Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1166337
P132 CN III EMPIRE OF DIRT BY STEVE COX A MA Supercross and Pro Motocross domi- nate the off-road racing landscape for nine months out of the year, and for the other three months, it's all about preparation for those nine months. There's no rest for the weary, that's for sure. But the outdoor series is over now, and by the end of September, racer contracts will be officially ending (like the federal government's budget, racer contracts in the USA tend to run from October 1 through September 30), and we'll start receiving a plethora of press releases about 2020 rider line- ups. The only press releases we normally get prior to that are for teams who have racers staying on the same brand, such as the recent press release announcing Team Honda's 2020 structure (with Ken Roczen, Justin Brayton and Chase Sexton—all Honda racers in 2019—on-board) and the earlier releases about Adam Cianciarulo joining Eli Tomac at Monster Energy Kawasaki and Marvin Musquin and Cooper Webb remaining at Red Bull KTM. That said, here's a rundown of the press releases we expect to receive starting in a few weeks. There may be some slight changes here, or some racers added to some of these teams, and some of the numbers could vary a little bit, too, depending on whether Cole Seely relinquishes his number 14 and things like that. Here we go: HINDSIGHT IS 2020 MONSTER ENERGY YAMALUBE/STAR RACING YAMAHA 250cc team 12 Shane McElrath (likely in his last year racing 250s) 14 Justin Cooper 18 Dylan Ferrandis (his last year racing 250s as well) 28 Colt Nichols 41 Ty Masterpool MONSTER ENERGY/PRO CIRCUIT KAWASAKI 250cc team 28 Jordon Smith 30 Cameron McAdoo 36 Garrett Marchbanks 52 Austin Forkner TLD/RED BULL KTM 250cc team 31 Brandon Hartranft 58 Derek Drake TBD Brian Moreau Likely at least one other TBD, such as Wilson Todd GEICO HONDA 250cc team 6 Jeremy Martin (he's been back riding again for a couple months) 23 Chase Sexton (250cc West, 450cc East, and 450cc outdoors for Team Honda) 35 Hunter Lawrence 63 Christian Craig 85 Jo Shimoda Likely at least one more racer TBD before outdoors from the team's amateur program, such as Jett Lawrence. ROCKSTAR ENERGY HUSQVARNA 250cc/450cc team 15 Dean Wilson (450) 16 Zach Osborne (450) 21 Jason Anderson (450) 24 RJ Hampshire (250) 29 Michael Mosiman (250) 83 Thomas Covington (250, but after his completely disastrous 2019 season, who knows?) 352 Jalek Swoll (250) Possibly another racer at some point, such as Mitchell Oldenburg JGR/YOSHIMURA/SUZUKI FACTORY RACING 250cc/450cc team 17 Joey Savatgy (450) 22 Chad Reed (450) 26 Alex Martin (250) At least 2-3 more 250cc racers, and possibly a second 450cc racer for the outdoor series. One hang-up for signing Savatgy is that Savatgy wants a