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We Went Fast
SHOP RAG

2025 Seattle Supercross Research

By Brett Smith

Welcome to Shop Rag, the We Went Fast stats and and research packet. Pack your parkas people, it’s time to get sloppy in Seattle.

Round 11: Emerald City!

Seattle has a long, rich (and rutty) history that goes back to 1978. For all the results, all-time leaders and winners, visit the Seattle venue history page by tapping the image below.

50th Seattle Supercross

Seattle isn’t at all considered a moto mecca or destination but it has roots in the sport that go back to the expansion years of the late 1970s.

Couple Seattle with Washougal MX and the now closed Puyallup Raceway and Straddle Line Park and Washington State has hosted nearly 100 rounds of Supercross and Pro Motocross.

2025 marks the 50th running of Supercross in the Emerald City. Seattle is 5th all-time on the list of cities/markets to hold the most rounds of Monster Energy Supercross.

Eli Tomac is a 3-time Seattle winner. Photo: Octopi
Most Supercross Rounds by City
  • The first 33 Seattle rounds were held between 1978-1999 in the now demolished Kingdome.
  • This year’s event will be the 17th running of SX in Lumen Field (first race, 2005).

Nobody is the Favorite in Seattle

With 3-time Seattle winner Eli Tomac still on the injury list, there is no clear favorite at this venue.

Cooper Webb is the only rider in the current top five who has even been on the starting line at the most recent four Seattle events (no Seattle in 2020-2021)

Only Webb (2024) and Justin Barcia (2013!) are among the currently-racing riders to win here.

Recent Seattle Supercross Finishes 450SX Top 5 Riders
Seattle Fun Facts
  • Since 2005 (when Seattle returned to the schedule, the fastest 450SX qualifier has only won the main event twice and it’s been nearly 20 years at that (James Stewart: 2006-2007).
  • For 13 consecutive races (going back to 2008, Seattle has seen 13 different 450 riders as fastest qualifier.
  • Riders such as Mike Alessi, Dean Wilson, Malcolm Stewart and Josh Hill have all been fastest qualifier.
  • Seattle was round 11 in both 2023 and 2024 and 2025 will be the third year in a row it’s round 11.
  • It’s been 13 different round numbers since 1978, most often round 4.
  • First Career Wins: Darrell Shultz (1981), Jeff Ward and Ricky Johnson (1984), Larry Ward (1990), Andrew Short (2012)
  • Last career wins: Jimmy Ellis (1978), Larry Ward (1999), Andrew Short (2012)
Seattle Mudders

It’s raining this week in Seattle. Half of We Went Fast lives IN Seattle so, we know.

Seattle Weather, March 27-29, 2025

Based on what’s happened in the past 20 years, we still wouldn’t expect a mudder. The SMX track crew is experienced at dealing with persistent bad weather.

But here’s a nugget: qualifying has been reduced to one session in 5 of the 16 times Lumen Field has hosted:

  • 2005: First year in what is now called Lumen Field. James Stewart earned his second career premier class victory.
  • 2006: A very sloppy penultimate round of the series. Stewart won again.
  • 2010: Kevin Windham wins, Ryan Dungey clinches. It wasn’t ‘muddy’ but the ruts were notorious. And when Windham says, “That was the gnarliest race Ive ever ridden,” it must have been bad. Windham won some wars in the mud.
  • 2017: Marvin Musquin won despite the trench-like ruts. Eli Tomac, Cooper Webb and Ryan Dungey all crashed.
  • 2018: Eli Tomac won a massive mudder. This was where Aaron Plessinger swan-dived into the water hole after the race.

450SX Historical Points Gaps after 10 rounds.

Cooper Webb just saw how quickly a points lead can be halved with one first lap tip over. He entered Birmingham +15 and left +8.

  • Since 2015, the points leader after 10 rounds has won the title 9 of 10 times.
  • Historically, the points leader after 10 rounds has only failed to win the championship just six times.
Points Leaders and Gaps After 10 450SX Rounds

Here are the years and riders who pulled off the post round 10 comebacks:

  • 1983: David Bailey was 3rd, down 47 points. It’s still the biggest points comeback after 10 rounds into the series.
  • 1985: Jeff Ward trailed Broc Glover by a single point but beat Glover at the 11th and final round.
  • 1990: Jeff Stanton trailed Jeff Matiasevich but took the lead at round 16 of 18.
  • 1992: Stanton was down 2 points to Jean-Michel Bayle at Round 10 and then entered the 16th and final round -6 to Damon Bradshaw. Stanton won the race, while Bradshaw finished 5th.
  • 2009: James Stewart was down by 11 points at round 10 and took the series lead at round 15 of 17
  • 2023: Chase Sexton was third, -17 to Cooper Webb and Eli Tomac. He took the points lead at round 16 in Denver after Tomac’s injury.
After 10 rounds, David Bailey was 47 points down in the Supercross championship race.
So Close…

These two comebacks came up just short.

  • 2006: James Stewart was down 26 points after 10 rounds. If Chad Reed could have passed Ricky Carmichael at the Las Vegas finale, Stewart would have won the title. He finished 2 points behind RC.
  • 2017: Eli Tomac was -17 after 10 rounds, won 9 races total, but ultimately lost by 5 points to Ryan Dungey.

Rider of the Week: Malcolm Stewart

In his 15th professional year of racing, it’s hard to believe that Malcolm Stewart went into his rookie season (2011) only planning to race one year.

“Once I reached the age where I was eligible to go pro, I thought, ‘I’ll do it for one year,’” he said in an April 2024 interview with Vital MX. “I didn’t have a plan–this was never part of my career. I didn’t have a career. I was still trying to figure out what path I wanted to walk down in my life.”

After a couple of top fives and 7th overall in the 2011 250SX East Division he wondered how much better he could do with if he put some effort into it.

Fourteen years later, Stewart is on pace to match (or better) his career best premier class season (2022) when he nabbed three podium finishes and finished 3rd overall in the series with a 4.9 average finish.

Malcolm Stewart ahead of his 2011 pro debut
Malcolm 450SX Career
  • His runner-up finish in Birmingham after a rough afternoon of qualifying gave him a second podium finish, just the second time he’s done that in his 9 seasons of 450SX competition.
  • He leapt from 5th to 4th in the championship and is now 22 points behind Ken Roczen.
  • Stewart felt like he hit a flat spot after the Tampa win. He even used the word “slump”.

“Now you know you can do it and all you want to do is go out there and do it again,” he said about following the Tampa win. “I felt like I wasn’t ‘in the race’ the past few races.”

Stewart’s contract with Husqvarna ends at the conclusion of the season and he said he’s in the ‘pre-negotiation’ waiting phase.

Seattle hasn’t been kind to Malcolm (11.5 average finish in 4 starts) ranking very close to the bottom on his personal strength-of-venue chart.

Malcolm Stewart had the hometown crowd (and the whoops) in his favor in Tampa. Photo: Align Media
Malcolm Stewart @ Seattle (450SX)

Other Notable Stats:

  • 2016 250 east division champion
  • 3 career 250 Supercross wins and 12 podiums
  • 6th in the 2024 450 Pro Motocross championship

250SX West Recap/Catch up

The 250SX West Division returns for their first ‘normal’ race since Jan. 25 (Anaheim 2). Since that third round of the series, the West riders have done two Triple Crowns and an East/West Showdown.

  • Seattle will be their 7th round.
  • At the Showdown in Indy, each Division took five of the top 10 spots but East went 1-2 and got three of the top five spots.
  • Despite the 3rd place in Indianapolis, Haiden Deegan doubled his points lead from +6 to +12 over Julien Beaumer, who has been suffering from a shoulder injury since Arlington.
Do we see the return of Jordon Smith?
  • The Glendale winner suffered four broken ribs, a punctured lung and lacerated spleen at the end of TC1 at Arlington
  • He wanted to be back for Indy but because of the internal injuries, he was advised by doctors to give it more time.
  • Jo Shimoda (left finger) and Beaumer (right shoulder) back closer to full strength? Twenty one days between Indianapolis and Seattle.
Is Cole Davies the Next Winner?
  • Cole Davies has three individual Triple Crown Race wins and seems destined to battle for a main event victory.
  • His 5th at the Indy Showdown doesn’t paint the full picture. He finished lap one in 4th and fell in the sand. He charged back from 13th, setting the 3rd fastest time of the race.
  • When counting up all laps raced this season, Davies has the most (see chart).
250SX West Box Scores (after 6 rounds)

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
  • Jordon Smith, 27 podiums, is tied with Stephane Roncada for 2nd on the all-time 250SX podiums list. Nathan Ramsey leads (33).