Shop Rag: 2024 Washougal Pro Motocross Research

Stats and stories for Spring Creek! Remember: the 2024 SMX Race Center is packed with info, including rider stat and standings charts, photos, recaps and entry into each week’s Race Center Live. Here are some helpful buttons.

Welcome to Washougal!

“America’s Most Scenic Raceway” is a proper nickname for Washougal MX Park in southwestern Washington state. Opened to racing in 1971, the natural terrain course winds in and out of the giant fir trees that tower over the facility. The venue is 30 minutes from Portland, Oregon and lies just north of the town of Washougal and a river of the same name.

For more history and Washougal All-Time leaderboards, Winners, and historical race results…

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Sexton Emerges as the Superstar

After the 2020 Supercross season, Chase Sexton lined up on a Honda HRC CRF450R for the Pro Motocross series, a move that surprised many. Sexton had great success in Supercross (2019-2020 250SX East champion), but he had just one moto win, 7 moto podiums and never won a 250 Pro Motocross overall.

Sexton: 250 vs. 450

But someone saw something. He’s now in the middle of his fifth 450MX season and working on a companion title to the 450SX championship he won in 2023.

He’s yet to finish outside the top 5 in a 450MX series, which is in stark contrast to a career best 5th in the 2019 250 Pro Motocross season, his 3rd and final year in the class.

He now has a +13 point lead over Hunter Lawrence with 4 rounds remaining in the 2024 Pro Motocross season. This is far from a done deal but with 5 straight moto wins, including relatively dominant double digit victory margins last weekend, he’s the clear title favorite. All this on a new-to-him bike and team.

Key Stats

• 13 different 250/450 riders own streaks of six moto wins or more (between those 13 riders is 22 total streaks). Chase can tie multiple riders (Hannah, RJ, Stanton, McGrath, Dungey, Villopoto, and Tomac) for 15th longest moto win streak if he wins M1 at Washougal.
• Chase Sexton’s previous longest moto win streak was 3 back in 2022.
• Chase has stood on the moto podium 67% of the time in his 92 450MX podiums, just slightly better than the 11% in his 250MX career.

Looking forward, there’s some bad news for the competition – Washougal is Chase’s best venue. He has a 1.3 overall average finish and has won 2 of 3 overalls. He’s never finished off the moto podium in 450MX at Washougal and has gone 1-1-2 in overalls.

Sexton @ Washougal (450MX)

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(The) Kitchen’s Hot Again

In his 31st career 250 Pro Motocross start, Levi Kitchen won his first overall with perfect 1-1 moto scores. He’d won 3 motos prior to this weekend, but never had a companion moto to grab the overall win (1-5 for 3rd, 7-1 for 2nd, and 1-4 for 2nd). That was the ‘old’ Levi Kitchen – inconsistent. But this season he’s gone through a renovation. He’s had eight moto podiums (second most behind Deegan) in 14 moto starts.

The Spring Creek victory is what we expected from Levi. He started the season with 4 moto podiums and class leading speed – he was fastest rider in both motos at round 1 in Pala. Unfortunately he finished 7-10-9-4-7-6 between the second moto at Rd. 3 Thunder Valley and the first moto at Rd. 6 Red Bud. It was 3 rounds of mediocre results for the rider that came within 5 points of a Supercross championship just two months ago.

He now heads to his hometown race (literally, he’s FROM Washougal) where he’s raced just once in his professional career. He went 8-3 for 5th overall last year. No question he’s motivated to win in front of his people.

Key Stats

• In his 31st career start, Levi Kitchen gets a win. He’s the 73rd rider to win an overall within his first 31 starts.
• It was Pro Circuits 301st win. Levi has now contributed 4 wins to Pro Circuit’s total.
• Notable: He won the Seattle supercross earlier this year. Holeshot, set the fastest lap, led all 18 laps, and won his 2nd of 3 main events.
• He joins Mike Larocco, Nick Wey, and Andrew Short to win their first 125/250 overall at Spring Creek.

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Missed Opportunities

Even on his off days, Haiden Deegan stacks points. That’s the hallmark of a champion.

With just 4 rounds and 8 motos remaining in the Pro Motocross season, there’s just 200 points left on the table and Deegan has a +51 point lead over Levi Kitchen. That’s a full round’s worth of points and puts him in position to clinch at Budds Creek, one round early.

Amazingly, only Levi Kitchen has capitalized on Deegan’s poor (well, poor compared to rounds 1-5) outings where he crashed in 3 of 4 motos.

Deegan’s Last 4 Motos

• He’s only led 3 laps (all in 1 moto) but led 65 laps in 8 of the first 10 motos.
• Hasn’t won a moto since Rd 5 Southwick M1 (but won 6 of the first 10 motos).
• Hasn’t set a fast lap in a moto since Rd 5 Southwick M1 (but was fastest in 5 of the first 10 motos).
• Missed his first (and only) overall podium of the season in RedBud.
• Alas, his 2-6-3-4 moto scores are still the second most points over the last 2 rounds.

250MX Points, Last 2 Rounds (RedBud and Spring Creek)

• Levi Kitchen has finished 6-3-1-1 and scored +10 points more than Deegan. Is it too little, too late?!
• Tom Vialle has finished 3-4-2-17 and scored -11 points less than Deegan.
• Chance Hymas has finished 4-1-5-40 and scored -21 points less than Deegan.
• Jo Shimoda has finished 5-2-4-35 and scored -19 points less than Deegan.

For Tom Vialle, this is a theme that runs six motos deep now (Thunder Valley M1, High Point M2, Southwick M2, RedBud M1, Spring Creek M1 and M2).

For Chance Hymas he’s now facing a right ankle contusion suffered in the first turn at Spring Creek M2 to go with the ACL he re-injured before the 2024 season.

Shimoda looked to be coming on strong with a moto win in Southwick but a 35th in M2 at Spring Creek leaves him -83 points back of Deegan in the championship.

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Washougal Weird

Welcome to the Pacific Northwest or PN Dub as many refer to it locally. If you’ve seen the show Portlandia then you know there’s some weirdness in the upper left corner of the country. There’s even a saying “Keep Portland Weird”. Make of it what you will, but it seems to have translated to the results on the track too. Or maybe it’s just the shadows cast by the tall evergreen trees and the deceptively slick dirt.

Either way, there’s been plenty of weird results, happenings and local success at Washougal similar to that of the sandbox known as Southwick.

Local WA/OR/ID Top 5 Performances

Not surprising to see riders like Oregon’s Chuck Sun (1st in 1980 and 2nd in 1982 in 500MX), Washington’s Larry Ward (1st in 1991 125/250), and Washington’s Ryan Villopoto (1st in 2013 250/450) on this list. But there’s other great performances that came from unexpected local heroes…

• Jason McCormick (Vancouver, WA) has 1 moto win and 3 125/250 Pro Motocross overall podiums in his career – all at Washougal. He went 7-3 for 3rd in 1995, 4-3 for 3rd in 1998, and 5-1 for 3rd in 1999.
• Eric Eaton (Tacoma, WA) won the 500 class overall (1-2) in 1985 (more detail below).
• The Hill brothers (Yoncalla, OR): Justin Hill has 2 top 5 overalls in the 125/250 class (2013 and 2016) and Josh Hill has 1 top 5 overall in the 250/450 class (2008).

Local Heroes @ Washougal

Keep an eye on Levi Kitchen (who is actually FROM Washougal, WA) and Chance Hymas (ID) in the 250s and Derek Kelley (ID), Justin Hill (OR), Max Miller (OR), and Kile Epperson (WA) in the 450s as the home crowd cheers on the favorite local riders.

No Repeat 250MX Winner since 2009

• 18 different 250MX riders have won the last 19 races dating back to 2004.
• Ryan Dungey is the most recent two-time winner at Washougal (2008 and 2009).
• Notable, Ryan Dungey got his first ever 125/250 moto and overall win at Washougal in 2008. Dungey is one of three riders to win their first 125/250 race at Washougal,
• The other two first-time 125/250 winners at Washougal are AJ Whiting who went 1-1 for 1st overall in 1985 (his only career moto and overall wins) and Mike Brown who went 2-1 for 1st overall in 1995.

2004: Rusty Holland Leads 1 Lap (almost 2)

The ultimate trivia question: name the four riders to lead laps in the 2004 Pro Motocross season.

In 2004, Ricky Carmichael led 359 of 371 laps (97%) on his way to (another) perfect season. The other 12 laps were led by riders you’d expect to lead laps: Chad Reed (9), Kevin Windham (2), aaaannnnd…. Rusty Holland (1).

Holland led the first lap of moto 1 at Washougal (and almost the entire second lap).

2004 450MX Laps Led

DYK that Carmichael led 183 of 185 second moto laps in 2004!?

1985: 500cc Podium

Eric Eaton (Tacoma, WA) got his only career moto and overall at Washougal when he went 1-2 for 1st overall in the 500s. Impressively, he finished the 1985 season 2nd in the 500cc championship.

On the same day at Washougal in 1985, Jo Jo Keller went 8-1 for 3rd overall. He was riding David Bailey’s Factory Honda that day because Bailey was racing the 250s to help Johnny O’Mara in his quest to beat Jeff Ward for the 250 title (Wardy won the title on this same day). Keller had 3 career moto wins – 2 at Southwick and 1 at Washougal.

BTW, this was the same day that AJ Whiting got his first – and only – overall win after going 1-1 in the 125 class.

1982: Hannah’s Last Yamaha Win

In 1982, Bob Hannah said Yamaha paid him an extra $100,000 to race the 125 class, which he hadn’t contested in five years. According to Hannah, Yamaha had an overstock of YZ125s and “they knew if I rode one–win, lose or draw–they would sell out the entire warehouse,” Hannah said in Tom Madigan’s book Hurricane! The Bob Hannah Story.

“The bike was constantly breaking down,” Hannah said. “It was a piece of junk.”

The Hurricane’s results were mixed that summer but he had a handful of moto podiums, got a third at round 2 (Saddleback) and then won moto two at Washougal, ultimately his last Pro Motocross on a Yamaha.

He went 3-1 for 2nd overall, his best finish of the season.

1999: Ricky Carmichael Thought He Won

In 1999, Ricky Carmichael was so convinced he’d won the second 125MX moto, he pointed a finger in the air in celebration as he crossed the finish line. The he saw his mechanic shaking his head “no”.

He had no idea that Vancouver, Washington’s Jason McCormick had been way out front the whole time.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Carmichael told Cycle News. “I thought [Brock] Sellards was leading and that I had made the winning pass. I don’t know what my problem was today, they just rode better than me.”

Carmichael started poorly in both motos. Sellards won the first moto, while RC battled back to second. In moto two, RC’s bad start was followed up with a first lap fall and he battled back to second again (only he thought he was in first when he passed Sellards on the final lap).

McCormick’s 5-1 performance landed him on the 125MX podium at Washougal for a third time in five years. “This is a dream come true,” McCormick told Cycle News. “I’m on cloud nine.”

In a curious bit of moto history, Carmichael was also bummed because losing at Washougal (round 9 of 12) meant he would have to win out to beat Mark Barnett’s all-time 125MX win record, which RC wanted to own.

THAT meant he would have to cancel his plans to ride the 250/450 class at the final round in Steel City.

2007: Kevin Windham Thought The Race Was Over

Because Kevin Windham (6-3) thought he’d taken the checkered flag, Tim Ferry (2-2) passed him and won the 2007 Washougal National.

Had Windham not flaked (he realized what he had done when the crowd started yelling at him), Grant Langston (4-1) would have likely won the overall.

But before all that, James Stewart (1-35) would have actually won the overall (and probably the 450MX championship). Stewart was cruising in third place behind Grant Langston (4-1) and Kevin Windham (6-3) when his front wheel popped in the air upon hitting a large rock in a sweeping left hander.

He stuck out his left leg and absorbed all the weight of his KX450, which tore his ACL. Stewart never returned to the series.

2016: James Stewart’s Final Appearance

The last professional dirt bike race James Stewart ever lined up for happened at Washougal 2016. Not only did Stewart not race again after Washougal, he disappeared and didn’t announce his retirement until 2019.

Stewart went 9-36 at Washougal 2016. Years later he said he knew it was time to hang it up when he wasn’t nervous on the starting line and also found himself racing behind riders whose names he didn’t know.

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Look Back: Deegan’s 2023 Washougal

Deegan got his first career overall win at RedBud in his rookie 2023 season, but it was his 1-1 performance, especially the second moto, that sent the message: this kid is for real.

In the first moto he got the holeshot, led all 16 laps, set the fastest lap of the moto and made a gerneral statement. It was just his second career moto win and it was strong. But moto 2 was a bigger statement.

He was fourth on lap 1 and moved into second on lap 7. But it’s what he did to catch and pass Justin Cooper for the lead that impressed most.

• On lap 13 of 16, he set the fastest lap of the entire race, almost two seconds faster than any other lap of the moto.
• Deegan’s lap 13 was +5.659 seconds faster than Justin Cooper’s 86th ranked lap 13 (1:41.161).
• The next highest ranked lap 13 was 49th by Hunter Lawrence who set a 1:39.748, which was -4.246 seconds slower.

Top 10 Lap Times, Washougal M2

In just one lap, en route to his 3rd career moto win, Deegan made a statement that he had the star potential of riders like Eli Tomac, Cooper Webb, and the rest of the 450 superstars.

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SMX Playoff Update

It’s playoff projection time and there was BIG movement coming out of Spring Creek. If you need a SuperMotocross 411 refresher, scroll to the bottom. Otherwise, we’re jumping in to look forward at who’s going to make the top 20 and top 30 combined in Supercross and Pro Motocross points.

Now let’s get to the details…

450 SMX Projections

• We’re currently projecting the top 20 cutoff at 153 points, which is steady from last week.
• There are 14 riders that have already scored more than the 153 points and we believe have likely secured a top 20 playoff berth – J Lawrence, Sexton, H Lawrence, Cooper, Anderson, Plessinger, Barcia, Stewart, Ferrandis, Webb, Tomac, McElrath, Roczen and now Craig (secured at Spring Creek).

Key Rider Projections

• Chase Sexton is on pace to clinch the top seed at Unadilla. He’s currently +56 points ahead of Jett Lawrence and +113 ahead of Hunter Lawrence.
• Freddie Noren is just 4 points shy of securing a likely top 20 spot (based on the 153 point projected cutoff) and should easily do so this coming weekend in Washougal.

• Phil Nicoletti had a season best 9-8 for 8th overall at Spring Creek and moved +6 positions in the standings. He’s now positioned to secure a spot (again, based on the 153 point projected cutoff) at Unadilla. We spoke to him at RedBud and he’s very well aware that the ZERO seeding points he had in 2023 ultimately cost him $40K!
• Speaking of zero points, Grant Harlan scored nothing at Spring Creek. We’d previously expected he’d have enough points to secure a spot after Budds Creek but now believe it’ll come down to the last round.

450SMX PROJECTED Standings

450 Riders to Watch – The Last 4 Spots

• Dean Wilson (108 pts) hurt his wrist in a practice crash prior to RedBud and then cased LaRocco’s Leap which kept him sidelined. We heard from him Monday – wrist is sore but he’s gonna give it a go for Washougal and the last two rounds.
• Grant Harlan (105 pts) dropped two positions in the SMX Rankings at Spring Creek – Phil Nicoletti and Kyle Chisholm passed him. He’s now ranked 20th and we’ve got him finishing 18th… but there can’t be anymore zero point weekends.
• Marshal Weltin (94 pts) will need more RedBud (17-14 for 14th overall) finishes jump into the top 20. He’s currently 23rd and projected to finish 19th.
• Justin Hill (106 pts) is currently 19th and projected to finish 20th based on the intel he’ll race the last 4 rounds of Pro Motocross. There’s very little room for error though with 10 other riders (arguably) in contention for 4 spots.
• Garrett Marchbanks (50 pts) was not feeling well last week and went 40-18 for a mere 4 points. That cost him 21 points in our projections and he goes from 18th to 21st in the projected standings.
• Colt Nichols (62 pts) may only be ranked 26th, but he’s signed with HEP Suzuki and will likely return to action at either Washougal or Unadilla. He went 11-11 and scored 20 points at Washougal 2023. If he can replicate that the last 4 rounds he’d finish with 142 pts and 22nd in the standings.
• You can never count Kyle Chisholm (107 pts) out and he finished a season best 12-16 for 13th overall last weekend at Spring Creek.

So You’re Saying There’s a Chance…

• Harri Kullas (99 pts) has finished 9th overall the past three weekends and he’s confirmed in for at least Washougal. He’s still trying to figure out how to race the rest of the season and said he desperately needs a fresh motorcycle heading into the final races.
• Romain Pape (61 pts) finished a season best 11-17 for 14th overall at Spring Creek.
• With a breakout moto or two, Cullin Park has the potential to challenge for that final position but it’ll likely require other riders to falter.
• Derek Kelley (51 pts) finished a season best 11th in the second moto at Spring Creek. That’s reason to believe he’s still got a chance!

Seven riders have an automatic LCQ Bid = Jett Lawrence, Cooper Webb, Chase Sexton, Eli Tomac, Ken Roczen, Aaron Plessinger, and Hunter Lawrence

The next few rounds will be pivotal. Those that stay in contention with good, consistent motos will make for an interesting battle in the final few rounds. With 11 450 riders in contention for the last four spots in the top 20, the fans are going to be treated to some great racing at the final rounds of Pro Motocross.

250 SMX Projections

• We’re currently projecting the top 20 cutoff at 171 points. This is up +22 points from pre-Spring Creek, mostly because of Dilan Schwartz’s career best day. Dilan is in position for the 20th spot and projected to be +47 points more than 21st position
• There are 18 riders that have scored enough points to secured a top 20 playoff berth – Deegan, Vialle, Kitchen, Shimoda, Hymas, Swoll, Brown, Smith, Beaumer, DiFrancesco, Bennick, Thrasher, Hampshire, Schock, Masterpool, Anstie and, new after Spring Creek, Romano and Cochran.

Key Rider Projections

• Joey Savatgy is likely to secure the 19th spot at Washougal.
• Dilan Schwartz somehow turned 10-6 Spring Creek motos into a career best overall 5th! (previous best was two 7th overalls in 2021). He is now likely to lock in the 20th spot at Unadilla.

250SMX PROJECTED Standings

Longshots

• Talon Hawkins (25th), Jett Reynolds (31st) and Mark Fineis (33rd) could contend for the 20th spot but need some luck.

These 12 riders have an automatic LCQ Bid: RJ Hampshire, Jordon Smith, Nate Thrasher, Levi Kitchen, Austin Forkner, Haiden Deegan, Tom Vialle, Cameron McAdoo, Max Anstie, Jo Shimoda, Chance Hymas, and Ty Masterpool.

SuperMotocross 411

• Combined Supercross and Pro Motocross points determine how the SMX Playoff seeding points are allocated. 1st gets 25 points, 2nd gets 22 points, and so forth using the same points structure.
  • The 250 supercross region with 1 extra round has to drop their 10th/worst round finish.
• Anyone that wins a Supercross main event or Pro Motocross moto gets an automatic bid into the LCQ. Keep in mind, they have to race the LCQ every single round of the playoffs to earn a spot in the motos.
• The top 20 are automatically given a gate for every round. Note, if a rider in the top 20 is injured or opts out of the SMX Playoffs, that opens one more transfer spot in the LCQ but does not give the 21st rider an automatic spot in the motos.
• Top 21-30 get a spot on the LCQ gate and have to finish 1st or 2nd to earn a spot in the motos. Keep in mind there will be invitations for the LCQ if riders are injured or opt-out of the SMX Playoffs.