Somehow, Beaumer ended up second in points, helped by Levi Kitchen crashing out for the day and scoring zero points.
“Obviously, Levi not lining up for the second moto sucked,” he said. “You hate to see that. Obviously, you never want to see a guy not line up. Carlos [Rivera, of KTM] came to me right after the sight lap and said, ‘Hey, you have a chance to get second in the championship, but you have to win. There’s no other option.’ So, I said, ‘All right, I got to win.’ Obviously, I knew there was a chance, but I had to execute. And obviously coming into SMX, I feel good. I’ve been riding SMX for a little bit now, and I’m happy with where we’re at with the bikes. So, yeah, I’m ready to go.”
Hymas might have been the fastest rider at Ironman, but he tipped over a few times during the day, with two early second-moto crashes holding him back. He put together incredible lap times late in the race, though, to rally to second.
“My riding didn’t live up to the result it should have been,” he said. “I had probably put together two best motos I have in my life and unfortunately just made some dumb mistakes the first and second lap and just buried myself. JuJu was the better guy today. He rode his butt off too. So, me and him were the two best guys today. Obviously, Cole [Davies] was just riding it in today. Things were clicking for me today. It felt good and just it’s been trending that direction the last handful last half of the season honestly.”
Hymas ends the year with five-straight overall podiums, his longest streak yet, successfully completing a summer based on consistency instead of speed. Chance has gone fast before, but was never able to sustain it.
“We made a lot of progress these last handful of rounds,” said Hymas, who said even after his breakthrough moto win at Millville that he would focus more on moto podiums than aiming for moto wins. He’s trying to figure out the consistency part. He’ll do the same in the playoffs.
“My goal is just try to be on the podium every weekend,” he says. “I think if I execute two good starts and be up front and try to stay out a little bit of the chaos, it definitely would look good. Just try to take my same approach that I have been this last half of the outdoor season and try not to over complicate it.”