Welcome to Racerhead and Happy Halloween! It’s the last day of October, and after a couple of mostly quiet weeks in the SMX world, things are starting to pick up speed. Some team announcements are coming up, including Red Bull KTM on Tuesday morning at their HQ in Murrieta, California, and a chance to see what #3 looks like on an orange bike. KTM was decimated toward the end of 2025, with Chase Sexton and Tom Vialle both on their way out the door, Aaron Plessinger sick, and Julien Beaumer injured, to the point where they don’t seem to have a 250 rider yet for Monster Energy AMA Supercross. And, of course, we will probably get to see the new #26 there—that’s the number Jorge Prado earned in 2025, and has to wear in ’26.

World Supercross is a week away, with its kickoff set for Buenos Aires, Argentina, and then the following week in Vancouver, Canada. The first race will mark the international debut of Haiden Deegan, as well as his professional debut on a 450, and the second will mark Tomac’s first race on a KTM since he was a 65cc rider back in the early ’00s. Deegan’s Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate, Justin Cooper, is doing each of the first two rounds, but Deegan himself is also doing the third round in Australia, though not the second in Canada. They are all three listed as Wild Card riders, which means they are doing selected rounds, but not the whole series.

Among the riders who are doing the whole five-race WSX series in SX1 are Ken Roczen, who has been a regular since this new version of FIM WSX began, and his new Pipes Motorsport Group Suzuki teammate, Jason Anderson, as well as Quad Lock Honda’s Joey Savatgy and Christian Craig, Venum Bud Racing Kawasaki’s Justin Hill, and the electric Stark Varg lineup of Vince Friese and Jorge Zaragoza. The SX2 class includes Shane McElrath, Max Anstie, Kyle Peters, Coty Schock, and more.

As far as any free agents left out there, eagle-eyed readers spotted a social shot of Ty Masterpool sitting on a Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing YZ250F at the GOAT Farm (now Star’s practice facility). Stay tuned on that as well.

Back to Deegan and Star Racing. The 250 side of the team is contracted to THOR for gear, while the 450 riders get to make their own deals. As a result, #1 Cooper Webb wears Fly Racing now, and #32 Justin Cooper wears O’Neal. With Deegan planning to ride a 250 in SX and a 450 outdoors next summer, he was in a gray area regarding whether or not he could make a gear deal that was different from the rest of the 250 team. So the team did what Kawasaki did years ago with both Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart when they were in the 125 class, which was to move them out from under their partner Mitch Payton’s tent (Carmichael in ’99, Stewart in ’02-’04) and put them under the factory team tent instead. As a result, both were able to sign with Fox Racing, rather than wear what the Pro Circuit riders were wearing. Well, Deegan will now be under the same 450 tent with Webb and Cooper, whether he’s on a 250 or a 450, and like Ricky and James before him, Haiden will be wearing Fox Racing, head to toe, for at least the next three years.

The Troy Lee Designs/Ducati program is coming together, though with at least one surprise: Ducati is very tight with Monster Energy in Europe with their MotoGP programs, as well as Antonio Cairoli on the development of the MX bike. But Troy Lee’s time with Red Bull goes back even further, and it will continue with the U.S. SMX team he’s pulling together. They will announce their two riders in the coming days, almost certainly Justin Barcia and Dylan Ferrandis.

Another brand in the process of developing its U.S. program is Triumph Factory Racing, which has had a strong start in the 250 class and will field a 450 rider for the first time next summer. Danish import Mikkel Haarup, who rode well all summer long in a last-minute move to America, was rewarded with the 450 ride for next summer’s AMA Pro Motocross Championship, though not for Monster Energy AMA Supercross. For that, it sounds like the team may be calling up Jordon Smith from the 250 class. He’s already in the history books as the first winner for Triumph in America when he won the Glendale SX last winter.

For more on one of these changes, here’s JT…

This week we received the inevitable press release announcing Eli Tomac’s run with Yamaha is coming to an end. It has been a good five-year run with two titles that really should have been three, minus an Achilles injury. His next move will be to an orange bike. The questions for me will be around adjusting to a very different motorcycle. Is it competitive? Of course. Is it different from anything he’s ridden? Also, yes. Ask any factory racer about switching to an Austrian bike after years of riding a Japanese model, and they’ll tell you it’s not necessarily better or worse, but it is different. Different frame metallurgy, hydraulic clutch (maybe not), WP suspension versus Japanese (KYB or Showa), and different staffing to adjust all of the above. Tomac is also a rider who wants a fire-breathing monster underneath him. The Yamaha has power to burn, and he wanted all of it. Can KTM turn up the juice to match? Can Tomac find “comfort” when the track conditions go sideways? Not having any prior data to work from can be challenging in this aspect. Every nuance will be a learning curve. If things are going well, it won’t seem like a big deal. It’s when things get hard that these new dynamics feel insurmountable. Eli’s skill is never in doubt. But as he’s gotten older, he needs things to be in a very specific window to tap into the magic. When everything is new and different, will it be easy to navigate the optimal window? Time will tell.

Change is always unpredictable. It can be a breath of fresh air or a frustrating chase of the tail. It will be interesting to see how Eli adapts to arguably the biggest change of his career.