Tyler Collingwood
If you haven’t heard by now, Drew Adams aka Lil’ Debbie will be making his pro debut this weekend at Ironman for the final round of the 2024 Pro Motocross Championship. Adams will rock #593 and be pitted under the Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki tent. But how will he square up against the best pros in the country? Let’s take a deep dive and throw around some possibilities.
So I’m pretty sure when Ryan Villopoto retired he used some of his red headed powers and gifted some of his legendary riding abilities over to Adams. Either that or Mitch Payton is really good at picking riders and three of them just so happen to be red heads if you add Ricky Carmichael to that mix. I’m going with choice one.
In all seriousness, if you have never heard of Drew Adams or had the chance to see him ride, you have been missing out and you’re in for a treat. The 16-year-old phenom has been kicking ass and taking names in the amateur ranks over the last few years, but let’s just look at his results from this year. Adams has been on a heater and pretty much winning any event he races.
Drew would start off his year at Anaheim 2 for the first round of the Supercross Futures, where he would kind of struggle and finish in sixth. This must have lit the fire under him because from here on out, he would straight dominate the rest of the year. Adams would go on to win the next three Supercross Futures rounds, he would win two titles at the JS7 Freestone Spring National where he won 5 of his 6 motos. He would finish off his spring racing with a 2nd place in the Supercross Futures Championship that were held in Salt Lake City.
Now it’s summertime and Lil Debbie did something I did not expect. Adams and his team decided they were going to head to Canada for a couple rounds to get a feel for some pro racing and see where he stood. Adams would finish 2nd, 8th, and 1st in his first three rounds. With his eighth place finish coming from a tangle up he had in a second moto. Adams and his team would decide that would finish the series out and see if he could bring home a championship.
It was a good decision. Adams would go on to win four of the five final rounds and finish second in points, only losing the championship by a mere two points. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention in the middle of all this, Adams would compete in the RedBud Moto Combine where he would put on the most impressive ride I have seen from him. He made up a major deficit, like 15-20 seconds back, and would reel in his teammates to take home the win.
Maybe I havent sold you on this kid yet, so let’s head to Loretta Lynn’s. Adams raced a round of the Canadian Triple Crown Series Saturday and headed straight to his home state of Tennessee to start his week on Monday at the Ranch. He had a rough start as he was caught up in a first turn pile up in his first moto of the week. I thought “damn” the summer of Adams could be over. Well I ate my words quickly and learned to never count him out as he came from dead last all the way up to fourth. After that moto I knew we were watching someone that could be very special. Adams would go on to win his other five motos and take home two championships and the Nicky Hayden AMA Horizon Award.
As Adams was making his possible final podium speech at the Ranch, Jason Weigandt asked the question we wanted to know. What is next for Drew Adams? Well, maybe I live under a rock and hadn’t heard this rumor, but Adams announced he would be finishing his year by competing at Ironman for the final round. So that leaves us with this question, how do we expect him to do this weekend?
I think Adams is coming into this race much more prepared than most can say they are for their first pro race. He has fought with Canada’s best all summer on some brutal tracks and got that feeling of competing for a championship. He was racing some crafty veterans who have been racing for championships for years and he handled that pressure well. So from a preparation side of things I would say you couldn’t be any more prepared than what Drew Adams is right now.
His fitness is top notch as he has proven that multiple times with charges late in the motos at Redbud and Lorettas. He trains with three (some guys with the last name Lawrence) of the top guys in the sport right now and the confidence is through the roof. Now I’m not saying we see him on the podium, I think that’s a little far fetched with the depth of the 250 field, but I do think we could see Adams in the top ten in a moto. I think the most important thing for Drewski this weekend is just the learning experience, giving him the chance to know what speeds top guys like Haiden Deegan, Chance Hymas, and Levi Kitchen are running.
If he finishes in the top fifteen I think his team would be ecstatic and anything better than that is just icing on the cake. No matter how he finishes this weekend everyone in the motocross world should be excited for this young star and what his future holds.
Images Courtesy of MX Sports Pro Racing, Inc
