Well, the first ever “SMX” race which is a “World Championship” as well as a “playoff” is over. The race took place in Charlotte at the ZMax drag strip and kicked off this new three race series that the folks at Feld and MX Sports put together.
Of course, you know the riders had to qualify all year long to race these three races. Basically, most of the top twenty in each class were there, but because of injury, some riders electing to race, and other team stuff, the AMA had to go pretty far back to find riders beyond the top 20 (who have to race the LCQs). Also, riders were seeded based on their overall SX/MX points. Kind of a neat idea, there’s a lot of money up for grabs for the riders and although I went in skeptical of the ‘hybrid’ track, paying out money to dirt bike racers is a good thing, right?
How did the race do? Well, I wouldn’t say it was a home run, but it had more intensity, more interest, and more racing than the old Monster Energy Cup’s that this replaced. The track was so-so, some of it worked and some of it didn’t. They had the 65cc all-stars there, whatever that means, [Editor’s note: It means they asked the people that run amateur teams and go to amateur races what 65cc riders would be good enough to do something like this. -- Weege]. When you have to build a track that works for 450 pros and 65cc riders, well it’s not always going to work.
[Editor’s note: I texted Mike Muye from Feld Motor Sports if they changed any part of the track design, layout or build to accommodate 65s. His answer was “nothing at all.” So, he says the 65s had zero impact on the track. -- Weege]
The reaction from fans on my social media was actually pretty strong. You know how that stuff works, you could put a basket of puppies on there and people (like Weege) would complain or bitch about dogs. So, to see most people @ me talk about how they enjoyed the race and all that was impressive. Rarely do you see positive responses, but that’s what I saw. One thing, though: can we PLEASE stop calling these past champions as an SMX champion? Like, there was no hybrid track series back in the day. You can piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining but it doesn’t mean it’s actually raining. Stop it.
[Editor’s note: I call past supercross champions supercross champions and past motocross champions motocross champions. I haven’t had anyone tell me to do otherwise. – Weege].
We also have the large amount of riders I spoke to who absolutely hated their bike. That was, well, everyone. The teams went into this with SX suspension, and the MX part of the track got pretty rough. It’s crazy how specialized SX suspension is and how badly it works on outdoor stuff. There was one pretty big rhythm section on the track, though. We had Chase Sexton on the Pulpmx Show and he said no shot that he would hit that with MX settings. Like, it seems that most teams were unable to get their riders comfortable, because you had to have the SX stuff for the rhythm, but it was definitely not working in those outdoor-style turns and bumps.
Jett Lawrence didn’t look anywhere near his normal self in moto one. He did seem to be fighting the bike, the team made some big (for him) suspension changes, and he was much better in moto two. It makes sense. RJ Hampshire told me that the bike “was riding him” and basically everyone else said some version of the same thing.
I think about when Tim Gajser showed up at Monster Cup one year with some stiffer MX settings, because he hated the Honda USA SX stuff, then raced the MEC (tamer track than this probably) and absolutely destroyed himself. Kids, SX and MX suspension don’t mix.
I wonder if there’s a happy medium of super stiff MX suspension that would work better for this SMX but Sexton didn’t think so. But also, Chase Sexton was doing some massive quad out there so there’s that.
Anyways, speaking about Sexton, he had to feel pretty good to go 1-1 on the day and extend his points lead in the series with two races to go. He was very impressive all day in grabbing the lead early in moto 1 and taking off. In the second one he was chilling in second behind Ken Roczen and truthfully, I didn’t think he was going to get the 94. He didn’t need to in order to win the overall. Problem was, Jett was coming up fast. Like, 2023 450MX series fast. Jett had made up a second on Chase over three laps and as Sexton told us on the show, he was marking Lawrence as well.
Then Chase hit the afterburners and went from a 1:16.3 to a 1:14.9, Jett answered back with his best lap of the race and a 1:15.3 but then Chase raised that bar higher with his fastest lap of the race at a 1:14.7. No one else got into the 1:14’s BTW. All of this jockeying got them close to Roczen and Chase zapped the 94 right in the turn where he told us he was planning to all along. He also commented that Roczen said he never heard Sexton coming either.
Great ride for the 23, he went back to the braced frame he was using in SX and seemed very happy with his set-up. In fact, he admitted on the Pulpmx Show that maybe he should’ve tried this frame again in motocross as he said that it seems he was only able to push his bike so far and that was it.
It would’ve been such a Roczen thing to win this race or even a moto right? He came close, he rode well to get a second overall via his 3-3 finishes. We had a live show at the great Justin Brayton’s 10 Cycles on Friday night and JB predicted Roczen would win moto one. Not quite correct but also not far off either. This format is so good for Roczen, shorter races, MX stuff that he’s great in (hey man, he tells me all the time he’s better in MX than SX) and then like one rhythm or whatever where he has to time stuff.
Dylan Ferrandis said his bike was good! The Frenchman surprised us all with his second place in the first moto and then also saying that his bike was good! It’s no secret that he’s been battling the 2023 YZ450 in outdoors until recently when it looks like to me that he went back to more stock fork and shock and enjoyed more success later in the MX season. Well in the SMX races, he looked great and of course at a race where no one liked their bike set up, Dylan Ferrandis said he liked his bike set up!
He’s been so vocal about the bike this year that some people close to the team refuse to work with him even. So Ferrandis has to be a bit careful, in my opinion, to not get tacked with the reputation of being so unhappy all the time. Because people in the pits do talk. Hey man, team personnel have feelings also! Again, in my experience, it’s not even really that he’s not happy. I think it’s just the interpretation. Maybe the all-new 2023 YZ450F doesn’t suit him, but part of his displeasure is a French thing. The French riders are not scared to be very pointed with their feelings on the motorcycle, whether it’s Christophe Pourcel or David Vuillemin or Dylan Ferrandis. I understand saying how you feel except sometimes it upsets people on a team.
Also, I expect Ferrandis to sign up with the HEP Suzuki guys for next year. I’m not sure if the ink is dry or not but that’s where I think he’ll end up.
As I mentioned off the top, Jett Lawrence was fighting his bike a lot all day until about halfway through the second moto when he became Jett again. I do wonder about Jett, along with his brother Hunter who didn’t have a good day. Is it hard for them to get up for yet another series to win. Climbing that mountain of winning a championship first indoors, then outdoors probably causes you to relax a little bit you know?
It was odd to see Jett go backwards in the first moto. He was passed more in the first five minutes of moto one than he had been in the entire 2023 season! As you would expect, Jett figured it out and was a real factor for the win in the second moto. This weekend’s track looks a little more outdoor-ish so maybe he’ll be a bit more at home on it? I don’t want to hear about Jett maybe not being as good in SX as MX based on a moto and a half, nope. I’m not here for that trash.
In the 250s, it was Jo Shimoda with his second win in a row in the 250 class (he won Ironman MX as well) with a great second moto ride to go 4-1 on the day for the OA. Jo’s really riding well, his entire PC Kawasaki team seems to be on it with starts and bike set-up also.
The 250SMX class was all over the place. Haiden Deegan looked great in winning moto one, KTM’S Tom Vialle was very fast also and led laps, Shimoda was obviously good, the Kitch looked awesome in moto one and so on down the line. After one moto, it looked to be the Deegs and Kitch show but in the end, it was the Japanese and French riders that stole the show.
We all know KTM is heavily invested in and believes in the Aldon Baker program, right? I don’t need to go on about what Baker has done for KTM guys and how the Austrian brand has fought tooth and nail to keep their guys there. Well, Vialle has decided to leave there after one year which had to have been a pretty big deal behind the scenes for sure. He just wasn’t about the group work, etc. and he’s now over at the Sandbox with Sexton, Roczen, Chisholm, etc. That’s a spicy meatball for Baker, KTM and Vialle for sure.
So, if you’re counting, the first round of the Charlotte SMX race was a big win for the sandbox crew with Sexton, Roczen and Vialle all doing pretty well.
Deegan said that his second moto charge was the result of being a bit banged up in practice from a crash but at one point he was on it. He needed third for the overall and I thought he was gonna get it for sure.
Some other news and notes from round 1 of SMX:
-Ryder DiFrancesco got his usual good starts and then did what we’ve seen him do a lot this summer in drop back in moto one. That wasn’t anything peculiar for Ryder but hey in the second moto, he bucked that trend to get his first podium as a pro! Difrancesco told us that after the drop back in moto one, he wasn’t tired, he knew that he just needed to clean up a few things and he’d be fine. Which he did and he was. Great work for a kid that told us he has measured himself against Deegan and it’s not always easy to stay grounded and ready to work.
-Our guy Phil Nicoletti, who races as well as holds a job here at Racer X, [eh, easy on calling that a job. – Weege] seems to be a SMX specialist with an LCQ win and then strong two motos. Phil spent five minutes of the Pulpmx show complaining that he shouldn’t have to race the LCQ each round. Of course, he’s not happy about the rules that affect him and have been in place since the start of the year. Phil rode well though.
-Stop me if you heard this before but Phil’s teammate Garrett Marchbanks got crappy starts and then rode very well to get to the front. Yeah, he was legit and very fast out there. I thought he sort of figured out his starts the second half of outdoors but in Charlotte, they weren’t good. But he was fast!
-Also, sneaky fast in Charlotte was Jordon Smith. Remember him? Smith was hurt early in MX and wasn’t around, but he came back for this race and was good. In fact, he pulled away from Deegan in moto two and was right there for a podium by the end. Jordon Smith is fast, but we don’t see him enough to always remember that fact.
-Cooper Webb made his re-debut on a Yamaha at this race. He’s back on BLU, back at Star Yamaha and he’s been on the bike for a while now. He told me he wasn’t going into this race at less than 100 percent and using this for testing on the new bike, etc. Nope, he said he felt that he was ready to go and someone on the Star team told me they thought he could podium. Well on this hybrid track, with limited passing, shorter motos and all that wasn’t conducive to doing well with bad starts. Webb went forward in moto one and backwards in moto two for a so-so Yamaha re-debut.
-Ty Masterpool got great starts, like actually pretty amazing starts and I was anxious to see if his SX skills had gotten any better. We know his MX skills are on point, right? Well, he’s still battling this appendix issue he had end of MX and it’s been affecting his training and riding. He went backwards pretty bad in each moto but with the money up for grabs for these guys, he’s going to gut this thing out. Too bad for him for sure.
-RJ Hampshire struggled with his bike set-up and crashed a bunch. I remember at one point he was in, like, 15th and had the fastest lap of the race at that particular point. Because of course he did.
-Max Anstie and Dean Wilson both didn’t look like themselves out there and didn’t have the days they wanted to have. Tough deal for Marty and the Fire Power Honda team.
-A lot of great riders sit at home when they don’t have an ideal ride or situation lined up. They say the whole woe is me thing complaining that they don’t have a bike, etc. which always fascinates me. Some of these guys have money, they can get any parts for free but yet they stay at home because it would be hard work to organize everything. We’ve seen it for years. But not Colt Nichols! Nope! The 2022 250SX champion told me he’s 25K deep into his program he’s got here in the USA (he rides for Rick Ware for WSX) in trying to race some nationals to stay inside the top 20 in SMX points and then for the parts for his bike (Pro Circuit). He’s found a home at the races with the MADD Parts Kawasaki team for now and he’s out there grinding away racing and all that. I like that. With a solid 10th in Charlotte, Colt is up to 14th in the SMX standings despite only racing two Nationals. Just to give you an example, 10th in 450 SMX points pays $75,000. Plus, Colt can make some purse money at each round. So, if he does well, he can make a nice profit because he got off the couch, made his own deal, and bet on himself.
Thanks for reading OBS from Charlotte, we’re onto Chicago! Any questions about this race or whatever, email matthes@racerxonline.com and we can chat! SMX- CATCH THE FEVER!!!!
