Anyone that follows the Monster Energy Supercross Championship was happy to see the addition of Josh Hill to the start gates in 2023. This year, the 33-year-old made his return to 450SX competition full-time along with his brother Justin to form the Team Tedder Monster Energy Mountain Motorsports outfit. Making the switch to KTM machinery, the season started out slightly slow for the older Hill, as he failed to make the main event at two of the first five rounds. Despite those struggles, he continued to push on, showing determination and grit as he went on to fight his way into the top 10 on four separate occasions and had a season-best sixth place at the final round of the year in Salt Lake City. Hill eventually finished 13th in the final standings and features in this week’s Fast Thoughts interview.

Image: Octopi Media.

Having your brother back at the races and on the same team…

I’m happy. It was cool to get my brother back racing, he was a cop a year and a half ago and working at a local tyre shop putting tyres on cars [laughs], just doing all kinds of different stuff. But, he’s too good to not be racing, so to get him out here and have the help from Team Tedder, Mountain Motorsports and Monster Energy to put it together, it’s just been fun, man. It’s been cool to do it with him.

Riding for the Tedder family…

The Tedder family are great, I hope we continue to do more together. I’ve raced Dakota and been friends with him for a long time. He called me at Christmas time in 2021 telling me that Benny Bloss had broken something and that they needed a rider, that’s how I started riding for his team. We did pretty well together and had great times, so they brought me back this year and brought Justin along. It’s been great, I hope we can continue the relationship. They really did do everything they could to give us the best equipment we could get, and I really appreciate that.

Making the switch to the KTM…

I’ve never really ridden the steel frame much at all. I think I kind of worked myself in circles. I felt so comfortable on the Yamaha, riding for CDR in Australia, I felt so strong. But, I didn’t get on the KTM until the middle of December and it took a lot more adjustment than I thought it would. But, we put in some new suspension from Enzo and it ended up being awesome. We just had some growing pains to work through and work out, but once I got going on that bike about halfway through the series, we started to take off. We were both in the top 10 at Detroit and then as more guys got hurt, it definitely did benefit us and made it easier for us to just be there running up front. But, I do feel like I got faster as the season went on.

Image: Octopi Media.

The mentality of racing at this stage of your career…

My mentality these days is different. I guess I don’t really worry about the outcome of the races and things that I choose to do. But, at the same time, when I went to Australia to ride for Craig Dack, I just wanted to give it my all, cause I didn’t know if I was going to race anymore after I dislocated my hip and broke my pelvis. Now I just put everything I can into it and I really enjoy the training aspect of it, on the bike and off the bike, and I know if I stay consistent with it, on certain nights, I can go out and run with the best guys in the world, and for me, that’s cool that I can still do that and it’s rewarding enough for me to keep putting the work in.

Racing against guys that were on 65s when you won in 2008…

Yeah, it’s crazy. I won in 2008, so guys like Chase Sexton probably weren’t even on 80’s yet [laughs], it’s crazy. But, if you put me in a time machine and dropped me off in 2013 after racing in 2023, I don’t think the landscape is a whole lot different, we had a whole lot of really fast guys back then. Obviously, the names and numbers have changed, but it always stays the same, guys are pushing as hard as they possibly can. Bikes have definitely gotten better and riders have elevated as well, but it’s still really similar racing now compared to when I was young.

The future for Josh Hill…

So now that supercross is done, I went to the Cam Zink Invitational last week and had my buddy Skrany’s wedding, but I just flew back to North Carolina and I’m getting things together and figuring out what I’m doing for World Supercross. I’m making a start on getting my event Big Hill Jam up off the ground for this year, planning some free ride videos, and some stuff I’ve got going on with some electric bikes, so really no downtime for me, straight back into it.