Beyond the title-winning performances and series podiums were several riders who made an impact of their own throughout the SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) post-season, achieving success in both the 450SMX and 250SMX divisions. In Rated, MotoOnline dives deeper into the results of this year’s undercards, who factored at the front without directly challenging for the 2025 titles.

Image: Octopi Media.

Rider: RJ Hampshire
Rated: A
Rundown: Under the context of this being an ‘undercard’ feature, an A is fitting for Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s RJ Hampshire, who showed the industry that he is plenty capable of translating the success found in 450MX to the tighter, more technical stadium-based side of SMX. Were these post-season events exact Supercross circuits? Not quite, but you could point to St. Louis being pretty close, where RJ earned a hard-fought sixth overall. He has firmly established himself in the top five-to-10 contenders in the premier division, which is impressive and a scenario likely not on a lot of people’s bingo cards in his full-time 450 transfer.

Rider: Ken Roczen
Rated: A
Rundown: Progressive Insurance Ecstar Suzuki’s Ken Roczen once again demonstrated – as he has done plenty of times throughout his decorated career – that he is one of the most supremely talented riders on the planet. It’s not that you ever count him out or discount his skill, but to continually show up and be a class front-runner in Supercross, Pro Motocross, or SMX year-on-year is seriously impressive. A P4 overall for Roczen, with fourth-place finishes in St. Louis and Las Vegas, shows that the German rider is still one of the fastest, most competitive riders in the field. The 31-year-old is at the point where he is so good and so comfortable that it seems he could roll out of bed to earn a top-five finish indoors or outdoors at this stage in his career.

Image: Octopi Media.

Rider: Justin Cooper
Rated: B+
Rundown: Justin Cooper entered the post-season sporting the 450SMX red plate, which is a nice feather in the cap of what has been a really strong campaign overall for the 28-year-old. Having been one of the only riders to contest the entire Monster Energy Supercross, Pro Motocross, and SMX fixture, it’s probably reasonable to suggest that the former 250SX West champion suffered from a bit of battle fatigue. In a year where we saw essentially the entire field miss races, Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing rider Cooper – who quietly debuted the 2026 YZ450F – was there, posting solid finishes weekend after weekend, so a big props needs to go in his direction there. He finished third in the 450SX series and fourth overall outdoors, with fifth in the SMX championship earning him an extra $150,000 for his work, which is well deserved.

Rider: Nate Thrasher
Rated: A-
Rundown: There are a handful of riders who needed a strong post-season performance, and coincidentally, they largely delivered, with Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Nate Thrasher on that list. Thrasher was quiet in Pro Motocross, with 14th position overall not quite the expectation for a rider now in his fifth full season of professional racing, and a P4 in Supercross could also be seen as missing the mark for a rider who has earned six main event victories throughout his career and is seen as a genuine title-threat. Nevertheless, third place in Las Vegas and fifth in the 250SMX standings was a decent rebound, with the Tennessee native left with the task of solving the consistency puzzle entering season number six.

Image: Octopi Media.

Rider: Ty Masterpool
Rated: B+
Rundown: Another rider who was chasing a strong showing was Ty Masterpool, whose first full season with the Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki team has been – in all honesty – pretty average. Masterpool effectively missed all of Supercross, showed flashes of pace during outdoors, and then signed off with a really solid 4-5 scorecard across both St. Louis and Las Vegas SMX rounds. Riders like Ty present a unique challenge for teams, as he has the pace to run with the front-runners of the category, although he seems to achieve this a couple of times per year. So, as an outfit, he’d be difficult to value, as you’re faced with either extracting those performances week in week out or an entire championship on the sidelines. It’s a gamble, although his post-season campaign was another reason why many people are high on Masterpool’s potential.

Rider: Jordon Smith
Rated: B
Rundown: Triumph Factory Racing recruit Jordon Smith finished 17-7-6 over the three post-season rounds, and was certainly a beneficiary of the triple point format to earn seventh overall in the 250SMX standings. All the more impressive was how he claimed the P6 in Las Vegas, after a high-speed incident saw him spiraling through the air – no longer attached to his motorcycle – before plummeting into the ground and dislocating his shoulder. He managed to get it sorted for the night show, and powered to P10 in race one, before improving to seventh in moto two. All in all, the night and championship was reasonably good for Smith, and it’ll be interesting to see the progress made next year which is his second season with the team.