Here Is Who Honda Could Get to Fill-In On the 450 Team

The Honda HRC Progressive team is currently without a 450 rider after the team lost both Lawrence brothers in consecutive weeks–Jett due to torn ACL and Hunter to a shoulder injury–for the remainder of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship.

What do they do now?

Over the weekend in Detroit, Honda, in a welcome move for fans and media alike, addressed the issue on their social media account with team manager Lars Lindstrom saying the team does not have to fill either seat, although they would like to if a fill-in ride deal makes sense.

“We don’t really have to put anybody on a bike for the end of the season, but we’d like to, if it works,” he said. “We have some ideas and we’re making plans.”

While it may seem easy to say “Let so-and-so ride the bike” it usually isn’t. Team contracts, gear contracts, etc. can complicate matters. With that said, I have some ideas on who Honda could get to fill-in for the remainder of Supercross.

Dean Wilson

Let the lad go out in style. While Dean is currently on his World Tour, lets get him back home and race the remainder of his career with Factory Honda. He’s already racing Hondas and we need to send him out in style. This makes perfect sense, he’d just need to get out of his deals to race AX and Brazil and more. He previously said he wants to race five or so rounds of Supercross, so lets put in him for the rest. Easy, peasy.

Shane McElrath or Joey Savatgy

Yes, they both currently have deals with the Quad Lock Honda team. But as Steve Matthes outlined for Racer X last week, it might be easier than originally thought:

I know that Shane McElrath doesn’t have a secure deal with Quad Lock Honda for the rest of SX so an easy solution would be to grab Joey Savatgy, coming off a season best seventh in Tampa, and put him on the factory team and give McElrath that spot alongside 250SX rider Carson Mumford. That’s easy to do also and Yarrive at Quad Lock and Honda are all partners in this stuff so I can’t imagine he would protest too much. Or grab McElrath. 

Honda grabs Shane or Joey and the other ones continues on with Quad Lock. Easy, peasy.

Dylan Ferrandis

I don’t see this happening, but I guess it could. He’s currently riding for Phoenix Honda and is their main guy, so not sure the team would want him leaving after six rounds. Not easy, peasy.

Kevin Windham

Hear me out. Yes, he’s 46. Yes, he’s probably not in race shape. But watch him hit these whoops and tell me KDub wouldn’t be a problem on the factory team…

What do I think happens? Either Joey or Shane move over to the factory team and then Dean races for Quad Lock at the rounds he was already scheduled to race in 2025.

Images: @octopi.media 

Written by Slaw

Just a dog trying to find my special bun.

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