Adams reflects on 11th-hour Supercross call-up

It was a rough start to the 2025 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship for the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki organization as team racers Levi Kitchen, Garrett Marchbanks and Ty Masterpool were all out of action for the opening phase of the 250SX West Region Supercross.

Enter Drew Adams.

At 16, Adams made his AMA Pro Racing debut last summer when he motored to 15-11 motos scores for 12th overall at the curtain dropping Ironman National. Debut number two for the kid out of Chattanooga, Tennessee came at the third round of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross season when his two teammates – Marchbanks and Masterpool – suffered injuries. Drafted into action by team principal Mitch Payton for the second round at Angel Stadium, the rookie rode encouragingly well, starting the main event in sixth and finishing in eighth place.

Forced to put his race face on and go to behind the stating gate as a rookie at the second Angel Stadium 250SX West round, Adams, while admitting he was “shocked” at times with the speed and fierceness displayed in the classification, was pleased with his debut supercross experience,

“It was sick, you know?” he said. “I didn’t really have any expectations coming in. I just wanted to learn and I think I did just that. I learned a lot, and I think I’m only going to get better every weekend. I’m really looking forward to this weekend. I’m pretty happy coming off of last weekend. Obviously, not many rookies get eighth in their first pro supercross race, so I was happy with it. There are a couple of things that we need to work on, but I’m so very excited for this weekend.”

So how was competing beneath the bright lights at Angel Stadium?

“I was in the B practice all day because it was my first race,” recounted Adams. “I didn’t really get to ride with everybody until the night show. All day I was pretty calm and whatnot. The nerves weren’t really high and I was just having a good time. Then we did the hat race and that was super-sick. I got the first heat race when the track was fresh and that was awesome.

“Then lining up for the main event, I was like, ‘Man, I’m nervous right now.’ It kind of hit me when I was in staging. I was kind of like, ‘Phew.’ My hands were sweating. It was cold outside, and I was sweating. It just hit me like a freight train. As soon as the gate dropped the adrenaline went up and I forgot about everything after that. I was just out there riding. The day was awesome and I’m happy with how it went.

“The pace is pretty gnarly right now. The season has just stated and right now the pace is super-fast in the beginning. All the guys are going really fast. After you do those four or five sprint laps, you kind of just settle into a smooth and consistent pace. It is definitely a hard pace to conquer, but I got used to it in the heat races.”

As aforementioned, Adams compered in last season’s concluding Ironman National in Indiana before making his premiere supercross engagement in Orange County. How did the two different forms of motor racing compare?

“I was actually talking with some friends about this during the week,” Adams said. “I felt like the Pro Motocross days were longer and it kind of felt more chill. In the outdoors you do practice very early in the morning and then you only get an hour and a half until the first moto. So it’s really not that long. And you do a full 30 minutes, and then you get 45 minutes to rest. Then you go do another 30 minutes. I feel like it is a long and short day.

“In supercross you get a lot more time to rest. You’re first practice is at 10 am and then the night show gets going around 5:30 or 6:00 o’clock, so you have a long time to rest and take a nap and to eat all your food that you need. I kind of like the layout of supercross. It definitely felt pretty chill. The outdoors is a long, buy hectic day. You know in supercross, the vibe in the pits was really cool. Cool to see the kids smiling all day. The kids dream of going to supercross races. I know I used to, that’s for sure. The vibe is just so good. Everybody is having a good time. Then once the opening ceremonies happen, then the vibe completely switches up and you get in the serious mode and the race mode and the fans are acting crazy. It’s just a whole hoot out there. I love the vibe at supercross. It’s definitely a good vibe.”

Adams continued on to reflect upon what he felt once he pulled off the racetrack immediately after the 250SX West main event.

I thought, ‘Damn, that’s hard.’ That’s what I thought,” he said. “I was sitting there in the pits after and thinking, ‘Man, that was one had race, that’s for sure.’ It started during our main event, too, and that definitely made it 10 times harder. I just kind of took it all in and I was super-pumped with it. I was happy to be where I was.”

In coming to terms with becoming a supercross racer at the 11th hour, Adams forced himself to hold back a bit at Anaheim in order to, “not chase too much too soon.

“That’s the thing about rookies that have been doing good in the amateurs and then coming into the pro classes. They just want to really show everybody what they’ve got, you know? I think that’s a good thing to do, but I also think it doesn’t work out all the time. So I just wanted to just go out there and learn and not get hurt and make the good laps. With the weekends now coming up, like Glendale, I want to drop the hammer a little bit. I think you can kind of drop it a little bit more the weekends after your first race.”