10: Plessinger Podium Regular
Red Bull KTM’s Aaron Plessinger has been on fire since his breakout ride in Daytona. In New Jersey AP battled tooth and nail with Rockstar GasGas’s Justin Barcia and took advantage of a big crash from Barcia to get his fifth podium finish in the last seven races. He has more podiums this season than any other SX season for him, and he could be the one rider to get in between—and steal points from—Sexton and Webb. Plessinger is long time friends with Webb, but teammates with Chase. It will be interesting what approach he takes if he does find himself in position to shake things up.
9: Hammaker Makes a Statement
Monster Energy/ Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Seth Hammaker was on fire in East Rutherford. He was on rails in qualifying and set the fastest lap of the afternoon by almost a full second. In the main event it was Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Nate Thrasher who grabbed the holeshot, but Hammaker would make an aggressive opening lap pass to take over the lead. It wasn’t aggressive as if Seth went in for the kill, but he did see an opportunity to take control of this championship, and he took it. He went on to lead every lap and will take a ton of momentum, as well as sole possession of the red plate, into another home state race in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
8: Vialle losing touch
Red Bull KTM’s Tom Vialle may be having nightmares about the Foxborough mudder this week as he couldn’t get to his title rivals in East Rutherford. On paper, it looks like he was not that far behind them, but he also never appeared to be a threat. Tom is riding well enough to win if he starts ahead of Seth and RJ, he could possibly beat them and make the points really interesting, but he has not been the guaranteed holeshot guy in supercross like he was in MXGP. A third is solid, but he desperately needs a win in Pittsburgh to keep his championship hopes alive heading into Salt Lake.
7: Deano’s back
Dean Wilson spent the winter on a world tour but jumped at the opportunity to ride fill in for the Lawrences on a Honda HRC bike. He ended up 17th in his debut last weekend when arm pump got him, but bounced back huge in East Rutherford, getting a ninth. Dean spent most of the main in an epic battle with Team Tedder’s Justin Hill. On the PulpMX Show this week, Dean talked about how pumped the team was with his performance. “After the race, Lars (Lindstrom, team manager) and Cam (Camera, who is usually Hunter Lawrence’s mechanic), you would have thought Hunter just won a main!” he joked. “They were so pumped with my ninth place, like over the moon. I’m thinking in my head, like they went undefeated seasons, won championships and they’re amped over this ninth place?” Having Dean at the races is great for the sport and with performance like this, it adds some depth to the 450 field late in the season.
6: Forkner shows some life
Pre-season predictions for Triumph’s Austin Forkner were all over the map, but even his biggest critics may not have seen things going this way. Coming into the weekend Forkner had been to multiple LCQ’s and was invisible for much of the season. He finally showed some life in East Rutherford. He was solid in both qualifying sessions, ending up fourth overall. In the main, Forkner ran fifth for most of the main event, but crashed with two to go and fell back to seventh. The result tied his season best. He crashed several times throughout the day, but it was the fastest and most aggressive Austin has looked on Triumph. Forkner may be deep into a rebuild, but he is the only rider on the team that has been to every scheduled race, which is huge. If he can continue to build, there is reason to believe we could see Forkner in Pro Circuit form at some point.
5: Bam’s tough season
Despite showing some signs of life recently, it has been a trying 2025 season Justin Barcia. He has yet to land on the podium and things have gotten even more frustrating over the last two weekends. Leading up to Philly, Barcia had a crash during the week where a lever ended up crushing his finger. He found that nothing was broken and taped it up for the weekend, but it still looked terrible and likely didn’t feel much better. He ended up getting the holeshot in the main event and it looked like this could be the breakout performance he has been needing. That lasted about half a lap as Barcia lost his rear brake and went straight over a berm. This weekend in East Rutherford Bam found himself in a battle for third with Plessinger. Just as it seemed like he had broken AP to secure a spot on the podium, he had a huge crash in the whoops, over the bars, mangling the bike. Barcia went for a pit stop and finished the race in 18th. Barcia is looking for a ride for 2026 and is desperate to add a podium to his resume. He will try again this weekend in Pittsburgh.
4: Ferrandis heating up
Phoenix Honda’s Dylan Ferrandis has been starting to string together some solid results over the past couple of weeks. In East Rutherford, Dylan charged from 13th to fifth, tying a season best. Dylan was bummed out to miss out on the HRC fill-in ride, but HRC has been stepping up with parts such as a factory transmission. On Monday’s PulpMX Show, Dylan talked about his improvement over the last few races saying, “I’m at my best of this season. Some crashes, some small injuries, and it was a new bike for us, the new Honda. Even if I felt good on it all year, you can always improve a little bit and everybody, every racer, every team are improving their bike. If you stay where you were at A1, it is hard to compete at this time of the season. We upgraded the bike, I got some upgrades from HRC, so I think that’s why I am getting better now.”
3: Sexton Makes a Statement
Red Bull KTM’s Chase Sexton put on a clinic inside of MetLife on Saturday night. When the gate dropped for the main event, he put in one of the most dominant performances in recent memory. His title rival Cooper Webb started right behind him and simply couldn’t hang. Sexton’s best lap was .75 seconds faster than Webb and he was over a second a lap faster for much of the race. The lead got near 20 seconds before he backed it down late in the race. Chase was elite in skimming the rutted whoops with ease. Will that whoop scenario develop again? East Rutherford’s back-to-back whoop sections and rutted conditions gave him an undeniable advantage. There’s still so much to play for in these final three weeks.
2: Simonson Solid in Season Debut
Devin Simonson was extremely impressive in his season debut with the Muc-Off/FXR/Club MX Yamaha team. Simonson spent the summer at ClubMX, training with the team, putting in the work with no guarantee of a ride. They gave him an opportunity to ride their 450 at a couple Pro Motocross events last summer and his stellar ride at Ironman earned him a ride for 2025. He was slated to compete in the entire 250 East Division on a supercross-only contract but suffered a broken wrist in December. In East Rutherford he topped both B qualifying sessions and ended up 12th overall. He got a great start in his heat and ended up third. In the main, Devin came around lap one in sixth and hung in for ninth on the night. Surprisingly, this was actually not a career best for Simonson (who even finished ninth in the 450 class at the Steel City finale) but this must be a career day as a whole and the entire team should be pumped!
1: Jerry Robin
More importantly than everything above, a shockwave was sent through the sport with the devastating news of Jerry Robin. Robin, who has been having a career season on his Estenson Yamaha, cased a triple in a rhythm lane and went down hard. He has since updated everybody on his Instagram that his T3-T9 has been fused and he is currently paralyzed from the belly button down. Jerry is a privateer favorite among the paddock and one of the most talented riders not under a factory rig. If you have been on social media over the past few days, you have probably seen the outpouring of support from the industry. This is every rider’s biggest fear and risk they take to do what they love. Stay strong Jerry, the entire industry is thinking of you. If you are able, please click the link below to donate to Jerry’s Road2Recovery.
