One of the major talking points during the 2023 Pro Motocross Championship has been Ty Masterpool, a revelation in the 450MX class to date and he currently sits P6 in the standings on his own KX450, despite only entering the premier class from round two. He features in our latest Profiled piece.

After starting the season on a BarX Suzuki in Monster Energy Supercross, the 21-year-old Masterpool turned up to the opening round of the outdoors at Fox Raceway on a privateer Kawasaki in the 250MX category, where 14-23 results in the motos earned him 18th overall for the day.

As a surprise to many, Masterpool and his team made the decision to move up to the premier 450MX class for the remainder of the season after the opening round. With a depleted field of sorts – albeit still headlined by some of the sport’s biggest names – it was a chance to become competitive without the costs of maintaining a professional-level 250.

“It was a very last-minute change,” Masterpool told MotoOnline. “The budget wasn’t big enough for the 250, all these 250 teams are incredibly competitive, so it was a last-minute team decision to move up to the 450 class.”

Sporting a mostly-stock KX450 at Hangtown, Masterpool showed flashes of brilliance in both motos, dicing with some of the top premier class riders before eventually finishing the round with a 7-7 scorecard for sixth overall. It was round three at Thunder Valley where the number 81 would leave his mark.

After falling in the first turn of the opening moto, Masterpool fought his way through the pack from last, eventually ending the moto in an impressive fifth place. He backed that up in moto two, where he passed Adam Cianciarulo, Cooper Webb and Dylan Ferrandis in the closing stages to move into P3, eventually losing out to Ferrandis on the final lap and finishing fourth.

The 5-4 results earned him sixth place overall for the second-consecutive round, which became one of the high points of his year, just two races into his 450 transition.

“I can’t really pick one [standout result],” Masterpool explained. “The whole season has been good, but if I had to choose one it’s probably Thunder Valley, because it was kind of the first race where everyone started taking notice. This season has been going really good, I’ve just been getting used to the 450 and loving it – it’s going really good.”

Round four at High Point saw Masterpool continue his run of impressive results, finishing P7 overall with 5-7 moto scores, before going on to another top-five finish in the opening moto at RedBud for round five. Unfortunately, a DNF in the second outing would leave him 13th overall, marking his first weekend outside of the top 10 since moving to the 450MX category.

Eager to bounce back from the DNF, Masterpool once again found himself inside the top five in moto one at Southwick, beating the Monster Energy Kawasaki duo of Jason Anderson and Cianciarulo, before going on to finish 10th in the final moto and P9 overall for round six.

Another strong showing at Spring Creek saw the privateer standout race to 8-6 for sixth overall, followed by 6-8 at Washougal for eighth overall last time out. Now, although any better than sixth in the standings appears to be a long-shot, he currently sits as top of the non-factory riders with three rounds left to run.

Consistent showings have been key for Masterpool as the 2023 Pro Motocross Championship heads into its final three rounds, beginning with Unadilla this weekend after two weeks off. The Texan is 16th in the combined 450SMX standings as we approach the SuperMotocross playoffs, which commence at zMax Dragway in Charlotte on Saturday, 9 September.

“The biggest thing now is qualifying for the finals to show everyone that I can ride Supercross,” he added. “Obviously, it won’t be a full-blown Supercross track, but it’ll be close enough. I really enjoy riding Supercross, so I’m looking forward to that and seeing what we can do there.”