It’s been quite a week for the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki team. On Wednesday, former 250SX field championship competitor Seth Haymaker suffered a broken wrist/arm in a practice crash. Then, two days later, the team announced that fellow 250SX former field rider Joe Shimoda had suffered a broken collarbone in his own practice crash on Friday. With one week to go before the 250SX East field opener in Houston, Texas, Mitch Payton’s team lost both of its riders to the championship. These injuries came after the team had already lost Austin Forkner for the remainder of Supercross with a freak crash during the start of the year’s first 250SX West Region Main Event and a subsequent knee injury.
Then, during a qualifying session at yesterday’s Anaheim 2 Supercross, 250SX West field competitor Cameron McAdoo suffered a horrific crash of his own when his left hand slid through the bars as he banged through the whoops. #48 was slammed to the ground but luckily checked out. McAdoo is known to be a gritty rider as we all remember his never-quit night at the 2021 Atlanta Supercross when he lost hard but somehow recovered to resume the main event went.
McAdoo went back for the final qualifying session and then as the bikes were being loaded into the gates for the first of three Triple Crown races, McAdoo was loading his #48 into the gates. It wasn’t pretty by any means, but the Iowa native finished 8-7-5 in sixth overall as he did his best damage control. While McAdoo is beaten up, he will have some time to recover before the next 250SX West Region race – the rescheduled Oakland Supercross is now set for February 18.
McAdoo said in a post-race statement on behalf of the team, “I was feeling really confident coming into this weekend, so the crash was hard to swallow and started things the wrong way.” “It was a survival night, but we made it possible. I’m thankful nothing was broken and we now have a few weeks to get back to 100 percent swinging in Oakland.
With Haymaker, Shimoda, Jett Reynolds (a wrist injury still bothering him from 2022), and soon-to-be full-time pro Ryder DiFrancesco suffering a thumb injury that sidelined him for the immediate future, the team’s was left without a single rider for the upcoming Houston Supercross. During the day yesterday we heard some rumors about potential fill-in riders. But this afternoon we got official word: The team has signed Chris Blough for the 250SX East field.
While 2022 was set to be Blows’ final season of professional racing, he rode a Kawasaki KX250 in the inaugural FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX) as a member of Budd Racing. Blows finished 2-4 for third overall in the SX2 (250cc) championship. While Blause was on his way to a potential post-racing life, the Arizona native is a solid rider who will bring plenty of experience with him: He first competed in an AMA Supercross main event 16 years ago in March 2006!
