By Billy Rainford

Good morning from Albuquerque, New Mexico. A city of 564,559 people. The Duke City or Burque is one of just a few large cities I’ll be passing through on my journey home from California. I already went through Phoenix and next I’ll leave New Mexico and head through Amarillo, Texas, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, up through St Louis, Missouri, Indianapolis, Indiana, Toledo, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, and finally home into Ontario.

It’s a long haul and the tough part about going this way is that I’ll lose another couple hours to time changes and the weather will continue to get colder and colder. But let me tell you this…I’m ready to be home.

I’d hate to jinx things at a time like this, but the #DMXVan has been chugging along nicely through another one of these long journeys. I think Dodge is may really be on to something with these “small vans.”

I’m not sure what I’ll be in next season, but I think this should be the last time I force this van across the continent, just to be safe. The question is, do I go bigger, smaller, or stay the same in the future?

It’s been a great month chasing our Canadians around California to the races and practice tracks.

#83 Cole Thompson.

#83 Cole Thompson will be off until he heads back for the make-up race in Oakland. It sounds like we’ll see him on the gate for a round or two of the 450 class in the east on his 250, but we’ll have to wait and get his final schedule. We’ll do an interview, hopefully today, as we both make our ways home.

Cole sits 13th in t 250 West points after 3 rounds of racing.

#500 Julien Benek.

#500 Julien Benek will take some time to let his shoulder heal from his early-season crash and be back in action for Oakland, too. He plans to race some 450 rounds in the east on a 450, so we’ll have to keep an eye out for that.

Unfortunately, they missed the start of the 250 LCQ at Anaheim 2.

#518 Parker Eales.

#518 Parker Eales is likely back to work in BC this morning. Hopefully, we see him again when the series hits Seattle. What a great experience that was for him to be able to come down to California for over a month and race the West rounds and even an AMA Arenacross thrown in there. It was fun hanging out with Kyle Springman and Kevin Urqhart, too.

There were lots of stars hanging around at A2. Check out a few notables:

Josiah Natzke showed up in Canada last summer and won his first 4 250 motos. Supercross is new to him but he’ll be on the line next week in Houston when the 250 East starts.
Dylan Rempel is the newest member of the Partzilla PRMX team. He was hanging out with his new teammates and perhaps getting a nice look into his future.
Cal Nowicki and gang.
Dean Foster. Hey, Rylan Foster, my Fosterhome Farms maple syrup levels are critically low!
Buckethead doing the national anthem was rad, but I’m definitely a little creeped out by him. Remember when Slash did it?
Marcus Ericsson used to race F1 and won the 2022 Indy 500! He’s on the right.
Dean Thompson and crew.

I have to tell a short story about this photo. As I was setting up, Broc Glover came over and mentioned how it was a bunch of “Canucks, eh!” At the time, I had no idea that Dean and gang were there with Dunlop.

I chatted with Broc for a minute about how Jett Lawerence‘s pink Alpinestars gear reminded me of his shocking pink gear back in the 80’s.

Back when I was a little kid, Broc was one of my racing heroes. My dad also always respected Broc’s no-nonsense racing. He just always seemed to show up and do well.

So, after chatting for a couple minutes, I decided I should officially introduce myself. I put my hand out to do so and Broc immediately said he knew who I was and reads DMX stuff.

My dad passed away a couple years ago and I really wish I could tell him that story. Thank you, Broc.

There’s so much to talk about from this past weekend, but I’m stressing out about not putting the miles behind me. Maybe what I’ll do is drive for a few hours and then pull over somewhere, so an interview or 2 and post some more stuff up here on the site.

Here are the extended highlights from A2:

SX Futures podium: Daxton Bennick, Casey Cochran, Talon Hawkins.
#43 Levi Kitchen won A2!
A2 450 podium: Chase Sexton, Jason Anderson, Ken Roczen.

AMA Endurocross Round 1

King of the Motos

Johnson Valley, California

Place Rider# AMA# Rider Name Sponsors Brand Class Chk 1 Chk 2 Chk 3 Chk 4 Chk 5 Chk 6 Chk 7 Chk 8 Chk 9
1 1 2158898 TRYSTAN HART Redbull Ktm Fmf KTM Pro 0:11:08 (1) 0:23:25 (1) 0:31:04 (1) 0:48:04 (1) 1:01:15 (1) 1:14:33 (1) 1:18:24 (1) 1:30:06 (1) 1:44:27 (1)
2 2 654257 CODY WEBB Factory1 Sherco, Red Bull, Arai, Scott, CTi, Pivot SHR Pro 0:11:14 (2) 0:24:25 (2) 0:31:11 (2) 0:48:20 (2) 1:02:32 (2) 1:16:27 (2) 1:23:24 (2) 1:31:43 (2) 1:53:59 (2)
3 513 2096958 RYDER LEBLOND DRT Racing, Husqvarna HSQ Pro 0:12:00 (3) 0:25:26 (3) 0:32:38 (3) 0:53:54 (3) 1:07:50 (3) 1:21:59 (3) 1:36:19 (3) 1:39:39 (3) 1:59:07 (3)
4 39 3704346 WILL RIORDAN   KTM Pro 0:13:00 (4) 0:28:47 (4) 0:36:17 (5) 0:57:01 (4) 1:13:01 (4) 1:27:29 (4) 1:36:23 (4) 1:44:19 (4) 2:03:08 (4)
5 10 729697 COLTON HAAKER Rockstar energy husqvarna factory HSQ Pro 0:19:00 (25) 0:30:07 (7) 0:37:51 (7) 0:59:08 (5) 1:14:17 (5) 1:29:44 (6) 1:36:24 (5) 1:45:27 (5) 2:04:28 (5)
6 12 284792 COOPER ABBOTT FactoryONE Sherco SHR Pro 0:14:01 (6) 0:28:52 (5) 0:36:14 (4) 0:59:18 (6) 1:14:27 (6) 1:29:20 (5) 1:36:25 (6) 1:45:30 (6) 2:08:09 (6)
7 99 3389824 BRANDEN PETRIE Sherco Enduro Racing Just 1 SHR Pro 0:14:37 (8) 0:30:29 (9) 0:37:58 (9) 1:01:32 (7) 1:18:56 (7) 1:35:44 (7) 1:43:17 (7) 1:53:23 (7) 2:15:26 (7)
8 55 3090498 JAMES FLYNN AEO DDC SXS IRC Fastway RKTec MotoSeat XCGear GG Pro 0:15:22 (11) 0:31:35 (10) 0:40:21 (10) 1:06:16 (10) 1:24:16 (10) 1:40:05 (9) 1:47:24 (9) 1:56:36 (9) 2:20:28 (8)
9 492 894234 DUSTIN MCCARTHY Chocolate Mountain Ranch KTM Pro 0:13:55 (5) 0:29:47 (6) 0:37:54 (8) 1:01:34 (8) 1:20:09 (8) 1:36:45 (8) 1:45:30 (8) 1:55:25 (8) 2:24:03 (9)
10 118 279269 CORY GRAFFUNDER SRT, TBT, Bell, SXS, Seat Concepts, Sidi, Rekluse KTM Pro 0:14:30 (7) 0:30:17 (8) 0:37:46 (6) 1:04:45 (9) 1:22:24 (9) 1:40:45 (10) 1:49:02 (10) 1:59:12 (10) 2:31:16 (10)
Place Rider# AMA# Rider Name Sponsors Brand Chk 1 Chk 2 Chk 3 Chk 4 Chk 5 Chk 6 Chk 7 Chk 8
1 64L 2157004 KYLEE SWEETEN   GG 0:46:32 (1) 1:15:37 (1) 1:32:22 (1) 2:44:22 (1) 3:33:16 (1) 4:13:08 (1) 4:31:06 (1) 4:50:16 (1)
2 676L 3068818 HALLIE MARKS Sherco USA, Inside Enduro, Hammer Nutrition SHR 0:53:54 (2) 1:28:33 (2) 1:43:59 (2) 3:19:25 (2) 3:54:58 (2) 4:40:47 (2) 5:06:09 (2) 5:24:25 (2)
3 6L 3274591 BAILEY LERWILL SXS,DIRTastic,Evo ID,SelkirkGphcs,Dave Smith HSQ 0:58:03 (3) 1:35:52 (3) 1:54:21 (3) 3:24:33 (3) 4:11:30 (3) 4:55:34 (3) 5:20:57 (3) 5:41:59 (3)
4 33L 3773610 MESA LANGE Klim, Skratch Labs, Westerner Rv Park HSQ 1:42:22 (4) 2:36:11 (4) 3:01:12 (4)  

I still need to interview Tyler Gibbs, too! Man, this gig requires more than the efforts of just one human…lol

Have a great week, everyone. Hopefully, next time you hear from me I’ll be in OK City, or somewhere closer to home!

Thank you #604 Max Miller. See you at the races…