Sunday saw the crowning of five MotoAmerica Mission Mini Cup National Champions in six classes at Road America’s Briggs & Stratton Motorplex in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. None of those titles came easy as the riders faced challenging conditions with morning rains making for wet track conditions.
Winning AMA National Championships were Kensei Matsudaira (GP 190), Cruise Texter (Stock 50), Bodie Paige (Street GP), Chase Jazikoff (Stock 110), and Zaal Farhand, the only double champion of the event, who scored titles in both GP 160 and GP 110.
The big showdown was between former GP 190 champ Kensei Matsudaira and defending National Champion Mahdi Salem, and the racing didn’t disappoint. The two battled hard in both races on Sunday, and in the final race were battling for the lead when Matsudaira crashed, taking Salem down with him. Both riders were quickly to their feet and back on their bikes and continued to battle for the win right down to the final corner with Matsudaira edging Salem for the victory and the GP 190 National Championship. Matsudaira won three of the four rounds.
Matsudaira, who won the Mini Cup GP 190 Championship in 2022, was happy to win back the title in his final season of Mini Cup eligibility.
“I was being a little cautious since I crashed in the qualifying session, so going down was a little surprising,” said Matsudaira, a 14-year-old from Los Angeles. “I apologize to Mahdi if he crashed because of me. Luckily, I was able pick it up right away, and the bike was still running. It’s good to win the title back and get a little revenge for last year.”
Matsudaira said he hopes to race a full season of European Talent Cup next year or possibly Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup.
Zaal Farhand, a nine-year-old fifth-grader from Thousand Oaks, California, came away with two AMA number-one plates. Farhand had a little luck on his side in the GP 160 class. Jase Dill, who won three of the four races, had a mechanical issue with his bike in race three and scored no points. That opened the door for Farhand, who earned four consecutive runner-up finishes, to win the GP 160 title.
Farhand showed tremendous sportsmanship on the podium by inviting Dill to the top step of the podium with him and proclaiming, “Here’s the real champion of the class.”
There was no luck involved for Farhand in the GP 110 class, where he swept all four races to win his second National Championship of the weekend.
“It feels really good to be a National Champion,” Farhand said. “I felt good all weekend and felt like I rode well, even in the rain. I got lucky to win GP 160, but it shows that sometimes it pays to be consistent.”
Only one rider who won a title in last year’s Mission Mini Cup National Final came back to repeat in 2025, and that was Stock 110 National Champion Chase Jazikoff. Jazikoff, who was Stock 50 National Champion last year, won three of the four races this weekend to notch his second national title in as many years.
Cruise Texter proved his versatility by winning the Stock 50 National Championship. He added a road racing title to the flat track national titles he earned earlier this summer. His skills on both dirt and pavement mirrored that of his late grandfather Randy Texter, who also won championships in both disciplines.
