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If you've been out riding all summer and haven't had time to keep up with the action on track, here's your quick catch-up. Read these five story lines and you'll be ready to join in the conversation when it turns to racing during the next water stop on a day out with your riding buddies.
Motocross: Even a Jett has to come down to earth sometime
Injuries always play a big role in motocross, and right now the sport's top racers seem to be all thumbs. Injured thumbs, that is.
Defending AMA Pro Motocross champion Jett Lawrence, who won the title last year as a rookie in the 450 class with a perfect season, suffered a torn ligament in his thumb in an otherwise minor crash at his training facility in Florida on July 2. After surgery, he plans to skip the rest of the outdoor season and be back in action for the three-round SuperMotocross "playoffs" starting September 7.
The injury that put Lawrence out of competition for a few months is the same one that has also kept top riders Eli Tomac and Cooper Webb from the starting gate. With Ken Roczen also out, that leaves Red Bull KTM rider Chase Sexton and Jett's Team Honda HRC teammate and older brother, Hunter Lawrence, in a two-way battle for the title. Sexton currently has a 13-point lead after winning the overall this past weekend at the Bob The Cooler Co. Redbud National in Michigan.
While Jett Lawrence was third in the Pro Motocross standings behind his brother and Sexton before his injury, no one doubted that he was still a strong contender for the championship. After his perfect record of winning every moto in his first 450 outdoor season last year, he followed up by winning the inaugural SuperMotocross playoffs and the Monster Energy AMA Supercross title this year. That means this year's Pro Motocross title will be the first 450 title Jett Lawrence hasn't won.
Prior to Lawrence's injury, our number-crunching friends over at We Went Fast took a look at Lawrence's stats in his first 15 rounds of Pro Motocross and found, to nobody's surprise, that his numbers far surpass anyone else's start in the premier class. Lawrence won 90% of his first 30 motos and 93% of his first 15 overalls. Next best on the list of hot starters was Ryan Dungey at 67% in both motos and overalls. See all the numbers in We Went Fast's analysis.
MotoGP: Silly season dominoes fall
Going into the mid-season break, two-time defending champion and Ducati Lenovo Team rider Pecco Bagnaia has ridden a winning streak of four full-length races to a 10-point lead over Prima Pramac Racing's Jorge Martín, who lost the points lead by crashing while in first place in this weekend's Liqui Moly Grand Prix of Germany. Gresini Racing's Marc Márquez is third in the standings, 56 points behind Bagnaia. But the silly season action has grabbed almost as much coverage as the racing action.
Speculation was running rampant over who the Ducati factory team would choose as Bagnaia's teammate for 2025 and beyond, with the enviable options of keeping Enea Bastianini, choosing six-time primier-class champion Márquez, or last year's runner-up and this year's top challenger, Martín. For a while it looked like Ducati would give the factory ride to Martín — who felt he should have gotten the ride instead of Bastianini the last time — and keep Márquez on a satellite team but with a 2025 Desmosedici instead of a year-old model. But then Márquez basically said that he didn't see himself as anything other than a factory rider and Ducati caved to the pressure of losing one of the all-time greats of the sport, even if he is far closer to the end of his career than the beginning.
The factory Ducati ride was given to Márquez. Dominoes then tumbled quickly. Twice spurned, Martín signed with the Aprilia factory team to replace the retiring Aleix Espargaró, and Bastianini signed with Tech 3 KTM. Oh, and the Pramac team switched from Ducati to Yamaha.
All of that means that the biggest question of 2025 will be whether Ducati made a mistake by betting on one of the undeniably greatest talents of the past instead of betting on one of the potentially best talents of the next few years.
Moto2: The lone U.S. championship hope grits his teeth
Early in this season, it was clear that the only realistic hope of a 2024 roadracing world championship by a U.S. racer would be if Joe Roberts, on the OnlyFans American Racing Team, could take the Moto2 title. After seven rounds, Roberts had four podium finishes, including one win, and was just seven points out of the lead in the standings. Then, in the first practice session at Assen, he crashed and broke his collarbone (see the crash in the video below).
Nine days later, this weekend in the Liqui Moly German Gran Prix, Roberts gritted out an eighth-place finish to score eight points and keep himself a factor in the championship.
Roberts currently sits in third place in the standings, 24 points behind Sergio García, who leads because he is one of the few top contenders in Moto2 who hasn't missed a race this year and has scored points every round. Given how competitive Moto2 is, Roberts won't have an easy time getting back to the top, but he is in with a chance, thanks to his points-salvage operation this weekend.
MotoAmerica: The most unpredictable Superbike season yet
In past years during the MotoAmerica era, by the middle of the season, the AMA Superbike championship was down to a two-rider battle, at best. But this year, with four rounds and nine races remaining, just a nine-point spread covers the top four riders in the Steel Commander Superbike standings. With so many variables involved, the outcome is maybe even more unpredictable than those numbers suggest.
The biggest unknowns surround the fitness of the two men who have won eight of the nine Superbike championships in the MotoAmerica era. Five-time champion Cameron Beaubier returned from two winless years in Moto2 and got off to a strong start on his Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW M 1000 RR with three wins, a second, and a crash in the first five races. But another crash at Road America left him with a broken heel. After scoring no points in five straight races, he lies back in seventh in the standings. Meanwhile, three-time champion Jake Gagne on the Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha YZF-R1 has been suffering from arm pump problems. After winning two thirds of the Superbike races in the past three years, he only has one win in 2024. He plans to try more medical treatment during the month-long break after this weekend's round at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Despite the arm pump, Gagne is second in the standings, mainly because he is the only rider in the field who has scored points in every race. When he hasn't been able to keep up with the frontrunners, he has stayed on track and finished in the points to salvage what he can. And he has been competitive in wet conditions, when the riding puts less strain on his arms, as in the race below at Road America (a finish worth watching, if you haven't seen it).
Maybe the biggest surprise of the season is who's leading: Bobby Fong on the Wrench Motorcycles Yamaha YZF-R1. Like everyone else in the field, he has had his bad days, but with five podium finishes, including two wins, he has a one-point lead over Gagne.
Just seven points behind Fong is Gagne's teammate, Cameron Petersen, coming back from off-season surgery. Petersen has three wins this year, more than anyone except Beaubier, also with three. In fourth place, just nine points behind Fong, is Josh Herrin on the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati Panigale V4 R. Herrin has also been gaining momentum, with two wins and two seconds in the last five races.
After the Laguna Seca round this weekend, the series has a one-month break before it returns to Mid-Ohio in August, giving time for Gagne and Beaubier to heal up. Beaubier has proven to be the fastest guy in the field when healthy, and he has come from farther back to win a title. But even if he can't recover from his 55-point deficit, he could be a spoiler for the other contenders.
World Superbike: Will Toprak Razgatlıoğlu get his shot at MotoGP?
By moving to BMW and leading the points standings in World Superbike, Toprak Razgatlıoğlu has cemented his reputation as a special talent. (Who else wins a race by doing a stoppie across the finish line? See video above.) Consider that he is not only winning on the previously almost winless BMW, but he has also scored more points than the other three BMW riders combined. By a significant margin. Now, Razgatlıoğlu and his manager, former racer Kenan Sofuoğlu, are trying to leverage that success into a MotoGP ride, perhaps as early as next year.
There are some problems with that, however. First, Razgatlıoğlu is under contract to BMW next year, and they certainly won't want to give up their most successful rider. Second, there are few MotoGP seats for 2025 that aren't already nailed down, and definitely no factory team rides Razgatlıoğlu could hope to get. And would Razgatlıoğlu really want to give up the compensation and presence in the record books of winning in World Superbike to go ride for a satellite team in MotoGP?
I don't know, but it seems to me that Álvaro Bautista has had more fun winning WSBK titles than he did riding around mid-pack in MotoGP. There's no question Razgatlıoğlu has earned a shot at MotoGP if that's what he wants, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea or the time is right.
