When this year’s AMA Pro Motocross Championship ends at Ironman Raceway in Indiana, it will not mark the end of the AMA racing calendar for 2023. Last October, Feld Motor Sports and MX Sports (producers of Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the AMA Pro Motocross Championship, respectively) announced they would work together, not only helping with each other’s existing series, but also creating a new set of postseason playoff races, with a new name: SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX).
The regular championships as you know them will remain the same. The playoffs are new. You might have heard something about this, but maybe not all the details. How will it work, who will race, and what does it pay? We’ve got that for The List.
What are the SMX races? After the AMA Pro Motocross Championship ends in August, there will be three new races held in September, which are considered “the playoffs” of the sport. They will be held at ZMax Dragway outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, Chicagoland Speedway in Illinois, and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in California. The idea is that each track will have elements of both supercross and motocross together.
SuperMotocross World Championship Schedule
2023 SuperMotocross Schedule
- SuperMotocrossSuperMotocross Playoff 1 Saturday, September 9
- SuperMotocrossSuperMotocross Playoff 2 Saturday, September 16
- SuperMotocrossSuperMotocross World Championship Final (Finale) Sunday, September 24
What’s the format? Two-moto format at each of these three races. Both the 250 and 450 class will do two 20-minute plus one lap motos. Overall winners each night will be created by combining both motos.
How do riders qualify? The combined points in both AMA Supercross and AMA Pro Motocross together are used to create seeding into the SMX playoff races. The top 20 overall riders in combined supercross and motocross points in each class go straight into the two SMX motos.
Second, riders ranked 21-30 in combined supercross and motocross points get to go to the Last Chance Qualifier. The top two riders in each LCQ will earn a place in the motos.
The top 20 in combined points of SX and MX are guaranteed into the mains at all three SMX races. The riders ranked 21-30 have to go to the LCQ at every round, no matter how they do at each SMX event. For example, if a rider ranked 21st in combined points wins the first SMX race, he will still have to go through the LCQ at the next round.
Additionally, if a rider wins a race this season in Pro Motocross or Monster Energy AMA Supercross he gets automatic entry into the LCQ, even if he does not end up in the top 30 in points. Race wins only guarantee a spot in the LCQ. That rider would have to then race his way into the motos by finishing top-two in the LCQ.
Is there an advantage to doing better in the regular races before the playoffs?: Yes. The combined standings will be used to create a ranking or seeding before the first SMX round. This is the points reset before the playoffs. The rider with the most combined points indoors and out and the top “seed” will begin the playoffs with 25 points. The rider with the second most starts the playoffs with 22 points. Third will have 20. It’s all based on the traditional AMA point scale of a win equaling 25 points.
Right now, Cooper Webb and Chase Sexton are tied atop the SMX standings. If Webb can move into the lead and hold it to the end of the motocross season, he would start the playoffs with 25 points. If Sexton comes back and reclaims the lead, he could start with 25. If Sexton ends up second in combined points, he will start the playoffs with 22 points.
Jett Lawrence, by the way, can only use his 450 motocross points for his ranking to race the 450 class in SMX. He’s currently ranked 15th in SMX points already. If the playoffs started now, Jett would start with six points, because 15th in the standard AMA structure pays six points.
You can use the examples above to understand how this might look come September.
Also, in case of ties, the tie breaker goes to the rider with the best finish. Sexton has more wins this year than Webb so he would currently hold the tie breaker. If riders were tied on wins, the rider with the most second-place finishes would hold the tie breaker.
What’s on the line in these playoff races?: Money. Lots of lots of money. There’s $5.5 million dollars on the line in these three races.
First, each race itself pays over $400,000 in purse money. The winner of each 450 race gets $100,000, the winner of each 250 race gets $50,000. All 22 positions in the race pay money, so anyone who qualifies is guaranteed a pay day.
But there’s even more money up for grabs in the season-end SMX points fund. The 450 SuperMotocross World Champion wins $1 million. The 250 SuperMotocross World Champion wins $500,000. But the money pays well, way down the line. Fifth overall in the 450s makes $150,000. Tenth pays $75,000. 15th makes $32,000. Even the 22nd ranked 450 rider for the year gets $25,000. That’s real money in spots where privateers usually reside.
The winner of each class gets crowned as the SuperMotocross World Champion. As a first-year thing, it might not ring with the same prestige as the traditional AMA Supercross or AMA Motocross Championship. The money means it’s still going to mean a whole lot, anyway.
There are surely many more questions that you have, but these are the basics. Plus, since this is all-new, no one knows for sure how it’s going to go. For now, you can always find the up to date SMX standings on the results tab on our site.
The Payout: Each SMX race itself has an individual race purse of just over $400,000. So winning or performing well in each of the three races pays well. It's $100,000 to win a 450 race, and $50,000 to win a 250 race. Every rider makes something for racing, even last place in the LCQ
But the biggest money is reserved for the final SMX standings. The payout is below
450 SMX Championship Payout
1 | $1,000,000.00 |
2 | $500,000.00 |
3 | $250,000.00 |
4 | $200,000.00 |
5 | $150,000.00 |
6 | $135,000.00 |
7 | $120,000.00 |
8 | $100,000.00 |
9 | $90,000.00 |
10 | $75,000.00 |
11 | $50,000.00 |
12 | $35,000.00 |
13 | $34,000.00 |
14 | $33,000.00 |
15 | $32,000.00 |
16 | $31,000.00 |
17 | $30,000.00 |
18 | $29,000.00 |
19 | $28,000.00 |
20 | $27,000.00 |
21 | $26,000.00 |
22 | $25,000.00 |
Total | $3,000,000.00 |
250 SMX Championship Payout
1 | $500,000.00 |
2 | $250,000.00 |
3 | $150,000.00 |
4 | $100,000.00 |
5 | $50,000.00 |
6 | $25,000.00 |
7 | $18,000.00 |
8 | $17,000.00 |
9 | $16,000.00 |
10 | $15,000.00 |
11 | $14,000.00 |
12 | $13,000.00 |
13 | $12,000.00 |
14 | $11,000.00 |
15 | $10,000.00 |
16 | $9,000.00 |
17 | $8,000.00 |
18 | $7,000.00 |
19 | $6,000.00 |
20 | $5,000.00 |
21 | $3,000.00 |
22 | $2,000.00 |
Total | $1,241,000.00 |
Position | Rider | Hometown | Qualifying Points | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() Jett Lawrence | Landsborough, Australia ![]() | 550 | 163 |
2 | ![]() | Mattstedt, Germany ![]() | 340 | 146 |
3 | ![]() | La Moille, IL ![]() | 710 | 126 |
4 | ![]() | Newport, NC ![]() | 451 | 120 |
5 | ![]() | Hamilton, OH ![]() | 622 | 104 |
6 | ![]() | Port Orange, FL ![]() | 538 | 96 |
7 | ![]() | Coalville, UT ![]() | 255 | 92 |
8 | ![]() Jason Anderson | Edgewood, NM ![]() | 449 | 91 |
9 | ![]() | Muskogee, OK ![]() | 163 | 90 |
10 | ![]() Ty Masterpool | Paradise, TX ![]() | 242 | 84 |
11 | ![]() | Lidköping, Sweden ![]() | 297 | 79 |
12 | ![]() | Cochecton, NY ![]() | 143 | 76 |
13 | ![]() | Avignon, France ![]() | 455 | 71 |
14 | ![]() | Monroe, NY ![]() | 334 | 59 |
15 | ![]() | Justin, TX ![]() | 270 | 44 |
16 | ![]() | Canton, NC ![]() | 182 | 40 |
17 | ![]() | Clearwater, FL ![]() | 203 | 40 |
18 | ![]() | Yoncalla, OR ![]() | 212 | 31 |
19 | ![]() | Scotland, United Kingdom ![]() | 200 | 28 |
20 | ![]() | Yoncalla, OR ![]() | 155 | 25 |
Position | Rider | Hometown | Qualifying Points | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | Temecula, CA ![]() | 539 | 157 |
2 | ![]() | Suzuka, Japan ![]() | 468 | 152 |
3 | ![]() | Hudson, FL ![]() | 474 | 122 |
4 | ![]() Levi Kitchen | Washougal, WA ![]() | 478 | 114 |
5 | ![]() | Belmont, NC ![]() | 234 | 110 |
6 | ![]() | Cold Spring Harbor, NY ![]() | 399 | 101 |
7 | ![]() | Sacramento, CA ![]() | 416 | 98 |
8 | ![]() | Avignon, France ![]() | 421 | 90 |
9 | ![]() Hunter Lawrence | Landsborough, Australia ![]() | 643 | 89 |
10 | ![]() Jalek Swoll | Belleview, FL ![]() | 221 | 88 |
11 | ![]() Pierce Brown | Sandy, UT ![]() | 174 | 86 |
12 | ![]() Ryder DiFrancesco | Bakersfield, CA ![]() | 208 | 72 |
13 | ![]() | Alpine, CA ![]() | 174 | 61 |
14 | ![]() Talon Hawkins | Temecula, CA ![]() | 202 | 58 |
15 | ![]() | Bainbridge, PA ![]() | 157 | 49 |
16 | ![]() | Clermont, FL ![]() | 117 | 41 |
17 | ![]() | Shalimar, FL ![]() | 161 | 29 |
18 | ![]() | Alvord, TX ![]() | 131 | 27 |
19 | ![]() | Dover, DE ![]() | 89 | 25 |
20 | ![]() | Afton, WY ![]() | 71 | 25 |