Phoenix Racing Honda | 2021 Riders Confirmed

December 18, 2020

More pieces of the pit area puzzle have come together. Phoenix Racing Honda has confirmed Josh Osby and Enzo Lopes will join Kyle Peters for the 2021 race season, while Mason Gonzales has stated he is also linked to the team. The East Coast operation has grown significantly and thanks to increased support from Honda, will have dedicated programs in the 250 Class of Supercross and the Kicker Arenacross series.

Peters, the defending Arenacross champion, returns to his post. He will spend the first part of the season defending his title on the tighter tracks and once the twelve-round tour wraps up in early March, will jump to Supercross and complete at the remaining rounds of the 250 West Coast region (the closing rounds of the AX overlap with the first part of the SX West Coast).

Osby was sidelined in the first part of 2020 with a knee injury and returned to action for the run of races that closed out the SX season; his best result was a 13th in the 250 Main Event at Salt Lake City One. He has spent the last few weeks training with teammate Peters and the other full-time riders at the CLUBMX facility in South Carolina. It’s understood that Osby will also be part of Phoenix Racing Honda’s Arenacross program alongside Peters.

Lopes had a career-best SX season in 2020. He posted six top-10 Main Event finishes and ended the 250 East Coast region ranked fifth overall in the championship standings, despite a dislocated shoulder that sidelined him for one of the Utah races. Lopes has joined the team at CLUBMX for the usual preseason prep, but unlike Peters and Osby, he will focus solely on the 250 East Coast Supercross region.

Gonzales was one of the standout riders at the 2020 AMA Amateur National Championship at Loretta Lynn’s and lined up for the 2020 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship with support from Rock River Yamaha. He finished in eighth place at the first moto of the season and scored points in 11 motos through the summer, an impressive record for a rookie.

Gonzales had been linked to the team for some time. However, there had been no public mention of it until the other day, when the rider shared a social media update and announced he had suffered breaks to his tibia-fibula-ankle. It’s unclear how long the recovery process will be, if Gonzales will be able to line up at any point in the 2021 SX season, or what the team will do with this spot.

The increase in support from Honda comes from the team’s longstanding relationship with the company (they are Honda’s premier team in GNCC and ATV racing and have an established amateur program) and the OEM’s restructured budget following the shutdown of GEICO Honda.