We know Anaheim is weird, so please, let’s not go ahead and start making some crazy judgements from this race, okay? The 2025 Monster Energy AMA Supercross series kicked off this past weekend and we’ve got some things on our mind to talk about.
Chase Sexton won the damn thing and I’m here to say he looked better all day long on the KTM then at any other point in SX last season. He got fortunate with Eli Tomac’s crash, which happened while Tomac was leading, because I think the #3 would’ve been tough to beat. He was also tough to ride over for Sexton after Tomac fell!
Sexton told me the KTM people told him he pushed them in a direction with the bike they hadn’t gone before and it’s paying off. His starts were a weakness last year but on Monday night on the PulpMX show he said they changed some things with his seat and handlebars (and they might install his start hook lower) to get him over the bike more. Anaheim is a weird race many times, but it says here this Sexton renaissance is for real and he’s back.
Ken Roczen’s got a factory transmission in his RM-Z for the first time since he got back on yellow and hey, look at that, Roczen was second! Kenny’s an amazing rider, he always starts the series off strong, and I bet a taller first and second gear in the tranny was a big help. In fact, Sexton told us Roczen called him the first time he rode with it all stoked!
Go back and watch Roczen off the start. He was pretty far back and there wasn’t any room out there, but Kenny did Kenny things and got to the front. We need to appreciate Roczen more than we do, I think. He’s a pretttttyyyy awesome dirt bike rider.
Obviously, Jett Lawrence wasn’t happy with his setup, and we know going far back to the Paris SX that the new 2025 CRF450, that was so good in motocross because of rigidity changes to the frame, is now perhaps too rigid for SX. He was second fastest qualifier and so to me, he and HRC Honda Progressive will figure it out soon.
It was a bit alarming that Jett, after the fall, didn’t seem to have any urgency in moving through the pack. It was like he knew he couldn’t push the bike where he wanted it to be. The team did change ECUs to GET to match the 250 ones (from an HRC one), and they changed fuel as well to ETS Racing Fuels, but from people I talk to on the Honda side of things, that’s not an issue right now (despite Jett and Hunter not getting starts, which was probably from Lars being late with the button).
[Editor’s note: Matthes, not everyone listens to the Racer X race review podcasts in which you, Jason Weigandt, and Jason Thomas, joke about HRC Honda team manager, Lars Lindstrom, having a magic, remote, holeshot button he uses to help his riders.]
You could see both Lawrence brothers not being comfortable in the whoops, so when you add the new frame in with some new suspension parts, well, it’s going to take some time I guess to get the Hondas where the brothers like them.
Jo Shimoda’s “problem” in the past has been starting a series slowly, and by the time he was better, the title was out of reach. Well, 2025 is a new Jo-Show! He looked great in winning the main and now his “problem” is going to be Haiden Deegan but hey, he’s off to a great start, unlike in the past.
JuJu Beaumer looked awesome. I mean you better be good if you walk into the race with some sort of white fur coat, right? The KTM kid won a heat and got on the podium for the first time in his career. Qualified quickest also! We had Davi Millsaps, his coach/trainer, on the PulpMX Show Monday and he mentioned it’s more of a mental change for Beaumer. The work was the same, the bike is basically the same, he just knows what he’s in for now. He’s got some experience, he’s not intimidated by the situation, and it’s all added up to Beaumer showing off his skills. Maybe for the first time ever, the “flying at the test track,” will be a real thing?
Jordon Smith tracked down and passed Ryder DiFrancesco late in the main to grab the first ever SX podium for Triumph! Jordon’s Jordon—he’s going to give you all he’s got. He might crash, yet he’s a very good rider. Myself and my PulpMX Show co-host, David Vuillemin (he used to race, I think) got into a debate on the show because he thinks the 250SX West Region is between Deegan, Shimoda, and Beaumer, and I’m appalled he didn’t put Smith in there.
I won’t hear it from anyone who wants to push the panic button on Haiden Deegan. He crashed off the start and came from almost last to fifth. He’s fine, he’s going to win this title barring injury, but yes, it was yet another supercross where his speed was more than enough but a crash cost him a win.
450 Stuff
Word is Cooper Webb had a nasty crash in December and had to take some time off the bike, so to get a fourth and be all over Jason Anderson at the end of the race, I think he’ll take that, right?
As mentioned above, Tomac’s entire race was ruined with that crash on lap one and it’s a shame, really. ET looked great all day, qualified P1 and was probably going to win the race without the fall. But yeah, he fell. Great charge to come back to fifth!
Tomac has gone to an air fork after a few years on some hybrid air/spring stuff (I may or may not have also ridden with the hybrid stuff at one point) and he also apparently rode with a spec Dunlop and not a factory one. For Eli, a creature of habit, this is some real change! Like the Russians in Rocky IV, if Tomac can change, you can change, and we can all change.
I had no idea Benny Bloss had never made the main at Anaheim 1 in five or six tries. Like, that’s hard to do for a guy that’s as fast as the BB gun. Well, good news is Beta Benny made Anaheim 1! The bad news is, according to him, Joey Savatgy took him out, broke his throttle, and he DNF’d. So yeah, Benny has NOW failed to ever finish an Anaheim 1 main event, but baby steps were made.
Also, in the interest of real journalism, I went over to Savatgy to get his take on taking out Bloss, and, shocking, he said Bloss fell on him, and he had the inside while also revving the shit out of his bike to let Bloss know he was there. Sooooo, yeah. We didn’t really get to the bottom of what happened.
I also can’t believe Dylan Ferrandis and Colt Nichols didn’t make the main at Anaheim 1, but hey, Anaheim 1 is weird, right? It’s almost as unbelievable that Dylan thought trying to go around the outside of Arenacross guy, Ryan Breece, was a good idea in the LCQ. Breece promptly put him over the berm and that’s all she wrote for the #14. I was waiting for Breece to tweet at Ferrandis, “How did that work out for you?”
Imagine telling Malcolm Stewart when he was flying through the air in the heat race coming out of the sand that he would go on to get tenth in the main? He would definitely take that.
It's Kyle Chisholm’s last season and I’m not ready for this news at the moment. K, thanks.
250 Stuff
I can’t believe Daniel Blair KTM let Cole Davies walk away. Like, the kid is legit. He looked great all day and came from, checks notes, 20th place up to eighth and he will be on the box this year as well. He looked great, and to go from someone who most had never heard of, to a podium in two years, is impressive.
Jett Reynolds had a tough main event but in his heat race he came from WAY back to get into the top nine in just eight minutes. Like, no one will care, a heat race doesn’t matter, but I’m here to tell you, dear reader, that Jett Reynolds rode great.
We laughed about this on the A1 race review, but in my opinion, Garrett Marchbanks didn’t have a very good race. Holeshot to working backward to crashing in whoops to a ninth.
Here’s what he said in the official Kawasaki PR “It was a good start to the season,” said Marchbanks. “I felt good in qualifying and the heat race, and even though I didn’t hold the position I wanted in the main, it’s something to build on.”
Here’s what he told Racer X’s Aaron Hansel: “My start was good in the main, I just ran a little tight in some areas and needed to loosen up. I made some dumb mistakes during the race. I missed a rhythm twice, missed a couple other things, almost had two tip-overs prior to crashing. I don’t know what it was. I think just me being a bit excited being up there for the first time in a while. I talked with the team and we’re going to figure some things out on Monday and Tuesday, regroup, and figure it out.”
Love to see it!
We’re onto San Diego! Thanks for reading and email me at matthes@racerxonline.com if you want to chat about this or anything else.