Red Bull's Moto Spy Episode 2: Josh Grant

There’s nothing quite like the home-field advantage. In the realm of motocross, it’s not something that one rider always has — there’s no home and away team out there on the track. But through the 12 rounds of the AMA Pro Motocross Nationals, there are certain tracks that are known for having some of the fastest locals around. Sometimes, especially in California, those locals are the guys under the awnings of the full factory teams. In the second installment of the Moto Spy series, we follow one such rider in Kawasaki’s Josh Grant as he takes to the high desert heat of Glen Helen Raceway, round two of the AMA Nationals in 2016.

Grant grew up racing at Glen Helen, and as an amateur would regularly make pro riders question their career choice as he blasted past them. Now as a seasoned pro, Grant still returns to Glen Helen feeling like one of the locals. He’s right at home on the incredibly rough, power-robbing hills, and it shows in his riding. While JG is a solid top 10 competitor throughout the season, at Glen Helen, he is one of the favorites to win.

In 2014, in the midst of a tumultuous season, Grant exploded out of the gate at Glen Helen and won the first moto, immediately shutting down critics at the time who claimed that his winning days were behind him. Just over a year later, in the tail end of Summer 2015, Grant again rode to a career highlight when he won the MXGP of the USA, handily defeating not only some of America’s best riders who came out to the race, but also all of the top competitors in the FIM MXGP World Championship. At that race, the entire world of motocross took notice — when Josh Grant is on it at Glen Helen, he is unstoppable.

This year’s AMA round at Glen Helen did not go quite according to that fairy tale script for Grant — he battled bad starts and a finicky bike set up all day, and wound up with two sixth-place motos for sixth overall on the day. But in the 450 class, amongst the toughest motocross competitors in the world, a sixth on a bad day is still an incredible result. Josh Grant will be counting the days until he gets to line up at Glen Helen once again.