It turned out to be a blessing that Haiden Deegan wrapped up the West Division Championship one round early in Denver, so that when the series went to Salt Lake all eyes could focus on the incredibly close three-way battle for the East Division Championship. And what a race it was! Defending champion Tom Vialle was second out of the first turn, but didn’t quite have the speed of Seth Hammaker, or RJ Hampshire who started further back. Eventually Vialle lost the position, time, and the points lead to Hammaker and Hampshire, and it looked like the championship would come down to those two. They were charging hard and eventually caught up to Vialle’s teammate Julien Beaumer making it a three-way battle.
It kept getting crazier. Beaumer wasn't playing nice with Hammaker, and that allowed Hampshire to close the gap. Hampshire needed to do more than just pass Hammaker to win the title, though, as he needed to shove at least one rider between them to take the points lead and championship away from the Kawasaki rider.
Now, just a week ago, Deegan controversially ended up putting a bunch of points between himself and Cole Davies when he block passed Davies off the track and to the ground. It was enough to Deegan to wrap up the title.
Hampshire didn't execute that. Instead, Hampshire came into the corner hot and took out both Hammaker and himself. This left the door open for Tom Vialle to sneak by and take his second -traight 250 East Division Championship. In the post-race press conference Tom was still in disbelief as he described the race in his own words:
“I still can't believe it, to be honest. That was a wild night. I actually had a great start. I was behind Haiden for a couple of laps, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I'm feeling good.’ Start to do a couple mistakes and Seth and RJ got me, and I was like maybe five seconds behind them and when I saw them like in the corner, both down I couldn't believe it. I still can't...like it was insane! I saw Seth was actually over the berm and RJ was on top of the berm and I was like ‘This is crazy’ and I think it was only like four or five laps to go. And yeah, just did it. It was...it was pretty crazy.”
He continued, “I think I was like four or five seconds behind them, and I was trying to stay there because I knew it was three or four laps to go and then I mean, I knew RJ was gonna try to do something to Seth. So that was my only hope and my only chance because I was a little further back and when I came to the corner and they were both done, I was like, I still can't believe it though."
The final round really summed up a 250 SX East campaign that has been wild the whole time.
"I think the whole season has been a lot of good riders," Vialle said. "I feel like the speed was pretty good from everyone in the championship and a lot of up and down. We lost a lot of points for myself in Foxborough in the mud. So yeah, everyone had like some up and down and we try to stay steady the whole all season and it paid off in the end.”
After Vialle saw the duo of Hammaker and Hampshire on the ground, he didn’t get the chance to just ride it in for the finish, as Hammaker got up quickly and was charging hard, not ready to give up the fight just yet.
“So, when I passed both of them in the corner, Seth was out of the track, so I did the next lap, and I watched behind me and I saw Seth was right there! I couldn't believe it! I was like 'Maybe he’s a lap down?' But no, I saw my pit board, and I had 1.5 or two seconds, and I still had three laps to go. So that was pretty crazy. I did maybe my three best laps, I was pretty good in the whoops, and I just went inside, inside the last two corners so I knew he couldn’t pass me. I gave everything I had the last two laps.”
The always steady Frenchman almost seemed like he was still in shock after the race, as it has always been his dream to race supercross in the States, and he knows just how hard it is to pull off back-to-back championships.
“Like I said before, that's why I came here to the US to ride Supercross and to achieve two Supercross titles is insane. I would have never believed it before I came, and I mean that was the goal to win at least once and we did it two in a row. The second one is always pretty hard. I won my first world title in 2020, and I missed the one in 2021. I couldn't make it two in a row, and I won in 2022. But yeah, it's a lot of pressure all winter because you have that number one and you have to make it happen and it's been tough all season. But yeah, we made it happen. Obviously, Seth was really fast in that main event. He was riding good, but like I said before everyone had a lot of up and downs.”
Winning two championships in the 250 Division does have its repercussions as Tom will now have to move to the 450 class for 2026. The 450 challenge is something he says he is excited for.
“Yeah, I'm actually really excited. I've been riding the 450 a little bit this year when I was able to ride outdoors, and I think that was the plan anyway, to move next year, next summer for the 450 outdoor. I was still not sure depending on the championship if I was staying in 250 for Supercross or not, but now we have to. I've been in 250 for a long time, like my first pro year was 2019, so I've been like maybe five or six years that I'm pro in 250, so I feel like that's a new challenge. I'm gonna work pretty hard this winter to get on the 450, and it's something new, so I'm pretty excited about it.”
But first, Tom will get ready to compete in the 250 AMA Pro Motocross Championship in two weeks’ time. Will the two-time World Motocross Champion be able to add another title to his ever-growing trophy case?
