Image: Octopi Media.

Saturday’s Ironman National marked a troubled return to racing for Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing recruit Pierce Brown, who qualified 10th before a sizable impact during the opening 250MX moto drew an early end to his day, with further scans planned for this week.

The 23-year-old had been on the sidelines since the opening 250SX East round in Tampa, after a crash while leading the main event left him with a broken T5 vertebra and an extensive recovery in the aftermath of the incident.

The troubles continued for Brown at Ironman, who has endured a challenging initial tenure with the championship-winning Tallahassee-based Star Racing squad, with the duo yet to complete an entire race together.

“Warm welcome back to racing yesterday,” commented Brown. “I started the day off good in qualifying and then unfortunately got cross-jumped and hit the deck in moto one, and sat out moto two for precaution. I’m sore this morning, so we’ll get some scans early this week to make sure the body is all good.

“We haven’t had a lack of adversity this year, but the goal hasn’t changed, still business as usual. More updates soon.”

With his time spent on the sidelines in 2025, Brown will miss this year’s SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) post-season, which marked a strong uptick in form for the Utah native last year as he claimed the season finale victory in Las Vegas.