History of Paris Supercross

The inaugural Paris Supercross event took place in March 1984, during the week on a Wednesday and Thursday in between the Daytona and Talladega rounds of the AMA/Wrangler Supercross Championship. Yup, the middle of the week in a championship! Reigning AMA Supercross Champion David Bailey took the King of Bercy—named after the location of the event—honors at the first ever event. It was such a success that the promoters ran a second event a few months later in December. This time, there was no competing AMA series running in the U.S., which brought back several of the top riders over the pond. It was newly crowned AMA Supercross Champion Johnny O’Mara taking the King of Bercy honors that time. Since then, the event has run basically once every year (except for the COVID-19 impacted year of 2020). The event even changed venues as it now takes place at the Paris La Défense Arena, which opened in 2017.

In 2021, Marvin Musquin claimed King of Paris honors for the third time (2016 and 2017 as well), moving him into a tie for the second-most King of Paris honors with Justin Barcia (2010, 2013, and 2019). When Barcia won the event for a third time in 2019, he became the only rider to win the King of Paris honors with two different brands of motorcycles, as his first two wins came aboard a Honda, and his third win came aboard a Yamaha. All three of Musquin’s wins came aboard a Red Bull KTM. So, who has claimed the crown more? Long-time Yamaha rider David Vuillemin claimed the most King of Paris crowns, claiming four total in his home country (1999, 2000, 2001, and 2003). Ken Roczen (2022) and Jett Lawrence (2023) had Honda on a two-race win streak heading into the 2024 event. 

Then in '24, Jett Lawrence won five out of the six races...but the one race he did not win was a 13th after a crash and bent up bike resulted in a DNF. That ruined his chance at the overall, which went to Cooper Webb, who had 3-1-2-2-2-3 finishes for 13 total points over Malcolm Stewart's 16 total points (2-2-3-3-4-2 finishes) and Lawrence's 18 total points. Read this full 2024 Paris SX recap by boots on the ground man Steve Matthes for more details on last year's racing.

Webb will be back with the #1 plate on his YZ450F, which he will also run in '26 Monster Energy AMA Supercross, as will both Lawrences, Stewart, Tom Vialle (450cc this time), and more. 

Related: 2025 Paris Supercross Entry Lists

Since the first event in 1984, there have been a total of 28 different riders to claim King of Paris honors, with only nine total riders taking the crown at least twice. Stay tuned for a separate post on the most all-time Paris SX winners.