Skip to content
We Went Fast
SHOP RAG

2026 Budds Creek Pro Motocross Research

By Brett Smith

The Mid-Atlantic stop on the Pro Motocross tour, Budds Creek Motocross Park features a challenging mix of ruts, hills, tacky soil and, in the summer, oppressive humidity.

Mechanicsville, just under 50 miles from The White House, lies in Maryland’s southern neck between the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay and is home to over 1,000 Amish citizens.

Budds Creek Notes
  • Name of facility: Budds Creek MX Park
  • This is the 36th running of the Budds Creek National (first was 1989: 125/500 classes)
  • Yes, there really is a Budds Creek; it’s a tidal tributary stream that forms the western boundary of St. Mary’s County. It flows underneath Budds Creek Rd. and south into the Wicomico River.
Budds Creek All-Time Facts
  • Most 450MX wins: Ricky Carmichael was 8/8 here at Budds Creek with 13 moto wins in 16 moto starts. The next closest rider is Ryan Dungey (4 O/A wins)
  • Most 450MX podiums: Ricky Carmichael (8/8). Eli Tomac has 2nd most (6 podiums in 9 starts).
  • Most 450MX Starts: Jason Thomas and Nick Wey (12)
2025 Recap
  • 250MX Winner: Haiden Deegan (2-1). HD was penalized one position and 5 points for jumping on a red cross flag
  • 250MX: Cole Davies goes 1-17 (7th O/A) one week after finishing 23-23 / 26th in his Pro Motocross debut (Unadilla).
  • 450MX Winner: Jett Lawrence (1-2)
Grand Marshal
  • Annapolis, Maryland’s Travis Pastrana
  • 2000 125 Pro Motocross Champion and 2001 125 East SX Champ.
  • Two starts at Budds Creek (2000 – 2nd O/A; 2001 – 4th O/A)
BUDDS CREEK HISTORY

450 Rider Facts

  • Hunter Lawrence has beaten Jett Lawrence in 10 of 18 motos this season.
  • Jett Lawrence wins his 8th moto of the season and 52nd of his career. That’s 28 overall wins (breaks a tie with Bob Hannah for 5th all-time).
  • Before Unadilla M2, the last (and only other) time Hunter Lawrence finished outside the top 5 in a 450MX moto was Ironman 2024 (6th in M1).
  • Hunter Lawrence finished top 5 overall in his first 30 starts. He was 8th overall in his 31st start.
  • Mark Fineis finished a career best 5th in M2 at Unadilla – previous best was 11th in M1 Spring Creek earlier this year.
  • Justin Barcia (3,700 pts) passed Ryan Dungey (3,699 pts) for 6th all-time premier class Pro Motocross points.
  • Career best moto and overall finishes for Jed Beaton (10-9 / 7th). The Australian (from Tasmania!) raced the 2023 Washougal National (13-37)
  • Beaton is also racing Budds Creek and Ironman.

250 Rider Facts

  • Levi Kitchen doubled his lap led total from 9 to 18 after his first moto victory at Unadilla.
  • Levi Kitchen now has +148 position changes (1st to last lap) this season – series most. He’s 49 passes away from Garrett Marchbanks’ 2025 total of 197.
Net Position Change: 2026 Season
  • Levi Kitchen started 7th and had 7 of the 10 fastest laps in Moto 1. He executed start and speed meticulously.
  • Cole Davies’ last 4 motos: 1-1-2-1. He’s delivering down the stretch.
  • Chance Hymas and Carson Mumford have each finished top 5 in the last 5 motos run. Jo Shimoda had a season high 6 straight leaving RedBud.
  • Cole Davies has a class-leading 6 holeshots this season and 9 DIFFERENT riders have been first to the white stripe.
  • Cole Davies has led a class-leading 118 laps while Seth Hammaker (49) and Sacha Coenen (43) still sit 2nd and 3rd on the most laps led list

Jett Lawrence’s All-Time Pace

Unadilla was Jett Lawrence’s first win since Southwick (RD6) and it was the 28th of his 450MX career. It broke a tie with the original all-time wins leader, Bob Hannah (27)

  • With 36 450MX starts, Jett reached 28 wins a tick off Ricky Carmichael’s pace. The GOAT got to 28 wins in 35 starts – 1 quicker than Jett.
  • Jett is 4 wins shy of tying Eli Tomac, a feat that could be accomplished in early 2027.
All-Time Premier Class Overall Wins: Starts to 28 Wins

* Only got 27 wins

Lawrence vs. Lawrence

Heading into Unadilla Hunter Lawrence was +10 over brother Jett in the points and extended it to +15 after Moto 1.

  • Hunter’s first ever 450MX DNF (Unadilla M2) created a disastrous 25-pt. swing and has forced him into a must-win situation.
  • If Hunter wins the final four motos of the season (with Jett in 2nd) he wins the title by +2

Lawrence vs. Lawrence Box Score

Prado’s Progression

Jorge Prado sits -25 points behind Haiden Deegan in the 2026 450MX Championship, but last weekend’s performance at Unadilla was arguably his best yet.

  • He went 3-2 for 2nd overall
  • He set the fastest lap in both motos (.256 and .358 faster than Jett Lawrence in both motos)
  • Interestingly: Prado and J. Lawrence both set their fastest laps on the same lap in each moto (L5 in Moto 1 and L7 in Moto 2).

The improvements KTM has made to the bike over the break gave him the confidence to run the Lawrence brothers’ pace.

Jorge Prado 2025 vs. 2026

Momentum is clearly building. With two rounds remaining, he’s got 3 more overall podiums and 10 more moto podiums than he did in all of 2025. The only thing left is to win a moto and overall.

450SMX Projections

  • Hunter Lawrence clinched the #1 seed after the first moto at Washougal. He’ll enter the SMX World Championship Finals with 25 points.
  • Cooper Webb has clinched at least a top 3 seed as of last week in Unadilla.
  • That said, Jorge Prado is within 16 points and likely to pass him for the #2 seed at the final round at Ironman.
  • Jett Lawrence is now within 17 points of Dylan Ferrandis and likely to finish the #4 seed when it’s all said and done. Jett left round 1 as a #26 seed.
  • Haiden Deegan is up to 10th now and projected to finish 7th seed – passing Eli Tomac, Justin Cooper, and Ken Roczen who are all within 13 points leaving Unadilla.
    • Keep an eye on 6th through 11th. Separated by 63 points, but among these positions there’s the potential for important point swings.
  • Ken Roczen (currently 7th) and Chase Sexton (currently 12th) are expected to finish 11th and 12th with neither expected to lineup before the end of Pro Motocross.
  • Battle of the Bump: Mitchell Harrison (166 points, 21st rank) and Justin Hill (188 points, 20th rank) is a critical battle. If Harrison can score 22 points in the last two rounds, he avoids the LCQ through-out the Playoffs. Harrison is averaging 5.16 points per moto this season…

Kitchen vs. Davies

This is a story about the odd consistencies of two riders who have wound up nearly locked in a championship battle.

Levi Kitchen leads the 250MX series (+1). He is the only rider to finish top 5 overall in every round but he’s also suffering serious inconsistencies:

  • All three of his moto wins have been paired with a moto finish outside the top 5: (1-13, 1-8 and 1-6).
  • He’s only had one race with two moto scores in the top 3 (2-2 / 1st) at Hangtown)
  • He’s finished top 5 in both motos at just 3 of the 9 rounds.

Cole Davies is second in the series (+43 over 3rd). He’s the only rider with more than one overall win (4 total).

  • Davies has been on the podium in both motos at 4 rounds and he has finished 1-1 twice.
  • Davies has two rounds where he didn’t crack the top five in either moto (6-15 at TVMX and 38-13 at Spring Creek)
Kitchen vs. Davies Box Score

250MX Closest Championship Battles

We have the closest championship battle with 2 rounds remaining since 1990, when defending champion Mike Kiedrowski and eventual champion Guy Cooper battled for the title.

125/250MX Championship Battle (2 rounds remaining)

250SMX Projections

  • Cole Davies has the potential to clinch the #1 seed at Budds Creek. He currently holds a +53 point lead and can lose 3 points to Kitchen and still clinch this weekend.
  • Chance Hymas, Carson Mumford, and Julien Beaumer are separated by 18 points with 4 motos to go. It’s a potential two point swing to be 4th vs. 6th seed.
  • Nate Thrasher, Kayden Minear, and Michael Mosiman are separated by 25 points. A bit of a spread but it’s still possible for shifts among them.
  • Casey Cochran (currently 22nd) was previously expected to finish as a 17th seed but is now looking at a 40 point gap to the top 20.
  • Drew Adams (currently 21st) is projected to finish as the 19th seed (up +2 positions from the last projection). Watch closely here as he needs to score 38 points over the last two rounds to hit 19th.

Women’s Pro Motocross – RD5

Lachlan Turner dominated with two moto wins and the overall, but she was also fastest qualifier and fastest in both motos.

Season Stats
  • Lachlan Turner has 6 moto wins.
  • Lachlan Turner and Charli Cannon have both been on the overall podium at all 4 rounds.
  • There’s been a different rider finish 3rd all four rounds (Nielsen, McCutcheon, Drunen, and now Mayla Herrick.
  • Jordan Jarvis as finished 4th – just one step off the podium – in 3 of 4 rounds.
  • Four different riders have pulled holeshots this season (Turner: 3, Tayla McCutcheon: 2, Mayla Herrick: 2, Piper Bell
  • Four different riders have led laps this season: Turner, Cannon, McCutcheon, Herrick
  • Turner has led the most laps (37)
  • Charli Cannon broke her scapula in early July and has been racing through/managing the pain.
2026 WMX Results

Milestones

450MX
  • One more podium and Jett Lawrence (34) will tie Jeremy McGrath (35) for 15th all-time.
  • One more podium and Jett Lawrence (34) will tie Ricky Carmichael (35) for 4th all-time podiums on a Honda.
  • Eli Tomac (32 wins) needs one more to tie Rick Johnson (33 MX wins) for 3rd all-time.
  • The next first time winner in 450MX is the 72nd different rider to win the class (Haiden Deegan, Justin Cooper…)
  • Justin Barcia (3,700 pts) passed Ryan Dungey (3,699 pts) for 6th all-time premier class Pro Motocross points.
  • With two more starts, Justin Barcia (124) will tie Jason Thomas (126) for 5th all-time.
450SX+MX
  • Jett Lawrence (37) tied Jeff Stanton for 12th all-time. He needs another 8 to catch Jeff Ward for 11th all-time.
Both Classes, SX+MX
  • Justin Barcia is 1 start shy of Kevin Windham for 6th all-time.
  • Eli Tomac is 1 start shy of Chad Reed for 4th all-time.
250s
  • Jo Shimoda (30) tied Erik Kehoe and Mike Brown for 10th all-time 250MX podiums. One more and he ties Johnny O’Mara and Ryan Villopoto with 31 and 8th all-time. We hope for a Jo return ASAP!