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PREVIEW

2025 Birmingham Preview

By Brett Smith

Round 10: Back to Birmingham!

We’re back in the Yellowhammer State. Jett Lawrence (450) and Tom Vialle (250) were the winners of the first ever Birmingham Supercross.

  • Protective Stadium is an open air football field with a capacity of 47,100.
  • Home to the University of Alabama at Birmingham Blazers and the Birmingham Legion Football Club (soccer)
  • Opened October 2, 2021.

Much more on the Birmingham Supercross history page below.

BIRMINGHAM RESULTS HISTORY
Birmingham Facts
  • Nickname: The Magic City.
  • Population: 196,000-200,000, third most populous city in Alabama
  • Distance from Atlanta: 150 miles west on I-20.
  • Time Zone: Central (Very important if you’re flying out of Atlanta).
  • Point of Interest: The Vulcan statue is the city symbol of Birmingham. It depicts the Roman God Vulcan, god of the fire and forge, with ironworking equipment. And if you’re looking for a quiet place to walk in the morning: Oak Hill cemetery.
  • Birmingham hosts the largest and oldest Veterans Day celebration in the country.
  • Must do: Visit the Barber Vintage Motorsports museum at Barber Motorsports Park. It features a collection of 1600 motorcycles and is less than 20 minutes east of Protective Stadium.

Halfway Point Nuggets

  • 14 winners after 9 rounds: 6 in 450SX, 8 in 250SX (more on this below)
  • 9 different podium finishers in 450 (there were 10 total in 2024)
  • 10 different riders have holeshot 450 mains/TC Races (only 8 holeshot in all of 2024)
  • Birmingham is a Triple Crown AND an SMX Next host.

The Sexton Slump

Chase Sexton is well aware that he’s mushy in the middle. In fact, he’s flat out NEVER won a race at rounds 5-8 and has just one win in the middle 8 rounds of the series (5-12).

Birmingham, Seattle, Foxborough are rounds 10-12.

“Typically when I come back from that little break we have in the Supercross season we seem to be better,” Sexton said in the Indy press conference. “Hopefully we can do that again and put some good races together. Once we get some momentum back on my side we should be good. I’m going have to be better.”

Sexton’s Career ‘U Shaped’ Season Results
  • Of Sexton’s 70 career starts, 46% (32 of them) fall in the middle 8 rounds (5-12)
  • 90% of his wins (10 of 11) have come in the first 4 rounds and the last 5 rounds.
  • His 38 podiums have him tied for 20th all-time.
  • 61% of his podiums (23 of 38) have come in the first 4 rounds and the last 5 rounds.
  • The middle 8 rounds represent 46% of his 70 starts and he has just 1 win (10%) and 15 podiums (39%).

Wire to Wire Webb

Cooper Webb had a pretty crappy day in Indianapolis… until he lined up for the main event and did something that he only does in about one third of his race wins:

He led every single lap.

“I was pissed off,” he said on the podium. “I made a lot of mistakes today.”

Top Riders: Wire to Wire Wins
  • Webb has cross the finish line first in 32 450SX races (23 traditional main events + 9 individual Triple Crown Races). He leads every lap 31% of the time.
  • 60% of Ken Roczen and Chase Sexton’s wins are wire-to-wire.
  • Eli Tomac (40%) and Jett Lawrence (36%) are similar to Cooper Webb
Wire to Wire Win Histories

This chart above includes Triple Crown races and excludes Triple Crown overalls (because you could win a TC overall w/o leading a single lap) **Wins column = (traditional main wins + ind. Triple Crown race wins)

More on Leading All Laps

What is the most common scenario for laps led in a Supercross race?

A. 1 rider leads all laps?

B. At least 2 riders lead laps?

C. 3 riders leads laps?

If we sample every season from 2015 to today, the most common scenario is A: 1 rider leads every single lap. That situation represents 42% of the mains and Triple Crown races.

Wire to Wire Wins: 2015-2025

Includes triple crown races and excludes triple crown overalls (cause it’s not a race to lead). Triple crown events started in 2018.

In the 216 races represented in the chart above:

  • 82 had 2 different lap leaders (38%)
  • 38 had 3 different lap leaders (18%)
  • Just 5 had 4 different lap leaders:
    • A1 2023 (Barcia 3, Stewart 4, Sexton 5, Tomac 9). Tomac led two different times!
    • East Rutherford 2017
    • Arlington 2022 (TC Race 1)
    • Detroit 2022
    • Denver 2022
More Webb Nuggets
  • Webb is now tied for 8th (Ricky Johnson) on the all-time Supercross with 28 career overalls. He’s six behind Ryan Dungey.
  • Last time he won two in a row: 2023 (Tampa and Arlington)
  • First to three: Webb is the first rider to three wins this season. Historically, that rider wins the title 69% of the time (76% since 2000).

250SX East: Déjà Vu

If something seems oddly familiar with the 250SX East Division after four rounds of racing, that’s because we’re experiencing what French philosopher Émile Boirac coined as déjà vu (already seen).

This is 2024 all over again.

Example #1: Tom Vialle and Max Anstie. Vialle has gotten better with each round and took the points over at round four. Anstie has placed lower with each round and handed over the red plate after four rounds.

Anstie vs. Vialle 2024 and 2025

Example #2: the top four in the standings are separated by 12 points, which is the exact gap from 2024 when the top four was also separated by 12 points (it was actually 5 riders because of a tie).

After four rounds, 2024 and 2025 rank in the Top 10 closest battles over the 82 250 Division series raced since 1985.

  • 2025 East: Tom Vialle 79 pts, Anstie -1, Hammaker -11, Hampshire -12
  • 2024 East: Tom Vialle 74 pts, McAdoo -1, Brown -5, Deegan -12, Schock -12
250SX All-Time Closes Points Battles (after 4 rounds)
More 250SX Nuggets
  • Four different winners to start the 250SX East Division. This is the first time in SX history that both Divisions started the season with four different winners.
  • For the East, specifically, it’s the third time (2011, 2016, 2025)
  • For the west, it’s the sixth (1993, 2000, 2005, 2021, 2024, 2025)
  • FIVE different 250SX winners has happened twice:
    • 2000 (West) David Pingree, Tallon Vohland, Greg Schnell, Casey Lytle, Shae Bentley
    • 2016 (East) Martin Davalos, Jeremy Martin, Justin Hill, Malcolm Stewart, Aaron Plessinger
  • LOOKING AHEAD: 6 different winners to start a 250 Division series has never happened.

Seth Hammaker Closes the Gap

Seth Hammaker’s second career win came 3 years, 360 days after his first (Arlington 2021). Of the 101 250SX riders with two or more wins, it’s the 6th largest start gap between first and second wins.

Despite the fact that Hammaker has missed more races than he’s competed in since he turned pro in 2021, Mitch Payton believes in the 24-year-old Pennsylvanian ****so much that he signed him through 2026.

Hammaker rewarded Pro Circuit Kawasaki with an East/West Showdown win in Indianapolis, leaping from 6th to 3rd in the championship.

Start Gap Between First and Second Wins (250SX)

Reminder that a 125/250 Supercross season is only 9-10 rounds. Starts = # of race between 1st and 2nd wins.

Fun Fact: Both Ezra Lusk and Justin Cooper got their first and second wins on their 11th and 20th starts.

If you’re wondering about the gap in years between wins, Tallon Vohland (Max’s father) owns that record, it’s just 3 days shy of nine years between wins.

The chart below is a primer for what Seth went through in his first four years as a pro. He has missed 47 total races. He has lined up for 46 (SX/MX/SMX)

Seth Hammaker’s Missed Races

The 20th Triple Crown

This will be the 20th Triple Crown race held since 2018 and will be the first one held in an open air venue outside of Angel Stadium (4x).

All told, there’s been 7 different overall winners and 9 different race winners in the history of Triple Crowns. But the list of winners, both overall and race, are what you’d expect in a traditional main event.

Triple Crown 450SX Winners History
Triple Crown Notes
  • 1-1-6 and 6-1-1 = The worst finish in a single race and still won the overall. Eli Tomac did the former in Detroit 2019 and Cooper Webb did the latter just last month in Arlington.
  • 9 = the most Olympic points scored to win. Cooper Webb went 2-2-5 for the overall at A2 in 2024.
  • Consistency is key; No overall winner has finished outside the top 3 in more than one race.
  • 3 riders have swept a Triple Crown: Ken Roczen (Glendale 2020), Jett Lawrence (Indianapolis 2024), Eli Tomac (St Louis 2024)
  • 3 riders have won a Triple Crown without winning a single race: Eli Tomac (Arlington 2022), Cooper Webb (A2 2024), and Chase Sexton (Glendale 2025)
  • RJ Hampshire is quite good at Triple Crowns. Although he only has one overall win, he’s been on the podium in 15 of the 29 individual TC Races he’s lined up for and in 5 of the 10 TC overalls.
  • Haiden Deegan has two overall wins in Triple Crowns and averages a 3.5 finish in his 4 TC event starts.

SMX Next

SMX Next returns in Birmingham for round three of their championship series.

So far, it’s been the Landen Gordon and Enzo Temmerman show. They went 1-2 in Glendale and Daytona.

  • SMX Next main events are 8 minutes +1 lap.
  • Landen Gordon is 17 but his 18th birthday is exactly one week after the Birmingham Supercross.
Daytona Recap
  • Gordon took the holeshot but Alexander Fedortsov (18) ****led the first four laps (and set the fastest lap of the race, by far). A flat rear tire crushed his hopes of a Dayton win
  • Gordon ran second for the first four laps and passed into lead on lap five.
  • Temmerman finished the first lap in 10th and moved into 2nd on the final lap.
  • First SMX Next start for Jesson Turner (17) ****and he finished 3rd. He was 7th on the first lap.
Daytona Results
  1. Landen Gordon (KAW)
  2. Enzo Temmerman (KAW)
  3. Jesson Turner (YAM)
  4. Alvin Hillan (HON)
  5. Tiger Wood (HON)
  • After the Daytona Supercross, Landen Gordon competed in the Ricky Carmichael Daytona Amateur Supercross event, one of the AMA Majors, and won both the Open A and 250 A classes, the latter of which awards points toward advancement into the pro ranks.
Socials

Landen Gordon

Alexander Fedortsov

Enzo Temmerman

Jesson Turner

And here is the link to the Daytona Preview where several of the to NEXT riders were written up in greater detail. Scroll to the bottom of the page.

Key Milestones

450s
  • Cooper Webb has 28 450SX wins. He’s tied with Ricky Johnson in 8th all-time. Ryan Dungey is 7th (34 wins).
  • Cooper Webb now has 70 podiums (10th all-time). With 8 rounds left in the season, he’s 5 behind James Stewart, Ken Roczen and Kevin Windham (75).
  • Ken Roczen is in a three-way tie for 7th most podiums in 450SX (75). A 76th podium would give him sole ownership of 7th over James Stewart and Kevin Windham.
250s
  • RJ Hampshire is 82 points away from second place (Barry Carsten) on the all-time 250SX most points scored list.
  • Austin Forkner is in a multi-way tie for 3rd on the all-time most 250SX wins (13). A 14th win would give him sole possession of 3rd.