Year three of playoffs in the SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX), and the riders now know the score. The top 20 riders get guaranteed spots on the gate at all three playoff races, riders ranked 21-30 get invited to the races but must race their way in through the Wild Card race (aka last chance qualifier) every weekend. The Wild Card race is supposed to take two more riders to the gate, but if a rider that sits top twenty in points doesn’t compete, additional Wild Card spots open up (it’s already known that Jason Anderson won’t return for the playoffs, so expect at least three 450 riders to get into the races through the Wild Card this year).
So, top twenty is a real line in the sand, and going into final “regular season” race at Budds Creek, privateers Coty Schock, Mitchell Harrison, and Valentin Guillod were fighting for the final two spots. As luck would have it, Guillod’s Rock River Gizmo Mods Yamaha team was even pitted directly across from Schock’s Muc-Off/FXR/ClubMX Yamaha squad. They were watching each other all day!
This battle-within-the-battle delivered, as all three had ups and downs throughout the races. Schock was hoping to rally at his home track, and his solid ninth in moto one cut his eight-point deficit to Guillod in half. Guillod finished 12th, Harrison finished 14th. All three were also closing on Justin Hill’s 18th spot in points. This set up a dramatic final moto, and there it came undone for Schock, who crashed on a downhill early. In a rush to get back up, his bike got tangled in a bunch of Yamaha banners, which caused him to nearly loop out as he tried to get back going. From way back Schock scratched and clawed, but could only get to 15th place.
He still almost made it in, though. Somehow Harrison’s bike broke with just a few laps to go! He was left powerless to watch Schock and hope his rival didn’t make a bunch of passes.
“It was very stressful,” said Harrison to Steve Matthes. “I was in the points, I passed Hill. Everything was good. I messed up, I went down and had to come through the pack, but everything was going good and I was riding really well and I thought I could get to 11th or something. Then my bike just stopped. Talk about a heart dropping moment!”
Alas, Shock couldn’t get any further up the field.
“I knew Coty was behind me, I had like 10 points on him, but I thought I was okay,” said Harrison. “But he’s fast! So I assumed he was going to start picking off people. He wasn’t catching John [Short] or Marshal [Weltin]. But on the whole last lap, I couldn’t breathe.”
Guillod went 12-10 on the day to actually jump Hill and net 18th in the final combined standings. Not bad for a guy who didn’t even race Monster Energy AMA Supercross. Hill took 19th in the standings and Harrison hung on for 20th, just three points ahead of Schock.
It really helped that Harrison raced 450 supercross and scored 65 points this year. Schock was a 250 rider indoors, sans for an appearance at the Daytona supercross where he finished 14th.
Shock is headed to the Wild Card races starting in Charlotte.
There was more drama over the seeding positions at the top of the standings. Jett Lawrence vaulted into second in seeding with his strong Pro Motocross campaign. Cooper Webb and Chase Sexton were sitting ducks in the third and fourth spots, with Hunter Lawrence and Malcolm Stewart rocketing forward. Hunter had a shot at third in the standings if he could have grabbed a first and a second in a moto for the day, but a third in moto one eliminated him from grabbing third. He maxed out in the final moto with a win, which left him tied with Webb for fourth, but Webb will win that tie breaker with more race wins during the year.
This all did bump Sexton down to sixth.
| Position | Rider | Hometown | Qualifying Points | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Jett Lawrence | Landsborough, Australia  | 580 | 166 |
| 2 |  Hunter Lawrence | Landsborough, Australia | 516 | 151 |
| 3 |  Eli Tomac | Cortez, CO  | 475 | 135 |
| 4 |  Ken Roczen | Mattstedt, Germany  | 288 | 117 |
| 5 |  Justin Cooper | Cold Spring Harbor, NY | 670 | 115 |
| 6 |  Cooper Webb | Newport, NC | 516 | 112 |
| 7 |  R.J. Hampshire | Hudson, FL | 366 | 109 |
| 8 |  Chase Sexton | La Moille, IL | 510 | 92 |
| 9 |  Joey Savatgy | Thomasville, GA | 277 | 89 |
| 10 |  Justin Barcia | Monroe, NY | 381 | 86 |
| 11 |  Dylan Ferrandis | Avignon, France  | 285 | 66 |
| 12 |  Justin Hill | Yoncalla, OR | 194 | 62 |
| 13 |  Benny Bloss | Oak Grove, MO | 131 | 57 |
| 14 |  Shane McElrath | Canton, NC | 221 | 54 |
| 15 |  Coty Schock | Dover, DE | 191 | 52 |
| 16 |  Valentin Guillod | Switzerland  | 201 | 49 |
| 17 |  Dean Wilson | Scotland, United Kingdom  | 57 | 23 |
| 18 |  Marshal Weltin | Ubly, MI | 50 | 21 |
| 19 |  Malcolm Stewart | Haines City, FL | 517 | 20 |
| 20 |  Harri Kullas | Estonia  | 158 | 15 |
| 21 |  Mitchell Harrison | Lansing, MI | 194 | 14 |
Finally, credit to Stewart, who rallied with a clutch 7-6 day, his best Pro Motocross score of the year, and which put him one point ahead of the tie between Hunter and Webb. Yes, after 28 races (really 39 when you consider each Pro Motocross race has two motos) Stewart ended up with 517 points, with Lawrence and Webb tied at 516. Sexton had 510!
How close was this? If Hunter had just passed Justin Cooper in moto one at Budds Creek, he’s have gained two more points, which would have put him third, ahead of Stewart and Webb. Instead Hunter is fifth.
This means Stewart will start the playoffs with 20 points to his name, Webb will have 18, Hunter Lawrence 17, and Sexton 16. Hunter has three less seeding points because he missed out on those two regular-season points in the first moto!
Those tiny differences could mean everything when the big money gets handed out at the finale in Las Vegas. Last year’s title was a tie in points between both Lawrence brothers, and Jett won on a tie breaker (wins). One point in any direction could change everything in a month’s time.
