The final round of the 2025 Pro Motocross Championship will take center stage this weekend at the Budds Creek National, with the 250MX title yet to be decided, as well as a range of additional storylines awaiting resolution. For this installment of Countdown, MotoOnline covers the major topics to watch for at the season finale.

Image: Octopi Media.

1. Deegan targets his second 250MX title:

It’s been another outstanding Pro Motocross campaign for Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Haiden Deegan, who is targeting his second (and final) 250MX championship as his future in the premier division is sealed beginning with outdoors next year. He will go down as one of the fastest riders of all time in the class, with his early to mid-season form in 2025 scintillating to say the least, as he earned a sizeable points buffer quickly. It’s tapered off slightly toward the end of the series as a resurgent Jo Shimoda (Honda HRC Progressive) has wicked it up, although he has far more to gain by this increase in speed than Hadien does. The margin is 43 points entering the 11th and final round this weekend, with Deegan needing only to score a handful of points in moto one to wrap up his second outdoor crown.

2. The pressure is off in 450MX:

Speaking of championships, Jett Lawrence (Honda HRC Progressive) claimed his second 450MX title via a convincing 1-1 performance at Unadilla last time out, capturing yet another number one plate that he can add to his overflowing trophy cabinet. Now that the pressure of the championship is off, it’ll be a fun watch to see the sport’s top contenders throw down for nothing more than bragging rights. To win the final round is a statement for not only the upcoming SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) post-season, but for next year too, and someone like Hunter Lawrence (Honda HRC Progressive) or Eli Tomac (Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing) could use a shot in the arm of confidence if they are to ever overhaul Jett. RJ Hampshire (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing) is another rider who’d be stoked to finish off what has been a great initial season in 450MX, with another podium finish a solid way to sign off on Pro Motocross for 2025.

Image: Octopi Media.

3. Marchbanks holds the top spot at Pro Circuit:

It’d be easy to overlook Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Garrett Marchbanks’ current position of third in 250MX, but the reality is that his season has been really good, just quiet at the same time. It’s been quiet because what happens is he’ll start somewhere around 20th – give or take – and then progressively climb through the field for the duration of the moto. By the end of the race, he’ll appear briefly on the broadcast because he’s closer to the podium, however, if you track his movements, what’s taken place is that he has charged from say, P18 to get there. It can leave you wondering what he could do with regular starts, but at the same time, he’s probably not quite on the level of Deegan or Shimoda, so it may be the case that in some weird way the positions wouldn’t change. He is the lead rider – championship ranking-wise – of the Mitch Payton-led Pro Circuit team, in front of both teammates Levi Kitchen and Seth Hammaker who have a little more flash than he does, but alas, it’s Garrett who is at the top. Can he remain there and complete Pro Motocross in P3 overall? We have one round of racing left to find out, but all in all, a good job!

4. Early MXoN indicators on display:

We’ve been given a glimpse of where riders are from a pace perspective heading into this year’s Motocross of Nations (MXoN), which will take place at Ironman Raceway in October. Team Australia’s Kyle Webster (Quad Lock Honda) posted a very solid 8-9 scorecard at Unadilla for ninth overall in 450MX, and really, knowing that Jett and Hunter are one and two in the big bike class currently, all that remained unanswered was where Webster was at. He’s shown his hand now, and he is fast, with one final question being, how does he transition to a factory Honda HRC 250 for the Nations? For Team USA, it can be deduced that both Deegan and Tomac will be solid given their current form, with last year’s 450MX champion Chase Sexton the ironic wildcard in this scenario. There’s no doubt that he’ll be quick – as demonstrated by his moto one win at Ironman – although whether he can string together an entire weekend without wacky things happening is another story. It’s an interesting insight into MXoN, these final Pro Motocross rounds, with both Team Australia and Team USA giving us a strong case as to why they are two of the favorites entering this year’s edition.

Image: Octopi Media.

5. Cole Davies looks to improve upon Unadilla P26:

Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Cole Davies made a low-key Pro Motocross debut at Unadilla last Saturday, with this year’s Monster Energy Supercross 250SX Rookie of the Year posting the 17th fastest qualifying time and racing to a 23-23 scorecard across each moto for 26th overall. That doesn’t read great, right? We will give him some grace, though, because he is returning to a super-competitive 250MX class, but we will need to see more this weekend at Budds Creek. A flash of speed, a blazing qualifying lap, time spent inside the top 10 before a drop in fitness – any sign of life that shows us that Davies is as legitimate as we expect him to be. Perhaps it’s harsh, but there have been times when we’ve mentioned Davies and Jett Lawrence in the same sentence from a potential standpoint, and there wasn’t a time when Jett notched a genuine finish outside the top 20. Again, there is a lot of grace that can be afforded here to the Kiwi sensation, although an improvement come the final round this weekend would not go astray for the number 100.

6. Final opportunity for momentum before SMX post-season:

The SMX Finals series is upon us with Playoff 1 kicking off at zMAX Dragway on September 6, with the points (outside the seeded tally) effectively resetting one final time for this year. It’s an opportunity for another two champions to be crowned, and it provides certain riders who are peaking currently to perhaps collect a number one plate by the time the season closes. Our eyes are firmly on Shimoda here, who could be a great beneficiary, but the Japanese charger must execute. No more issues with pitboards, no more slow starts to championships – a true time to fully emerge into the role of a title contender, and perhaps a champion. Again, it could be viewed as harsh because the pitboard incident was in no way his fault, but we have had multiple seasons now where we have expected Jo to be a genuine challenger, only for something to go askew – and in some cases, the inability to sustain performance over the entire duration of a season. We want to see him in the mix for the entire time, and to genuinely go for a title. In the 450s, it’s hard to go past Jett, which isn’t exactly breaking news, but we could expect this year’s 450SX champion Cooper Webb to feature well, Tomac to come out firing, or perhaps even Sexton. But Jett has the momentum in the division once again, and it’ll be the responsibility of all the others to halt the 22-year-old phenom’s progress.