2024 Spring Creek Motocross | Kickstart Recap & Gallery

2024 SPRING CREEK MOTOCROSS | COMPLETE COVERAGE

Back Half of the Season

The trip to Rochester puts us in the back half of this year’s Pro Motocross Championship, and every moto from here on will shape the final points and the SMX playoffs. The month of action in the middle of the summer can determine a rider’s whole year, and the variables going into each weekend now include the usual injuries or crashes, the energy-zapping grind of practice and travel, or the occasional appearance of part-time competitors who take points from the full-timers, and with each result we get a better idea of who will be in the motos and LCQs come September.

Some are up for the challenge. They’ll talk about still testing to find the setting that will shed tenths off the lap times or the big push they’re ready to make through the heart of the summer, an everyday pursuit of perfection. Others, especially those moving to different teams in 2025 or with an unshakeable rank in the standings, are in maintenance mode, and getting through July in one piece puts them one step closer to whatever the future holds.

This part of the year has gone by very, very quickly, and everyone with a hard card is looking forward to the three-week break after Washougal.

The Track Prep

The Martin family got lots of complaints about how the track was prepped in 2023, and, according to racer turned promoter Alex, the reason was that the tractors weren’t powerful enough to dig into the base. There was not as much negative feedback this year, as bigger and better equipment from an agreement with a nearby Caterpillar dealer reworked the entire layout Friday evening, and a PistenBully snowcat fluffed, drug, and scrapped until the sandy top layer looked like a brown ski slope.

The sand rollers were the last section to be worked. The creek-side whoops were flat and fast during the amateur day program, no doubt an attempt to keep the masses safe on the most hectic weekend of the year. We asked Alex Martin what the plan was for the spot before leaving on Friday night. “Don’t worry; it’ll be built up,” he assured us before driving off to his next task in a work Mule.

He was, of course, right, and overnight, the section was finished with one set of chest-high rollers, the other up to the waist. There were a few different rhythms riders tried to get into as they hopped underneath the tree and through the slight kink, and if they did everything right, they would carry momentum around the berm into the following path. Guys that lost the flow could try to get it back in the left-hander that connected the two lanes, but getting through the technical section cleanly lap after lap was a challenge for everyone. The AMA track crew noticed, asked riders if changes needed to be made after they came off the track from Moto One, and had Shane Schaefer cut the mounds down during halftime.

One last note: the Spring Creek crew has put in a lot of hours into the property lately, and it shows in the little things, including the running changes to the layout, the grading and smoothing of the hillside next to the triple, a country-club cut for the grass in the paddock, trash cans everywhere, and the spread of parking lots around the valley.

The Weather

Saturday afternoon’s weather was different from what we had anticipated. Forecasts leading up to the weekend called for high temperatures and humidity, and while it was both hot and humid, it never got as bad as predicted due to a weather front that rolled through the upper plains. When the first band went north of the track in the morning but brought clouds to the valley, the locals started to point out all of the indicators of a building storm, and it materialized with cracks of lightning and big raindrops in the closing laps of 450 Moto Two. As always, the lightning was the reason for the impromptu pause, and the 45-minute pause was handled differently by everyone, as the 250 Class riders had to stay warmed up and focused while the 450 Class riders bolted for an evening flight out of Minneapolis.

While looking over the weather forecasts for home and Washougal this week, we somehow saw data from the National Weather Service and EPA about the changes in rainfall around the country, including a map that shows how the southwestern region of Minnesota that Millville is in has seen an uptick in single-day heavy storms.

New Gear

FXR, Fox Racing, THOR MX, and Alpinestars all rolled out new looks at round seven. Did the four brands (five if you factor in FTA from FXR) mean to go head-to-head, or was it a matter of calculated chance? Probably more the latter, but if you know what’s going on in the gear world, it was an exciting glimpse into each company’s plans for 2025 and beyond.

We’ll start with FXR, as the Canadian company was the race’s title sponsor and has an American office in Minnesota. They are a decade into an all-out push that’s earned them a slice of the category, especially in the Midwest, and they had a lot of popular working-class pros wearing their newest materials and styles in front of ready-to-buy customers. They also rolled out the all-new 6D ATR-3 as part of their collaboration with the game-changing helmet maker. By presence alone, you can tell that FXR is serious about growing its motocross business.

Fox Racing’s 2025 line is really the first offering of their “Hello, Future” marketing mantra to the public. The trippy and colorful looks are definitely a step toward psychedelic modernism, and they’re formed into athletic silhouettes and made with cutting-edge fabrics and machines. The brand is starting to figure out all it can be capable of as part of the Vista Outdoor group, which includes the expansion into sports clothing and a talented roster of marketable, high-profile athletes loved by the core fan.

THOR MX, the originator of gear and one of the most-worn brands in the pro pit, is in the middle of an overhaul. Not that that’s a bad thing, but what else is a company to do when a longtime employee leaves a vital position like Jim Gallagher did after 30-plus years as creative director? The new logo encapsulates a fresh start, and full details about the new line will be released in early August.

Alpinestars wants to sign Haiden Deegan to a head-to-toe deal when the opportunity comes. The bright orange SM10 he wore at Spring Creek will be the company’s first signature helmet model offered to the public, and given how popular Dangerboy is, it should sell very well. Will an all-encompassing signature line of products, and likely a cut of the profits, sway the brand-loving rider into inking the deal? That’s the hope.

Turn One In 250 Moto Two

The moment of the weekend was the 45 seconds or so that the pack spent in the first turn during 250 Moto Two. The race to the hard right was exciting and tense, and what happened immediately after shaped the day for the small-bore division and, in all reality, likely the title. Chance Hymas stayed up and scored the holeshot but immediately pulled off with an injured ankle; Casey Cochran added another merit badge to his rookie season book by leading a lot of laps; Levi Kitchen stayed out of the mess and then pushed to pick up his first 1-1, Jo Shimoda/Tom Vialle/Ty Masterpool got put into positions that jumbled the overall results, and Haiden Deegan went from being the first person down and one of the last to being one of the top-five across the finish line.

250 Points

That Deegan stood on the podium after one of his toughest motos as a pro shows how strong he is this season. Going down and climbing up through the pack is impressive on its own, for sure, but much like it was at RedBud, that all of his competition still gave up points to him on a down day now has him 51 ahead in the season standings. Being about two Moto wins’ worth of points ahead of the pack with only eight gate drops left is a great place to be.

Levi Kitchen’s results, paired with Chance Hymas’ 0 in Moto Two and Tom Vialle’s issues, propelled the rider to second overall in the season standings. The 250 Class is known for having wild lunges from week to week, but the Spring Creek shakeup was one of the crazier ones of our recent memory, and there are now a few scenarios for spots two-five.

450 Class Separation

“Will Chase and Hunter break away, or will the pack stay close enough for other guys to win motos?” That was the big question after RedBud, and rightly so. Both riders had faced their share of ups and downs through the first half of the summer, and guys like Justin Cooper/Aaron Plessinger/Jason Anderson showed they have what it takes to run at the front and get on the podium, things that continued at Spring Creek. But even with that said, the Minnesota weekend showed Chase and Hunter can go to another level the others can’t sustain, and although one of the others could still get a checkered flag, they’re going to really have to fight for it.