Features 15 May 2025

Top 10: Moments of the Supercross season

Breaking down a mix of key moments from 2025.

This year’s Monster Energy Supercross Championship was full of pivotal events and storylines that highlighted what was a thrilling 2025 season. With the series now in the books, MotoOnline looks back at the Top 10 moments from across the 17-round duration.

Image: Octopi Media.

1. Sexton’s East Rutherford masterclass:
Chase Sexton’s East Rutherford main event is possibly the performance of the season. Traction had mounted that Sexton would need to win out the 450SX season to achieve the championship, as rival Cooper Webb appeared destined for nothing worse than a P2 position with both riders having created so much separation between themselves and the rest of the field. Given this, Sexton made sure to send a statement to Webb at the 14th round, breezing to a 15-second win and showing himself, Webb, and everyone else that he was more than capable of claiming the final four race wins. It was a brilliant showing, and one that undoubtedly had Webb on the back foot.

2. Malcolm’s first 450SX win:
At about the midpoint of the 450SX main event in Tampa, it was like Malcolm Stewart came across a Super Mario Super Star, powering up his pace as he started to click everyone off with rapidity. It was a fantastic 20-minute-plus-one-lap main event for Stewart, who started in eighth place, and really just mowed everyone down from there. What’s impressive is that Tampa was round five, so a fair chunk of contenders were still in the mix at that time, with the number 27 just flat out faster than the competition. It makes you wonder what happens on nights like these, as Stewart passed the field like they were standing still, but couldn’t quite replicate this for the remainder of the season. It just clicks sometimes, whether it’s the track, bike, yourself – or a combination – whatever it was, it all came together for Mookie in Tampa for his first 450SX race win. It was cool to see.

3. Deegan and Beaumer clash:
Deegs loves to stir drama, he’s just one of those athletes who thrive off it. It looked like Julien Beaumer wanted the smoke early on, as a bit of back and forth occurred between the two, with ‘JuJu’ actually coming out on the bad end of the stick on most, if not each occasion. The tension boiled over, however, when Deegan made an aggressive late-race move on Beaumer in Seattle, which prompted the two to exchange a slap or two after the race. Some fighting words followed before the AMA gave each a whack on the wrist with a fine, and they were told to knock it off. The incident provided great value towards the growing rivalry, however, in the end, it was Deegan who would walk away with the number one plate following a season of back and forth.

Image: Octopi Media.

4. Webb returns serve in Pittsburgh:
This was the most pivotal race in the 2025 450SX season. Later in the series, it became apparent that this was a two-rider race, as both Sexton and Webb were putting enormous amounts of time on third place and beyond, week in week out, since around Seattle onwards (recognizing the Foxborough slop as an outlier). And the math added up that, if Sexton won the season out, he would be the victor on a countback, meaning that Webb really needed to earn just one win in order to create a buffer, and ultimately win the title. Then, Sexton puts a 15-second beat down on Cooper in East Rutherford, in what was a statement ride that Chase was more than capable of winning from here out, putting Webb in a precarious position and sending both he and his team over to the whoop section after the race that night, desperately trying to decode what led to such a beating. Here’s the kicker, though, in true Cooper Webb form, he returned serve the very next weekend in Pittsburgh. Fresh off a thumping, he held Sexton at bay for the entirety of the main event, in what was a 20-minute-plus-one-lap thriller that ultimately sealed Webb’s fate. This was the most consequential race of the season – Coop knew it, Chase knew it, the industry knew it – and the Philadelphia/Pittsburgh exchange will forever be a key memory of season 2025.

5. Davies doubles up:
New Zealand teenager Cole Davies was a revelation this year. For a rookie, he was pretty solid throughout the season outside of his final round misstep, which was a combination of factors, not necessarily put down to a traditional rookie mistake. His first win very nearly arrived in Glendale, where he posted 1-1 finishes across the opening two Triple Crown races, however, a fall in the third main resulted in a P8 finish, and third overall. The wins would arrive later in the season, with a convincing Seattle performance, then backed up by a Showdown race win in Philadelphia. It was an impressive campaign, one of the better rookie seasons we’ve ever seen, and the future is certainly bright for the young racer.

6. 250SX East is anyone’s game:
This was one of the wildest 250SX title fights in recent history, there is no doubt about that. From the sheer number of contenders who were supposed to take it and run, the number of winners, red-plate holders, drama, and controversy. Max Anstite dominated the opener in Tampa, and at that moment, everyone kind of thought it was lights out. Especially after Detroit – Levi Kitchen took a controversial victory after the restart – but Ansite had dominated the race up until that point. Then, a leg injury in Birmingham ruled Ansite out of the series, a high-speed Daytona crash removed Kitchen, Bennick, and McAdoo both departed due to incidents, as well as initial Tampa race-leader Pierce Brown. The series honestly had it all, and then in the end, it (appropriately so) came down to the last two minutes, with the trio of Tom Vialle, RJ Hampshire, and Seth Hammaker going at it until the very last lap. There were a total of seven different race winners in this 10-round championship, so if this wasn’t entertaining enough, we don’t know what will be.

7. Jett and Eli out for the season:
The collective Supercross community experienced two sizeable heartbreaks in quick succession at the beginning of the season, where we went from the ultra-high of Eli Tomac and Jett Lawrence’s all-out duel in San Diego, to both of them being sidelined for the entirety of the season just three rounds later. What’s more is that neither of them actually crashed, with the duo sustaining a leg injury each while dabbing a foot on the ground. It was such a brutal way to lose both riders, as things were shaping up to be a three or four-rider fight for the 2025 championship. Lawrence would miss the season with an ACL tear, while Tomac – in typical Tomac fashion, might we add – sustained a broken fibula that he proceeded to race the night show with at Tampa, before bowing out. The focus has since shifted to Webb and Sexton, however, with Lawrence and Tomac gearing up for Pro Motocross, we’re getting the truest of meanings to the title of the popular 1976 Thin Lizzy track… The Boys are indeed Back in Town.

Image: Octopi Media.

8. Red plates for Roczen:
Ken Roczen entered this season in perhaps the most mellow mindframe of his career, downplaying championship aspirations and really all expectations in general, instead prioritising a ‘living in the moment’ attitude as the German racer reaches the twilight stages of a highly-decorated career. The irony here is that this approach would yield Roczen the 450SX red plate after just three rounds of racing, along with a dominant first Daytona Supercross race win later in the season. Ultimately, both injuries and consistency would plague the number 94, however, regardless of results, it’s cool to see him enjoying racing and his success, with this red plate no doubt a meaningful moment for both he and his team.

9. Mid-season woes for Sexton:
Things got a bit… shaky, for Sexton at around the mid-season mark. A fall at Tampa whilst being chased down by a flying Malcolm Stewart turned what was a sure podium finish into a fifth-place result, and then the next weekend, he tried to time the main event gate drop, unsuccessfully so, and hit a still-standing gate with his front wheel. This produced a last-to-third place ride, which was remarkable, but he also gave away what was a possible win. Then, the next round in Arlington, with the Triple Crown victory in the bag, Sexton went all-out to try and make a late race pass on Cooper Webb, which resulted in him hitting the ground, and handing the win to rival Webb in the process. It was a pretty ugly period, no doubt, and if there were questions as to where he lost this year’s Supercross title, well, there they are. Nevertheless, the rebound was all-time, and hopefully for Chase, those niggling issues are ironed out in seasons to come.

10. Tom makes it two with two minutes to go:
Not a lot of words can describe Tom Vialle’s 250SX East Supercross triumph – and that goes for he himself – who repeated on several occasions that he ‘couldn’t believe it.’ Imagine you find yourself almost 10 seconds down on your two title rivals who blew your doors off earlier in the race, and there are only two minutes left on the clock – thoughts of where and how you’ll spend your off weekend would undoubtedly creep in. Maybe which lake you’re going to frequent, how you’ll spend your third-place championship bonus, and so on. And then out of nowhere, both Hammaker and Hampshire are on the ground with their bikes tangled up, and you zoom through, hold on for the last 120 seconds, and then hold a number one plate. Balancing concentration and disbelief in those final moments would be a difficult task in itself, however, this is exactly what happened, and Tom delivered title number two. Sometimes you can look at these moments and say that a rider got lucky, but we don’t think this was the case with Vialle, or anyone who was to win the 250SX East title, for that matter. Any of the three riders would’ve truly earned it after the season that was, and Vialle was that guy.

Recent