Slaw Dog
Welcome to my Morning Espresso. A collection of thoughts and stuff I found interesting on the Interweb. Enjoy!
Gajser Wins in Italy
The start of the 2025 FIM World Motocross Championship is less a month away and last weekend the off-season races kicked off at a muddy Mantova for the opening round of the Internazionali d’Italia and it featured some heavy hitters.
Honda HRC’s Tim Gajser swept the 450 Class with 1-1 finishes ahead of Lucas Coenen, who was making his 450 debut, and Andrea Bonacorsi.
“It was a good day of racing, despite the weather,” said Gajser. “Always important to get in a couple of gatedrops against some fast guys and just get back into the rhythm of racing. Conditions were tough, and the ruts and everything weren’t easy but I found a good flow and just settled in, with a strong pace. Very happy to win both races, and now onto next week in Montevarchi and hopefully continue in the same way.”
In the MX2 division, it was 2023 MX2 World Champion Andrea Adamo going 1-2 for the overall ahead of Valerio Lata and Cas Valk.
MX1 Overall
1. Tim Gajser 1-1
2. Lucas Coenen 2-2
3. Andrea Bonacorsi 3-3
4. Jeremy Seewer 5-4
5. Isak Gifting 4-6
MX2 Overall
1. Andrea Adamo 1-2
2. Valerio Lata 2-3
3. Cas Valk 6-1
4. Sacha Coenen 3-6
5. Simon Langenfelder 3-8
Vince Friese Is Your Arenacross Champ
AMA Arenacross had a double header last Friday and Saturday in Prescott Valley, AZ, and Vince Friese went 1-1 the first night and 1-3 the second night to clinch the 2025 title. If there was ever a rider built for Arenacross it is Friese. I’m just sad it took this long to get him in the series.
The King Wins King of Hammers
What a story over the weekend for Jeremy McGrath, the King of Supercross, as he won King of Hammers. I have zero knowledge about this race, so I’m just going to post the Kawasaki PR:
Dubbed the world’s toughest one-day off-road race, the King of the Hammers saw the UTV classes take to the course on Thursday with Jeremy McGrath piloting his Kawasaki Teryx KRX® 1000 to the Pro Stock NA UTV class win. The King of Supercross showed his meddle in the rocks as he took creative lines combined with the strength and capability of his Teryx® to conquer sections of the course where others had to winch and were experiencing mechanical failures, allowing him to ultimately pass 32 competitors on his over eight-hour race to the finish line. McGrath finished 19th overall after starting in 51st, competing against 128 competitors who started the race, including heavily modified UTV’s and finishedsecond amongst the stock class UTV’s racing turbo-charged competitors despite driving a naturally aspirated car.
Chilly temperatures greeted the racers at the starting line as they took on the difficult course that includes flat-out desert sections as well as technical rock crawls. The two-lap race traverses through world famous obstacles like Chocolate Thunder, Jackhammer and Backdoor challenging the car and driver to make it to the finish line.
In a race where just getting to the finish line is a victory, McGrath relied on quick work from his pit crew to stay in the race and creative thinking from his co-driver Jaren Porter to find the best lines through the traffic-jammed rock sections. Overall McGrath finished in the top 20 and drove his MAXXIS-sponsored Teryx KRX® 1000 to the Pro Stock NA UTV class win in a time of 8:45:30. The King of Supercross finished less than 30 minutes behind the Pro Stock Turbo UTV class winner to earn second amongst all the Pro Stock racers.
McGrath: “It was a long day, we had a good time and man, it was an adventure, and my Kawasaki KRX held up nice all day. We had a great pitstop and Chris and the boys did a great job getting us back out after battling front lower arm issues. I don’t think we would have made the finish without them. We had to stop several times to tighten some things up, but it worked out great for us. My co-driver Jarren was great out there, using that Warn winch to pull and tow us up some pretty crazy lines. There people jammed up everywhere. Jackhammer was the worst; I think we were sitting there for an hour. We finally got through and we just kept on trucking. The course was super tough, they threw everything at us today. My Kawasaki was running great and my MAXXIS tries were hooked, helping climb all the rocks. It was great to see everyone cheering us on out on the course. I want to thank everyone for all the support we got this year, we couldn’t have done it without everyone pitching in.”
Cool Short Film on Dax Bennick
Our man Blake Keith at Emrg Co put together this film on Dax Bennick that you need to watch.
WHAT IS CARSON BROWN RIDING?!?!?!
Seriously, what is this?!?!?
Main image: Honda
