Something new with the SMX series is, the purse money is getting paid directly to the teams to help out with some expenses of adding two races (there are now 11 nationals instead of 12) to the schedule. This is a change from usual and honestly, I’d be okay with it being this way at all the races (like NASCAR is), because we should help the teams a bit here with the costs of the sport. And if that sharing of the purse gets a team the funding to send a rider to these three races, which the rider is still going to take the vast majority of the big money, well, it's still a win for the rider. As for the regular races, the riders don't even care about the purse that much, the bonuses more than make up for that. Last year it seemed that outside of Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha, I couldn’t find or get a direct answer anyway about how many teams were keeping some of the purse to help out. This year, for whatever reason, in some informal talks it seemed that most of the teams I talk to are keeping something (the range is 10 to 20 percent) to help out with expenses. So that means the rider keeps 80-90 percent. One factory team and one privateer team I spoke to said 100 percent went to the riders. Also, the OEM’s, despite pushback from some agents, don’t do SMX bonuses. The money here comes from the purse, which is pretty big by usual SX/MX standards. Again, I think if we looked at changing this model to make it more like NASCAR, it would keep the privateer teams around longer. 

“I’m pretty sure I saw Jett get into a UFO after he left, proving that he is in fact an alien—what a performance for his first race back, and we couldn’t be prouder of him!" is what Honda HRC team manager Lars Lindstrom told me about Jett Lawrence after the race, and was quoted as saying in the official Honda PR. I think I have to agree. In no world did I see Lawrence, with only around half as much time as Eli Tomac and Cooper Webb had to recover from thumb surgery, winning the first round of SMX. But there he was, hunting down the un-huntable Eli Tomac late in the second main with his second-best lap coming three laps from the end. So, the speed was there, the fitness was there, and he looked just like, well, just like Jett Lawrence from supercross, really. Amazing performance from the #1—sort of alien-like really. 

I heard from some Honda guys that right after surgery Lawrence and Johnny O’Mara, his trainer, really went to work on getting his cardio base up, which he had lost after he hurt his shoulder at Hangtown. You could see at High Point (which he still won) or Southwick that his fitness wasn’t there late. Well, the team was determined to get that back so to work they went.

We talked about this on our SMX review show Sunday night, but man, Jett is just getting to be more incredible all the time. From 22-0 as a rookie in 450MX to his 450SX title to now this—back from injury and winning, it’s all-time stuff! We could be looking at a run of some Jett Lawrence runaway races for a long time. Yes, he split with ET this weekend, but one has to think he’s just better this weekend right? Then better again in Texas and Vegas? Then with a whole off-season, better in 2025 450SX? You get where I’m going with this, yeah? 

Tomac was great also. He was aggressive all day in qualifying, and in Friday’s practice as well. He got out early and attacked the track, probably trying to get his arm pump out of the way. He was one of the only riders, or maybe the only one, to run the scoop tire, and he yanked two great starts, won the first main and narrowly lost the second one. It was approximately 87 percent better than his two national appearances. ET was loose, fast, and he looked maybe the best he had all year, including the supercross he won earlier this year.

Big debate with, who else, Jason Thomas on the PulpMX Show on Monday about Tomac’s performance. He was definitely leaning on the idea that Team USA made a mistake in ending Eli’s USA bid at Ironman. JT feels like he was just going to keep getting better and they should have considered that. But to me, some percentage of ET’s ride at round one of SMX was due to it being, well, SMX. Like, he got beat by Sexton by 33 seconds in moto two of Ironman. If we had a week off and we went to another national, round 12 at any track you want, would Tomac go 1-2 with Jett Lawrence? I don’t think so. I don’t think he would improve that much at a motocross race. I think Tomac is really good at speedway SX tracks, and I think his improvement was somewhat due to the format/track style. For example, I'd think that a guy coming back from injury will be at less of a disadvantage in a 20-plus 1 SMX moto than a rough 30-plus 2 outdoors. So it’s not as easy to say, “Look how good he would be for Team USA at a motocross race.” But, like most bench racing arguments, who really knows for sure?

I was surprised that more riders didn’t run the scoop for the second main but then again, in talking to other riders, they were in utter amazement. Here’s a quote I got from someone who raced against Eli: "We were all on the line, like, how in the f**k is he running that?"

Eli Tomac, everyone! Beast mode is just different, I guess.

There’s no way to frame Chase Sexton’s Charlotte as anything but bad. The 450MX champion finished third overall and never really challenged ET or Jett. He crept up to the top two three-quarters of the way through the second moto, but when Jett went after ET, they both dropped him. Yes, I do think Sexton’s KTM didn’t look very good out there, but many riders weren’t stoked on their setup. Sexton appeared to have the SX thing working better by the end of the year in his win at SLC, so that’s where I’m at with this. It wasn’t a good day for Sexton in that he never got in front of his main competitors at any point. Both riders who beat him were coming off injury, and as Jake Weimer said on the PulpMX Show Monday night, when you put your head on the pillow at night, you know as a rider, despite the bike not working 100 percent, you got beat.

Now, on the flip side, some guy named Jett Lawrence scored a fourth overall at the Charlotte SMX opener last year, fixed whatever he needed to at round two, and went on to win the championship. And don’t forget, the gimmicky SMX awards double points at round two and triple points at round three, so if you’re gonna struggle, struggle at the first round. 

Haiden Deegan was great at Charlotte. He didn’t get great starts but didn’t need them anyway, as he ripped through the field, jumped the quad most laps that others didn’t, and went 1-1 in what some were saying was his best race as a pro. Myself, I’d go with Washougal last year, but this was up there. No one was on his level and if you’re Levi Kitchen, RJ Hampshire, Tom Vialle, or anyone else hoping to get this 250SMX title, well, you’ve got to be rethinking those plans. Great rides by Deegan to win the race.

That might have been Deegan's best race as a pro. There was no doubt that JuJu Beaumer had his best race as a pro in getting second overall. He had great starts, led laps, and was a consistent force out there. Not sure what changed or what happened here but maybe, just maybe, we found our first SMX specialist? I think Beaumer has been good in his rookie season. It’s not been fantastic, but it’s also not been bad like some other amateurs the Austrian brand has hired over the years. Also, did you hear he used to race jet skis?

Levi Kitchen’s first main event wasn’t ideal, as he worked his way up from a bad start to fifth. Second moto he led for a while before making a big mistake and Deegs got by. Now, Deegan was catching him also, so not sure the mistake robbed us from a Kitch win, but that would’ve been nice to see, right. Again, like I said off the top, Kitchen, Hampshire, and any other top 250MX rider thinking they had something for Deegs or wanting to challenge him, didn’t have much to say afterward. Haiden rode great, and if you want to stop some of the podium chirps or whatever, you have to beat the kid. No one at Charlotte could.

Some other news and notes:

While The Jett and Tomac made very successful returns to the track after thumb surgery, Cooper Webb’s returns haven’t gone as well. His first race back at Unadilla ended in a soil sample and two missed races, and this week he was up front early, got shuffled back quickly, went down, cut a few corners, and rejoined the race. This resulted in an six-position (?!?) penalty in the first moto. In the second moto he got eighth, which wasn’t ideal. Last season’s return to the SMX races didn’t go that well either. To top this all off, he had a scary emergency landing on a prop plane he took to the race. Yikes! 

It was a bad race for Chance Hymas, who didn’t qualify well, didn’t look comfortable out there at any point, and also had his bad knee affect his performance. There’s not much good to say about Hymas’ race, but props to him for facing the media afterward to talk about his disappointing night. He mentioned he needed to be more DGAF about sending it off outdoor jumps with a supercross setup.

Hymas’ Team USA teammate, Aaron Plessinger, also had a bad day with a crash in practice and a crash off the fake start (sigh). AP wasn’t anywhere near his form of two weeks ago and you have to think he was pretty banged up. It got worse for Jason Anderson and Justin Barcia, as they both didn’t even make the race after brutal practice crashes for them. That’s a lot of star power out of the race!

Jo Shimoda made his return from a broken collarbone and was one pass off the podium in a good showing. He was one of the few guys who moveed forward in the second main, too (not Deegan-level but better than just about anyone else). Remember, Shimoda came into the last round of SMX last year with a real chance to win the title, so clearly, he’s comfy in this format/track design. 

Cameron McAdoo made his return to racing this weekend and due to the long layoff, he had to make it through the LCQ. And then despite that bad gate pick, he pulled two good starts on his way to 7-10 finishes. He definitely looked a little tired in moto two, and admitted it after the race, but hey, you gotta’ start somewhere, right? Also, on track-walk he told me how it’s unfair he has to race the LCQ all three mains, listened to me go off on how it’s, ‘Too bad, those are the rules, this isn’t ‘Nam,’ etc., and then said, “I don’t care, I just wanted to see you get mad.” Cameron McAdoo is a jerk, everyone.