in central Europe, which helped us to travel around in times when it was not so easy,” explained Smets, who runs the Red Bull KTM factory team in Europe. “Also, in that small region, we had many different types of dirt. We could easily go from the softest sand to the hardest clay to the toughest rocks within an hour’s drive. This made us strong. The geographic advantage kind of disappeared because traveling became much easier, and unfortunately, Belgium became very populated, and we lost tracks.”

“We have kids coming through, but twins that were born and raised near Brussels, and from a French-speaking mum and a Flemish-speaking dad, for our country, is the best advertising we could wish for,” he believes. “Their success has a little negative side effect because it pushes motocross back into the mainstream, but then it also makes people think, ‘Oh! The sport is fine’ when it’s maybe not the case for tracks and development. Of course, there are more positives than negatives, and in the right facilities, it helps to keep our sport relevant because we are not cycling, not MotoGP, and not F1. We need heroes to keep the sport on the front page of the papers.”

Weighing in on Jett’s Set-Up (DC)

Here’s a letter we received this week on Jett’s setup, after a reader noticed something familiar in one of Johnny Hopper’s breakdown videos:

2026 Numbers (DC)

The AMA released the 2026 numbers for SMX and, as always, we immediately dug in to find some cool little nuggets and trends. For instance, #6 and #9 are still in the possession of Jeremy Martin and Adam Cianciarulo, respectively, though both are now retired. And #8 remains vacant for more than a dozen years now, as champions Cooper Webb (#2), Jett Lawrence (#18), and Haiden Deegan (#38) all kept their career numbers for whenever they aren’t wearing their #1s.

Chance Hymas lost #10 to Seth Hammaker after his midsummer injury and Hymas will now be #29. As for Hammaker, his #10 is the lowest number for a Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki rider since Ryan Villopoto chose #2 nearly twenty years ago. Julien Beaumer is not superstitious—he earned and kept #13. He ran #23 in 2025, the year he picked up his first ever Monster Energy AMA Supercross 250SX main event win.

The biggest trend is the fact that, with 250 SX points counting and many 450 riders having extended careers and already running permanent numbers, it was 250 riders earning the lowest numbers for 2026: Hammaker, Beaumer, Max Vohland (#19), Jordon Smith (#20), 250SX/450 MX rider Coty Schock (#22), Michael Mosiman (#23), and Nate Thrasher (#25) all earned more points than the top 450 rider with a new number, #26 Jorge Prado, who officially is no longer part of the Monster Energy Kawasaki factory team. Speaking of ex-world champs, Antonio Cairoli will have to wear #93 if he comes back for an AMA race in 2026.

Not on the list at all? Pierce Brown, who was #20 this year, crashed while leading the Tampa SX in the 250 East opener and then crashed out of the Ironman National upon his return. Cameron McAdoo is also going to be a triple digit number in ’26 after injuries took him out in ’25 as #50.

How about the lowest two-digit number? Rookie Kayden Minear goes from amateur #66 (and professional number #106 during his first few races in Pro Motocross this summer) to #99, the last two digit number on the list.

Finally, there is #54 Benny Bloss, who in 2026 will wear the lowest number never to win an AMA SX main event or Pro Motocross National in either class.

Hey, Watch It!

Style Check: SLO-MO selects from MXoN

2025 Motocross Of Nations Best Post-Race Show Ever

RJ Hampshire on MXoN: "If I earn it [again], I won't have another day like today."

This is Lawrence at the MXON:

GoPro: Tim Gajser 2025 FIM MXoN MXGP vs MX2 Moto 1 from Ironman Raceway

GoPro: Mikkel Haarup 2025 FIM MXoN MX2 vs OPEN Moto 2 from Ironman Raceway

Holeshot Challenge was 'hell of a time' for Carmichael and Villopoto | Title 24 | Motorsports on NBC

Team USA POV camera from the boys at Vurbmoto:

Whiskey Throttle’s MXON weekend, including that crazy parade: