That’s a wrap on the first ever SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) in professional supercross and motocross. Three races, single, double, and then triple points. Two motos, 20 minutes plus a lap, three different tracks, and a bunch of money up for grabs. Let’s talk about the series in general and the good, the bad, and the ugly from this new thing we saw, and are going to see in the future, yeah?
The general idea of the SMX series was neat. Three different types of tracks that threw teams and riders for a loop in terms of supercross or motocross settings. When I saw the track maps, I didn’t really put it together that they would be pretty drastically different, in terms of the specialization of them. Charlotte was a hybrid in and out of a dragstrip, Chicago was a motocross track inside a speedway with fresh green grass that got rough, and then this past weekend in Los Angeles, it was a mellow SX track in the famed Coliseum. Pretty unique and different for our sport. I think that was the goal, right? Unique and different for our sport, and I’d say it worked for the most part.
It was cool to be back in the Coliseum where SX started way back in 1972. I’d been there a few times for the series when Anaheim stadium was undergoing construction and we raced there in ’97 and ’98, and then of course, who can forget the iconic Summercross race there in ’99, when Tim Ferry beat Jeremy McGrath? Racing up and down the peristyle was, is, and always will be, pretty cool.
I went to Charlotte and LA, didn’t go to Chicago, but I have enough info and intel to rank the three SMX races. People love lists so let’s get to it:
First | LA Memorial Coliseum
It’s an iconic venue, the visuals were great, there was a huge quad onto a tabletop that swung a race, it was easy to watch, it was the finale, and the easy winner of the three for me.
Second | zMax Dragway in Charlotte
The hybrid track threw everyone for a loop, there was a split lane that actually worked, pits were great, the press box was not, the split start coming back was cool, and although the racing wasn’t great, it was the first SMX race ever.
Third | Chicagoland Speedway
Looked dark, track was kind of basic, supermini kids were dying everywhere, but Phil Nicoletti did holeshot.
That’s it, the official rankings of the SMX races and there shall be no further discussion.
Jett Lawrence got it done in LA going 1-1 on the night. He was second and sixth in the two qualifying sessions and fourth overall, while Chase Sexton was first. Sexton was back on an SX track, he was fastest, and it was winner take all for the SMX title and the million bucks. It seemed that Sexton had the upper hand going into the night show, but then the night show started. Sexton started ahead of Lawrence but Jett figured it out and passed him, and then he passed everyone else! It was all over for the first 450 moto.
On his last lap of practice, Jett aired out the quad onto the tabletop which was awesome. You couldn’t go too long, you couldn’t go too short—you had to time it just right, and at a high rate of speed. Jett used that move to grab the lead in moto one from Ken Roczen and that was sweet. Sexton could only make it to third, so the stage was set for moto two. The VERY spicy Roczen was going to have to now help Sexton out if the #23 was to win this thing.
Chase nailed the start in moto two, but Roczen was the one a bit buried and Jett did his thing in second. Kenny made some incredible moves to get into third and he got close to Lawrence. It seemed to me that Roczen really wanted to help his buddy Sexton out in front win the OA, but Jett was too strong. The track was basic and tough to charge on with the Southern California dirt getting hard and slippery. There wasn’t anything Kenny could do to stop Lawrence from winning, but oh he tried.
And then of course Sexton crashed pretty heavily jumping into the sand. He crawled off away from the Honda laying there, figuratively and literally, as he’s going to KTM next year. The million bucks and the SMX title was Jett’s to have. Once again, like about 10 motos this past summer, Sexton made the mistake and Lawrence did not.
Eventually Sexton, Roczen, Adam Cianciarulo, and Jason Anderson jumped onto the quad as well, but Jett did it first, and he grabbed the lead because of it. Jett showed us again why he’s just so damn great on a motorcycle. What a 2023 the Aussie kid had, right?
Bummer for Sexton that his Honda tenure had to end like this. I’m sure he was thinking to himself that this was pretty ironic. In his last race on the brand he left because of his inability to stop crashing on it, and it was a crash induced DNF. He was my pick to win in LA because of his comfort in SX, and after practice, that seemed like it was going to work out. That first moto start, and his inability to nail that quad right away cost him any chance he had to win. He wasn’t going to win the OA even if he won the second moto, but at least if he had been able to, he could claim a little victory going into 2024.
Was Roczen the surprise of the 2023 SMX series? I mean, it’s Roczen so should we be surprised? He’s an amazing rider when he’s on and happy but still though, his riding in these three races was another reminder of just how great he is. Can he do this in a 17-round SX series? Not sure at his age, and with his health issues if he can, but when he needs to, when he wants to dial it up, well he’s pretty effing special, that’s for sure.
The people at HEP Suzuki (Kenny’s 2024 deal is done, by the way and should be announced soon) tell me that since he started back on the bike for SMX, he’s been a little more focused than usual during the week. He’s been very happy with his bike, making minimal changes along the way, and has been focusing on putting in laps. And yeah, we saw what that meant at the three SMX races.
Adding Larry Brooks to the HEP Suzuki team was huge for sure. As team owner Dustin Pipes told me, “If I was at the helm or something, I’m not as relatable to guys like Ken Roczen. I think for us to continue to grow and continue to get to the next level, we needed a guy that’s been there and done that,” which is 100 percent true. Pipes was a good racer, but he wasn’t as good as Brooks, and he’s got nowhere near the experience of working with riders like Jeremy McGrath, Chad Reed and James Stewart like LB does. Just keep the Mountain Dew stocked up and Larry won’t be outworked in trying to win races.
Bummer for Hunter Lawrence to crash out of LA SMX in practice. He tweaked his neck/back and I guess thinking about the MXoN, he and the team decided to pull out. I didn’t see the crash because about the same time he went down, Seth Hammaker also had a big one on that tabletop/quad thingy (he was not trying to quad it), so my attention was focused on that.
With Hunter pulling out it was Haiden Deegan or Jo Shimoda for the title and Deegan got it with 5-2 rides. He was shuffled back in the first moto, including by Jo himself, and didn’t look anywhere near his usual self out there. Props to Haiden for rebounding an hour later and riding behind his teammate Levi Kitchen out there to take the overall and the win.
Shimoda attempted, and completed, his first ever block pass in LA! Congrats to him on it when he drove it in on Deegan, made contact, then rode away from him. I guess when there is $500K on the line, you can pick up a skill pretty quickly, yeah? In the first main event he was sort of stuck in sixth and not able to make up ground and then hit the afterburners to get up past Deegan and Jalek Swoll. I thought he had gained speed, but looking at his lap times, it was more of a case of him maintaining his early race speed while others dropped off. In the second moto Jo was a bit like Roczen in his race. He was going for it but unable to really make up time out there. He came close, but in the end, it was Deegan’s title.
Some other news and notes:
Was ClubMX’s Garrett Marchbanks or Phil Nicoletti the big surprise from the 450 SMX series? Marchbanks beat factory riders Justin Barcia and Jason Anderson in the points, and yeah, they crashed out of some races, but that’s part of it, right? Marchbanks showed great speed and maybe passed the most guys in the three-race series? Phil swept the LCQ races, was a media darling the entire time, and just missed the top ten in points. They did all of this out of a truck and trailer at the last two rounds as well.
I don’t know where that speed came from Jordon Smith but yeah, keep that going. His moto one ride was his best one of the year as he ripped through some big names to win the race. He crashed in the first turn in moto two, but that one ride was sure impressive.
I wrote about this last week, but Jeremy Hand was able to get into the main in LA and just racing two of the three SMX races he was able to win over 30,0000 bucks. Great job for him, that’s a lot of money that’ll help him make some changes and better his program for 2024.
Colt Nichols grinded things out and was rewarded in the end. He rode for three different teams this year (Honda HRC for SX, Rick Ware Racing for WSX, Madd Parts Kawasaki for SMX) and was a privateer at a few races. His whole goal was getting into this SMX series. He spent about $25K on a bike and parts for nationals and SMX, and in the end, he collected over $100K with his riding. That’s betting on yourself!
Ty Masterpool’s Achilles heel is his SX skills, there’s no doubt about it. He’s raced more consecutively here than he ever has and everything *seems to be coming together for him. And look, this LA SMX track was not a full SX track but Ty was pretty good out there in LA. Can he improve a bit more indoors? That’ll be an interesting thing to watch in 2024.
Tom Vialle for sure was the fastest man with the worst luck in these three races. He was pushed over the berm by Dilan Schwartz in moto two after a third-place finish in the first moto. He broke his shifter off in the second moto last week, and in Charlotte, he crashed early. Tom Vialle deserved better for sure.
The Tom Vialle Award for the 450 SMX class probably goes to Jason Anderson, who crashed out of moto two and in the other two rounds suffered from bad starts and crashes. He was a lowkey trendy pick to win LA, but things didn’t seem to work out for the #21 out there.
Justin Barcia had a bad crash in moto one that caused a restart. Bummer for him for sure—he had a flight to the UK the day after the race for some R&R but now he needs to get fixed up first. Sounds like a shoulder or collarbone issue for the #51.
It was cool in LA to see Yamaha do a media/celebrity ride day on Friday at the track. Kawasaki launched a retro version of this 450, as well as a champions’ party up on top at the stadium. There was an Alpinestars party Friday night as well. I saw a lot of industry people all weekend long, and the vibe of the Coliseum was bumping for sure.
Feld Motor Sports and MX Sports have been very strongly pushing these SMX payouts and are proud of them, as they should be. The new NBC TV/Peacock streaming contract allowed them to introduce these playoffs and add this money to the sport. I’m sure the WSX payouts also helped them loosen the purse strings a bit. Here’s the thing though, when you go to try and find SX and MX payouts for the riders, they’re a bit hidden. It’s not advertised much, and we don’t hear from anyone on the promoter side when it comes to the other 28 races a year. When you look at these SMX payouts, they’re all over the place. I hope one day the other 28 race payouts are put out all over the place also. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
Thanks for reading all year long, we’ll be back here sporadically to talk about some of the off-season races. It’s been 16 years of Observations columns and we’re hoping to make it 17 in 2024. Email me at matthes@racerxonline.com if you’d like to chat about this or anything else.