Observations: Salt Lake City

Quite an accomplishment for Jett who has now won, checks notes, six straight championships if you include the 250SX ones [editor’s note: actually, it's seven straight if you count his 2023 450 SMX World Championship, but Matthes does not count that]. Buckle up because this kid is going to win a bunch more races and a bunch more titles.

Chase Sexton was great all day and he took off with the main event win, his second of the year, and his first in “normal” conditions. He was awesome and I’m sure it was a relief to him. I’m sure he was DGAF about the fact that the Jett kid wasn’t looking to actually win. Even though it’s the last SX of the year, I’m sure this will help his confidence coming into the AMA Pro Motocross Championship. Winning anything for Sexton this year has to be nice, and a little bit of warm comfort that he still has “it,” you know? About the only negative is, I’m just not a fan of the cow-print spotted A-Stars gear he was wearing. Dalmatians, sure. Cows? Hard no.

Good job to Justin Cooper who finished second place in SLC and sixth in the series points. Hunter Lawrence (more on him later) was also in the same spot as Cooper as a 250SX champion who made a fulltime 450SX season debut this year. Cooper raced some 450SX last year but, to me at least, he still qualifies as rookie status because this was his first fulltime season. Courtesy of MX Reference, who do you think had the better rookie year?

Points
6^th – Justin Cooper | 227 Points
11^th – Hunter Lawrence | 207 points

Best Result
Cooper – 2^nd | SLC
Lawrence – 2^nd | Denver

Podiums
Cooper – 1
Lawrence – 2

Average qualifying
Cooper – 6.0
Lawrence – 7.5

Pole Positions
Lawrence – 1
Cooper – 0

Heat Race Wins
Lawrence – 1
Cooper – 0

Holeshots
Cooper – 1
Lawrence – 1

Laps Led
Lawrence – 12
Cooper – 1

Missed Main Events
Cooper – 1 (Failed to qualify for San Francisco in the mud).
Lawrence – 2 (Failed to qualify for A1 and missed Birmingham due to a shoulder injury). 

Pretty even, right? I’d probably go with Hunter just because he had more podiums, laps led, fastest qualifying, and a heat race win but I mean, it’s hella’ close. Flip a coin, both riders have bright futures. Unfortunately for them, neither guy got the 450SX Rookie of the Year trophy because that went to Jett because, well, yeah.

As far as Hunter, he was fined $2500 for hitting Jason Anderson while being lapped by the #21. It probably cost the Kawasaki rider a podium as he had caught Cooper Webb. That would’ve been Anderson’s third-straight podium and it would have turned his season even more in the right direction, but Hunter made sure that didn’t happen. Hunter was upset about a pass by Anderson that took him down earlier in the main event, which was aggressive, but to me, it wasn’t anything that bad. Supercross is, to me, a contact sport. As long as you’re not t-boning a dude or pinning your bike to the exit of a turn, I’m fine with almost all rough passing.

And also, I’m fine with Hunter deciding he’d enough of that from Anderson and jacked with him. Knocking a dude down like Justin Bogle did to Justin Barcia is not okay but this was a love tap, really. Riders can handle their business out there, Jason is aggressive and probably didn’t need to take Hunter that high, Hunter probably didn’t need to retaliate, but maybe next time they’ll play nicer. Everyone is fine here, move along.

The RJ Hampshire/Levi Kitchen battle for 250SX west supremacy is what everyone was at SLC for, and I was asked by a bunch of people who I thought was going to win. My answer was the same: ‘Tell me who gets the start,’ and they’ll win. 

Well, Hampshire got the start and won. He rode almost perfectly to win the title while Kitchen was a couple of riders back chasing the #24 rider the whole way. Both guys rode well, but as I said up top, on this track, with this dirt, everyone can go fast and there were no mistakes by either rider. So, Hampshire wins a well-deserved title and everyone in the pits likes Rick, so we’re all happy. 

But truthfully, if Kitchen doesn’t get run into by his own teammate in Nashville (on accident of course), he probably wins the title rather easily. Levi really emerged this year as the guy who stepped up. His future is bright but I’m sure he doesn’t want to hear that part now. He just wants to have this title.

We had both riders on the PulpMX Show on Monday and Levi mentioned that winning his heat over Hampshire was perhaps the worst thing for him. It gave him first gate pick and when he went back to the gate that he used in the heat, Haiden Deegan lined up next to him. Deegs had been great all day, you know he was feeling it, and also, he’s on a Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing machine. So, Kitchen had a fight on his hands in getting out in front of Deegan. Hampshire went back toward the doghouse. Kitchen felt that had he gotten second, he was going to line up next to Hampshire and he liked those odds of getting a start on RJ over Deegan. Kitchen’s fears were realized when he and Deegan locked bars a bit and it cost Kitchen. Deegan went on to get the holeshot while Hampshire got a good start and made things happen in the first turn and first rhythm to come out nicely. Kitchen’s heat race win might’ve doomed him for the title.

Tom Vialle didn’t ride very well in his heat. He told us on the PulpMX Show that the track was so slippery and hard to ride after the track crew threw water down that he was just trying to survive out there. He said it wasn’t a good ride and even though he had a 15-point lead, going to the gate with the 18^th gate pick was not ideal.

He mentioned the track was much better for the main event (thanks to the rain delay) and that his good start from that far out was key. Vialle’s a great starter and that was needed after that heat race performance.

Congrats to Tom on the title, very surprising for sure, and after that first turn crash in Detroit that took out half the field that wasn’t his fault, he was never off the podium besides this last race. On the show he credited getting away from Aldon Baker’s program as a reason he improved so much. Nothing bad on Baker or his program, it just didn’t work for him. With Sexton also not training with Baker, I’m sure KTM’s super stoked to see their top two guys not working with the trainer they pay a ton of money.

Look let’s be honest and admit that the new Feld policy on nine whoops built by a dozer helped Vialle a ton, as whoops aren’t his strength. He said on the show that his coach, Marvin Musquin, was a big help in teaching him to jump through whoops better because NO ONE was better at jumping whoops than Marv. But now, two jumps and he was out of the whoops at most races. Hey, it’s not like Tom asked Feld to just build nine whoops, but it definitely helped him become a champion in my eyes.

Deegan won the main, his third win of the year, and really, he did all he could do, which was score the maximum number of points and hope that Vialle had some sort of misfortune. That didn’t happen but Deegan was great all day. Tripling onto the tabletop first in practice, winning his heat, and leading every lap of the main. Yeah, he got caught by Smith and then Hampshire (who said on the PulpMX show that he did NOT want to pass Deegan, he did NOT want to win the race and didn’t want to get involved at all with Haiden!) but still, great race and a good season for Deegan.

Remember when Deegs went after Jordon Smith in Detroit last year and we all wondered why you would get that aggressive with a teammate in a heat race? Smith played it cool back then and everything was diffused. Well, considering that Smith is rumored to be going to Triumph for 2025, it appears that the gloves are off with him and Deegan. He made a very aggressive attempt on Deegan for the lead in the main and it was a bit weird with a low chance of probability. It turns out that Jordon wasn’t happy with Deegan brake checking him earlier and decided to just go for it. Smith mentioned his unhappiness on the podium, Deegan fired back in the media afterward and with Smith departing the team, this should be interesting to watch this summer. Although it doesn’t really count as full “shenanigans” like we all thought, Deegan did try to mess with Vialle on press day and in practice as well. Deegan’s gonna do Deegan things everyone. 

Okay, onto the awards!

Most Eye-Opening SX of the Year
That would be Daytona for me because Jett passed Eli Tomac (in Eli’s HOUSE!!!) and Chase Sexton rather easily and took off for the win. We all knew Jett was awesome, of course, but to me, this was a statement win. And how easy it came. Oh boy, everyone was in real trouble after this race.

Craziest SX of the Year
Detroit because we had almost all the major 250SX east title guys down in the first turn at the first round and then a dude rode the whole race with his penis and scrotum exposed. It doesn’t get any wackier than Detroit this year, folks. 

The Annual, ‘Justin Barcia did What?’ Race
That would be St. Louis when BamBam, who had been dealing bike setup issues and had been much quieter than usual, finally struck. It’s inevitable every year and this time it was the #51 center punching Jett Lawrence. Honestly, he had been so quiet and controversy free this year that St. Louis felt nice. Like a warm blanket and some cocoa.

Worst SX of the Year
San Francisco. It was awesome to be back in San Fran, but rain fell almost all night, the track was a disaster, it was cold, the pits were five miles away, we had one practice and yeah, everything sucked.

Best Fan Involvement of the Year
The dude in San Fran who jumped out of the stands to help Malcolm Stewart get a Tuff Block out from his bike. He was the hero we didn’t know we needed.

Best Race-Day Live Segment
The one in Philadelphia where the PulpMX guy got on to give his picks and talk about the Yamaha LCQ race coming up. Great TV!

Best Race Where We Made Jokes at Darkside’s Expense
Every single SX of the year.

The ‘We Want More’ Award
Goes to Malcolm Stewart, who just couldn’t stay up for the first month of racing and then from there, there were maybe two “HEAT RACE MOOKIE” sightings all year long. Not a great season for the #27.

Breakout SX Ride of the Year
I mean, a dude who’s barely gotten many top tens and got fired in November, had to latch onto a team late, and then gets third overall in 250SX with two top-five finishes despite a broken collarbone probably counts right? Coty Schock, come on down! 

The SX EKG Award
Goes to Max Anstie who had the red plate in 250SX with 2-6-8 finishes to start the year (YAY). Then his bike breaks next race (BOO). Then he qualifies quickest and wins heats (YAY) but doesn’t do anything in those mains (BOO) and then wins a race late (YAY) but loses a chance for third in the series with a bad final round (BOO). I don’t think my heart could handle Max’s SX season if I was his team owner. He did sign with Star Yamaha for 2025 though (YAY).

The ‘Holy Shit That Dude’s shock Exploded in the Whoops and Now What’s Going to Happen?’ Award
It was close but we gave this award to Ken Roczen.

Best Trick all Year
Phil Nicoletti’s “turn down” over the bridge on his parade lap at the final SX of his career in SLC. I mean, it doesn’t get much more “radical” than that. Next up for Phil is probably X-Games FMX.

The ‘SX shrug’ Award
Goes to Shane McElrath who got a fourth in the mud in San Fran and then we all just shrug when asked to name his second-best ride of the year.

Worst Flagger of the year Award
The AMA guy holding the red flag out on the finish at St Louis like the flag had herpes.

Best Beta Rider
Big Benny Bloss on the Beta jokes write themselves and after a rough start, he put in some great rides out there.

Best Triumph Rider
Well, Evan Ferry was into the wall and one and done sooooooo, yeah, Jalek Swoll is the winner here. Seriously, on brand new bike Swoll looked better on it at times than he did on his factory Husky.