SuperMotocross Points Heading into Pro Motocross Finale: Battle Within The Battle

The top 20 riders in combined AMA Supercross and Motocross points earn a gate for each round of the SMX Playoffs. Even if a rider in the top 20 doesn’t line up (like Jason Anderson, who is expected to be absent for the playoffs this year), the riders ranked 21st or worst must still qualify through the LCQ (the Wild Card race) to get into the motos. They have to do that in all three rounds, too, no matter how they finish each weekend.

At the Unadilla National, Justin Cooper (630 points) clinched the top spot in the 450SMX Class as Jett Lawrence (533 points) jumped Cooper Webb (516 points) and Chase Sexton (510 points) to take over second place as Malcolm Stewart (486 points) rounds out the top five.

Those guys above, by the way, are fighting for seeding points, and you can see how a good weekend from Stewart (and he's historically good at Budds Creek) could allow him to jump Sexton and Webb. 

That's not as critical as what's happening with some privateers below that.

There’s a lot of pressure to be top 20, and right now 18-22nd is very close. Justin Hill is 18th with 194 points, he’s pretty safe, but he’s also not racing Pro Motocross, so he won’t score any points this weekend. Then Mitchell Harrison sits 19th with 182 points, Valentin Guillod 20th with 179 points, and Coty Schock is on the outside looking in with 171 points. Just 11 points separate Harrison, Guillod, and Schock with two motos remaining. It looks like two of those three will get in, unless they all have huge days at Budds Creek and bump Hill back to 21st. Who will come up big in the clutch? Expect a huge battle this weekend at Budds!