Morning Espresso: Vurb’s 2024 Team Previews: Partzilla PRMX Kawasaki

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Welcome to the offseason and our new ongoing “Team Previews” column. Every week from now until the Monster Energy Supercross season starts in January we will be profiling a big team in the sport. We’ll go through the changes that have been made, analyze results, and give each team a grade on all of their offseason moves. This week we have the Partzilla PRMX team and you will find the full schedule below.

The Biggest Question Mark: The team will be main event players all season long, but how high can each of them climb?

Who’s In:
#81- Cade Clason (450SX)
#82- Mitchell Harrison (250SX East)
#85- Hunter Yoder  (250SX West)
#109 – Aaron Tanti  (450SX)
Dylan Rempel (250SX Futures)

Who’s Out:
Chase Marquier
Josiah Natzke
Julien Benek
Devin Simonson

Last Season’s Supercross Results:
Cade Clason – 24th Overall (450SX)
Mitchell Harrison – 19th Overall (250SX West)
Hunter Yoder – 14th Overall (250SX West)
Aaron Tanti – Did Not Race

Last Season’s Motocross Results:
Cade Clason – Did Not Race
Mitchell Harrison – 31st Overall (250MX)
Hunter Yoder – Did Not Race
Aaron Tanti – Did Not Race

Best 2023 SX Finish:
Cade Clason – 12th (Detroit, Salt Lake City)
Mitchell Harrison – 10th (Oakland)
Hunter Yoder – 14th (San Diego, Seattle)
Aaron Tanti – Did Not Race

Best 2023 MX Finish:
Cade Clason – Did Not Race
Mitchell Harrison – 11th Overall (RedBud)
Hunter Yoder – Did Not Race
Aaron Tanti- Did Not Race

Offseason Grade: B+

The Rundown:
The Partzilla PRMX team has grown organically from their inaugural season in 2010. Team owner Julien Perrier has his team race supercross in the United States and then spends the summer racing the Canadian motocross series. This will be the case in 2024 as well, with some slight changes to the program. Perrier decided to tighten the team to four riders (two 450 and two 250SX) with one on each coast. The team will once again base themselves out of the South of the Border Training Facility. Hunter Yoder is back on a two-year deal after his best supercross season of his young career with the team in 2023. Yoder will be racing the 250SX West Region again in his third season as a professional. The California kid has been focused on SX since he turned pro and has come a long way from his first season. In 2023, Yoder was a completely different rider and he was able to qualify for seven main events. His supercross season was good enough to qualify to the SuperMotocross Playoffs where he made all three rounds out of the LCQs. He’s racing the World Supercross Championship and training at SOB to continue his progression into the new season. 

On the East, 250SX veteran Mitchell Harrison will be handling the duties for the team. Harrison has been on the podium outdoors before and brings worldwide experience to the team having raced MXGP and Canadian MX. Harrison will be a dark horse to the East Coast. Reports are that he’s riding well this offseason and inside of the top ten on a weekly basis is the goal for him. He loves training at SOB as there is nothing to do there but ride and focus on getting better. Harrison is also providing great insight to his younger teammate Yoder and the two are a perfect one-two punch for the PRMX 250 team. 

Cade Clason should be in contention this year for the top privateer of the 450SX series. The last two seasons he has fallen short of that goal due to inconsistency, however he has the skills to do so. Clason and PRMX are like peanut butter and jelly. This is his second year back on the team, so I’m thinking Cade with cut out those mistakes that cost him from making mains. He’s the team leader, which means he will be in every main event and fighting for the top 15 more often than not.

Australian champion Aaron Tanti will make his 450SX debut with the team in Monster Energy Supercross. Tanti has been riding the World Supercross Championship for the CDR Yamaha Monster Energy team and just sustained multiple fractured ribs in Abu Dhabi. Team manager Perrier said that the ribs are plated and he expects Tanti not to miss any prep. He reports to SOB on December 13th. As far as expectations go, this is a clean slate for Tanti. He’s raced supercross in the United States before, although it was abbreviated 250SX West in 2020. He raced the first five rounds before getting stuck in Australia when the world went on lockdown. Tanti has the skills to be in the main events every weekend and once his ribs get completely healed I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the 15-10 range in peak form. 

For PRMX, everything is funded by Partzilla (and Perrier) and the team still doesn’t receive any help from an OEM. That being said, the team did go out this offseason and bought a new semi to add to the mix. They continue to grow every year and the plan for the team keeps getting bigger and bigger. They want to be here for the long haul and 2024 is another step in the right direction.

2024 Rider Projections:
Cade Clason –
Cade will have his best season in 2024 by limiting his mistakes and being in every main event.
Mitchell Harrison – The dark horse of the 250 East region, Harrison will make several top tens and make himself at home in the series.
Hunter Yoder – The progression of Yoder will continue into 2024 SX. Top fifteens will start to turn into feeling comfortable and mixing it up within the top ten of a stacked 250SX West Region.
Aaron Tanti – Once the ribs are healed, Tanti will be battling for the top fifteen more often than not.

Thanks for reading my series of team previews for the coming season. If you’d like to talk about these or any of the other stories that I’ve written you can email me at [email protected] You can also reach me on Twitter/Instagram: @troydogvurb

2024 Team Preview Schedule:

10/13 – Troy Lee Designs / Red Bull /  GASGAS Factory Race Team

10/20 – Monster Energy / Pro Circuit Kawasaki

10/27 – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

11/5 – HRC Honda

11/12 – Monster Energy Kawasaki Factory Racing

11/18 – AEO Powersports KTM

11/21 – Partzilla PRMX

11/22 – Team Solitaire

11/24 – Rock River Yamaha

11/28 – Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing

12/1 – Muc-Off FXR ClubMX Yamaha

12/3 – Rockstar Energy Husqvarna

12/5 – HEP Motorsports

12/8 – HBI Racing Kawasaki

12/12 – Triumph Racing

12/15 – Madd Parts Kawasaki

12/19 – Liqui Moly Beta Racing

12/22 – MotoConcepts Racing

12/29 – Firepower Honda

1 /3 – Phoenix Racing Honda

1/ 5- Bar-X Suzuki

Main image: Partzilla PRMX Kawasaki

Written by Troy Dog

Faster than Slaw Dog. Editor-in-Chief

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