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2026 Ridgedale SuperMotocross Research

By Brett Smith

Thunder Ridge Nature Arena is an “immersive outdoor musical postcard from Mother Nature.”

  • Developed and built by Bass Pro Shops founder, Johnny Morris
  • TRNA is an outdoor concert venue in southern Missouri, sitting on 1,200 acres between Table Rock Lake and the Boston Mountains.
  • Table Rock Lake is a man-made reservoir with almost 800 miles of shoreline.

450 SMX Rider Facts

  • Jorge Prado snatched away the #2 seed from Cooper Webb at Ironman and that could play a massive difference in the Finale. Those two points now enable him to finish 3rd or better and win the title vs. 2nd or better.
  • All three Finales (and 5/6 of the motos) have been won by Jett Lawrence.
  • As good as Jorge Prado has been in the Playoffs, he’s yet to win a moto, qualifying or set an overall fastest lap.
  • Prado’s super power? 2 holeshots, an avg. L1 position of 1.5 and all four motos in the top 5.
  • The highest finishing unseeded rider in 450 SMX Playoff history is Phil Nicoletti (12th in 2023 points). Unseeded Shane McElrath is currently 13th. McElrath finished 16-12-14 in previous SMX seasons.
  • Cooper Webb has one career 450SMX overall podium finish (3rd @ LA 2023)

250 SMX Rider Facts

  • Levi Kitchen’s 7-1 @ Carson matches his inconsistent patterns from Pro Motocross where he was unable to pair a moto win with a second good finish: (1-13, 1-8, 1-6)
  • 4-3-6 is where Levi Kitchen was ranked headed into the Finales in 2023, 2024 and 2025. He’s yet to finish top 3 overall.
  • Ryder Difrancesco is the only rider to finish top 5 in all four motos.
  • Difrancesco has raced every single SMX event since 2023 but has yet to finish top 10 overall in the post-season points. Now he’s in a face-off with Levi Kitchen for the championship.
  • More evidence of Ryder D’s improvement: he went 15 straight SMX motos outside the top 5 (he was 3rd in M2 at Charlotte 2023)
  • Chance Hymas finished the Pro Motocross season with 9 straight top five moto finishes. In the Playoffs, he’s gone 9-5-15-10 in the motos.
  • Cole Davies’ career SMX Playoffs overall finishes: 8-11-23-10-14
  • Yamaha made up 11/22 bikes in Columbus and 10/22 in Carson. They’ve yet to get a top 3 overall.
  • Husqvarna hasn’t won a single race this season, yet they’re in serious contention for the SMX World Championship.
  • The last time a Husqvarna won a 250 race in any discipline: RJ Hampshire @ the 2025 Daytona Supercross.

WMX Facts

  • Lachlan Turner is a 3-time WMX champion
  • Turner won 8/12 motos in 2026 and 4/6 overalls
  • Turner raced the FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship finale in Australia last weekend (8-2 / 4th).
  • Charli Cannon won the High Point and Ironman Nationals in 2026, the only rider to beat turner in an overall.
  • 7 different riders got podium finishes in WMX in 2026, including FIM riders Lotte Van Drunen and Daniela Guillen
  • 6 different riders pulled holeshots in 2026. Taylah McCutcheon and Turner both had 3.

450 Clinch Scenarios

Jorge Prado is riding shotgun.

  • Jorge Prado (+16) needs to finish 3rd overall or better to clinch the 2026 450 SMX World Championship.
  • Haiden Deegan, Hunter Lawrence, Ken Roczen, and Cooper Webb must finish 1st overall and Jorge Prado finish 4th or worse for either of them to clinch the title.
  • The difference between 1st and 3rd at the triple-points-paying-finale is 15-pts. (75, 66, 60)

At one point during moto 2 in Carson 4 riders were separated by just 8 points. But when the moto ended, Prado secured the overall win and a +16 point lead.

Notable: If Haiden Deegan or Ken Roczen were to win the title, they’d be the lowest seeded riders to do so in SMX playoff history.

450SMX Top Five

Eli Tomac’s Last Race

Eli Tomac will be a first ballot Motorcycle Hall of Fame inductee and a Mt. Rushmore candidate in any bench racing session. Below we look at how he stacked up in these key stats categories: Titles, Wins, Podiums, Points, Starts.

4 Career Defining Stats

All classes, Supercross and Pro Motocross.

  • He has the most podiums in the history of the sport – 236. He stood on the podium more than any professional rider before him and he did so an impressive 61% of the time.
  • He has the most points in the history of the sport – 10,483. He’s 1 of 2 riders to score more than 10K points in moto (Mike LaRocco is the other).
  • He has the 3rd most wins in the history of the sport – 113. Behind The GOAT (162) and the Fastest Man on The Planet (116), he was on that top step in 1 of 3 (29%) of his starts! Did we mention he’s got the most wins for a 30+ year old!? Did we mention he won Daytona 8x!
  • He has the 4th most starts in the history of the sport – 386. He’s been racing for 17 years. He won 4 Supercross main events in his final season including Daytona. He’s the standard for performance+longevity in the sport.
SMX League Premier Class All-Time Rank
  • Eli Tomac is the only rider in history to rank top 10 in Total, SX, and MX for the 4 key stats (wins, podiums, points, and starts)
  • Honorable Mention: Chad Reed and Ken Roczen are ranked top 10 in all 4 key stats for Total and SX, but not in MX.
  • Note that Ken Roczen – 11th rank in MX points – is just 182 premier class Pro Motocross points shy of joining Eli Tomac with top 10 ranks across all 3 Total, SX, and MX.
SMX League Premier Class

This first chart below takes the most liberal and inclusive definition of premier class titles: 500cc class from 1972-1993 and the 250 2 stroke/450 4 stroke class from 1972-present.

  • Eli Tomac is tied for the 5th most championships with 6 total (2 Supercross and 4 Pro Motocross).
  • Notable: 10 riders are tied with 3 titles, including active riders Cooper Webb, Ken Roczen, and Jett Lawrence (and analyst James Stewart).
SMX League Premier Class Titles: 250 2-Stroke/450 4-Stroke/500cc

Add in the ‘small bike’ class going all the way back to 1972, Tomac is still 5th but some new additions hit the top 10.

  • Additions: James Stewart, Jett Lawrence, Broc Glover, and Cooper Webb.
  • Dropped: David Bailey.
SMX League Titles: ALL CLASSES

Soapbox (thanks in advance for hearing us out):

Let’s stop this negative and denigrating take: “Yeah, but it’s because he raced for so long.”

We should be so lucky to see all these athletes simply race for more than 15 years. Tomac didn’t just compete for 17 years; he won a race Every. Single. Year. That sustained level of performance is unheard of and difficult. It’s something fans can easily rally around and promoters can use to help a sport grow.

International Affair

While the 250 overall podiums have been 100% American, the 450 class has been an international affair.

  • 5 of the 6 overall podium spots have been international born riders from 3 different countries.
  • Haiden Deegan is the only American to get an overall podium.
  • Notable that Cooper Webb got a moto podium in Playoff #1 at Columbus (3rd in moto 2)

KTM Takes Two

KTM took home both the premier class and 250 overall podiums in last weekend’s Playoff #2 with Jorge Prado (premier) and Julien Beaumer (250s).

  • This was KTM’s first overall SMX playoff win in both classes!
  • The only other OEM to have double victories is Honda. While they’ve dominated SMX history, they are yet to win an overall in the 2026 playoffs.
    • 2023 Playoff #2 Chicago – Jett Lawrence (premier) and Hunter Lawrence (250)
    • 2025 Playoff #2 St Louis – Hunter Lawrence (premier) and Jo Shimoda (250)
    • 2025 Finals Las Vegas – Jett Lawrence (premier) and Jo Shimoda (250)
OEM Victories (both classes)

250 Clinch Scenarios

Unlike the 450s, this one is a bit more complex.

  • Levi Kitchen and Ryder Difrancesco need to beat each other, but…
    • Levi Kitchen owns the tiebreaker (1 overall win to Ryder’s 0 overall wins). This is important because if they finish 4th overall or below, then Ryder needs a rider between him and Levi. So Ryder 4th to Levi 6th, Ryder 5th, Levi 7th and so on.
  • Julien Beaumer can win the title by winning and Levi finishes 4th or worse and Ryder finishes 3rd or worse.
  • The long shot… Kayden Minear could clinch if he wins the overall, Levi Kitchen finishes 7th or worse, Ryder Difrancesco finishes 6th or worse, and Julien Beaumer finishes 3rd or worse.
250SMX Top 7

Pro Circuit vs. Husky (and maybe KTM)

Levi Kitchen and Ryder Difrancesco enter the SMX Finals in a mano-vs-mano battle with Julien Beaumer lurking with a chance.

Reluctantly, we mention that Pro Circuit hasn’t had the best luck in the last decade. Their last championship was 7 years ago when now Race Day Live analyst Adam Cianciarulo won the 2019 250 Pro Motocross championship. It’s been a tough decade for a team that once dominated the class.

  • Most recent, Seth Hammaker and Levi Kitchen held the red plate for 7 of the 11 rounds of Pro Motocross, but it was Star Racing’s Cole Davies that ultimately won the title after holding the red plate just 3 rounds total.
125/250 Titles

For Husqvarna, Ryder Difrancesco has yet to hold the red plate in his career nor this series, but it’s possible he wins the title on Saturday.

  • It’d be Husqvarna’s first title since RJ Hampshire won the 2024 250 SX West championship.
  • The only other small bike Husqvarna rider to win a title is Zach Osborne (2017 250SX East, 2017 250MX, 2018 250SX East)
Kitchen vs. Difrancesco: Supercross + Motocross

See above for 2026 SMX playoff stats.

  • Notable: None of the contenders have been consistently great starters, all averaging 10th or worse on the first lap.
  • Ryder Difrancesco is still looking for his first professional win. Ryder did get his first professional podium this year (6 podiums total).
  • Momentum favors Julien Beaumer given he’s won 2 of the last 3 overalls and 2 of the last 6 motos going back to Ironman, but he needs help from other competitors.

#1 Seeds Not the Favorites

Entering 2026 the #1 seed had only won the title 1 of 6 times. While Hunter Lawrence (450 #1 seed) is absolutely still in the championship hunt, Cole Davies’ Carson crash makes it very difficult for him to win the 250 title.

  • Hunter Lawrence needs a win and Jorge Prado to finish 4th or worse to be just the second #1 seed to win the title and first 450 #1 seed to win.
  • Cole Davies needs to win, Levi Kitchen to finish 9th or worse, Ryder Difrancesco to finish 8th or worse, and Julien Beaumer to finish 4th or worse.

450 SMX Payout – Top 10

Through the first two playoff rounds, Jorge Prado has pocketed the most race payout with $125K, finishing 3rd at Playoff #1 and winning Playoff #2. The final round of the playoff presents two more opportunities to earn purse money…

  • The race purse for the final round is worth $100K for the winner.
  • The championship payout is $1M for the winner and $25K for the 22nd rider.
2026 450SMX Purse Money Payout (Thru Playoff #2)
  • Notable: Not shown here, but Shane McElrath entered as a #22 seed and sits 13th in the standings. 13th is a $34K championship purse payout.

250 SMX Payout – Top 10

Levi Kitchen tops the 250 race purse payout through 2 rounds with a win (2 total podiums) while Julien Beaumer is right behind him after winning Playoff #2.

  • The race purse for the final round is worth $50K for the winner.
  • The championship payout is $500K for the winner and $2K for the 22nd rider.
2026 250SMX Purse Money Payout – Thru Playoff #2
  • Notable: Not shown here but Cameron McAdoo came into the SMX playoffs as a #32 seed and sits 12th in the standings. 12th is a $13K championship purse payout.