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2025 Unadilla Motocross Research
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Round 27: New Berlin’s Unadilla MX
“The place to race since 1969,” upstate New York’s Unadilla MX is one of America’s original motocross tracks, hosting the biggest events in sport history, including USGPs, the Motocross of Nations, Pro Motocross, Trans-AMAs and more. Unadilla is an Iroquois word that means “place of meeting.”
- Gary Jones was the first Pro Motocross winner (1972, 250/450 class)
- Ricky Carmichael is the Unadilla premier class wins leader (6)
- James Stewart is the Unadilla 125/250 class wins leader (3). He won all 6 motos he raced here (2002-2004)
- Eli Tomac has ZERO Unadilla 450MX O/A wins, the only current venue where he doesn’t have at least one victory (1 moto win, 2018)
More info and details at the Unadilla Venue History page.
450MX Facts
- Hunter Lawrence got his first career overall win in Ironman – he is 1 of 4 riders to stand on 10 or more premier class podiums before getting an overall win (see below for details).
- Hunter is now the ONLY 450 rider to finish top 10 in all 18 motos (worst moto finish is 5th, twice).
- RJ Hampshire qualified a season best 2nd at Ironman and then finished a career best 2nd (first 450MX podium).
- Maybe more impressive is Hampshire’s consistency. He’s 1 of 4 riders to finish top 10 overall at all 9 rounds this season!
- Jett Lawrence missed a moto podium for the first time all season at Ironman – he’s now 17 of 18 for 2025 and 47 of 50 in his career.
- The last time Jett Lawrence lost two consecutive Pro Motocross rounds was in the 250MX class in 2022 (Unadilla/Budds Creek).
- HONDA: If Jett Lawrence (22 wins) were to win the last two overalls, he’d tie Rick Johnson (24) for second most Premier class overall wins in Honda history. Ricky Carmichael has the most at 33.
- Ironman was Eli Tomac’s 150th career Pro Motocross start. At Budds Creek, he will tie Jeff Ward for 11th most starts (all classes combined)
- Eli Tomac needs just 2 points to tie Ricky Carmichael for 2nd on the all-time premier class points chart.
- Eli Tomac got both holeshots at Ironman – that’s the first time he’s done so in recorded history (back to 2016 – and we’re reasonably certain it’s the only time in his premier class career).
- Ken Roczen said he’s racing Unadilla. Roczen also returned here in 2024. He went 7-6 for 7th overall. His first laps positions were 7th and 4th in those motos.
250MX Facts
- Haiden Deegan has been 1st or 2nd in 17 of 18 motos this season.
- Haiden Deegan has the potential to become the outright winningest Yamaha 125/250MX rider in history (details below)
- Deegan has led laps in 12 of 18 motos, twice as many motos as anyone else (Shimoda has led 6 motos).
- 3 riders have finished top 10 overall at every round this season – Haiden Deegan, Jo Shimoda, and Garrett Marchbanks.
- Garrett Marchbanks (6th season) is having a career year. He finished 5th in 250 West Supercross (2nd best finished after 4th in 2020) and he’s currently 3rd in Pro Motocross (previous best was 12th in 2022). We spoke with Mitch Payton at Ironman and he said “We’re keeping him”.
- Garrett Marchbanks has passed 156 riders this season. That’s 19 more riders than Haiden Deegan, Jo Shimoda and Levi Kitchen have passed COMBINED.
- Dilan Schwartz (134) is the only other rider to pass more than 100 riders this season.
- Jo Shimoda could move into 11th all-time points by the end of the season. He’s currently 14th all-time and needs to score another 76 points to tie Ryan Hughes for 11th.
- Austin Forkner has finished top 10 overall 3 rounds in a row (Spring Creek 8th, Washougal 5th, and Ironman 9th)
- Rookie Bests: Drew Adams finished 5th overall
- Notable Finish: Parker Ross finished 7th in moto 2. He had previously finished 10th four different times – all in motos 2.
Clinch Scenarios
The math is the same for both classes – Jett Lawrence and Haiden Deegan need to have a 50 point lead at the conclusion of Unadilla.
450 Scenarios
In short: Jett Lawrence clinches the title at Unadilla if he beats Hunter Lawrence by +3 points
- Going deeper: with 4 motos and 100 available points to score, 4 riders are mathematically still in contention.
- Realistically it’s down to the brothers, Jett and Hunter.
- When Jett was docked one lap after Ironman M.1, it cost him 15 points (3rd to 17th) and has now enabled Hunter a chance to take this fight down to the final round at Budds Creek.
- Both Eli Tomac and Justin Cooper will likely be out of contention after moto 1 at Unadilla, unless something catastrophic happens to Jett.
450MX Riders Still In Contention
*Reminder: all columns can be filtered by tapping black column headers
250 Scenarios
In short: Only two riders are still in contention – Haiden Deegan and Jo Shimoda.
- Deegan can lose -1 point to Shimoda and clinch the title at Unadilla.
- Example: Shimoda goes 1-3 (45 points) and Deegan goes 2-2 (44 points), Haiden clinches.
250MX Riders Still In Contention
*Reminder: all columns can be filtered by tapping black column headers
SMX Points Battle
With 4 motos remaining, there are multiple battles across both classes, especially for the ever-critical top 20 cut-off.
- Justin Cooper has a +80 point lead over Cooper Webb and +86 over Chase Sexton. Unless something catashrophic happens, he’ll clinch the #1 seed for the SMX World Championships.
- Chase Sexton currently has a +27 point lead over Jett Lawrence. Both will pass the injured Cooper Webb this coming weekend, the question is ‘can Chase maintain the 2nd seed!?’
- Malcolm Stewart in 4th currently is +32 points ahead of Hunter Lawrence who sits 6th. Hunter is outscoring Malcolm 18 points a round right now (40 vs. 22) and will pass him on current pace. This battle will come down to the final moto of the year!
- Note Aaron Plessinger is out injured and will drop from 6th to 8th, losing positions to Hunter and Eli Tomac.
- The last battle of interest is for 18th-20th between the idle Justin Hill (currently 18th), Mitchell Harrison (19th), Valentin Guillod (20th), Coty Schock (21st), and Harri Kullas (22nd).
450SMX Points PROJECTIONS (After 28 rounds)
*Reminder: all columns can be filtered by tapping black column headers
250 SMX Points Battles
- Haiden Deegan is your #1 seed – clinched last week at Ironman.
- 5 riders from 6th to 10th are separated by a mere 16 points. Max Vohland 6th, Julien Beaumer 7th, Michael Mosiman 8th, Levi Kitchen 9th, and Jordon Smith 10th. There’s 4 potential seeding points up for grabs amongst these riders!
- 18th RJ Hampshire to 24th Jalek Swoll are separated by 58 points. Davies, Dilan Schwartz, Lux Turner, Cullin Park, and Swoll all need some great finishes to stay/get into the top 20.
250SMX Points PROJECTIONS (After 28 rounds)
*Reminder: all columns can be filtered by tapping black column headers
No Longer Bridesmaids
Entering Ironman, Hunter Lawrence had 14 podium finishes in 19 career 450MX starts. None of them were wins, so he was climbing an inglorious statistical chart of most podiums with no win.
Now a winner, Hunter is one of just four riders to podium 10 or more times BEFORE getting their first win.
- Shoutout to Trey Canard, whose 10th podium WAS his first win (Miller Motorsports Park, 2014)
Most Premier Class Podiums Before 1st Win
Winning without Winning
Hunter Lawrence (2-2) won his first 450MX overall without winning a moto. This happens in 450MX much less often than in 250MX.
- Since 2000, it’s only happened 9 times in the 450 class. That’s 9 times in 303 Pro Motocross races (2.9%)
- Compare to the 250MX class; it’s happened 9 times in the last 71 events (12.7%). This is going back to round 5 of 2019.
- Wow. Tim Ferry won 8 motos in his entire Pro Motocross career (5 in 450, 3 on a 125) class career but none of those moto wins came in and of his THREE overall wins!
450MX Overall Winners Who didn’t Win a Moto (2000-2025)
Eli Tomac to Join the 10,000 pts. Club
Eli Tomac is 29 points away from becoming the second rider in sport history to pass the 10,000 championship points-scored mark (regular season, all SX/MX classes and points-paying races combined)
- Based on his per-race average, Tomac will pass Mike LaRocco at/around the 9th round of the 2026 Monster Energy Supercross Series.
Most Points Scored SX+MX All Classes Combined
*All columns can be filtered by tapping black column headers
Haiden Deegan’s Last Two 250MX Races
There are a lot of fun things to watch for with four motos remaining in the 250MX chapter of Haiden Deegan’s Pro Motocross career.
- The most noteworthy for the fans and bench racers is catching (and possibly passing) Jett Lawrence on the all-time 250MX Wins list.
- Note how similar the wins to starts ratio is for J. Lawrence, Broc Glover and Haiden Deegan.
Most 125/250MX Wins All-Times
More Haiden Deegan ‘Things to Watch For’
- Deegan is now in sole possession of 10th on the all-time moto wins list (25 moto wins). He could climb as high as 8th (tied with Guy Cooper).
- Deegan now has seven career 1-1 sweeps in 250MX.
- YAMAHA: With 1 more overall win, he would tie Broc Glover and Jeremy Martin (14) for most 125/250 overall wins in Yamaha history.
- If he wins the last two rounds he’d be the winningest Yamaha rider in 125/250 Pro Motocross history.
- YAMAHA: With 2 more moto wins, Deegan would tie Jeff Emig (27) for 3rd most moto wins on a Yamaha 125/250 in history. No worries, Broc Glover (33), your record is safe!
- NOTABLE: Deegan is already the winningest Yamaha 125/250 rider in history. His 20 SX+MX wins (ignoring SMX) is 2 more than Cooper Webb, Jeremy Martin and Kevin Windham.
WMX Update (after 4 of 6 rounds)
- The Ironman win makes 3 in a row for Lachlan Turner. She has a 24 point lead over Charli Cannon in the championship.
- Turner has won 6 of the 7 motos run this season (*reminder that TVMX was a one moto round)
- Kyleigh Stallings (3rd at Ironman) was the 5th different rider to get on the podium this season.
RECAP HIGHLIGHTS
2025 WMX Schedule and Results
*Thunder Valley was a single moto event