Stark Varg Racing Debut

5/6/2025 12:01pm
7eleven wrote:

I have laps on both tracks. It's been 20 years, so this is going to be a fun trip. 

-Austin

I know that You have a ton of laps on them.  Danny Pepoon will still bring up the time at Southwick that he was in 20th...

I know that You have a ton of laps on them.  Danny Pepoon will still bring up the time at Southwick that he was in 20th or 21st and You either passed him or pulled away from him resulting in him not getting a point by one spot. And   how You had Your fastest lap of the moto on that last lap of the moto.  

 Jolly has changed in a good way. For a while it was getting really rocky, but Tony has done a lot to make it better.    I was more explaining the tracks for other people on here. So they could understand why I would be interested in the battery life between the 2 places. 

 

 Rider turnout has not been great recently at NESC, it's strange to see VS 20 years ago when every class had 100+ riders signed up. 

 

I hope the weather is decent for the trip. Its been super rainy this year. Snowy up north. Right now, my MTB trails are finally drying out enough to ride. They had to cancel a round at Southwick because it was snowing!    

7eleven wrote:
Ole Danny, good to see he's still cutting moto's. '04 Southwick Nat, got him and Carsten the last 2 laps of the moto, with a rear flat...

Ole Danny, good to see he's still cutting moto's. 

'04 Southwick Nat, got him and Carsten the last 2 laps of the moto, with a rear flat for 1/2 the race. 18th. Couldn't believe the tire stayed on for 20 min! #Bridgestone 

I talked to Danny the other day and told him You were coming back to race a couple races, and he started telling me the story. He ended finishing 20th and scored his only national point he was able to score.   It's funny how he still gets worked up about that 1 spot he lost. 

I asked him how many guys are racing Vargs this year. He said there are about 5 or 6 guys riding them. Not all in the same class or skill level. But he said there are about that many that are there on a regular basis. 

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7eleven
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5/6/2025 4:09pm
I know that You have a ton of laps on them.  Danny Pepoon will still bring up the time at Southwick that he was in 20th...

I know that You have a ton of laps on them.  Danny Pepoon will still bring up the time at Southwick that he was in 20th or 21st and You either passed him or pulled away from him resulting in him not getting a point by one spot. And   how You had Your fastest lap of the moto on that last lap of the moto.  

 Jolly has changed in a good way. For a while it was getting really rocky, but Tony has done a lot to make it better.    I was more explaining the tracks for other people on here. So they could understand why I would be interested in the battery life between the 2 places. 

 

 Rider turnout has not been great recently at NESC, it's strange to see VS 20 years ago when every class had 100+ riders signed up. 

 

I hope the weather is decent for the trip. Its been super rainy this year. Snowy up north. Right now, my MTB trails are finally drying out enough to ride. They had to cancel a round at Southwick because it was snowing!    

7eleven wrote:
Ole Danny, good to see he's still cutting moto's. '04 Southwick Nat, got him and Carsten the last 2 laps of the moto, with a rear flat...

Ole Danny, good to see he's still cutting moto's. 

'04 Southwick Nat, got him and Carsten the last 2 laps of the moto, with a rear flat for 1/2 the race. 18th. Couldn't believe the tire stayed on for 20 min! #Bridgestone 

I talked to Danny the other day and told him You were coming back to race a couple races, and he started telling me the story...

I talked to Danny the other day and told him You were coming back to race a couple races, and he started telling me the story. He ended finishing 20th and scored his only national point he was able to score.   It's funny how he still gets worked up about that 1 spot he lost. 

I asked him how many guys are racing Vargs this year. He said there are about 5 or 6 guys riding them. Not all in the same class or skill level. But he said there are about that many that are there on a regular basis. 

Cool, thanks for info, it's useful!

Moto Braap
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5/8/2025 3:25pm
7eleven wrote:
Ole Danny, good to see he's still cutting moto's. '04 Southwick Nat, got him and Carsten the last 2 laps of the moto, with a rear flat...

Ole Danny, good to see he's still cutting moto's. 

'04 Southwick Nat, got him and Carsten the last 2 laps of the moto, with a rear flat for 1/2 the race. 18th. Couldn't believe the tire stayed on for 20 min! #Bridgestone 

I talked to Danny the other day and told him You were coming back to race a couple races, and he started telling me the story...

I talked to Danny the other day and told him You were coming back to race a couple races, and he started telling me the story. He ended finishing 20th and scored his only national point he was able to score.   It's funny how he still gets worked up about that 1 spot he lost. 

I asked him how many guys are racing Vargs this year. He said there are about 5 or 6 guys riding them. Not all in the same class or skill level. But he said there are about that many that are there on a regular basis. 

7eleven wrote:

Cool, thanks for info, it's useful!

Has this P. Evans vid been posted yet?

https://www.vitalmx.com/videos/member/banned-patrick-evans


 

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Beagle
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5/19/2025 2:14pm

In France MX Elite that was a bad weekend for Herbreteau finishing 13th and dropping to 7th in the championship.

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The Shop

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5/20/2025 1:27pm Edited Date/Time 5/20/2025 1:28pm

Great GNCC race vid by Shane again.

His race time was 1h41min, he edited out about 20 min of it. He did go for a goggle swap and plugged the bike for a couple min, he had to pace himself to finish, battery was very low though he was still overtaking and accelerating good so no limp mode.

At his speed he can race a little bit more than 1.5h GNCC on the Varg EX, not 2h.

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Beagle
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6/3/2025 11:45am

First podium for Stark in France Enduro championship

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6/4/2025 11:55am

I meant to come back and post sooner. But the Stark contingency page is filling up with places You can race and win money.  This could also be used as a way of finding classes and organizations that are Varg friendly. Even if the series doesn't have payouts listed, it means that Stark is communicating with that series about which classes the Varg can be raced in. So You could assume that if You show up at one of those series, they will have a class You can race in with Your Varg, even if they do not show the payouts yet.  

 

Wild that a series in Maine pays top 5. And the payouts look pretty good . A lot of the others are only top 3 that I saw.  This is the payout for the Maine Motocross series a total of $98,670.00 available.  I wonder if they will require limiting the power in the Schoolboy and 250 classes? Most other series only show open cc and age classes that qualify.  

image 1695.png?VersionId=Cc2W8

 

Screenshots from https://www.starkracerewards.com/events

image 1692image 1693.png?VersionId=qyrp t0zimage 1694
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Beagle
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6/29/2025 3:13pm Edited Date/Time 6/29/2025 3:13pm

Some Vargs racing this weekend in France.

David Herbreteau finished 6th in Elite MX championship.

 

Pro Hexis Supercross (warm up before the start of France SX tour) was the first race for Zaragoza returning from injury, ended up 3rd overall with 1/2/10 in MX1, meanwhile in MX2 Hicks won a race and DNF, not sure what he got in 3rd race and OA.

Also good warm up before Arenacross world tour final round in Abu Dhabi next week against Deano, Soubeyras and others.

 

Enzo Marchal was racing Enduro classic Rand'Auvergne, ranked 19th over 500 riders.

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38special
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6/29/2025 4:44pm

😂

-MAVERICK-
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7/2/2025 2:18pm Edited Date/Time 7/2/2025 2:53pm

Robbie Wageman raced a Stark in the Canadian Nationals. He missed qualifying, but got in as an alternate for the second moto and finished 19th. 

Track conditions weren't ideal. Clay and a lot of rain the day before. 

17514907147353859819497439050663175149098494469156771311910710617514910003582063114129600224444100000770010000077021000007701
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7/2/2025 3:42pm Edited Date/Time 7/2/2025 3:43pm
-MAVERICK- wrote:
Robbie Wageman raced a Stark in the Canadian Nationals. He missed qualifying, but got in as an alternate for the second moto and finished 19th. Track conditions...

Robbie Wageman raced a Stark in the Canadian Nationals. He missed qualifying, but got in as an alternate for the second moto and finished 19th. 

Track conditions weren't ideal. Clay and a lot of rain the day before. 

17514907147353859819497439050663175149098494469156771311910710617514910003582063114129600224444100000770010000077021000007701

Cool, any idea if he's planning to race the rest of the series in Canada, land of the free (to race electric dirt bikes)?

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Beagle
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7/4/2025 12:40pm

Cameo by @SlowOldGuy, AMA got their feet wet with Arenacross, they're getting there.

With racing happening all over the world, it's only a matter of time before electrics are allowed to compete at the highest level in the US as well.

I couldn't understand how the Varg could be safe and legal to race FIM Superenduro but not AMA Endurocross, well, turns out Endurocross organizers are all for it, it's only the AMA preventing this to happen for... reasons.

OEMs are scared and money makes the world go round, whenever Honda or any other OEM release their own electric dirtbike, the last gates will open.

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JM485
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7/4/2025 1:42pm
Beagle wrote:
Cameo by @SlowOldGuy, AMA got their feet wet with Arenacross, they're getting there.With racing happening all over the world, it's only a matter of time...

Cameo by @SlowOldGuy, AMA got their feet wet with Arenacross, they're getting there.

With racing happening all over the world, it's only a matter of time before electrics are allowed to compete at the highest level in the US as well.

I couldn't understand how the Varg could be safe and legal to race FIM Superenduro but not AMA Endurocross, well, turns out Endurocross organizers are all for it, it's only the AMA preventing this to happen for... reasons.

OEMs are scared and money makes the world go round, whenever Honda or any other OEM release their own electric dirtbike, the last gates will open.

Imagine how confused I was when it was explained to me that racing an electric bike with gas bikes in Endurocross was much too dangerous to ever allow. . . ya know even though I did that very thing for two years prior without a single issue.  All of a sudden when KTM group threw their shit fit about Taddy trying to race the Varg it magically became a safety concern.  The interesting part of that story is the AMA has actually been pretty consistent on this and never officially allowed them in competition, but Endurocross was more or less operating on their own set of rules that very specifically allowed E-bikes, which this just so happened to come under scrutiny during the Taddy incident.


With KTM group being as weak as they are now it seems like the time may be coming for some changes to those rules.  I’m not gonna lie it brings me a little bit of joy watching them fall from grace after they completely derailed my racing plans years ago with their bullshit.

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7/5/2025 5:59am Edited Date/Time 7/5/2025 7:33am

Arenacross world tour final round is live streamed from Abu Dhabi.

Dean Wilson, Cédric Soubeyras, Thomas Ramette, Tommy Searle and a handful of Varg riders including Mickael Hicks, Jorge Zaragoza, Kelana Humphrey will compete for £100k prize purse.

Edit: qualifying top3 is Deano, Soubeyras, Zaragoza (Hicks 5th time).

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7/5/2025 1:18pm Edited Date/Time 7/5/2025 1:25pm

Wilson and Soubeyras won the heats.

Main event was red flagged after Searle crashed right in front of Soubeyras who himself got catapulted from his bike, hope both are ok.

Hicks lead from restart to finish, Wilson was a solid second but crashed on lap 7 while running very similar pace (he did gain 0.08 s in the last couple of laps before his crash), remounted to finish 10th (4 laps down rolling everything to get some points), Escoffier got 2nd, Zaragoza 3rd. 

Hicks made some serious cash tonight, that will fund another few AMA SX races for next year.

With Wilson 10th and Soubeyras out, 2nd was enough for Escoffier to secure the inaugural AX world tour championship.

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Beagle
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7/6/2025 12:50pm

Solid Stark line up for 2025 SX tour. 

Zaragoza in SX1 should be a regular in the top6 and maybe get the odd rostrum, he can do better than 7th he had last year. 

Meanwhile in SX2 it will be super interesting to see what Michael Hicks can do, he should be able to put it on the box.

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Beagle
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7/10/2025 2:30pm

Michael Hicks vid from Abu Dhabi, race day footage starts about 6 min in.

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Beagle
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7/11/2025 11:55am Edited Date/Time 7/24/2025 1:17pm

Hard enduro race in Estonia

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Beagle
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7/12/2025 12:55pm Edited Date/Time 7/12/2025 1:04pm

SX tour first round just got cancelled due to torrential downpour.

https://www.instagram.com/stories/mhickzzz_460/3675264400150775014?

Qualifying took place under the clouds but was dry, Stark riders were doing pretty well in both classes.

In SX1 Irsuti got 1st and Zaragoza 3rd time, in SX2 Hicks was 3rd and Humphrey 5th.

That was a promising start.

7eleven
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Beagle wrote:

Hard enduro race in Estonia

I really enjoyed watching that. So similar to mtbing in the way you read the trail. It was compelling to me.

Beagle
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7/24/2025 1:27pm Edited Date/Time 7/24/2025 1:51pm

Eddie Karlsson is racing Romaniacs

Prologue was very much up his "Superenduro" alley, he won his category (Silver class).

Day 1 he finished 6th, today he just won day 2 for 2nd overall!

2 days to go.

In Gold class, it's a masterclass from Lettenbichler followed by Bolt. 

Maybe next year Karlsson could race with the big boys!

Beagle
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7/25/2025 1:49pm

An eventful day 3

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Beagle
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8/11/2025 4:11am Edited Date/Time 8/11/2025 5:15am

Eddie Karlsson is in good shape.

A few days after winning Romaniacs silver class, he was racing TKO, last round of US Hard enduro championship. 

On Sunday, Eddie was 5th in race 1, then won his group in race 2 and ended up 7th in the main event, climbing his way up from 15th after a 1st lap crash. 

Podium was Lettenbichler, Hart, Bolt.

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8/22/2025 3:28pm Edited Date/Time 8/22/2025 3:31pm

It seems like WSX would be a good opportunity to put a top AMA rider on the bike.

Can they interest a big name in signing with them?

-MAVERICK-
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8/22/2025 3:33pm
Beagle wrote:
It seems like WSX would be a good opportunity to put a top AMA rider on the bike.Can they interest a big name in signing with...

It seems like WSX would be a good opportunity to put a top AMA rider on the bike.

Can they interest a big name in signing with them?

Perhaps, but the top AMA riders already have contracts with ICE manufacturers. 

Second tier guys would be more likely. 

Beagle
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8/22/2025 3:41pm Edited Date/Time 8/22/2025 3:45pm
Beagle wrote:
It seems like WSX would be a good opportunity to put a top AMA rider on the bike.Can they interest a big name in signing with...

It seems like WSX would be a good opportunity to put a top AMA rider on the bike.

Can they interest a big name in signing with them?

-MAVERICK- wrote:

Perhaps, but the top AMA riders already have contracts with ICE manufacturers. 

Second tier guys would be more likely. 

Sure, I think everybody is going to Colorado these days, they're just playing with this.

Not sure how this works, are AMA contracts really tying up riders for other series like WSX though?

Anyway, the faster the rider they sign, the more they'll learn to improve the bike. Hicks and Zaragoza are no slouches but getting a top 15 450SX rider would be something really good for them.

And just for kicks, here's a throwback to 2022, pretty sure Kenny hasn't been the only top rider trying one, just got to be wise about it (ofc riders testing it doesn't mean they're jumping ship).

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8/23/2025 9:49am
Beagle wrote:
It seems like WSX would be a good opportunity to put a top AMA rider on the bike.Can they interest a big name in signing with...

It seems like WSX would be a good opportunity to put a top AMA rider on the bike.

Can they interest a big name in signing with them?

-MAVERICK- wrote:

Perhaps, but the top AMA riders already have contracts with ICE manufacturers. 

Second tier guys would be more likely. 

Beagle wrote:
Sure, I think everybody is going to Colorado these days, they're just playing with this.Not sure how this works, are AMA contracts really tying up riders...

Sure, I think everybody is going to Colorado these days, they're just playing with this.

Not sure how this works, are AMA contracts really tying up riders for other series like WSX though?

Anyway, the faster the rider they sign, the more they'll learn to improve the bike. Hicks and Zaragoza are no slouches but getting a top 15 450SX rider would be something really good for them.

And just for kicks, here's a throwback to 2022, pretty sure Kenny hasn't been the only top rider trying one, just got to be wise about it (ofc riders testing it doesn't mean they're jumping ship).

In the past , its been in contracts that a rider can not ride a competitors machine while under contract.  I think it was McGrath, he got in trouble for riding a Kawasaki Jetski.  

Honda didn't even want Kenny going on a Honda, nevermind another brand.  I doubt that any of the top guys that can win an AMA SX will have contracts that would allow them to ride a different brand in WSX anytime soon. 

 

I've wondered about Deegans contract, seeing him ride Seadoos and drive a Can Am SXS in videos every so often. A lot of the time that is not something the brands really like to see. And riders can get fined.

 

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8/23/2025 10:29am
-MAVERICK- wrote:

Perhaps, but the top AMA riders already have contracts with ICE manufacturers. 

Second tier guys would be more likely. 

Beagle wrote:
Sure, I think everybody is going to Colorado these days, they're just playing with this.Not sure how this works, are AMA contracts really tying up riders...

Sure, I think everybody is going to Colorado these days, they're just playing with this.

Not sure how this works, are AMA contracts really tying up riders for other series like WSX though?

Anyway, the faster the rider they sign, the more they'll learn to improve the bike. Hicks and Zaragoza are no slouches but getting a top 15 450SX rider would be something really good for them.

And just for kicks, here's a throwback to 2022, pretty sure Kenny hasn't been the only top rider trying one, just got to be wise about it (ofc riders testing it doesn't mean they're jumping ship).

In the past , its been in contracts that a rider can not ride a competitors machine while under contract.  I think it was McGrath, he...

In the past , its been in contracts that a rider can not ride a competitors machine while under contract.  I think it was McGrath, he got in trouble for riding a Kawasaki Jetski.  

Honda didn't even want Kenny going on a Honda, nevermind another brand.  I doubt that any of the top guys that can win an AMA SX will have contracts that would allow them to ride a different brand in WSX anytime soon. 

 

I've wondered about Deegans contract, seeing him ride Seadoos and drive a Can Am SXS in videos every so often. A lot of the time that is not something the brands really like to see. And riders can get fined.

 

The fact that the WSX championship happens after 2025 last SMX round and before 2026 first SMX round could open some possibilities for factory riders?

Think about riders switching manufacturers, their new AMA contract surely would only begin in January 26?

Top15 privateers are more likely, Justin Hill would be a cool pick.

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