Adam Ciancairulo is about to join a club that he probably thought he'd never join, the best SX/MX racers to never win a premier-class main event in Monster Energy AMA Supercross. Cianciarulo had plenty of success in the sport, both indoors and outdoors, and has enjoyed factory-level support throughout his entire career. But for one reason or another—injuries, bad luck, missed opportunities, excellent competition—he somehow did not win a 450SX main event. And the craziest thing is the closest he came to a win was his very first 450SX race, the 2020 Anaheim 1 SX! He was the fastest qualifier at that race, then led much of the main event before a mistake let Justin Barcia get to him and take the win. No one leaving the stadium that night thought Adam wouldn't get a win, and soon.
Of course, he has one shot left this Saturday night in Salt Lake City but given the fact that he's pretty banged up with injuries, it seems unlikely that AC will go out with an upset win as he takes a bow and calls it a career. So, who else is in this unique club of successful professional racers at many other levels, just not the winner's circle in 450SX? We'll go from the modern era, say, 1993, which is the year Jeremy McGrath joined the premier-class full-time and suddenly SX main event wins were more difficult to come by!
Steve Lamson
With his twenty 125 National wins and two AMA 125 National Championships, as well as a star turn with Team USA in 1996 when he won a 125/Open moto outright on a 125, Steve Lamson had a career that should have landed him in the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame. The strange thing is the fact that he never won a 250 SX, nor a 125 SX for that matter. That kind of thing happened when you raced in the era of Jeremy McGrath, who racked up 72 main event wins between '93 and 2001. Lamson was also a contemporary of McGrath in their 125SX years, also. Not a lot of wins up for grabs there, either!
Grant Langston
GL is in the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame, having won a title in every 125 division: Pro Motocross, East and West Supercross, and an FIM World Championship. He even has a 450 Pro Motocross title from 2007. He could race supercross well, too, with back-to-back Supercross Lites (250) titles in 2005 and 2006. But Langston, who was born in South Africa but came to the U.S. by way of Europe, never reached the top spot in 250/450 Supercross. A problem with cancer in his eye cut his 450 days down considerably, and the best he did in his brief time in the class was a fourth at Anaheim '08 and a fourth at Indianapolis '07.
Tim Ferry
Much to the chagrin of Steve Matthes, Tim Ferry is on this list, despite all of his other successes. Ferry won a 125 SX title and numerous outdoor nationals in both classes, and even had a star turn with a couple of Team USA wins in the Motocross of Nations. He was on the podium in 450 SX five times in 2008 alone, but a first-place trophy never made it to the Ferry family's mantle at home.
Mike Alessi
One of the best starters ever, as well as one of the fast minicycle prodigies ever, Mike Alessi somehow never won an AMA Supercross in either class. The #800 won a handful of nationals in both classes but his supercross prowess never quite matched his world-class outdoor speed.
Ivan Tedesco
Like his Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki teammate Grant Langston, Ivan Tedesco had plenty of successes in the Lites class, including championships indoors and outdoors, but his peak years in the 450 class came up against Ricky Carmichael, and then the James Stewart/Chad Reed rivalry, then came the Ryans, Villopoto and Dungey. Add it all up and there just weren't very many chances to win a 450 SX for Ivan as well as many others in that era.
Micky Dymond/George Holland/Guy Cooper
We're lumping these three '80s and '90s legends together as they were all Honda factory riders, they all won 125 Pro Motocross titles (two in Dymond's case) and they all went straight to the premier class in supercross, despite the fact that the 125 class began in 1985. (And all three were somehow also left off of Team USA in the years they won their respective titles.) Micky, George and Guy were all very good 250 riders, they just didn't get that coveted win in AMA Supercross. Cooper, especially, came heartbreakingly close many, many times.
Mike Brown
The ageless Tennessean won everywhere in the 125 class—SX, MX and MXGP—but he never quite seemed to transfer his speed on 125s and 250Fs to the premier class 250s/450Fs. Brownie did spend several seasons abroad (just as Billy Liles, Donny Schmit, Bob Moore and Trampas Parker all did) and also stayed in the lower displacement classes for much of his professional career, which limited his chances at success in the premier class of supercross.
Ernesto Fonseca
This is a tough one. Ernesto was an excellent 125 and 250F supercrosser, winning two titles—one on a YZ125, the second on a YZ250F—and earning himself a Honda factory ride. He finished third six straight times in the 2003 AMA 250 Supercross season, beaten only by Chad Reed and his then-Honda teammate Ricky Carmichael. Sadly, Ernesto's career ended in March 2006 when he had a horrific crash while practicing. Just three weeks earlier in St. Louis he had finished third behind Reed and Ivan Tedesco.
Travis Pastrana
Another shortened career window was that of Travis Pastrana, who won 125 MX and 125 SX titles before moving up to the premier class in 2002. Unfortunately, Pastrana was already pretty beaten up from all of his injuries, many of which came while doing freestyle motocross. There was a brief glimpse of how good he might be in that first season as he finished 2-3-2 at San Diego, Anaheim 2 and Phoenix, but those would end up being the only 250 podiums he ever had. Regardless, Pastrana is an AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famer for not just his skills on a motorcycle, but for the mainstream attention he brought to our sport with all of his stunts and TV shows.
Stephane Roncada/Christophe Pourcel
We will attach a couple of other names to one entry here because their careers saw similar success here, but only in the 125/250F class. Roncada won a dozen races, the '00 125 East SX Championship, and almost the '00 outdoor title, only to lose to Travis Pastrana at the last round. Christophe Pourcel won even more, including a couple 250 SX East titles and an FIM MX2 World Championship. In Roncada's case, nagging injuries hurt his premier-class years. With Pourcel it was injuries and poor timing—he won two-straight 250SX East Championships in 2009 and 2010 and didn't even have a 450 ride to start the 2011 season! Pourcel won nearly twenty SX/MX races in the U.S., all on 250Fs. He never really got a chance to show what he could do on a factory 450 here.
Mickael Pichon
Of all of the French riders that followed the path that Jean-Michel Bayle blazed to American success, Mickael Pichon may have been the most likely to succeed. And he did in the 125 class, winning two titles for Pro Circuit Kawasaki. But the time Mickael spent in the 250 class here was shortened when he was fired from Honda halfway through the 1999 season after a strange and unfortunate tussle with a series official led to his dismissal. Pichon went back to Europe and won the 2001 FIM 250 World Championship (over a young Chad Reed) but never really got to show his full potential in supercross.
Robbie Reynard
On May 30, 1993, just days after his birthday, 16-year-old wunderkind Robbie Reynard made his long-awaited debut in the 125 Nationals at High Point Raceway. He finished seventh in a talent-packed class that included Jeremy McGrath, Jeff Emig, Doug Henry, Ezra Lusk, and Ryan Hughes. Both Kawasaki and Fox Racing had very high hopes for Reynard, but a week later at his first 125 Supercross at San Jose, he snapped his wrist. Still, Reynard was back by the end of that summer, and he even won the last 125 National of the season. To this day he's the still the youngest rider to ever win a Pro Motocross race...
But it was that snapped wrist from earlier that summer that would become his Achilles heel, leading to several more wrist and shoulder injuries, all of which affected Reynard's career path and win totals. With his astonishing speed Reynard won several outdoor nationals but he never put it together to win a supercross in either class.
Ryan Hughes
In the mid to late 1990s, as Jeremy McGrath was winning all of those titles, Ryno was right there on the edge of winning an AMA 250 Supercross, but somehow never quite grabbing it. For instance, in 1997 he lost the Las Vegas SX to Doug Henry and his prototype four-stroke. Hughes ended up heading to Europe in 1999 and 2000, and then returned to help Honda develop its own 450F, then found himself back in the 125 class for KTM. Add it all up and Ryno's window for a 250 SX win was relatively short, and like Cianciarulo he was very close, but just never quite reached the mountain top.
