A year ago at Budds Creek, Haiden Deegan's 250 Title hopes completely unraveled after a red flag restart went awry within seconds, making way for Hunter Lawrence to put the finishing touches on things before Ironman. A trip around the sun later, the only matter to discuss with Deegan was when he would clinch things at Budds Creek. A five-point gain on Levi Kitchen after one Moto, or simply holding serve through two, would be enough for Deegan to win his first non-SMX crown, and he kicked off the weekend beautifully with a fastest qualifying effort.
Meanwhile, it's not a realistic clinching scenario for Red Bull KTM's Chase Sexton, but you can certainly feel that he's in a great spot with four Motos to go. He was excellent at Unadilla last weekend and gave Jett Lawrence his toughest challenge of the year at this race track a season ago. Hard not to feel confident going into Saturday, even with Hunter Lawrence looking strong on the 2025 Honda, but of course, the big story in the 450 class was a returning rider.
The Boys Are Back in Town
For the first time in a long time, we had both Eli Tomac and RJ Hampshire back in the fold. For the former, this was his first MX start since winning the 2022 Championship over Chase Sexton in Pala. Of course, we're going to be seeing a lot of Tomac in the coming months, with it being likely he's on this year's MXoN team depending on how he looked this weekend, and adding in the fact he's in for the World Supercross Championship as well. Qualifying fourth trying to get in race laps, he certainly looked good to kick things off. It's the same case for Hampshire, who qualified third in his season debut.
Daytime Program/Injury Notes:
- No Ken Roczen this weekend, but that was always the plan. He's still planning to run a 250 next weekend at Ironman and was running the bike during the week. Realistically, the worst he'll end up in the SMX seeding is the 14th.
- Cooper Webb out for the weekend with a sprained thumb. Depending on how Tomac does over four Motos, he'll either enter SMX as the 10 or 11 seed in the 450 class.
- Broken Collarbone for Honda HRC's Jo Shimoda.
- Chance Hymas was a full go for qualifying after last weekend's horrific crash and ended up inside the top 10.
- 250 Fastest Qualifier: No. 38 Haiden Deegan (2:04.760)
- 450 Fastest Qualifier: No. 4 Chase Sexton (2:01.044)
250 Class Recap
1st - No. 47 Levi Kitchen (Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki) (3-1)
Kitchen is now certainly playing the Jo Shimoda role from a year ago, scorching hot over the last couple of weeks with a chance to take the last three Nationals into the SMX Playoffs. We've seen guys talk about illness this season, but to see Kitchen fall off as he did at the end of Moto 1, then lay down the gauntlet on Chance Hymas in Moto 2 once he closed up on him was super impressive. And take this for whatever it's worth: Since RedBud (a 10 Moto sample size), He's virtually on a level with Deegan on the average finish, 3.3 to 3.4, and has only gained one fewer point. If not for that Washougal round, there'd be no doubts about who the best second-half rider is.
3rd - No. 1 Haiden Deegan (Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha) (1-10)
I don't want to say Deegan completely phoned it in during Moto 2, but hey, the goal was to win the title, and he did it convincingly in Moto 1.
9th - No. 24 R.J. Hampshire (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing) (9-8)
It was not a bad day at the office for Rick James in his first start since SLC Supercross. You could tell by the later Moto 2 lap times that his conditioning may not be back yet and that Moto 1 incident didn't do him any favors either. However, given the poor starts, it was a good starting point for him to close out the year. I assume that that will be the key back at the Bakers Factory this week to get dialed in for Ironman.
41st - No. 37 Max Anstie (Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha) (DNF x2)
The next time Anstie catches any break would be the first time he's ever gotten one. He was just a complete victim of circumstances off the gate drop in Moto 1, which, luckily, he could at least get up and back on the bike before calling it a day. Simply a disaster of a stint with Star Yamaha, now with four DNFs/DNSs in 12 Motos.
250 Class Budds Creek Top 10
1st No. 47 Levi Kitchen (3-1)
2nd No. 16 Tom Vialle (2-3)
3rd No. 1 Haiden Deegan (1-10)
4th No. 48 Chance Hymas (8-2)
5th No. 33 Jalek Swoll (6-4)
6th No. 929 Julien Beaumer (4-7)
7th No. 39 Pierce Brown (7-5)
8th No. 31 Jordon Smith (10-6)
9th No. 24 R.J. Hampshire (9-8)
10th No. 29 Ty Masterpool (11-9)
250 Class Points After Budds Creek
1st No. 1 Haiden Deegan (445 Points) (2024 250 AMA Pro Motocross Champion)
2nd No. 47 Levi Kitchen (383 Points)
3rd No. 16 Tom Vialle (369 Points)
5th No. 48 Chance Hymas (311 Points)
4th No. 30 Jo Shimoda (289 Points)
6th No. 29 Ty Masterpool (283 Points)
7th No. 39 Pierce Brown (257 Points)
8th No. 33 Jalek Swoll (255 Points)
9th No. 31 Jordon Smith (219 Points)
10th No. 34 Ryder DiFrancesco (218 Points)
450 Class Recap
1st - No. 4 Chase Sexton (Red Bull KTM) (2-1)
You know how some football players need to get hit to get into the zone? I now 1000% believe Chase Sexton is the same way. Only he needs to fall off a 245-ish lb motorcycle, and once that happens, he turns into a superhuman. You don't often see rides like the one Sexton had in the back half of Moto 2, and somehow, it wasn't even his most impressive this year (see Hangtown). He could do no wrong on that KTM, could hit any line or jump combo he wanted, and the second Weege and Stew (so good, btw) brought up his inroads on Plessinger after the get-off, you, at the very least, knew he was about to get a massive surge off, and boy did he ever.
Now, Sexton finds himself on the doorstep of that elusive first Motocross title and a chance to redeem his hard-fought but close loss to Eli Tomac back in 2022. A top-two finish in Moto 1 would do the trick, but 22 points is the magic number for the No. 4.
2nd - No. 96 Hunter Lawrence (Honda HRC) (1-2)
The record books may show that Lawrence went this summer without a National win, but if that is the case after next weekend, know it wasn't for the lack of effort. Two weeks in a row now, an unreal second-half dash by Sexton has left the Australian off the top step of the podium by way of a tiebreaker, which is now also his sixth instance of being the bridesmaid this summer. One thing worth noting about his Moto 2 performance is that Hunter didn't run a single lap time under the two-minute mark past lap nine; Sexton ran six. That was more or less your race, but these are still good outings by Hunter; it's just that the Moto 2 results will have to be better, both next week and into 2025.
7th - No. 3 Eli Tomac (Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha) (4-11)
Ken Roczen and Tomac now both make their season debuts with sevenths in the final tally, but the big kicker for ET3 was a horrendous Moto 2 start. 17th across the stripe for the first time, he made up four spots in just one lap, but once he made it up to 12th by lap four, he hit a proverbial rut and needed nine laps to get by Filthy Phil. Let me say again: Eli Tomac had no answer for Phil Nicoletti, who now many (me) are saying is retiring too early. Jokes aside, it wasn't the worst debut for Tomac, but it was not up to the podium contention standard he set for himself.
8th - No. 938 Broc Tickle (Monster Energy Kawasaki) (9-10)
A quick question for the folks at home: You're telling me that there isn't ANY TEAM in this sport that watched Broc Tickle make his first two pro starts in over three years this summer, go 13-15 at RedBud and then 9-10 yesterday at Budds Creek, and would be willing to give him a flyer? I have a hard time believing a guy who's been a key cog for the Kawasaki brand as a test guy, and based on the two Nationals he ran this year, plus the Stopwatch Nats at Glen Helen, wouldn't be a great add for some team from a race day and bike prep standpoint. Either way, it was an impressive outing in Tickle's second and final run of the year.
450 Class Budds Creek Top 10
1st No. 4 Chase Sexton (2-1)
2nd No. 96 Hunter Lawrence (1-2)
3rd No. 7 Aaron Plessinger (3-3)
4th No. 27 Malcolm Stewart (6-5)
5th No. 21 Jason Anderson (5-6)
6th No. 28 Christian Craig (7-8)
7th No. 3 Eli Tomac (4-11)
8th No. 938 Broc Tickle (9-10)
9th No. 36 Phil Nicoletti (8-12)
10th No. 32 Justin Cooper (20-4)
450 Class Points After Budds Creek
1st No. 4 Chase Sexton (454 Points) (Clinches Championship at Ironman with a 1st or 2nd in Moto 1 or by gaining at least 22 points)
2nd No. 96 Hunter Lawrence (426 Points)
3rd No. 7 Aaron Plessinger (359 Points)
4th No. 32 Justin Cooper (337 Points)
5th No. 21 Jason Anderson (328 Points)
6th No. 14 Dylan Ferrandis (288 Points)
7th No. 27 Malcolm Stewart (271 Points)
8th No. 28 Christian Craig (217 Points)
9th No. 1 Jett Lawrence (210 Points)
10th No. 22 Freddie Noren (178 Points)
Main Image via KTM
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