Image: Octopi Media.

While the championships were unfolding in Salt Lake City, Red Bull KTM’s Chase Sexton snuck away to lead every lap of the 450SX main event for his second win of the season. It was a strong way to end the year for the 2023 champ and Sexton feels his recent momentum has put him and the team in a good spot moving forward.

“Salt Lake was a really good day for me,” said Sexton. “Fastest qualifier, won the Heat, and the Main. I felt a lot more like myself in the last three races, because it’s been a long year, but I’ve learned a lot and the team stuck by me, so I’m looking forward to outdoors and building off this. This is a good momentum builder and what I needed going into the Pro Motocross series, so I’m pretty confident and am ready to keep getting better.”

Sexton ultimately ends up P3 in the 450SX championship as he sees the #1 plate come off his KTM. After a mechanical DNF in Nashville though, Sexton has perhaps looked on his best form of the year as he was close in qualifying for the last three rounds and even qualified P1 in Salt Lake City. It seemed like a win was on the cards to end the year and Sexton delivered.

Now he heads into his first AMA Pro Motocross season aboard a KTM in two weeks. Sexton explained in the pre-race press conference at Salt Lake City that he’s happy with the bike outdoors already and even suggested the KTM is a better bike for motocross than it is for supercross. We’ll get to see that put to the test in just 12 days at Fox Raceway.