What Really Happened in Pittsburgh?

Chase Sexton was the faster rider at the Pittsburgh Supercross; what mattered in the end were the mistakes. Cooper Webb’s laps were tighter and more consistent, while Sexton’s distribution showed four outlier laps compared to Webb’s two (see the box and whisker plot below)

The raw truth: Sexton outpaced Webb on 17 of the 25 laps. Yet every mistake Sexton made was costly. While he gained about 0.3 seconds on his fast laps, he lost nearly 0.9 seconds on his bad ones.

Webb didn’t have to be faster, he just had to be relentless. And when the pressure peaked, it was Sexton who cracked.

Sexton vs. Webb: Pittsburgh Lap by Lap

When Tenths Matter

Statistically, it doesn’t get much closer than this. Comparing average lap times, Webb edged Sexton by a margin so tiny it’s almost comical: 48.918 seconds to 48.919. One-thousandth of a second.

But averages often lie.

Sexton vs. Webb: Pittsburgh Lap Time Distribution

The Moment It All Shifted

In Pittsburgh, the whoops played a factor, just like in East Rutherford. One week after getting humiliated by Sexton in the whoops, Webb flipped the script in brutal, championship-defining fashion.

Lap 10: Sexton stopped blitzing the whoops and started jumping.

Lap 11: Sexton jumped off track in the whoops, handing over a critical 2.2 seconds.

In a race he would eventually lose by just 1.5 seconds, that slip might not have just cost him the win, it could have cost him the championship.

Sexton never blitzed the whoops again.

Before and After Going Off Track

Before his mistake, Sexton was skimming the whoops at 6.3 seconds per lap. Webb, by comparison, was at a steady 6.5 seconds all night. After going off track, Sexton’s whoop times slipped to 6.7 seconds. Sexton’s biggest strength? Instantly became a liability.

And it didn’t stop there. Even though he fired off seven straight fast laps after his mistake, he never attacked the whoops the same way. He jumped them. Hesitated. Second-guessed. Instead of carving half a second or more per lap off Webb’s lead, Sexton was only stealing back tenths. And when the margins are this razor-thin, tenths are the difference between victory and defeat.

Chasing a competitor like Webb, hunting for new lines, and managing the championship pressure proved too tall a task. It turned into a high-speed game of cat and mouse, and in the end, Webb held strong.

While the championship isn’t officially clinched yet, Pittsburgh might be the night where the scales finally tipped permanently in Webb’s favor.

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Box Van Tee

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And Then Chaos Reigned

Tom Vialle pulled off one of the most improbable wins of the season. Despite losing a jaw-dropping 19 seconds to Nate Thrasher in just two sectors, Vialle rallied late, set the fastest lap three times in the final four laps, and captured his first win of 2025.

Oh, and by the way: he also flipped the championship standings.

Vialle vs. Thrasher: Pittsburgh Sector Comparison

Across most of the track, Vialle was untouchable. He was fast everywhere, except two glaring weak spots.

The whoops? No shock there. Vialle’s struggled in the whoops his entire career. Sector 5 was understandable, too. Earlier in qualifying, Vialle took a nasty spill in that very lane, leaving some battle scars both physical and mental.

But here’s the kicker: outside those two trouble zones, Vialle was lighting the track on fire. His speed elsewhere was enough not just to claw back time, but to storm all the way to the win. It was jaw dropping seeing Vialle lose time in the whoops to immediately make it all back and then some in the split-lane and sweeper.

Winner Takes All

Make it seven. Vialle became the seventh different winner on the East Coast, adding even more chaos to an already wild championship. Just a week ago, Vialle trailed by seven points. Now, he’s the man with the red plate heading into the final round.

With 3 points separating 3 riders, plenty of wild cards, and an E/W showdown to boot, its truly a winner takes all scenario for the East Coast championship.