Foxborough supercross wasn’t exactly spectacular, due to the track almost being unpassable for many of the riders out there. Once it stopped raining, the mud turned into that sticky type that finds itself glued to the bike. Nothing about this past Saturday night looked like fun, right? If your name isn’t Aaron Plessinger then yeah, everything about Foxborough sucked.
But we’ll say this—they say mud is the great equalizer but in Foxborough, we could say that in the 250SX class for sure, but in 450SX? Well, outside of Shane McElrath, the elite guys stayed elite. The 250SX class was more like a bomb went off in it.
We’ll focus this column a little bit on the race, but also some other thoughts, rumors, and musings. Even without the win, Aaron Plessinger has completely turned his season around since that podium in Daytona. We had him on the PulpMX Show Monday and things got serious with Aaron describing his down and out mood after a rough start to the season this year. His podium at Daytona turned things around for him and he’s been a much better guy going forward. He mentioned a couple of self-help books he had been reading as well. In Foxborough, he looked like he was cruising out there as he built a 30-second lead early in the race.
Sounds like he has re-signed with KTM too, which is a great move for him and the team. Also, wearing Dale Earnhardt’s shirt on the podium at Daytona looks like it got him a spot on Dale Jr.’s podcast next month, which is great for the sport.
Shane McElrath is a mudder. We just have to go off this ride, where he got second, and also won a heat race, and last year’s San Francisco mudder where he got fourth. McElrath’s been riding better lately (although Seattle ended his little streak), and this was a great moment for him and his team. Shane’s ride offset the return of Joey Savatgy, who failed to make the main.
Cooper Webb man! Being shorter and riding in the mud isn’t ideal by any means, and the few times they showed him out there, it looked like a struggle for him. But then, Webb being Webb, he absolutely shredded the last lap and passed Chase Sexton, Justin Barcia, and Ken Roczen to somehow get third. BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT HE DOES!!! Webb aired out the finish line and the double afterward long after every other rider stopped doing it (or never even did both at all, like Plessinger said on the show), and crushed the last two laps. Especially the last one.
Also, a note from my guy, MX Reference, on the socials regarding Webb’s title chances:
From 1995-2024, the points leader in the 450SX Class after 12 rounds has won 27 out of 30 titles. The three who haven’t?
Chad Reed in 2009
Chad Reed in 2011
Eli Tomac in 2023
I talked about Chase Sexton’s 2026 options in January on the PulpMX Show and in my mind, he was either going to stay at Red Bull KTM or head to Monster Energy Kawasaki. But by early in 2025 SX, he had, to me at least, gotten more adjusted to the bike and had gotten most of his old speed back so I figured he would stay orange for next year. But obviously, as most of you know, there are some talks of Sexton taking his talents over there for next year and beyond. To me it seems like a move (assuming the salaries are close) which would be sideways, and we’d have Sexton spending time having to get used to the Kawasaki and figuring it out. Plus, he’s 25 years old and he would have burned through three of the four OEM factory teams already (Honda, KTM, and Kawasaki) if the switch to Kawasaki doesn’t work like he wants it to.
I dunno man, I would stay with the Austrian group if I were Chase and Kier Sexton, but again, I don’t have all the details. There’s definitely some smoke there with the Sexton/Kawasaki thing because I know teams who are talking to current Kawi rider Jason Anderson, which means he either thinks or knows he’s out after this year. That contradicts what Kawasaki manager Dan Fahie told me at Daytona about trying to re-sign Anderson but hey, life comes at you fast, right? Jason’s absence has a cone of silence around it right now. We saw it was health reasons (Jason’s health, not that of his family) on Kawasaki social, but we had heard nothing was wrong up until his exit from the series. Also, I’ve been around a long time now and yes, I know we got told #21 would be back for the AMA Pro Motocross Championship, but he wouldn’t be the first rider to just call it early once he knows he won’t be coming back to the team the next year. Stay tuned…
Chance Hymas was in danger of not even making the fast 40 until later in his practice when he got a clean lap in to secure the spot. From there he started well, took the lead after two laps and took off for his first career win! They don’t ask how, they just ask how many, and I’m sure Hymas, who’s had another so-so season here, will take the win going forward and hope it propels him to a new level. There’s a lot of pressure that comes with a factory Honda HRC Progressive ride and last summer Hymas was starting to find that new level until he got injured again. Then he had to restart the process and here we are, with Hymas still waiting to be “the guy,” or at least one of “the guys.” Maybe this will do it or maybe this is just a massive mudder where he stayed up and clean?
Super awesome to see Cullin Park grab the second spot in 250SX and that’s a career best for him as well. Park was on the PulpMX Show talking about his strong start to the season and also how he got a late start this year, as he didn’t know if the team was going to bring him back or not. That’s odd because Park’s been on the team for a while, has produced good results (not great but good), and it seems like the team sort of strings him along each year. Heck, last year they let Coty Schock go in November, and Schock was fortunate to get on with the ClubMX guys. His career has gone upward since. Maybe Phoenix Honda takes Park for granted a bit? I don’t know man, but Park’s a great guy, he just got second, and he’s fifth overall right now in 250SX East.
Gage Linville fell in the first turn and still got third! Pretty good effort for the Georgian, and he mentioned on social media that he was going to pull out of the race at one point because he didn’t want to destroy the privateer bike! Well, good thing he didn’t! That’s great work from the quiet and friendly Linville.
Some other news and notes:
I wasn’t there and the broadcast didn’t show everything, but it was a bit strange to me that Chase Sexton got docked a heat race win for jumping on a red cross and Justin Cooper lost two spots in the main for going off track, but Webb didn’t get docked for jumping on a red cross like Sexton. And apparently RJ Hampshire was going backward down a rhythm lane in the main and Sexton cut a bit of a section off. Look, it was basically ‘Nam out there and I’m sure there were a LOT more liberties taken but somehow, J-Coop was the only guy who got penalized? Seems weird to me with the chaos, but again, I wasn’t there.
Tom Vialle was fourth with two laps to go and ended up 22nd. What a disaster for the points leader. I don’t know what happened (well I assume he crashed multiple times and probably got stuck) but yeah, wow.
I mean, we all saw RJ Hampshire pull an RJ Hampshire off the start and yet somehow, he made up huge points in the series! Like, how? Tom Vialle imploding, is how.
Ken Roczen has a Grade 2 AC shoulder separation going on after a midweek crash a couple of weeks ago, but worse than that is his ankle, I guess? We didn’t know this, but he tweaked it in the one qualifying session and almost didn’t race. But in the end, the dude pulled out a fourth. With just five races to go, Roczen’s going to tough this thing out to the end.
Great work to Justin Rodbell who’s a privateer hero with an outsized personality. He’s a mudder and ran third in 250SX for a long time before ending up fourth. He got a TV podium interview also! Rodbell, when I asked him why he dropped down to 250’s for this race, said, “Have you seen me on 450s?”. Tough year for Rodbell but I suppose this made it worth it.
Max Vohland smoked the first heat race and had he gotten the start, could’ve won the main. But he did not get the start, he actually got stuck for two laps and had to unlap himself to salvage an 18th.
Shoutout to Logan Leitzel. The privateer was grabbed midseason on the Bubba Pauli SX team and put it into his first 450SX main event, where he got a ninth! #Mudders [Editor's note: And shout-out to Pauli, who made the main event as well, his first main event since...2019! Two bikes in the main for that squad!]
It’s only been three races but so far Christian Craig is not having a lot of fun in his return to Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing on a 450. It’s got to get better, right?
Thanks for reading OBS, sorry about last week but in the end, we saved Gary the Gopher’s life. It was all worth it. Email me at matthes@racerxonline.com if you want to chat about this or anything else.
