Saturday in Salt Lake City, before Ken Roczen was crowned the 2026 450 Monster Energy Supercross Champion, fans got to witness another incredible battle in the 250 East/West Showdown. Fans have been anticipating a Cole Davies/Haiden Deegan battle all season but the first two Showdowns in Birmingham and St. Louis did not deliver. Salt Lake was different, as Cole explained in the post-race press conference:
“The other East/West showdowns I was more focused on the championship, and I didn’t want to get into that stuff, (back and forth battles) but the pressure is off now so I gave it everything I had, and it was good fun, cat and mouse back and forth. I enjoyed it, I think he (Haiden) did too.”
Davies clinched his first professional title in Philadelphia a few weeks ago. He was racing to win in Salt Lake City. In the 250 main event, a third member of the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing team, Max Anstie was leading, with Deegan in second and Davies in third. Deegan made quick work of Anstie but by the time Davies got into second Deegan had a two second lead.
Davies reeled Deegan in, made a couple of pass attempts through the whoops but eventually ran it in on him in a left-hand turn. This was real contact, and while the pass did not knock Deegan down but it off set his balance, giving, Davies a little bit of breathing room. But not for long! Deegan came back and tried to do the same thing to Davies, though Davies was prepared.
“Actually, through the rhythm I heard him, because you can hear when he’s behind you…he’s wide open. I knew he was going to come out the inside there, so I came across and I would make sure I would come across as much as I could because if not, he’d be teeing me up. But I came across as much as I could and it worked out.”
Fans and the announcers alike were thinking back to Denver 2025 when Davies was leading and Deegan cut inside and sent him over the berm. But fortunately, so was Cole, “What I learned from Denver is just don’t leave your insides open so, that’s what I did - I came across, blocked the inside and it worked out.”
The fans ate it up! They have been waiting all year to see this sort of action, “It was crazy, the fans were loud, you could definitely hear when something was going on. Especially when I am leading, I don’t really know what’s going on behind me, but when something goes on the crowd, they’re loud.” Cole continued, “The crowd was yelling the whole time. You could hear them, I could barely hear my dirt bike.”
Cole went on to win the race, while Deegan would crash a second time and finish fourth. Still, for as much as Deegan likes to stir the pot. He was all smiles after the race saying, “It's racing, it is what it is. If we hit each other, like I run into him, he hits me. It's cool. I don’t care… we are trying to win here, of course we are going to hit each other, and he is going to get me, it's cool.”
Of course, for Deegan, Salt Lake was his last race on the 250, he will be on a 450 for Pro Motocross. Which means the 250 Pro Motocross Championship is wide open. Davies commented on his outdoor prep, “Obviously, I got hurt last year and missed out on most of Pro Motocross so, I missed out on gaining a lot of experience and I haven’t been to most of the tracks also. I’ve got a lot of learning to do and feel like I can be competitive. I feel good on my bike, Jake and Andrew have got my suspension dialed so I’m happy. We’ve been busting out the 35’s, I feel really good. I’m excited for it, I’m just going to have to let my results do the talking.”
Winning a 250 supercross title in only his second year, Davies joined a very short list of riders to be able to do it before him. How will he fare in his second, but really first full season of Pro Motocross?
