This year’s Monster Energy Supercross championship is entering ‘crunch time’ as the fight for the titles begins to intensify, with a range of topics to discuss after 13 rounds of racing in 2025. MotoOnline answers some of the primary questions that our team had from the season so far in this edition of Q&A.

Image: Octopi Media.

Q: Who is going to take this 450SX title?

That’s the big question! And at this point, it’s up there with questions like, ‘Where can Bigfoot be spotted?’ and ‘Do aliens exist?’ In all seriousness, though, it’ll be between Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Cooper Webb and Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Chase Sexton, with the duo having inched away from the rest of the field since around the halfway mark or just after. Let’s talk strengths and weaknesses. Sexton has the all-out pace advantage, as shown by his consistently fast qualifier times, however, when it counts the most in the main event, at the dying stages, he’s had a tendency in the past to throw it away. For Webb, he’s rock solid. Always there, always opportunistic – give him an opening, and he’ll take it, he’s the best in the business at this. A weakness? Sometimes, he can lack that raw pace, and a sixth-place start can result in a sixth-place finish. For both riders, they’ll need to maximize their strengths while minimizing their weaknesses, as I don’t think either rider is prepared to give the other an inch.

Q: Will the 250SX points leaders remain out front?

Honestly, who knows?! The West division looks a little more clear-cut, with Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Haiden Deegan boasting a 17-point advantage over teammate Cole Davies. Davies has been hot recently, though, having captured the last two 250SX West main event wins convincingly. It’s probably a little too late for Davies to mount a real charge, though, as Deegan knows how to manage a championship points chase. The wheels have fallen off the Julien Beaumer train recently, as the early-series title challenger now sits in a distant third place. In 250SX East, well, this is one of the wildest 250 titles we have seen in a long time. It’s a coin flip between RJ Hampshire, Seth Hammaker and Tom Vialle. The East fight has seemed like a game of hot potato at times, with no one rider wanting to grab hold of this thing and take it all the way. It’s a brilliant watch, however, with each rider equipped with a story as to why they should be out of this year’s title hunt. Interesting times indeed.

Image: Octopi Media.

Q: What have been the standout performances?

The funny thing about this season is that almost a different rider has been hot at various points in the championship. There’s got to be a storyline around 10 or more riders, including Tomac’s San Diego epic, Roczen’s first Daytona win, Plessinger’s triumph in the mud, Sexton’s A1 dominance, and much, much more. Although the one that has to take the top is Malcolm Stewart’s career-first win in Tampa. Home crowd, his brother James [Stewart] in the commentary booth, chasing down Sexton in the dying stages, it just doesn’t get any better than that. Everyone was thrilled about that one, which was cool to see. In the 250s, let’s just say Cole Davies, period. Every year, it seems a rider emerges as the next big thing, and Davies has firmly claimed that position in the sport currently. Where does he take it? Who knows. Although with two race wins this year, including the Philadelphia showdown, the number 100 is rolling.

Q: Biggest surprise or disappointment this season?

There have been a couple, both good and bad. The good is the new and improved Seth Hammaker. Hammaker had the win-or-die-trying moniker in the early chapter of his career, and this strategy yielded a lot of crashes and injuries as a result. This year, having moved down to the Dog Pound under the guidance of both Darren Lawrence and Michael Byrne, we’ve seen Seth make some pretty significant strides in pretty much every aspect of his career. So much so, in fact, that he is now the co-points leader with three rounds remaining in 250SX East, and it’s cool to see this change. As for disappointment? I’d have to say, Triumph Factory Racing’s Austin Forkner. I say that because before his fall last year, he won Detroit and was a front-runner in the 250SX East series. Obviously, he’s undergone a big team change, as well as some pretty significant surgeries, however, so far in the season, it’s a pretty far cry from the results that we’re used to seeing out of Austin. Hopefully, we will see a turnaround in the races to come.

Image: Octopi Media.

Q: Even though he’s been out for this season, is Jett Lawrence still the cream of the 450SX class field?

This is an interesting question and a tricky one at that. There’s no denying that Jett was the class of the field last year and has taken the whole sport by storm over the last, say, four years, however, the question has been, ‘What do you do when you’re on top of the world?’ He conquered the sport so quickly, and I wonder that, if you achieve this, can you summon the same level of motivation as, say, a rider who still hasn’t tasted that level of success and is hungry for it all? There was a time during last year’s Pro Motocross season that he seemed over it and then missed the rest of outdoors. Fast-forward to A1, and a couple of mistakes combined with a misbehaving motorcycle created what was a bit of an uninspired ride to claim P12. I don’t know, and I don’t want to say anything conclusively. I’d just like to see how Jett responds in the year(s) to come, to see whether he can yield that same level of motivation required to sustain being at the top of the game.

Q: We’ve seen a lot of injuries again this year. Is there a way to mitigate this from happening, or is it just part of the sport?

I’ve succumbed to the theory that it’s just the way that it goes – it’s Supercross. The Tampa circuit drew a lot of criticizm, however, I like it when things are mixed up a little bit, as these are the best riders in the world, and they should be tested at times. And for any argument against the track, each and every rider is well within their rights to ride the circuit to the level they feel comfortable doing so, and part of any championship – especially being a championship contender – is managing exactly this. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much speed you have if the bike is parked up under the rig for 10 races, so I think that there needs to be a rethink in a way on what it takes to contend for championships, and the lost art of consistency to be revived. Dragon-backs are banned, only nine-whoops are allowed – if we’re not careful, we’ll turn this thing into Speedway. Seriously, though, injuries are part of the game, and I believe that instead of throwing the blame on the track crew, riders should also be aware of dialling it back a bit at times and consider the war over the battle.