2005 AMA 125 OUTDOOR MOTOCROSS - FULL SEASON - TEDESCO - ALESSI

The ’05 125 class produced one of the closest and most dramatic battles you’ll ever see. With Stewart moving up, the class was stacked with contenders. In the first moto of the season, though, Suzuki’s Broc Hepler put on a clinic, working his way into the lead and taking the win. Hepler finished second to Stewart in points during the previous season. Perhaps the sophomore was the best in the class? Well, he tipped over in moto two and threw away the overall. Up front, KTM’s Mike Alessi led the way in his debut race in his first pro season. Looked like Mike had the moto won until Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Grant Langston made a heroic run on the last lap and made up huge ground. In the last turn, Langston went to the inside of Alessi and smashed into him. Alessi crashed and Langston stole the moto win, but also broke his ankle in the collision.
Langston would try to race through the pain each week, but his results were sporadic. Other contenders would win races here and there, but an unlikely points leader emerged: 2001 125 Champion Mike Brown. Brown was supposed to race in Europe for the ’05 season, but his deal collapsed, so he put together his own privateer Honda effort in the U.S. and found himself leading the points by mid season. Brown was looking to become the first privateer to ever win an AMA National Motocross Championship, but for some reason, he began to falter at mid season. Conspiracy theorists say that Pro Circuit, who was building Brown’s engines, was purposely giving him bad stuff to help their own team riders catch him in points. Others said Brown was cracking under pressure. Whatever the reason, he faded out of contention.
This left Alessi in the points lead. Hepler finally figured it all out and won some races, as did Honda’s Andrew Short, and even Langston got a win, injury and all, at Red Bud. But the most consistent contender was Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Ivan Tedesco, who won in Colorado (the Thunder Valley national replaced Troy, Ohio on the schedule) and soon had the points lead. Heading into the finale, it looked like Tedesco had the crown pretty much wrapped, but he derailed a chain in the first moto and lost a ton of points. Alessi had a shot heading into he final moto of the season.
Then Alessi did something crazy. He took Tedesco out and stood on his bike so Tedesco couldn’t get back on. Alessi even reached for Tedesco’s kill switch to try to turn his bike off! It was an amazing series of events, both riders finished way back, and Alessi didn’t make up enough ground to win the title. At the end of the season, the AMA stripped Alessi of his Glen Helen points, which moved Andrew Short up to second for the year. Alessi was also stripped of his AMA Rookie of the Year award.

[@shanemumford3051]

Thanks for uploads. Do you have the full 1998 season of 125 and 250 ama motocross by any chance.

[@ofitstime]

I'm sure I have this '98 outdoor in the VHS tapes somewhere. Slowly working my way through them. Please stay subscribed & look out for future notifications. We're a new channel, so any comments & Shares greatly appreciated.

[@shanemumford3051]

Thanks. keep up the good work

[@ofitstime]

Shane, Just came across some '98 Outdoor highlights, so will be uploading some in the next few days ;)

[@shanemumford3051]

@@ofitstime Thanks. You're a legend