That’s a wrap on the 2025 SMX series and hey, it was definitely something that we’ll remember right?
I don’t know man. This SMX series. We’re three years down now and has it been that good? I know Feld, MX Sports, NBC and all that like it, I know the money paid to the riders and teams is awesome but, I don’t know man. The tracks and venues haven’t been great, I know what they’re trying to do but not sure it’s working.
Can we go to a full SX for one round, a full MX for one round and then try a hybrid at one round? At least that might show us some racing that might be a bit better. We’ve seen some good racing this year, but we needed Jett to basically start last, a take-out and then a dude losing his mind to make the 2025 series memorable. Not something you can count on, right?
By the way, I tweeted out that I’m not sure I’ve seen one track with three harder crashes that what we saw from Chase Sexton, Jordon Smith and Cole Davies. Brutal hits for sure, all in the same section and Sexton himself even liked the Tweet which means something…I just don’t know what.
I know I’ve spent 250,000 words or more in the past few years talking about how awesome Jett Lawrence is. And here’s some more! He didn’t get the starts he needed in Vegas and had to really work hard to win his third SMX title. He didn’t start getting busy in the first moto until there was like 10 min to go. Then he started pushing hard, flat landing a double, scrubbing the crap out of the tunnel jump, charging into the corner after that, cutting the turn before the finish, absolutely destroying the sand and before his brother Hunter Lawrence or Eli Tomac knew it, Jett Lawrence was gone. It was really something and yet another example of the alien-like ability of the Jett.
Second moto was cut even closer. He passed Tomac with four minutes to go to clinch the overall and the SMX title! Same thing here. For a long time, he was just riding behind Tomac and Hunter before hitting overdrive. He set his fastest lap on lap 12 (one second better than Tomac could do), he dipped into the 1:30’s (something Hunter could only do once) and yeah, he crushed it. What a display of riding by Jett on an easy track. He didn’t win the moto, but he got the war.
Also, poor Hunter. Yet again. But good news Hunter, in Steve Matthes’ eyes, you are now tied with Chase Sexton for second fastest 450 rider in the USA at the current moment so there is that.
I think Eli Tomac in the first main showed Jett some lines. He missed the single before the double in the back, and he went to the outside before the table/table section also. Jett wasn’t doing that early on, but he quickly picked up on it. ET was very good, but he just wasn’t Jett Lawrence.
Sexton, as mentioned, crashed hard in the second moto and was carted off. This was after a very mysterious fade backwards in moto one and that was off an even more mysterious fade in the second moto in St Louis. Things are not good over there with Chase and KTM, he’s out of the MXDN and he’s done with that team. I’m sure they’re done with him as well. It’s been very toxic over there between everyone in 2025 despite the wins from the #4. Sometimes, you just need to change for the sake of change.
Also, ICYWW, that’s THREE years in a row that Sexton has crashed out of the Vegas SMX finale! Wow. Next year with Kawasaki, he should decline the invite to the final round.
Jo Shimoda is the 250SMX champion! He rode great in Vegas with a lot of heat on him. He was dealing with a rabid honey badger and kept his composure. Heck, he got a terrible start in moto two (wonder why?), sliced and diced his way up front, started airing out this double, crashed (wonder why?) and took the overall win at that, with a last corner pass on Tom Vialle to boot!
We had Shimoda on the Pulpmx Show and Jo told us that he thought Haiden Deegan’s antics would be WORSE than what they were, and he was bracing himself out there by pulling in the clutch and squeezing the bike with his legs every time he thought a collision was going to happen.
“I thought I was going to end up on the concrete at some point. To me, people said it was an aggressive race, but I knew it was going to be like that. I thought it was more chill than I thought,” Shimoda told us.
Well, okay then!
Also, by the way, Shimoda pretty much confirmed that he would be back at Honda next year and also, all his deals were up this season. So yeah, Jo Shimoda cashed in big time with this 2025 surge!
We all saw what Haiden Deegan tried to do, he rode great in both motos, weirdly, he didn’t qualify very well (got his best time taken away with a track cut) which didn’t help him in the first moto. But he rode well to get second even with a horrific looking accident with Ryder DiFrancesco when Ryder D made a mistake and Deegs landed on him. Second moto he made a run at Shimoda in the second turn, then got busy to get to the front and, well, yeah that’s when the shenanigans began.
I hear from good sources that a black flag for Deegan was very much in play until karma got him with the broken collarbone. But I’d counter and say maybe it should have been out sooner. The AMA talked to Star Yamaha and Deegan about not doing that exact thing he did, plus he was on probation from earlier this year (for a nothing pass IMO, he should not have gotten a warning for that pass on Davies in Denver). So, considering how much he would be penalized, there was NO WAY his title would have stood had he been successful. I just can’t see Honda or Shimoda or the AMA just accepting that you can go that far and still be crowned champion. But that didn’t stop Deegs from losing his composure. Shimoda could’ve been seriously hurt or even broken HIS collarbone in that takeout.
Also, I think the AMA really made a mistake in telling the teams/riders that rough-riding infractions would be penalized five points (and then only for those that have already received a written warning) while any safety infraction like jumping on a red cross would be met with 15-point penalty because in the SMX format, Vegas was worth triple points. So, again, red cross violations tripled but rough riding violations did not? I hear from people close to the situation that the team was telling Deegs that hey, if you break Jo’s collarbone or break his bike, take the 5-point penalty and maybe you’ll still win? In that case he would just need to beat the next guy, Seth Hammaker, by six points and he’d still win the title even with a five-point penalty. I don’t know for sure if that was his thinking but, I mean, maybe? Because he had to know, as I wrote above, he was going to be penalized for those moves.
I think the AMA really needs to come down harder on this “gaming the race” stuff, I mean we even saw it in MX2 over in Europe with some ridiculous moves from Kay de Wolf. I didn’t like it all when Eli Tomac bunched up the field in 2017 and took a run at Dungey. It’s not the right way to win anything and it’s also not going to work. What Deegs did was also way worse than ET back in the day but the point stands. I wasn’t pumped on RJ Hampshire taking Hammaker down earlier this year, either. Are we WWE with this stuff or are we honorable champions and incredible athletes? Besides that, people could get really hurt with moves like De Wolf and Deegan pulled.
I have to laugh at the “Well blame Levi Kitchen for it because of his move the week before.” For one, that was a race incident on the first lap, Kitchen didn’t wait for Deegan and take a run at him. Two, Deegan has egged on Levi repeatedly publicly and privately, and the two riders don’t like each other. Know anyone else Kitchen has done that to? No, exactly. Haiden can’t play innocent here. He got tee’d up by a dude he’s made angry. That’s very often how racing works. That’s not Levi Kitchen’s fault, that’s Haiden Deegan’s fault.
And lastly, there was a Kitchen/Deegan confrontation on the morning of the race at the hotel, there was Deegan going and yelling at the Gas Gas truck after the first moto, there was a Ryder D and Deegan confrontation at some point, Deegan’s brother did something to another industry person in the Monster VIP area and so on and so on. Haiden Deegan didn’t start all these things, but they all involved him. The temperature is just so hot with Deegan and all of his rivals in this class. I would wonder if some sort of code-of-conduct penalty could be used when things start going over the top like this.
It's just too much for everyone involved and I think Brian, Haiden, the Star Yamaha team and Yamaha itself all need to just back down the antics and try to be respectful to other riders and teams. This ain’t some FMX show in the 90’s.
Doesn’t look like Deegan is going to make the MXDN (he got surgery and although he’s going to try, not sure the AMA wants that) but I’m not sure it matters all that much to him as he has skipped the previous two years. But this one is obviously in the USA and would mean more. So most likely with Chase Sexton’s crash, we’ll get RJ Hampshire on the 450 and Justin Cooper on the 250 alongside Eli Tomac in Ironman. We talked to J Coop about that on the PulpMX Show Monday night.
What about 250 for Des Nations?
There’s a good chance. I’m all in. There are some floating pieces still to be figured out.
After 31 weekends of racing, I think that I would be inside, on the couch, with the blinds shut and the doors locked. How are you feeling?
It’s a double-edged sword. Of course you want that, but at the same time you’re kind of in a position where you need to show up and just give it what you got. That’s kind of where we’re at.
How much time would you need on a 250F?
It’s tough. I really haven’t ridden the Star 250 since I last raced, so two years ago. A 250 just takes a little bit more of a style. You’ve got to have that thing revved out and stuff like that. You can be a little bit lazier with the gas and stuff on the 450. I think it should be fine. A couple days on it. We’ll see how it goes. I would say the challenge is going to be setup, suspension-wise, and how it relates to what I’ve been riding on the 450.
Thanks for reading OBS, we’ll be back for the MXDN at Ironman and then some off-season SX races as well. Email me at matthes@racerxonline.com if you want to chat about this or anything else.
