Starting the season strong in Anaheim is every rider’s goal, as main event winners Chase Sexton (450SX) and Jo Shimoda (250SX West) did just that. Steering clear of the opening round chaos, they commenced Monster Energy Supercross 2025 on top of the podiums. Both riders spoke to media following the main events for these Debrief interviews.

450SX

Image: Align Media.

Chase, you said on the podium that you feel like you’ve gotten back to your old self. Take us through some of the emotions coming off an A1 win…

I feel like I’m still processing it. It obviously feels good, it’s cool to win A1 – it’s a pretty hyped race. I’ve been close, I’ve been beaten by Ken [Roczen] and Jason [Anderson] at this race, so it was nice to come out on top. To be honest, I just had fun riding today, I had a really good time on the track. We’ve put a lot of work in this off-season to get back to where I need to be. It’s been a long road, but it’s just made it feel even better.

We know last year there were ups and downs. Do you feel like this performance tonight is repeatable every weekend, no matter what track it is or what the conditions are?

Yeah, I’m not planning on settling any time soon. I still think there are things I can be better at and I wouldn’t say it was a perfect race by me. There are things I need to improve on, and it’s a long season, so we’ll celebrate tonight and go back to work on Tuesday at the track. I definitely feel like it’s repeatable. It was nice to feel the flow again – I haven’t really felt that since outdoors last year. I felt bad too, I actually ran over Eli [Tomac] on the first lap… I had nowhere to go. Otherwise, it was a good race, I had a really good feeling on the track.

Have you found a setting with your bike in Supercross that you feel is going to be more consistent across the different conditions?

Definitely. I was more so just looking for feel all last year, which I never really found. In outdoors I felt good and I never really changed my bike, so it was a pretty awesome summer. But when we got back to SMX, it felt like I was almost starting back at zero. I didn’t really know where to go and we didn’t make much progress, but this off-season, we really narrowed in on what we needed to work on. One of those things was starts, and two was getting a better feeling on the bike. It was actually Monday this week before the race that I found the feeling I was looking for, or at least towards that direction. It was a bit last minute, but I knew after Monday that we were going to be in a good spot and I felt race, back to being explosive.

There was a moment on your cool-down lap where you looked to the sky, it looked like a sigh of relief more than excitement. Is relief sometimes a better feeling than excitement in a moment like this? And what did you learn about this championship picture based on some of the results tonight?

Yeah, it was definitely a relief. Getting a win early in the season is always nice, especially A1, being in California, the birthplace of Supercross and motocross. Also, with a big crowd tonight, it’s always nice to win in front of a lot of people. So that was nice, but yeah, I like to enjoy when I win, so I go take a little sight lap and enjoy it. But, yeah, tonight was crazy, there was a lot of stuff going on behind me, or even Eli in front of me, so I don’t really take that into account. I just go out there and focus on myself, and that’s one thing that I really tried to improve on, just staying in my lane and being very tunnel vision as far as what I’m focused on. If I start worrying about other things, it goes south. I can’t control anybody else, I can only control what I do, and I feel like when I’m on, I’m tough to beat. So that’s my goal, to kind of replicate that every race and try and put myself in a good position. It’s hard to pass these guys, everyone’s so good and everyone’s on rails, so when you get a bad start, you’re just putting yourself in chaos like I did in Vegas, and that didn’t end up very well.

With Jett [Lawrence] getting 12th and you getting the win, is now the time to really put the pedal to the metal and try and keep the momentum going your way for a long period?

Yeah, it’s a long season and there a lot of things that can happen. It’s only the first race, and like I said, I’m only focused on what I can do. I think that’s my biggest difference from years past, I’ve been too focused on what everyone else is doing, but this year I don’t really care. I’m just trying to be the best I can be on Saturday, and if that is winning, that’s awesome. I’m excited, but I know Jett will be back, he’s a great rider, and I’m looking forward to battling. But it’s not just him, there are so many guys… Eli is really good, Jason, Kenny and Hunter [Lawrence]. Everyone is riding really well and it can change on any given night. The series is long, and with this stacked field, it can change in a heartbeat.

When you made that mistake, was it because your mind wandered, or was it just a simple mistake?

If I had to go back and do that turn again, I’d probably do it the same. I don’t feel like I did anything wrong, but after I stalled it, I started pulling the clutch in and getting a bit of idle in there. I didn’t want to stall it again. It made my race a lot harder having Kenny on me, and I didn’t realize he was doing that triple where I stalled it. But I felt really locked in the whole race, I didn’t have that mind wandering, I was focusing on what I was doing. It’s easy to focus when you’re having fun too, if you’re out there being miserable, or not gelling with the bike or the track, it’s hard to find the motivation to keep pushing or moving forward. Today I felt like I was really connected to the track and locked in for the whole main event.

250SX

Image: Octopi Media.

Jo, you’ve told us how many changes you’ve made over the off-season. You’re very self-disciplined and have been working hard for this, is there any sense of relief now that you’ve got this A1 win, or is it just business as usual?

No, I’m pretty stoked, [laughs]. My goal was to start the season off well and this is the best way to do it. I’m really stoked.

In 2021 you were the first Japanese rider to win a Supercross main event. It’s extremely hard to do what you’ve done coming from Japan, tell us about the feeling… Are you proud of yourself for what you’ve been able to achieve when others haven’t been able to do this?

Coming from Japan, you can’t just be fast. You have to be able to communicate with the people on the team and I really struggle with that, even still now. That’s the hard part, which people don’t see from the outside. I’ve been getting better each year, but there are so many factors, it’s not just one thing. It’s hard to explain in just one speech.

You’ve mentioned the pressure coming into A1 and how moving to Florida helped you focus a little more. Specifically, if you compare entering this year and last year, what are the differences?

It’s the quality of work. There’s nothing to bother me over there, there’s not much to do [laughs].

In the main event you got the start you really needed, but in the heat race we didn’t see that start. Were you stressing after that heat and what did you change to get that holeshot in the main?

I had a good jump in the heat race, but I wheelied a little bit down the straight. We just went back to the truck and watched some videos and looked at some data and tried to fix it, and it worked out.