Round two of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross series was in San Diego over the weekend and things got a little clearer after this one. Eli Tomac, Chase Sexton, and Jett Lawrence have been top three in qualifying four straight sessions, both Sexton and ET, have a mulligan race, and also, Haiden Deegan is in for a battle!
To start with, I loved the San Diego track—ten whoops! A quad! Decent dirt? Good to see some stuff that was different and also, we saw a lot of great racing as well. Am I fan of Snapdragon stadium itself? Not really but it’s like cheese pizza—it’s okay.
Okay, on to the results!
450SX Results
1 | Eli Tomac
What a start for the year. Without his first lap A1 crash it’s not a stretch to say that ET3 would be two-for-two to start the year, right? His berserker mode early in the race to pass everyone was something else indeed. Tomac said one of the keys to his race was staying on the right side of the whoops and blitzing when many other riders were screwing up the groove down the middle. It was more than that though, this was vintage Eli Tomac, and it was great to watch. If he manages to win this title, he’ll do something that has never been done in 50 years of SX, and that is, be over 30 years old and win it all. And he’s 32!
2 | Jett Lawrence
Well, that was better, huh? Jett told me after the race that ET going by him was a wakeup call to him and kind of what he needed. If there wasn’t this ET guy, the San Diego SX would’ve looked a lot like 2024 at times. What bike issues? Staying back in SoCal to ride that dirt was definitely a help to the brothers and Jett seemed very happy after the race, despite the loss. What bike issues bro?
3 | Cooper Webb
Webb wasn’t feeling great and really got perhaps too descriptive on his social about his issues (he said "demons coming out both sides" which ahem, that's one way to put it) but anyway, I imagine he would take a 4-3 start to the year and the more I ask around, the more I find out he missed a significant amount of time in December and was off the bike healing from a crash. Was I surprised that after ET and Jett got by him and Ken Roczen, they gapped them that quickly? Yes, yes, I was. Then again maybe that's the "demons" coming out and also the missed time?
4 | Ken Roczen
Roczen’s also happy with the start of his season and why not? For the dude who a lot of us didn’t talk enough about, 2-4 is pretty good. He also thought he needed to really make the pass on Webb with more authority because he thought he woke Webb up, and Webb pulled back out a bit on him.
5 | Hunter Lawrence
Hunter is my guide to seeing if Honda HRC got their bikes working better because Jett’s an alien and can probably take a STACYC to a top five. So, to see Hunter, who was under the weather, be so much better than last week (although that qualifying result still makes me go hmm) is indication to me that the bike was better.
6 | Chase Sexton
Sexton had a very eventful first lap with a crash, and almost dying off the triple when he backed out of it and Dylan Ferrandis almost landed on him. From there, dead last, he worked his way to sixth in a ride that was a lot like Tomac’s last week, although he was further back than ET was after he fell. He had the third quickest lap of the main, he was right there in qualifying, and nothing I saw said A1 was a weirdo finish. He’s back, folks.
7 | Malcolm Stewart
After last week’s roller coaster, I’m sure Mookie and his team will take the steady seventh where he started sixth, got passed by an SX champ, and stayed there. No more sidewinders through the air, and a top ten, is great!
8 | Justin Barcia
We had Barcia on the PulpMX Show Monday night, and he said he’s not necessarily “happy” with how the start of his season has gone, but he’s content. He went from 13th to 8th in San Diego and really, it’s his starts that have let him down two weeks in a row. Also, his contract is up, as are Stewart’s and Anderson’s, and he confirmed he would like to keep racing for multiple years from now. It’s not hard to look at TLD Ducati coming in next year and wonder if there’s a home there for #51. After all, the Desmo valve train that Ducati has is supposed to be unreal on the top end due to not having valve springs. When we mentioned this to Bam, he laughed and said, ‘Interesting!’
9 | Dylan Ferrandis
Dylan wasn’t 100 percent due to illness, and also told me he was feeling really bad for his sponsors and team after not making the main last week. He also confirmed to me that yes, he did not know who Ryan Breece was (the dude who put him over the berm last week) and that his team, that races AX, did tell him afterward that wasn’t a good idea. Anyway, Ferrandis mentioned that he absolutely loves the 2025 CRF and the way it feels. He also almost got the holeshot in the main, which would’ve been amazing, and afterward Tomac told me he thought Ferrandis just counted and dumped the clutch at six seconds!
10 | Joey Savatgy
After last week’s incident with Benny Bloss, this was much better for Savatgy, as a privateer beating factory riders is always a good thing. Funny to hear that Joey, Ferrandis, and Shane McElrath are all riding and training together during the week and working with Zach Osborne as well. Just an odd group, right?
11 | Justin Cooper
Didn’t notice Cooper that much and through two races, I’m guessing he’s not stoked on his finishes. But I did see a social media clip of him going four over the sand and into the corner, which I never saw anyone do all day and is pretty sweet. So, he can hang his HJC on that I suppose.
12 | Jorge Prado
Welcome to America Jorge, where factory riders go to the Last Chance Qualifier with a bunch of privateer islanders that do NOT care about you or your safety. Best to just holeshot and run away, which you did.
13 | Jason Anderson
As mentioned above, Anderson joined a few other racers in being under the weather. We usually hear about these things around this time of the year, so it checks out. With the SoCal cold spell this week, we might hear about a few other guys as well.
14 | Justin Hill
Not sure what happened to Hill out there. He was coming off a strong A1 and mentioned a few times that he was taking things more seriously this year. ICYWW Hill aired out the quad right after Jett did on press day and then told me at the hotel later that it was pretty easy. I would bet most everything on a dirt bike is “easy” to Justin Hill. He’s that good.
15 | Vince Friese
Vince is one of four privateers (Hill, McElrath, and Savatgy are the others) to make both main events to start the year but here we are, NOT talking about his riding yet again. He was a hazard out there to ET while being lapped (which I heard earned him a talking to from the AMA) and then did his usual thing on Bloss in the heat race which, while I was fine with that move, others were not. Vince will never stop being Vince.
16 | Benny Bloss
Benny had to go to the LCQ (thanks Vince!) and in the main he was very slowly closing on Friese, which made me rub my hands together preparing for the revenge. Alas, Bloss couldn’t get up there partly because Friese was an idiot while being lapped (but then again, I wonder if Vince was being an idiot while being lapped because he knew if Bloss caught him it could get ugly, which again, I was fine with the heat, but you have to be prepared for revenge if you do that). Lots to take in there but I would like to thank Benny’s dad Jeff for the free food in his suite that I took advantage of in the night show.
17 | Shane McElrath
I don’t know what happened to McElrath, but looking at his lap times and his lap chart, I believe he started around 14th, didn’t crash, and lost a few spots. We’re onto Anaheim 2 people.
18 | Colt Nichols
Nichols had a hell of a San Diego after not making the main last week. In qualifying, he went long off the quad and crashed. Then he went short off the quad and crashed. Then he stopped jumping the quad which seems like a good idea to me.
19 | Mitchell Oldenburg
Freckle crashed early in the main and then “we” had our work cut out for us from there. There’s this thing I’m trying to do over at Beta where I want Oldenburg to be the #1 guy, and Benny #2 (even though they’re very closely matched), and now “we” are up 2-0 in qualifying on Bloss, but main event scores are 1-1. I might have to stop this though because Bloss may punch me at some point.
20 | Kyle Chisholm
Chiz chizzed his way into the main via the LCQ and with him announcing it’s his last year, I wonder if there’s some sort of AMA rule we can get passed where he gets to be in every main? Can we look into this?
21 | Kevin Moranz
Gonna be tough for guys like Moranz, Justin Starling, and Cade Clason to get into mains with the #deepfield we have going on, and with the factory riders we have in the LCQs, but Moranz used his starting skills to bring it into the main this week although I do think if Grant Harlan hadn’t crashed in whoops, he would’ve gotten Moranz. At one point, the 450 LCQ guys in 2-3-4-5 were all in a group chat I’m in and there was potential for it to get ugly.
22 | Aaron Plessinger
AP crashed off the quad and I heard hurt his hand. He should be good to go for A2 though.
250SX
1 | Julien Beaumer
Well, well, well, look at this. The kid had never podiumed a supercross before last week and now he’s got a win. He rode fantastic, stalking Davies before taking off with the win. On the PulpMX Show Monday he mentioned he knew the kid would probably get a bit tight and nervous leading, saw there was eight minutes to go in the race, and knew it was time to go. Also, he says he’s fully expecting and ready for Deegan to do his thing in trying to disrupt him.
2 | Jordon Smith
Jordon’s going to Jordon. That USED to mean go really fast and crash his brains out 50 percent of the time. NOW that means go really fast and crash maybe 20 percent of the time. He’s much better at staying on two wheels than he was before and he’s two for two on podiums for Triumph, also. Afterward I spoke to him a bit and he mentioned how slippery the track got for him.
3 | Haiden Deegan
I would still put Deegs as my title favorite here, and 5-3 results to start the year is nothing to panic about but it says here that he’s now got a real fight on his hands with Beaumer, who’s shown to be just as fast as he is (not faster, just AS fast…please note that Bedbugs). Weege and JT don’t really agree with me on this next point, but I feel Deegan he makes more mistakes in SX throughout the years than MX and there’s less room to correct. Starts, starts, and more starts for Deegs coming up this week!
4 | Cole Davies
Wow, this kid has been a real eye opener to start the year and this week he led laps before sort of falling apart only to rebound back after that. Very impressive Kiwi kid here, and also, who knew that vented number plates were back and a thing?
5 | Ryder DiFrancesco
There are two sides to Ryder D’s season here. One is that he’s better than last year and he’s gone 4-5 to start the year. The other is that he easily could’ve gone 3-4 but got caught from a ways back and passed late in both mains and as a factory guy, that shouldn’t happen. You decide which fact you want to go with.
6 | Coty Schock
If you’re Schock, the goal should be podiums and then beat factory riders each and every week. So far, he’s achieving that so all good here. Also, not in my mind, but I’m sure some people looked at his season last year and thought he fluked out or whatever. So, he’s showing that isn’t true, also.
7 | Jo Shimoda
Bummer for Shimoda. Broken fingers and yeah, that sucks. As a former mechanic I can say that riders getting hit by a pit board is not common, but it definitely happens over the course of a season. Usually, it’s on a lever and everything is fine. This was not that, though and yup, sucks for Shimoda and Honda.
8 | Garrett Marchbanks
He looked so good in winning his heat and who knows what he could’ve done in the main event. But stop me if you heard this before, Marchbanks got a bad start and couldn’t climb that high up, but he looked fast.
9 | Michael Mosiman
Mosiman was in a battle royale with Yoder for most of the second half of the race and got the pass done late. Last week he crashed on the first lap, so it was a bit of a wash. This week was better, and I heard he was nursing a bit of an injury coming into the west so maybe we see him get better as this thing rolls on? Potential podium sleeper?
10 | Hunter Yoder
Yoder has been good to start the year. Just like last season his starts put him in a position to have success. He was the second highest privateer out there so that’s a good thing. As mentioned also, he gave Mosiman all he wanted for almost the whole main event.
11 | Anthony Bourdon
Bourdon is a bit underrated for sure. He’s a French dude, I don’t think his English is great, but he’s in the top ten more times than not.
12 | Cole Thompson
13 | Jett Reynolds
Jett had a rough Anaheim 1, but I wrote about his speed in the heat race. This week, watching him in practice I saw he had a few moments out there. Enough that I wanted to pick him in PulpMX Fantasy, but Anaheim 1 memories and his practice made me refrain. But he had a solid main event. Building, building.
14 | Brad West
Bar X Yamaha rider, West, is an Aussie kid who’s been a bit better this year than last, I believe.
15 | Parker Ross
I don’t know anything about Ross other than he was a Honda amateur rider and he and Avery Long were rivals last year.
16 | TJ Albright
Albright got very fortunate when he was all alone in tenth with no chance to get in when Dylan Walsh and Talon Hawkins got together, and he rode on by with 1.5 laps left to get into the main. Sweet! That’s two-for-two for this underrated privateer to start the year.
17 | Nico Koch
Okay so the esteemed Vital MX journalist, Lewis Phillips, did some digging for me and it turns out Koch is not related to the German MXoN rider, Tom Koch. Tom DOES have a brother who races, but this Koch is not affiliated with those Kochs.
18 | Gavin Towers
Towers is back from Europe and trying to learn SX again after some Futures races with Star Yamaha.
19 | Dylan Walsh
I was very upset at Walsh for his move in the heat and that had nothing to do with the fact I may or may not have picked him in PulpMX Fantasy. Luckily for my blood pressure, he got it done in the LCQ.
20 | Josh Varize
Varize is two-for-two in the main events so there’s that.
21 | Ty Masterpool
Well, that didn’t quite work out, huh? After he moved to the west to fill in for Levi Kitchen, Masterpool crashed hard in the main event and looks to have broken a finger or multiple fingers. Masterpool needs to learn SX better and this PC ride was a perfect way to do that. But now he’s hurt and the learning stops.
22 | Lux Turner
Wow, TOUGH night for the AEO squad, as Tallon Hawkins broke his femur, Turner DNF’d with a bike issue, and Avery Long KO’d himself in heat. There are crappy nights and then there are CRAPPY nights.
Thanks for reading OBS, we’re onto Anaheim 2! Email me at matthes@racerxonline.com to chat about this or anything else.