It is not too often—maybe never—that a rider gets picked up for a factory team spot and we have never heard of them. I personally follow amateur racing pretty closely, but I have never heard of JGRMX / Monster Energy / Suzuki’s latest pick up, Cade Autenrieth. With JGR losing Weston Peick, Matt Bisceglia, Phil Nicoletti and Kyle Peters to injury this season, they may be thinking it is time to look outside the box. Cade will make his Monster Energy Supercross debut in Seattle and it will definitely be a cool story if he succeeds. Check out the teams press release below.
HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (March 30, 2017) – Cade Autenrieth will substitute for Phillip Nicoletti during the final three rounds of the 250SX West Monster Energy AMA Supercross Regional Championship Series. Nicoletti is recovering from a shattered heal sustained earlier in the season.
Autenrieth, who turns 17 years old today, just earned his Supercross pro license through the Ricky Carmichael Road to Supercross program in the Amsoil Arenacross Series. Autenrieth has won amateur national events such as the AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch, Mammoth Mountain, and the Freestone Spring Championship. He will race an Autotrader/Yoshimura/Suzuki RMZ-250 with the number 330.
“Racing for the Autotrader/Yoshimura/Suzuki Team is like the ultimate birthday dream. I still can’t believe that this opportunity has actually happened. I plan on taking advantage of the chance to ride on a team of this level,” said Autenrieth. “It’s exciting to give this kind of opportunity with equipment of this caliber to a young deserving racer like Cade,” said Jeremy Albrecht, the team manager.
Autenrieth will contest the Seattle, Wash. event on April 8, the Salt Lake City, Utah race on April 22, and the Las Vegas, Nev. final round on May 6.
