Look, it’s Thursday and you already know what happened at Ironman. It was another tour de force by Chase Sexton, and Tom Vialle won in the 250 class. Track looked sweet, the new-for-MXoN start seemed to work, and all in all it looked like a great race. I say “looked” like a great race because I wasn’t there. I was in the UK at the Foxhill track for the third annual Vet MXoN, which is a two-stroke race that has some sweet bikes and an MXoN format. More on that below.
Sexton’s season was great and he deserves all the flowers and accolades that he gets. Incredible speed and stamina, his switch to KTM is now a success, and he told us Tuesday on the PulpMX Show he feels like he’s riding better than ever before. Sexton’s 450MX title is well deserved and super awesome. But, we all know how much better he got once Jett Lawrence went out of the series with an injury and before Jett did that, he was winning with a shoulder that was less than 100 percent. Sexton won Hangtown, where Jett was basically shot up like a circus lion, pooped the bed at Lakewood the next week, then got beat at the next two races by The Jett. Lawrence then exited the series and Sexton became a new guy. So, yes, FULL props to Sexton for this title (please see above), but one has to think Jett’s injury was the impetus for Sexton’s rise, right?
If Jett comes into SMX next weekend and beats Sexton, when you know he’s not 100 percent yet, then 2025 SX is already over. Now, I don’t think he will do that. I think Sexton’s confidence right now will guide him to an SMX win, but hey, this shit is going to get very interesting!
Vialle incredibly got his first win of the year with 1-4 scores. It was shades of last year when Kawasaki was looking to get shut out of a race win all year for the first time since 1982 when Jo Shimoda saved the day with a win at the last national. Vialle, who was considered title contender 1B to Haiden Deegan’s 1A to most people, needed an overall win to sort of salvage what had been an okay 250MX season. And he got it. But overall, you’d have to say this was a bit of a ledown for Vialle and KTM. Second in the points, but the rider in third (Levi Kitchen) won three races and is happy with his series. The rider in fourth (Chance Hymas) won his first race, led laps and became a guy and is happy. Heck, the rider fifth in the points (Ty Masterpool) won a race and there’s ZERO chance he's unhappy with his series.
Aaron Plessinger rode great at Ironman. It’s a good track for him and he ended up second overall on the day and third overall in the series. After Washougal, AP was three points back of Justin Cooper for third overall in the series and after the last six motos, AP ended up 32 points up on the #32 for third. That’s quite a swing there for both of the guys. Plessinger really came on late but man. He must be tired of getting passed by his teammate, too. I think it was five out of the six motos (some of them multiple times!) he saw Sexton get by him and drop him. Got to be frustrating for Plessinger, but it was still a good season for him. Who wins their first 450MX national first, AP or Cooper?
Deegs had a similar race at Ironman to Budds, where he dominated one moto and then was off in the other, but just flip ’em. A crash and some suspension changes gave him the 11-1 scores and the second moto was vintage Deegan in that he just worked up through the pack and cruised it on home for the win The second moto sort of encapsulates Deeg’s season of dominance. Big air, big speed, big endurance, and some spice in there as well with Vialle, and them playing, slowly-slowly-catchy-monkey, with each other. Like, that moto had the full Haiden Deegan experience. Soak it in!
Last week at Budds Creek, Eli Tomac was good in one moto and not good in the other. It was sort of a wash in his first national since 2022 and “we” all gave him a mulligan. This week he went 4-3 for third overall and looked pretty good. Going into SMX, he’s got to be feeling better with some gate drops under him. Jumping into the outdoors is hard work, even for a legend like ET.
RJ Hampshire got on the box and said he wished he had been in the “Danger Zone” this year, which was awesome. RJ’s gonna RJ, and despite him only doing one 30-minute moto before Budds Creek, he makes the podium in his second race back because he’s RJ. Of course he did. Also, this was probably the last 250MX race of Hampshire’s career, so pour one out for him getting loose on the little bike and keeping the throttle pinned.
Drew Adams made his pro debut at Ironman, but the plan for him is to do SX Futures next year. But hey, Pro Circuit has been known to have some injuries so if Adams’ SX off-season stuff is going well, he might be in SX sooner than later. Anyway, Drew’s 15-11 finishes weren’t indicative of his speed. He was top ten for a while in moto one before a crash, he almost broke into the top ten in the second moto, and he qualified P-5 (although in unseeded practice). Good debut—we can work with speed.
Okay, so I was at Foxhill in the UK this weekend racing a legendary GP track in an all two-stroke event, which is a good time, Dave King and Robin Walters put on a hell of an event, and Team USA this year was Mike Brown, Andrew Short, and Sean Lipanovich. They finished second to Team UK of Tommy Searle (pretty much the god of this race), Brad Anderson, and Elliott Banks Browne. Saturday was ruined by the weather unfortunately, but Sunday was okay. In the second motos the track came around and the crowd was into it. The results are whatever, but the vibe is high for this race. It’s a pretty awesome event, the bikes are phenomenal to look at (although there are a lot of racers with bike issues—who knew keeping 20 to 40-yea-old bikes running isn’t easy?), and the racing is fun.
Ryan Villopoto was there, he raced and got beat by a beach race champion, but didn’t care. I “guided” Team Canada of Tyler Medaglia (qualified 2nd!!), Ryan Gauld, and Ryan Lockhart to a ninth overall. Keith Johnson started the day on a sweet KX250 but ended on a ’99 Suzuki for some reason, and Heath Harrison broke his bike early on and I think was done for the day. But man, everyone involved in the race is cool and even the riders with issues have a good time. I’m not one of those two-stroke kooks who stands on the coffee table at the family gatherings and tells you the sport was better with two-strokes, but there is something cool about the smell and look of nostalgia.
I raced a 2004 YZ250 (thanks to Gary Senior for the bikes) and it was great. I went 24-17 on the day, Mike Brown won my class, but I was just warming up in 17th and getting ready to make my charge to the front when my moto was red flagged for a crash. From there Doug Dubach (the “mayor” of this race) said he and Brown decided that since we were halfway through our race, it was over. So I was screwed over by Dubach and Brown, and here I was always a fan of that San Jose SX in 1991. But not anymore!
Thanks for reading OBS, we’ll be back for the SMX report from Charlotte. Looking forward to that, it should be a lot of fun. Email me at matthes@racerxonline.com if you want to chat about this or anything else.
