Saturday Night Live: SMX World Championship Final

A staggered restart then fired the race back into action with Jason Anderson now leading from Roczen, Sexton, and Lawrence. Sexton tried to make an early move on Roczen but lost out to Lawrence in the process. Then Jett Lawrence uncorked the holy grail of the evening when he pulled the quad onto the tabletop through the first rhythm section out of his back pocket. Lawrence had done it twice in qualifying but as soon as he did it in the first moto, he instantly started chunking time out of the leaders.

Roczen moved to the lead around Anderson and Lawrence was quick to follow into second. Within two laps, Lawrence found a way to hop by Roczen into the lead and away he went. By the time everyone behind figured out his magic line, it was too late. The first shot had been fired as Jett Lawrence claimed the first moto of the evening.

The final moto of the year had more math coming into play. Simply put, Sexton needed to beat Jett by two positions to win and While Jett could finish one position behind Sexton or beat him to claim the title. If Roczen won the moto, he would be champion no matter what if Sexton was third overall or worse.

Sexton snagged the holeshot and went to work on taking off out front as the final moto of the season fired to life. Lawrence made some quick moves to move into second, and before long, Roczen was into third as well. Roczen was inching up on Lawrence for second, and the way it was working out meant that if Roczen passed Lawrence, it would actually hand Sexton the overall and the title. But for half the race, the battles remained status quo.

Then suddenly, bam! Sexton caught the launch single in the sand section wrong and over the bars hard he went from the lead. He landed pretty hard on his face and immediately began crawling off the track. Jett snuck by after nearly landing on his bike and into the lead with Roczen still right on him. Sexton eventually got to his feet and slowly walked with his head down back to the pits. Word is he is pretty banged up but fortunately nothing is broken. That brutal lonely walk out of the Coliseum was the last we will see of Chase Sexton on a Honda as well in a frustrating end to his tenure with the brand he began his career.

Back to the action on track and Roczen was inching closer to Lawrence. Now the math had changed with Sexton out of the picture, and it became a full winner-take-all moto between Lawrence and Roczen. Lawrence held the advantage, but Roczen would be the champion if he could beat him. Roczen would gain a bit and then lose a bit as the gap stayed right at about the second mark. Then Roczen was blocked pretty bad by Josh Hill while they were lapping him which just about put the nail in the coffin.

Despite one final lap push from Roczen, it just wasn’t enough. Jett Lawrence crossed the line to complete a 1-1 sweet of the SMX finale and with it, claimed the SuperMotocross World Championship. An elated Lawrence celebrated with the team and even did a little but of play riding in front of the fans as he capped off a remarkable rookie year on a 450 with another big trophy and payday.

"This sport, on the track it's a one man show kind of thing, but there's so many people that don't get the credit that are in the shadows," said Lawrence. "They help Chase and I to get us the best equipment we can have. That goes to my trainer O'Show [Johnny O'Mara], and also my dad for a big key in helping. Also to my brother Hunter, everyday we're grinding and always trying to be better. Whether it's the bike or it's me myself. Just to go out and get this, it's not just an awesome accomplishment for me, but it's a big thank you to the people have helped me and supported me to get me to where I am now."

As for Ken Roczen, he threw everything at it to win the title and his consolation for second place is still pretty good as he leaves with a $500,000 bonus. The German mentioned many times throughout the playoffs how he very much wanted to do things his way in 2023, and he had a very strong season overall when the dust settled.

Joining up with Suzuki after leaving Honda HRC, there were certainly doubters as to what Roczen was doing with his career. Ultimately, he had a very strong campaign of Monster Energy AMA Supercross, finished second in SMX, and legitimately believes he has a lot more left in him heading into 2024.

"I watched every single outdoor race, even though I wasn't racing, and same with the GP's," said Roczen, "Everything has been motivating me lately. I think when you're in a good mindset, you can take motivation off of anything. I get motivated by my family as well. I've just kind of enjoyed the grind lately. I think we've still got some stuff in the back and I just feel like we built every single race we can go to and we'll see where I'm at in Anaheim."

Chase Sexton ended SuperMotocross in third overall which still pulled in $250,000 for him. It was obvious that’s the last thing he cared about though as he frustratingly walked away from one final big crash to cap off his season. The good news is he did get up under his own power and walk all the way back and has been said to be okay after the violent get-off.

Third place on the night of racing eventually went to Monster Energy Yamaha/Star Racing’s Cooper Webb. Webb bumped up to a 5-3 overall score after Sexton’s crash and landed on the box becase of it, but he also leapfrogged old friend Aaron Plessinger for fourth in the standingds with the result.

Webb was said to be excited coming into SMX having so much time on the Yamaha already and looked hungry to prove his move back to blue was the right one. Charlotte didn’t go particularly well and struggles continued at Chicagoland last week, but he did find a bit more of a groove in LA and believes he’s in a good spot heading into 2024.

"I definitely got blindsided there in the beginning," said Webb. "Just the way those tracks were, we were doing a lot of prep on supercross. Today is definitely the best I've ridden so far. I got on the bike basically on August 1st, so did what we could with what we had. You never know until you go race. Once you go race, you see the speeds and how it develops. It was nice to get better. I think we improved a lot tonight as opposed to last week. I think for me, just getting more laps in and working on the things we're missing."

A few other tidbits from the evening in the 450SMX class to consider. Aaron Plessinger ended up fifth overall in the championship but he did have a big crash in the sand section during the first moto. The bike was the only issue though as it was pretty bent up from the crash. He returned in the second moto to finish sixth.

Jason Anderson finished fourth in the first moto after looking feisty all day but then crashed int eh second moto. A bit of a similar situation to Plessinger, his bike was bent up after the crash and Anderson pulled it in and ended his evening early.

Dylan Ferrandis was also caught in a big first turn pileup in the first moto and would not return after that. He did get up under his own power eventually and rode back to the pits but did not return for the final moto. He did seem to be alright though.

And that’s that for 450 racing in 2023. Jett Lawrence reigns supreme in SMX and certainly walks into 2024 with a huge target on his back. Can Monster Energy AMA Supercross go as well as things have gone for him in AMA Pro Motocross and then in SuperMotocross? We won’t have to wait long to find out. But for now, Lawrence will celebrate big for adding another impressive accolade to the already remarkable story he’s writing.

The 250SMX class also had a winner-take-all situation coming into the final round of the championship with Hunter Lawrence up three points on Jo Shimoda and seven points on Haiden Deegan. They were also the only three moto winners from the first two rounds of SMX and it genuinely seemed hard to determine who had the upper hand coming in.

Jo Shimoda won the opening round in Charlotte which seemed to have a bit more of the complete hybrid element to the track. Then Hunter Lawrence won in Chicagoland, which was a bit more of a motocross track, but Shimoda looked really good there too. Through all of that, Haiden Deegan had put two consistent rounds together to give himself a shot at the title.

Thanks to a mixed bag of results behind them, the 250SMX class felt much more like a three-horse race coming into the triple points finale, but we quickly learned it was anything but that. First of all, Justin Cooper qualified fastest on the day and looked fired up to end his 250 career with a win. But little did we know, it was going to be even more chaotic than that.

Unfortunately, before the night show even began, the news hit that Hunter Lawrence would need to withdraw from action do to back tightness and a pinched nerve in his neck. Lawrence had crashed pretty hard during Friday’s free practice sessions and gave it a go during qualifying on Saturday, but the pain was just too much. Fortunately, it does seem like he’ll be okay for Motocross of Nations, but as for SMX, we were down one title contender before the night began.

Red Bull KTM’s Tom Vialle shot to the early lead in the first moto of 250SMX at Los Angeles and led the way from Deegan. Shimoda was in 11^th after the first lap and it really looked like things were going to go Deegan’s way. Then Vialle started pulling away from Deegan and he instead slipped into the clutches of his Monster Energy Yamaha/Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith. Smith got around Deegan and rapidly pursued Vialle for the lead.

Within a few laps, Jordon Smith had taken over the lead of the race and he was bringing Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s RJ Hampshire with him. They both shuffled Vialle and Deegan back as they began to battle for the lead. Meanwhile, Shimoda had made it all the way to fifth from his bad start and took the opportunity when it was presented to give Deegan a bit of a shove for fourth place. Deegan was pushed off the track and back to fifth while Shimoda went to work on Vialle. Amazingly, the race would stay the same from there with Smith winning from Hampshire, Vialle, Shimoda, and Deegan.

The math was easy again this time as it really was a matter of whoever beat who between Deegan and Shimoda in the final race would leave as champion. But suddenly, Smith and Hampshire both were somewhat in the title fight and could claim it if either of them won with some non-podium finishes for Deegan and Shimoda.

Levi Kitchen holeshot the final moto of the year while chaos kicked off behind him. Jordon Smith went down in the second corner getting pushed wide by Dilan Schwartz, and then Schwartz continued into the next corner and pushed Tom Vialle over the berm. While all that was going on, Kitchen led the way from his teammates Deegan and Cooper. Jo Shimoda sat an early third place and it appeared the battle would be on.

It just never really materialized like that though as Shimoda ran a bit flat in the early stages, unable to close in on the Yamaha trio out front. Deegan sat in a great position as he was surrounded by teammates and just needed to beat Shimoda to claim the title. Shimoda closed late but it was too late by then as he needed to get Cooper and then go get Deegan. Neither would happen.

Haiden Deegan would follow his teammate Levi Kitchen across the line to finish second in the race but do enough to clinch the 250SMX title. Amazingly, thanks to scattered results behind him, Deegan’s 5-2 scores were also enough to win the overall on the night of racing. After staring the year in Supercross Futures, Haiden Deegan ends 2023 on top of the SMX Playoffs with a $500,000 payday headed his way.

"My goal was to get a podium in an outdoor national my first season," said Deegan. "It went from there to being in a championship fight, having a red plate, and now winning my first championship in my rookie season. It's crazy. I've just got to keep building, getting stronger. I'm still young, so my body has got to fill in a little bit more and it's just up from here."

Jo Shimoda would remain in fourth place for the duration of the race and watch as the title slipped just away from his fingertips as Deegan crossed the line only a few seconds ahead of him. Shimoda did make a late dash to try to get Justin Cooper for third, but Cooper defended well as a teammate to Deegan and kept Shimoda behind him.

Ultimately, Shimoda did fall short on the championship, but he leaves 2023 on a very strong note. After starting the year with a broken collarbone and missing a lot of supercross, Shimoda ended 2023 with moto wins at the Ironman National, and then both the Charlotte and Chicagoland SMX rounds. A pretty good rebound all together despite narrowly missing this title.

"I always want to start a season on a good note, but we changed something on the bike and just honestly struggled with setup in the first half of the season," explained Shimoda. "If you're struggling, four or five races in it's kind of over already. It was nice to have these SMX rounds. Everything started off fresh and I feel like I had good first two rounds and had the opportunity to go for the championship on this round. I'm stoked on everyone's effort on the team and proud of myself too."

RJ Hampshire didn’t quite have the second moto he wanted to follow up his near win in the first moto, but he did still end up third overall on the night and in the championship. Hampshire had been struggling down the stretch of AMA Pro Motocross and had a round to forget at the SMX opener in Charlotte. To end the season on the box overall was a good feeling for the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna rider.

"It's been a struggle since Unadilla basically," said Hampshire. "Charlotte was a disaster, it got better last weekend, and same with this weekend. I made progress. I continue to get better now with just healing. I'm not young like Haiden anymore. My body doesn't heal as fast as his. This was huge. The first moto was sick. The second moto, I just didn't really have it. But I'm stoked to end the year like this."

Levi Kitchen with his win in the final moto did just enough to hang on for fourth overall in the championship ahead of his teammate Jordon Smith. Smith did really well to recover from the first lap crash but had ultimately given up too much time on the field while on the ground to truly do some big damage.

Kitchen lamented on the podium that he was frustrated to not put it all together more often like he did in the final moto, but he was happy to end the season on a strong note. Everyone in the top five of the championship made $50,0000 or more in bonus money and for just about all of them, it’s time to go enjoy the off-season.

And that will do it. The 2023 AMA racing season is now complete. We have put 31 races behind us and crowed seven champions across the three different race series ran in 2023. It was a wild year and the surprises just seemed to keep coming. As we head into the offseason, we say goodnight from Los Angeles.