Rear View - Changes in the pro class

New Year, New Look for ATV MX Pro Class

In January, we took a look at some of the ATV MX pros who would be jumping ship to a different team or a different quad for the 2010 season.

Now that we're two rounds deep, I thought it was time to take a look back at our initial story and shake down the changes in the pro class by rider and team ... and to see how we scored with our predictions on the team changes, some of which weren't yet finalized when our story published.

Chad Wienen

Number 44 won his first pro race in Montreal on Can-Am's DS450 with about a week's worth of seat time on his new quad. The perennial ATV MX title contender made the switch after Kawasaki folded up its awning at the motocross nationals for the last time in 2009.

In joining the Ironman, John Natalie, Team Motoworks/Can-Am is putting forth one of the strongest efforts in ATV racing this year. The crowd-friendly duo has already shown their prowess. Wienen finished second overall at round one in Alabama, and Natalie took home a fourth place overall finish.

We had this switch correct, but then again everyone in the ATV motocross world knew Chad would be leaving Kawasaki before it officially became "news."


Josh Creamer

Josh Creamer was Kawasaki's longest supported pro racer. He carried the green flag well and put in some dominating finishes aboard the KFX450, including winning back-to-back pro motos at Steel City in 2009. But the sales of Kawasaki's performance 450 quad just weren't high enough to justify the motocross team.

So during the off season, Suzuki wisely snapped up this young, fast rider. Creamer showed how quickly he has adapted to the new quad by taking home a third place overall finish from round one in Alabama. If the Yoshimura/Suzuki team can build quads for Creamer like they did Doug Gust, which were virtually DNF-free, then Creamer has a real shot at the title. That is, if his teammate Dustin Wimmer decides to quit racing in order to focus on writing a best-selling memoir.

We got this switch correct as well, but then again everyone knew Creamer would go somewhere when Kawasaki folded. Plus, Kory Ellis and the guys at Yosh were smart enough to actually send a press release announcing to the ATV media Creamer was no longer wondering if he would have a factory ride in 2010.

Pat Brown

It's still an odd sight seeing the no. 99 plate on anything other than a blue Yamaha. This year, Pat Brown was forced to tackle the pro class basically as a privateer. Pat has been on a Yamaha longer than I can remember, but last year it became clear which "Brown" boy could give the new YFZ450R the best results in the pro class.

Pat still has support from some longtime sponsors like Lonestar, and this year he added some new sponsors to the list with Yoshimura and Fox Racing Shox. And Pat actually put in a pretty solid finish at the first round with a ninth overall. I don't think too many people were expecting a top ten finish out of him so early, but it's good to see Pat hasn't lost his drive completely despite losing Yamaha's factory backing and having to go back to a Honda.

In our original story, we didn't know what quad Pat would be competing on but we knew he was parting ways with Yamaha. So we'll say we got that one half right.

Josh Upperman

I admit, Josh Upperman is one of my favorite riders. He gets great support from Mark at Baldwin Motorsports, who kept Tim Farr on top of the ATV pro motocross and TT classes for what seems like ages. That said, Josh doesn't have some of the support of other pros like Wienen, Creamer, Wimmer, Natalie, or even the Frenchie Jeremie Warnia. If Upperman were on a full-fledged factory team, say with Honda, then I have no doubt he would beat Wimmer this year or come in a very close second to the defending champ.

Josh is also an Ohio rider, which is one of the reasons I like him. I've run into him at local races like Summit Indoor and have ridden at a lot of his old stomping grounds. He's a likeable guy with a positive attitude, and he works very hard.

Josh finished second in the new DWT World ATV Motocross Championship series held out west earlier this year sporting white plastic after Honda announced it would no longer support ATV motocross racers like him, Joe Byrd and Harold Goodman. Ditching the factory colors is common practice for guys riding without any factory support. But then, Josh showed up at round one of the AMA motocross nationals in Alabama sporting red plastic. Is Honda throwing some support his way again? Regardless, Josh deserves it after leaving round one with a fifth overall behind the only four truly factory riders.

I'll admit, I think we've got this one wrong. But we're not sure at this point, considering Goodman and Byrd are still running white plastic.

Jeremy Lawson

Perfect example; Jeremy Lawson lost his ride with Can-Am and switched to an LTR450 with support from Walsh Racecraft. So, not having any true factory backing number 16 is sporting white plastic instead of Suzuki's flagship yellow.

Lawson was doing well on the Can-Am, he just wasn't challenging for podium spots every weekend. He walked away from Alabama with a sixth overall behind Upperman and is looking good early on the Suzuki.

We knew where Lawson was headed after leaving Can-Am, but we had the inside scoop on that one because Tarantula Performance Racing came close to sponsoring him, but things didn't work out. I'm gonna say we had that one correct. Jeremy is a good guy and a good rider and we wish him the best this year.

Joe Byrd

The professor is still on a Honda, but he's running without the kind of factory support he enjoyed from Honda in the past. He does have an impressive new rig in the pits, so it's good to see something is going right for Byrd.

Seeing Byrd on a white Honda with blue accents is another strange sight to get accustomed to this year. We knew Byrd was losing his factory support, but I honestly couldn't believe it. Byrd has been on a Honda since the early Huevos days, yet seeing him on a White Honda is going to take some getting used to.

Not surprisingly, he still put in a solid finish at the first  round to take eighth overall. We definitely got that move correct.

Keith Little

Keith Little lost his ride with Kawasaki along with Creamer, Weinen and a handful of other satellite riders. He has been a strong rider since the early days of the sport and has always had a knack for holeshots.

This year, Little is taking a completely unorthodox approach to racing the nationals. He's teamed up with ATV Rider Magazine for the "MX-Periment," in which Little will tackle the pro class this season aboard identically equipped Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki 450 quads. It's going to be interesting to see which machine he puts in the best results on this year. After the season, he'll break down the quads in several stories featured in ATV Rider Magazine.

We definitely got this one wrong. But who could've guessed that Little would be competing on four different quads from four different manufacturers this year!

Is it over?

That wraps up the major changes in the pro class for 2010, and it's surely been one wild ride for those guys who were biting their nails in January wondering who would support them this year. Of course, one of the biggest moves of all was Doug Gust's retirement, though I don't believe he caught too many people by surprise.

So for those of you following along, we got four moves right, two moves wrong and one half right. Hopefully those will be the last major changes we see in the pro class, unless the next big news is the return of Kawasaki...