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The "off season" hardly exists at the top level of motorcycle racing. From the time the engines quiet at the last MotoGP race in November until the laser lights switch on for the traditional Anaheim 1 round of Monster Energy AMA Supercross in early January — or when the first bivouac is set up in the Saudi desert for Dakar, if you prefer — there's hardly time to take a break, much less get withdrawal symptoms. (And if you're still paying attention to the now abbreviated FIM World Supercross Championship, there isn't even that small gap.)
But just in case you're missing racing in these few in-between days, here are some videos worth watching to get you ready for the SuperMotocross season about to begin and to look back at the MotoGP and MotoAmerica championships and get some deeper insight into what went on behind the scenes.
The 2025 SuperMotocross season preview
The SuperMotocross season is now a grueling nine months of racing with hardly a break, 31 rounds in all: 17 rounds of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship beginning Saturday evening with the traditional Anaheim 1 opener in Southern California; then 11 rounds of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship outdoors in May through August; and finally the three-round "playoffs" in September. It's a lot of racing and a lot of strain on racers' bodies, if they want to aim for that overall SuperMotocross championship. The first step is winning Supercross.
That won't be easy, because the field is, by statistical measures, more stacked than ever. For the first time in the 50 years of Supercross racing, five premier-class SX champions will be on the gate for the Anaheim opener this Saturday evening, and that's not to mention the presence of world champion Jorge Prado, who will be racing full-time in the United States this season. Beyond that, there are several interesting story lines to follow in Supercross this year. The NBC season preview video below, featuring Jason Weigandt and the rest of the broadcast team, lays out those stories in the form of interviews at home with the top protagonists.
Can Jett Lawrence build on his strong debut in the 450 class and become the next dominant rider? (And what new tattoos does the 21-year-old have to show off?) Eli Tomac comes back for one final year before retirement, promising he'll be going for wins, not just cruising through "a farewell tour." Can former champ Chase Sexton once again be the fastest guy on track? Other interviews include Ken Roczen, Hunter Lawrence, Cooper Webb, and Aaron Plessinger in the 450 class, plus 18-year-old Haiden Deegan, who has ruled the 250 class the last two years and is back trying to threepeat.
"Dream On" takes us inside the Ducati box as the MotoGP title was decided
For the final three rounds of the 2024 MotoGP championship, the Ducati Lenovo Team had cameras rolling inside the Ducati pits, following Francesco Bagnaia as he tried to come back from his points deficit and defend his title against Jorge Martín. The result is a behind-the-scenes look at the ups and downs of the stretch run for the championship. We see Bagnaia's pride at winning more races than anyone else, his despair over his crashes that cost him the title, Davide Tardozzi lecturing him to be less of a gentleman, and other moments beyond what takes place between the time the lights go out on the starting grid and the checkered flag is waved.
All three episodes are below.
MotoAmerica's "Pressure to Rise" series takes a new approach
I've been on record for some time as a fan of MotoAmerica's "Pressure to Rise" series, thinking it hasn't gotten enough credit for doing what the more famous racing series haven't been able to do: provide a behind-the-scenes look at what's going on in the series in real time, not a year after the fact. Unlike the original 800-pound gorilla, Formula One's "Drive to Survive," and the MotoGP copy of it, the small team behind "Pressure to Rise" did the seemingly impossible. They shot hours and hours of video at each race, including interviews with racers and team crew members, then assembled it all into a coherent and dramatic story of the weekend's events, usually before the next round in the series.
Anyone who has been involved in video production understands what an intense deadline that is. As a fan, I loved it, because "Pressure to Rise" was an easy way to go into the next round of racing with a deeper understanding of what just happened, what struggles the teams were facing, and who had the momentum. As a content producer (of a very different kind), I wondered how long it was sustainable. It seems maybe it wasn't, because the format of "Pressure to Rise" changed for 2024.
Instead of focusing solely on the title chase in the Superbike class, the series now follows three racers through the course of the year and the videos are being released gradually now, during the off season. The three are: Cameron Beaubier of the Tytlers Cycle Racing Team, the winningest active AMA Superbike rider; Bobby Fong, racing for both the SDI/Roland Sands/Indian Motorcycle team in King of the Baggers and the Wrench Motorcycles team in Superbike; and Kayla Yaakov, one of the most promising young racers and riding for the newest team in the paddock, Rahal Ducati Moto, owned by the Rahal Indy Car Racing family and managed by former AMA and World Superbike champion Ben Spies.
One advantage of this approach is that it allows the series to pay attention to other classes beyond Superbike. One disadvantage is that the producers are locked into uncertain story lines by their choice of which racers to follow. When Beaubier misses races in the middle of the year, due to injury, one of the three story arcs is interrupted.
It's still good storytelling. Part of me, as a fan, however, misses the former approach. All of me is glad I never had to meet the production schedule of the former approach.
The first episode of the new "Pressure to Rise" format is below. Episode eight debuts tomorrow. Here's a link to the full playlist of the episodes released so far.
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