DETROIT, Michigan: “It was just whatever it is, it is. Whatever I can do is going to have to be good enough.” Justin Bogle returned to the SuperMotocross lineup last week in Birmingham, Alabama, for the first time in four seasons after Jason Anderson unexpectedly stepped away from the Twisted Tea Suzuki team to attend to family matters. And he had the time of his life.
Bogle’s most recent SuperMotocross campaign prior to Birmingham came in 2022 and it was, to say the least, and up-and-down affair. Bogle failed to finish one of the first three rounds, was forced to miss one, and was disqualified and penalized for an on-track incident with Justin Barcia in another.
Bogle scored only one top-15 in the first seven rounds before his fortune reversed dramatically in Daytona. He finished 11th that weekend and scored top-10s in three of the next four rounds in the midst of a five-race, top-15 streak. Then he struggled until the final round, where he scored a final top-15.
Bogle was uncertain whether he would race at dirt bike’s top tier again.
And then, he got the call.
“Last week was awesome,” Bogle told NBC Sports as he prepared to practice for the Detroit Supercross. “One of the coolest days of my life, to be honest with you. Considering that I didn’t finish well in the main event, it was just nice to be back. I’ve been a really, really long time — super unexpected.
“Unexpectedly, I was the old guy coming back to give it a crack after a long time. So it was really cool. My family was there, we all really, really enjoyed it and tried to soak it in. You don’t know how many more of these you get. And it was just really cool being teammates with my best friend [Colt Nichols] and be back with the team I last raced for in Supercross. It’s just a lot of full circle stuff going on and I was just trying really hard to have no expectations and just live in the moment.”
The evening program started strong. Despite being a little rusty, Bogle advanced directly into the feature by qualifying sixth in his heat.
“I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was way more nervous and overwhelmed all day than I expected to be,” Bogle said. “The team’s been great. I’ve got one of the best guys in the field, one of the best guys ever on the team, and a top-10 guy with Colt, so a lot of the pressure’s off of me. I told him I’ll do my best, and whatever that is, that’s what it is.”
A poor start hampered his feature effort. Bogle got out of the gate slow and was last at the completion of Lap 1. He methodically worked his way up to 18th when the checkered flag waved, triggering the question of what success will look like this week in his second supercross race since 2022.
“Just being here is success to me right now,” Bogle said. “Last weekend that was really how I approached it. I mean, who would’ve thought that I would even be back doing this? So to get the opportunity to be back racing, to feel pretty good on the bike? It’s a win. So we’ll see what happens. Whatever it is, is going to be what it is. It’s got to be good enough.”
