{"id":380949,"date":"2025-12-30T18:45:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T18:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/380949\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T18:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T18:45:07","slug":"the-best-and-worst-of-smx-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/380949\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best and Worst of SMX in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Best: Jett and Deegs: Sometimes a season is more than just a season, and Jett Lawrence<\/a> (450) and Haiden Deegan<\/a> (250) running away in Pro Motocross says something about now\u2026 and later. Lawrence v. Deegan is on a collision course, and now with Jett likely out of Monster Energy Supercross (again) they might finally meet just as Jett returns again at Fox Raceway. Some rivalries just mean more than others, and it looks like we\u2019re set for one of those in 2026.<\/p>\n

Best And Worst: SMX Finale: Same as 250SX East Division, above. Deegan was absolutely slaying the 250 Class and could probably have gone six- for-six in the SMX Playoffs. Then Kitchen took him out in St. Louis and all hell broke loose. All the scenarios? We saw them, as Deegs did everything he could to slow and stop Jo Shimoda<\/a> and save the title. In the end he hurt himself and his reputation. Just like Hampshire and company in Salt Lake City, it\u2019s one thing to imagine what a crazy finale could look like, and another to actually see it unfold in reality. But, also, for better or worse it\u2019s definitely not boring, right?<\/p>\n

The 450 Class was weird in its own way. Simply, Jett Lawrence<\/a> had mixed feelings about beating brother Hunter, and he waited until late before he went for it. Also, Tomac mysteriously slowed over the final few laps, which made Jett\u2019s life easier. And his decision harder. There\u2019s Webb\u2019s tears of joy in supercross, and there\u2019s Jett not even sure if he was happy at the SMX Finale. Yup, all the scenarios.<\/p>\n

Worst: Sexton and KTM\u2019s Unhappy Marriage: The record shows Chase\u2019s two-year Red Bull KTM tenure included a Pro Motocross Championship and very nearly a Monster Energy Supercross title (as mentioned, he almost bested Webb). He also had that all-time last to first run at Hangtown last year. Yet it seemed unhappier than the results showed, and it started to really unravel during Pro Motocross this year. Chase was still fast when he raced, though! Ironman and an apparent brake problem ended that, then Chase returned for the SMX Playoffs, where he crashed out of the final race for the third-straight year. This cost him MXoN again. Sheesh. Check this space next year.<\/p>\n

Best: Shimoda\u2019s Star Turn: Jo erased all the criticism in 2025. Winning early in a series? He took Anaheim 1. Proving he could survive championship pressure? Check, check, check, check, and check in Las Vegas after relentless attacks from Deegan. Even Jo\u2019s unintentional intentional comedy went to another level with his quote of the year, telling Deegan \u201cI don\u2019t speak English\u201d when the trash talk came his way. Lots of breakthrough 250 riders this year, but Shimoda stood above all when it was done.<\/p>\n

Best: JMart Goes Out a Winner: You couldn\u2019t script it better, as Jeremy Martin<\/a> was essentially retired and running Star Racing\u2019s VIP program for fans at the races. Then came the old ball coach, team owner Bobby Regan, asking his old rider (and first champion) if he had any plans for summer. Jeremy was super fit and planning to ride a Kawasaki 450 for a career finale at his home race in Millville. Instead, Bobby offered a tryout, as he does, and JMart went blazing fast, as he does. That led to\u2026. a few bad motos and a big crash at the first two rounds and seemingly the end of the story.<\/p>\n

Nope! Jeremy was back for Millville on the Star Yamaha (with a shock spring off his championship bike from his house!) and pulled two holeshots! Shimoda and Deegan had just enough issues to open the door, and JMart won the final moto of his career, at his home track, to boot. It\u2019s Mookie versus JMart on the feel-good battle for the season. It\u2019s wins like that that wipe the slate clean after all the bad moments. That\u2019s the good and bad, best, and worst, of sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Best: Jett and Deegs: Sometimes a season is more than just a season, and Jett Lawrence (450) and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-380949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-motor","11":"tag-motor-sports","12":"tag-motosport","13":"tag-motosports","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}