After surprising everyone with winning a Monster Energy AMA Supercross 250SX East title in only his sophomore season, Tom Vialle was a favorite heading into the AMA Pro Motocross Championship. Vialle started the season strong, finishing on the podium the first three rounds, but even with seconds and thirds, the point deficit starts adding up when your main competition is winning.
This is something we have seen before. A rider wins a supercross title but is unable to carry that momentum outdoors. Maybe it's the "supercross hangover,” or maybe the rider is just so focused on wrapping up one championship, they don’t take the time to test and set their bike up for the nationals, like their competition.
Tom admitted last week after Budds Creek that he struggled with bike setup at the beginning of the year, and that he was "pissed" he didn’t have an overall yet. It was this fire that helped motivate him to the overall win at Ironman, as he stated in the post-race press conference:
“Last week I was actually, on the track riding good. I started really bad in both motos and we changed some stuff with the clutch this week, with the team, and obviously my starts today were way better. I think I got both holeshots. So, it's a big help when you start in front, you are out there in the lead. It's a big help, for me especially. So, it was nice. It was stressful, I was like, ‘I need to win at least one.’ I feel like I have been close the whole year but couldn’t make it happen, and today was the day.”
Vialle made a statement in the first moto by pulling the holeshot and leading the entire race. In the second moto the Red Bull KTM rider again pulled the holeshot and led the first nine laps and had a very exciting battle with Haiden Deegan before he finally faded back to fourth.
“It was pretty cool actually, we did maybe two or three laps together. He passed me after the mechanics and I passed him back after the next corner, it was a nice battle. I think the track is nice for that, you can really change your line. It was cool I got a little bit tired the last ten minutes. Obviously, I really wanted to try and keep with Haiden, but I got a little bit tired, and I couldn’t do better than fourth in the second moto.”
Even though Vialle got tired, he knew he did not need to beat Deegan to get his first overall of the season.
“Of course, my goal is to go 1-1, I felt great the first four or five laps. I didn’t really change my lines from the first moto, and I had some struggles on some parts of the track. Haiden was faster on some parts of the track and I was faster on the other part of the track. It was tough. I think Haiden finished 11th in the first moto, so he didn’t really push all moto. I think maybe he was a little bit more fresh than everybody in the second one. Obviously when you do the first moto in front, and you push for the win it's a little bit different than when you are like maybe 11th. But overall, it was a good fight. Haiden is the guy to beat so I was trying to hold him up and I got a little bit tired at the end. It was nice to finish outdoors with a win and we are going to go into SMX and hopefully we can fight for the win there."
With Pro Motocross now wrapped up, the riders will get two weekends off to rest and prepare for the SMX Playoffs. Vialle finished second at the first SMX round in 2023, where the motos are shorter (20 minutes plus one lap) with a hybrid motocross/supercross style track. Vialle has already proven he can ride supercross, and the speedway tracks somewhat resemble some of the manmade tracks on the MXGP circuit where he has two MX2 World Championships.
Last year, the first year of the SMX Playoffs, no one knew quite what to expect. This year the teams will be more prepared as far as bike setup is concerned. After both supercross and motocross, Vialle sits third in combined SMX points and will head into the first playoff round with 20 points. So, the question is, will he be able to keep this momentum going and start SMX off with another win?
