So far this season has already racked up a highlight reel larger than the team roster at Monster Energy Yamah Star Racing. Yet somehow there was even more craziness in Philadelphia—it was extremely muddy, Cole Davies clinched the 250SX East Division Championship, and Ken Roczen took the points lead. To get a better understanding of how it all played out, we sent questions to former pro and NBC on-track analyst, Jason Thomas.
The rain was relentless on Saturday in Philadelphia. When is the last time we had a race this muddy?
Yeah, it was a tough one. This wasn’t as bad as Foxboro 2025, but that would be the comparable. The 450 main event was not a full on mud bath, it was a bit of trail riding a narrow, drier path in certain sections and then simply rolling through mud in other sections. The track crew was doing their best to clean up and keep up with the rain but it was a losing battle. The whoops were by far the worst part of the track and I was surprised they didn’t flatten them.
When it’s this muddy it’s sometimes common for bikes to dig through the dirt all the way down to the plywood sheets underneath. Did you see this happen at all in Philadelphia?
No, and the reason is fairly straightforward. The dirt was hard and dry when brought in, creating a very stable base. If it had been muddy during the transfer or build, the base would be softer and more likely to form ruts down to the plastic and plywood. That hard base creates a “floor” that’s very difficult to cut through. It all comes down to the condition of the dirt when it enters the stadium, and the weather during the build.
There was a staggered restart in the 250SX main event. These are tough as it is, but with the mud, how much more difficult are these starts? Why?
They can actually be a blessing (other than the unfortunate injury for Clark). They give an opportunity to change gloves, goggles, and more. This one came at basically at the halfway mark. For someone like Seth Hammaker, who had a crash on the first lap, he could change out everything that was holding him back (most likely muddy gloves) and really send it in the second half of the race. The biggest loser in a scenario like this are the frontrunners who have built up a big gap. Someone like Derek Kelley would be devastated to see the red flag, knowing his life was about to become much more difficult.
What’d you think of Cole Davies? He didn’t have to win but he went out and got the job done anyway. Were you surprised he went as hard as he did, knowing the title was on the line?
It came down to the start and early lap positioning. I didn’t see him taking outsized chances, he was simply executing. Getting out front early was the key, something Seth had, but lost. Seth and Cole are the two best riders in the class so, when given the lead, it turns into turning mistake free laps from there.
Mud races like this are often a night of simply trying to survive, but with just two races left after Philadelphia, could Hunter Lawrence and Ken Roczen, who were previously separated by a single point, afford to “just survive?”
No, they need every point possible. They can’t really afford to settle. Time will tell how punitive Lawrence’s crash in the main event will be. It possibly changed the result from second to third. Maybe he would have ended up third anyway, as Cooper Webb put in a huge charge at the end of the main event. It’s all if’s and but’s but these moments will be scrutinized for far too long if things don’t go a certain way. Championships can come down to a few instances that don’t seem critical in the moment but in hindsight, made all the difference.
Cooper Webb made a late push in the 450SX main and closed to within a length or two of Ken Roczen. Did Roczen slow his pace or did Webb find some speed near the end?
I think a bit of both but Kenny mentioned on the podium that lappers played a big role. With only one good line in certain sections (the aforementioned trail riding), lappers could bigly slow lap times. Webb capitalized but Kenny also lost pace due to having to follow. The leader is often the most affected by the lappers as they aren’t sure that it’s the leaders yet and not a competitor battling for position. Once the lappers realize it’s the lead group, they often move over much more easily and the following rider isn’t as impacted.
Lawrence looked like he had a slight speed advantage on Roczen early in the 450SX main, but he ended up going down, at which point it looked like he settled in for third. Was Lawrence simply a victim of the mud, or should he have been a little more patient?
I think Hunter knew how important it was to fight back early in the race, as that’s Kenny’s strong point. He has so much intensity in the opening laps and if Hunter can withstand that and even counter it, he has a much better chance of victory. These two know each other’s tendencies so there are efforts made to offset them. The battle for supremacy in the opening laps is front and center between these two.
How much does it take out of you physically to pick a bike out of the mud, like Lawrence had to?
It’s much worse late in the race when tired or if the bike is much heavier. In the early laps, there is so much adrenalin that he probably didn’t even notice it. I think the harder part is getting his heart rate back under control and calming his mind from the panic thoughts that were trying to take over. There were likely a lot of negative thoughts and a crisis mode that he was mentally fighting against. Hunter is incredibly resilient so I wasn’t too worried that he would recover, the only question was how quickly it would happen and if he could avoid a second or third mistake in the interim.
Both Kyle Chisholm and Justin Barcia were back at it in Philadelphia. What were you expecting from each rider, and how’d they stack up against those expectations?
Well, those are two very different scenarios. For Chiz, I expected basically zero. He hasn’t been preparing to race so just making the main event would be a good day. For Barcia, those conditions favor him and he has been riding for a bit. I think a top five would be a big ask but I do believe a top ten was a fair expectation. On a dry track, maybe closer to eight to ten would be reasonable but in the mud, anything is possible.
