Former 250SX West champion on what to expect through 2025.
Team Tedder Racing’s Justin Hill has entered the 2025 Monster Energy Supercross Championship with a renewed focus, ready to channel his extraordinary natural talent through hard work behind-the-scenes. In our latest Profiled interview, we spoke with Hill at the San Diego Supercross.
Hill – a former 250SX West champion – has long been known for his natural ability on the bike, the kind of talent that has seen him feature on the 450SX podium and be amongst the fight in the top-five with a number of factory riders. So far this season, Hill has cast a revitalized figure in the premier class, which is one of the very deepest we’ve seen competition-wise.
Commencing the season at Anaheim 1, the number 46 was impressed straight out of the gate, qualifying P6 ahead of names like Malcolm Stewart, Cooper Webb, Aaron Plessinger, Ken Roczen and Justin Barcia. Then, in a stacked heat race, Hill transferred directly through to the main event with a solid sixth place, finishing directly behind reigning champion Jett Lawrence.
In the main event at A1, Hill was the second KTM-mounted rider across the finish line, outlasting Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Aaron Plessinger to finish the opening round in eighth. It’s a result that he’s not necessarily surprised by, but one that he will aim to build upon into the coming rounds.
“I’m not really [surprised] – I’ve put a lot into it.” Hill told MotoOnline. “But, it was neat seeing it get a little bit of recognition from everybody. I’m showing them that my hard work is coming around. I tried to put my mind into a position where I think top 10 at [A1] would’ve been great and I would’ve been happy with that. That being said, in doing that, I feel like it could’ve been so much better. That’s just where I’m at, it’s a long road just to get here, so I’m pleased. It’s a long off-season, a lot of work, and we’ve done all of the hardest work.”
Expectations-wise, it was a good opening round of the season for the lone Team Tedder rider, finishing right where he wanted to be, inside the top 10. As far as where he ranks it amongst his favourite 450SX results, Hill is confident that by the time Supercross 2025 is over, there will be a number of stronger performances on the board.
“Based on where I’m at right now in life and in this sport, I don’t think I’m going to end up rating it very high at the end of the season,” he continued. “I’ll have much, much better rides. But overall, I’m a here-and-now guy at the moment. I’m just trying to plug away, so I’m happy with it, it was as good as I would’ve been happy with, but it’s hopefully going to come up from here… We can talk in a few weeks and I can give you my favourite ride of this year.
“If somebody expected me to do something at this point, I hope they expected it of me because I’m doing everything right and trying my ass off. If they don’t expect me to do it, then I don’t really care about that. I’m out here for my people, Team Tedder Racing, KTM, Leatt, my family and just my own reasons. If it just so happens that nobody sees it coming, neat. I don’t really pay much attention.”
At this rate, Hill is making it more difficult for the major teams to leave him off their radar. Although the soon-to-be 30-year-old is content with where he’s at right now, enjoying the tight-knit feeling of being surrounded by the Tedder family, who he considers to have become family over the past three seasons that he’s been under their truck. As he mentioned earlier, the Oregon native’s sole focus remains on the ‘here and now.’
“The trajectory of your career is such a mystery,” Hill added. “The timing of everything is always such a mystery, but I can say that in my career, I’ve never enjoyed doing it with anyone as much as I enjoy who I’m doing it with right now. It’s hard to say what the future holds and how many more years I’ll go for, I’m not a young man in this, whatsoever. That’s part of why I am where I am, because of that fact.
“In the three years that I’ve ridden for this organization, the Tedder family has been too good to me and we’ve become family. It’s weird to think what I would do, if I wasn’t doing it with these guys, I can’t picture it. I’m really, really enjoying this, not only as a race team, it’s an enjoyable time as friends. The Tedder’s and the Hill’s are just moto families to the core, so we mould together pretty good, and I just really enjoy their company at these races.”
After a P14 finish in an eventful San Diego main event that saw him go down in the first turn and pull into the mechanic’s area to reassemble parts of the bike from the crash, Hill currently sits 11th in the 450SX standings. With the 2025 Monster Energy Supercross Championship heading back to Anaheim for round three, the KTM-mounted Hill will be one to watch as he looks for redemption into A2.