Good, Bad, 'n Ugly: St. Louis

250 Class

Grant Dawson | The Good: RJ Hampshire - 1st Place

It seems crazy that RJ Hampshire just claimed his first Supercross win in his eighth season of racing Supercross, but it is true. He has had several podium finishes up to this point and he has always had the speed to win, but that first win proved to be very elusive until now. I have to imagine a large part of why it has taken this long has been, well, his tendency to crash nearly every other race. Funnily enough, he did actually have a crash in St. Louis, but he was able to overcome it and still claim the win. The general thought when a rider claims their first win is that it might flip the switch for him and suddenly he'll have the confidence to claim more, but I could see it going either way for RJ. He will definitely approach the final rounds of the season with a heightened level of confidence, but I'm still not convinced that he'll be able to beat Jett Lawrence straight up this season. We'll have to keep an eye on his results these last three rounds and see if there seems to be a new trend. 

Grant Dawson | The Bad: Cameron McAdoo - DNS

Cameron McAdoo has not been a stranger to injuries throughout his career, as he spent much of his early years in the pros dealing with injuries, but he was able to stay healthy for the 2021 Supercross season and put together what could be considered a comeback season. He looked to have improved even more this year, and even though his chances of winning the title at this point weren't great, he was looking to lock up second in the championship and enter the 2023 season as a title favorite. Unfortunately, the injury bug has bitten him again and he'll be sidelined until further notice with a shoulder injury. McAdoo himself said on Instagram that he expects to be back "shortly", so maybe this won't be a longterm issue and he'll either be back for the final few rounds of Supercross or at least the outdoor season. Still, injury news is never anything we want to see, especially for riders who are on the rise. We hope to see him back soon.

Grant Dawson | The Ugly:  Kyle Peters - 18th Place

It sounds like Kyle Peters may have been landed on in St. Louis, which is what led to him breaking a couple of vertebrae in his back and having to have surgery. Luckily, the team reported that the surgery went well and that he has movement in all of his limbs. It's still terrifying whenever it's reported that a rider suffered a broken back and had to go into surgery, but it sounds like everything is going about as well as it could be with all things considered. I hope the multi-time Arenacross Champ is able to make a full recovery and find himself back behind a starting gate soon.

450 Class

Grant Dawson | The Good: Marvin Musquin - 1st Place

Honestly, I just assumed that Marvin's Supercross only one-year contract with Red Bull KTM was a mutual decision, as I also figured he'd retire after this season. However, it sounds like it was all the team offered him so he had to accept it. It also sounds like he's very interested in racing next year and not nearly as interested in retirement as I thought he was. This season didn't start off that great for Marv, but he has been absolutely solid recently as St. Louis marked his third straight podium and first win of the season. There's no doubt that he's still got it and deserves a contract next year, but I guess the question is which team will he ride for? If KTM won't offer him another contract, I'm sure there's at least a few teams that will. If I were the boss over at KTM, though, I'd be putting a new contract offer in his mailbox soon.

Grant Dawson | The Bad: Cooper Webb - DNS

The hits keep coming for Cooper Webb, as he had a practice crash last week which knocked him out of St. Louis. I haven't seen whether he will attempt to line up this coming weekend, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see him out there. I am of the belief that since he has already sat out one race that he should just continue to sit out until he is actually 100% healthy again. This is Cooper Webb we're talking about, though. If he can line up, he'll line up. He's fully willing to just push through the pain. 

Grant Dawson | The Ugly: Dean Wilson - 22nd Place

Talk about a weird and unexpected injury. Dean Wilson had a rough looking crash where he hit a tuff block and barrier after flying off to the left of the whoop section. The impact looked violent itself, and watching as he just laid on his back in serious pain was very worrying. However, the last thing I expected was to hear that he was bleeding very badly from his buttocks.  It turns out that during the crash his behind made contact with his footpeg which led to a 10 inch laceration on his butt cheek. He ended up needing three surgeries and I'd imagine a rather long and uncomfortable road to recovery is ahead for him. Deano has had a lot of bad luck with injuries in his career, but this has to be one of the worst, as well as one of the most odd, injuries that he has dealt with. Good luck on the recovery, Deano!