Slaw Dog
The 2025 AMA Areancross Championship kicks off tonight in Reno, NV, and in addition to the typical format, where Kyle Peters is going for a sixth straight title, the series has introduced an all-electric class on Stark Vargs. The electric models will also be competing in the Dash for Cash against gas powered bikes.
Headlining the class are two familiar names: Justin Bogle and Josh Hill. Now both retired from full-time AMA Supercross and Motocross, they have both helped develop the Varg and Bogle has competed in Arenacross events in Europe on the bike.
At the opening round press conference, the former 250SX champion talked about his decision to race this series and returning to America.
“I’ve spent a lot of time on a Stark,” said Bogle. “You know, the last year it is the only bike I’ve ridden, so I’ve raced a lot in France and England and got to race in Italy with Josh and just racing against you know the gas bikes most of the time so I think bringing that experience to this it’ll be good and then also just racing my motorcycle in the best country on Earth. It’s nice to be back. I’m excited for it. To be around other people I want to be around and have some fun. There’s a lot of familiar faces here that I’ve seen over the years and raced with a lot so I’m really looking forward to it.”
Since retiring from “full-time” racing, Hill has done just about anything and everything. Video parts for Monster Energy, X Games, racing AMA Supercross and more. He talked about returning to the series yesterday.
“It’s going to be cool to see how this goes,” he said. “We’ve got of talented group of guys for the first ever you know like all electric you know big race in Arenacross so this is cool there’s gonna be some fast guys and the X or whenever we clash that’s gonna be pretty cool to see how it works. I mean I think this is just a great testing grounds to figure out you know if this where this bike’s good and where it needs work.”
Bogle and Hill also spoke about electric competing against gas bike.
“There’s pros and cons to both,” said Bogle. “And we’re still, you know, we’re ground floor with the electric thing at the moment, you know? And a lot of, I guess, my job title was trying to develop and learn these things and get better with them. So, made a lot of progress in the last year, but still got some work to do, but that’s why we’re here, you know, to be able to put it in a race environment and figure out what we need. And, uh, it’s just been getting better. I’m super happy that we have the team with us that we have. My mechanic, Ricard, is a legend from Spain. He’s over here for these races, which is a huge help for me. All the guys from California that have been helping us out. Like Trevor said, it’s so sweet having the group we have. It’s a cool group of guys. We all get along.
“I think that they both have their pluses and negatives,” said Hill. “Some tracks, the bike feels amazing and some other tracks. It still has some room to go. I think that’s what’s going to be cool. I think there’s going to be some venues and some dirt where this bike works really good. I think there’s going to be others where Yeah, there’s gonna be work to be done.”
