The second half of the 2024 AMA Pro Motocross Championship is underway, and the first half generated plenty of storylines. As the series heads into the final five rounds, MotoOnline takes a closer look at the Top 10 topics to follow.

Image: Octopi Media.

1. And then there was two:
As the 450MX championship fight developed, it quickly became clear that it was going to be a three-horse race for the championship between Team Honda HRC teammates Jett Lawrence and Hunter Lawrence, along with Red Bull KTM’s Chase Sexton. After the fifth round at Southwick, just three points separated the three of them as the series headed to the halfway point at RedBud. However, defending champion Jett Lawrence crashed during the week prior to RedBud and suffered a UCL injury in his thumb that required surgery and pulled him out of the remainder of the series. That left Hunter Lawrence and Chase Sexton with a large gap in the standings over everyone else to figure out the title. Sexton immediately went 1-1 at RedBud to take the championship lead that he now holds by seven points. It’s extremely likely one of these two will win the championship and now it’s on Hunter Lawrence to respond in the second half and get the red plates back on his bike.

2. The dominance of Deegan:
While the 450MX title fight has stayed close atop the standings, the 250MX fight has been the complete opposite. Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Haiden Deegan in his second year as a professional has completely taken over the series with a 42-point lead after six rounds. Deegan has won four of the six overalls and finished P2 or higher in every single moto except one. The one outlier was a P6 in moto two at RedBud where he landed on a lapped rider who was down and crashed heavily while battling for third place. Other than that, he’s been nearly faultless as he’s salvaged a ton of points with rides through the field and also dominated motos. He’s completely taken hold of the championship with still 10 motos to go. He’s put himself in a position now to manage the championship home to the finish to claim the 250MX title.

3. Ty Masterpool has arrived:
Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki had their riders Seth Hammaker and Cameron McAdoo both get injured days before the season opener of Pro Motocross. In a last-minute decision, the team called up Ty Masterpool and offered him a fill-in ride for the season. Masterpool accepted, and started the season slow as he adapted to the bike but has been a huge standout from the third round on. He qualified P1 at round three in Thunder Valley, then won the fourth round High Point National with 2-1 scores. Though he struggled at the fifth round at Southwick, he won another moto at RedBud and ended up P2 overall with 1-5 scores. He’s been fantastic and is forcing the hand of Pro Circuit Kawasaki to find room for him in 2025 on their already full program. But Masterpool is delivering results, and they are all results that are hard to ignore.

Image: Octopi Media.

4. Here comes Hymas:
Along with Masterpool’s meteoric rise, a similar progression is happening under the Team Honda HRC tent. Chance Hymas had a solid 250SX season as he battled a knee injury with a best result of P5 in Philadelphia. But moving into Pro Motocross, Hymas has become a completely different rider. He’s won two motos and a first career overall win last time out at RedBud. He also sits P2 in the standings one point ahead of former MX2 World Champion Tom Vialle. Hymas credits optimizing his training and finding some dietary changes to his benefit as the reason for this turnaround, but it’s been remarkable to say the least.

5. The foreigners impress:
Many riders in the 450MX class are working to find their footing as their either battle injuries or are just getting to grips with things coming off Monster Energy Supercross. As that has happened, several foreign-based riders have come in and made noticeable dents in the results sheets from week to week. Most notably is Estonia’s Harri Kullas who has missed two rounds of racing and still sitsP14 in the standings with several top 10 finishes. Along with him, Australian MX1 series points leader Kyle Webster came over for Southwick and RedBud and scored top 10 overalls at both races. Other riders like Alvin Ostlund, Gert Krestinov, Romain Pape, and more have put solid motos in to mix it up with the AMA regulars. This is becoming a recent trend but we’re seeing even more new faces arrive and do well on the Pro Motocross circuit.

6. Strong 450MX rookie class:
Two of the top three positions in the 450MX standings are occupied by rookies as the aforementioned Hunter Lawrence sits P2 while Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Justin Cooper is P3. Those two finished first and second in the 250MX standings last season, so this was perhaps the likely outcome of them jumping up to the 450MX class, but the quickness in which they have usurped established veterans like Aaron Plessinger, Jason Anderson, and Dylan Ferrandis has been impressive. Lawrence has been very impressive as he’s stepped right into the 450MX title fight like he’s been here the whole time, while Cooper has led many laps and mixed it up with the front runners every week. Cooper is still looking for an elusive first career moto win, while Lawrence has yet to pick up an overall victory, but both riders have ticked off some big goals already in just six rounds of racing.

7. Plessinger and Anderson closing in:
With Hunter Lawrence and Justin Cooper shining early, the veterans of the series are hoping their strong season long knowledge will vault them into better positions down the stretch run of the championship. Aaron Plessinger sits 10 points behind Cooper in the standings, while Anderson is 27 points behind, but both riders seem to be turning a page of late. Plessinger in particular finished P2 overall at RedBud and credited some key bike changes with his improvement. Anderson has been swapping motos with Justin Cooper but does seem to be doing so more often of late. Both riders are hoping they can still move up higher in the standings towards the end of the year as we roll into the SuperMotocross World Championship playoffs.

Image: Octopi Media.

8. Shimoda back to form:
Team Honda HRC’s Jo Shimoda was expected to be a title contender in Monster Energy Supercross and AMA Pro Motocross but has been unable to deliver on both this year. He did come into Pro Motocross battling injury which has severely hampered his early season push, but Southwick and RedBud has shown glimpses of the old Shimoda once again. He picked up the win in the second moto at Southwick and pushed his teammate Chance Hymas all the way to the flag in the second moto at RedBud. It now seems that if Shimoda can start near the front, he’s instantly a threat to win again. In the second half of Pro Motocross in 2023, Shimoda caught fire and started winning races down the stretch which culminated in him nearly winning the SMX title. It seems that same form is coming again for the Honda rider as he continues to build momentum into these final five races.

9. Stewart’s motocross return:
Since 2014, Malcolm Stewart has competed in just four Pro Motocross races which all came at the tail end of 2022 after he came back from injury. He missed all of outdoors last year with a knee injury that pulled him out of Monster Energy Supercross early as well. In all reality, it’s basically been a decade since Stewart raced Pro Motocross and almost every track we’ve gone to this season, Stewart hadn’t been on since that 2014 season. Things started somewhat slow to start the season, but he was a solid P6 overall at RedBud and battled Justin Cooper and Dylan Ferrandis all the way to the end of the second moto. He’s certainly getting his outdoor legs underneath him again and it’s not impossible to believe he could work his way into podium contention before the season’s end.

10. The push for SMX
Both 250MX and 450MX classes have interesting SMX implications coming in these final five rounds. The 250MX class has riders like Joey Savatgy, Talon Hawkins, and Dilan Schwartz charging towards positions where they can get into the guaranteed top 20 spots to lock into the playoffs while Nate Thrasher and Cameron McAdoo remain injured. In the 450MX class, Kyle Chisholm, Phil Nicoletti, Harri Kullas, Marshal Weltin, and Garrett Marchbanks are pushing towards the playoff spots while guys like Dean Wilson, Justin Hill, Adam Cianciarulo, and Benny Bloss are on the verge of falling out of the top 20 guaranteed spots. More riders want to make the guaranteed spots than are spots still available due to injuries or other reasons and it’s going to be an all-out sprint in these midfield battles to make it in.