Photo Report | Millville National 2024

Spring Creek Motocross | Round 7

First is a big word regardless of the style of racing you follow. For many, application of the word can be celebrated at many levels when looking into racing at a national level. A first time at a national, first time qualifying, first time in the top 10, first time on the podium, first win, all of those applications are huge and help highlight how significant Pro Motocross is for riders who chose to participate.

While Spring Creek is far from the first national of the season, it has a storied history of creating many firsts for riders who brave one of the most challenging tracks in the season. This year was no exception as we saw many new items go into the record books, and some instances may have fallen off the radar to the general public.

First Pro National - MN Native and District23 rider Brandon Espe made his pro debut at a track he grew up at.  Though qualify times did not get him into the motos, his time with Alex Martin’s Troll Training sure did show some good results. Always a kid who had good form, and good spirit at the track, Brandon qualified 48th ahead of many other skilled riders, and put in a solid consolation race finishing in 13th.

First top group qualify time - While records for un-seeded riders are a bit harder to come by, I am fairly confident in reporting an awesome achievement for Waconia MN rider, Cameron Skaalerud. Like Brandon Espe, Cameron Skaalerud grew up racing at Spring Creek and is a rider we have known for many years. While not his rookie year at Pro Motocross, Cameron is far from a full time rider, but you wouldn’t have known it if you watched him rip through the first 450 qualify session. Sadly despite the great speed in session 1, Cam wasn’t able to put together a faster time for the 2nd session which saw him outside the top 36 to make it safely into the motos.

First Pro MX round with new Thor Logo - Thor MX is an icon of the motocross community and one of the best known gear manufacturers in the industry has dropped a new logo for the August 2024 line. Dubbed the Next Gen, the logo is definitely different than their iconic previous… well … icon.

First 450 Moto & Overall Win - Definitely not Chase Sexton’s first time to Spring Creek Motocross, this rider has been on the podium here before, however neither a moto, nor overall win has been achieved by this Illinois rider. While some may credit this win to an exit by one of his top competitors, I am personally not sure that would have made much of a difference as in this round.

Chase demonstrated significant speed in both motos pulling off quite a gap between himself and 2nd place Hunter Lawrence. In similar vein, leads by Jett (or Interval of time behind the leader) had not been as significant as compared to previous years. I don’t think Jett had slowed down in 2024, I think Chase upped his fitness, and upped his game!

First Moto Win at Spring Creek, First moto win of 2024, first overall of 2024 - Levi Kitchen is proving to be a calcuated, and relentless 250 rider still early in his Pro Motocross career. While overshadowed by others in some metrics, Kitchen continues to have a stable, yet calculated approach to his riding.

Speed is always there, and his style / attitude on the track reminds me of Tomac or Dungey as opposed to a sometimes less effective showboat style some other younger riders are known for. Regardless, Kitchen overcame the heat, changing track conditions, and with some great luck, mastered his first sweep of 2024.

First Podium after joining Star Racing - Perhaps known as the worlds most friendly British Moto dude, Max Anstie has switched brands and is now a member of Star Racing Yamaha. While his racing has been good overall, up until moto 2 at Spring Creek, a podium finish had escaped this talented rider thus far. Max looks like he will be earning his stripes on one of the most competitive factory teams in the sport.

First 2nd place pro Motocross finish, first 3rd overall  - Casey Cochran is a rider I don’t know well personally, but I have had the opportunity to watch him for years at qualifiers as well as Loretta Lynn MX over the past few years. With his family being friends with my usual host at such events, I have always had interest in seeing this kid do well. Spring Creek 2024 was a great day for such a hope, as quite a few variables came together to give him opportunity to shine.

With rain causing a delay, and relatively difficult track conditions for Moto #2, a significant collision happened at the start which contributed to an already great start for this Florida rookie. Holeshot earned, it was Casey’s opportunity to sprint as fast as he could to evade the freight train of riders behind him.

Listening to clips I recorded early in the laps, series announcers really didn’t give much focus / thought to what was going on, focusing on where their usual subjects were further back in the field while Casey continued to pull a significant lead. It was 9 laps later that Levi Kitchen finally caught Cochran to take over the lead. That would be the only rider who made a pass on Cochran which solidified both his first podium as well as his first overall top 3 finish in his pro motocross career.

We had a great time covering this round and are looking forward to following the series to the next stop in Washington next weekend.