NBD: Five Supercross Champions on the Line

It’s Never Been Done. That will change in 2025.

Defenders of ‘deepest field ever’ may get a validity victory in 2025 if plans hold up; for the first time in sport history, five Monster Energy Supercross champions are expected to compete against each other and it will happen at the opening round in Anaheim.

Active SX Champions (Current)

In five-plus decades of Supercross championship seasons, only four champions (at most) have lined up at some point each season. And that has only happened nine times (full chart below).

Even in the mid-to-late 1980s, following eight consecutive years of unique champions (1979-1986) typically just two or three champions lined up for races.

Digging deeper into this subject, we discovered that five champions on the gate was never a real possibility, mostly due to the short careers of riders through the first 30-ish years of the sport.

The opportunity to put five champs on the line has been building since three new champions emerged in succession after the retirement of Ryan Dungey following the 2017 SX season.

Those champions: Jason Anderson (2018), Cooper Webb (2019) and Eli Tomac (2020) are still competing against the two newest champs, Chase Sexton (2023) and Jett Lawrence (2024).

Active SX Champions (Historical)

Re-order table by tapping column headers. On mobile? Slide left for more.

*In 1987, four champions lined up for just one weekend: the Seattle doubleheader. Bob Hannah came to the Kingdome and finished 9th and 4th in what were the final SX appearances of his career.

*In 1981, Jimmy Ellis qualified for just ONE main event (Daytona) and he finished 23rd (out of 41 riders!)

*In 1975, defending Yamaha Super Series of MX champion (250cc), Pierre Karsmakers missed the opening round in Irving and then lined up for the 500cc class at round two in Daytona (hey, it was a different time). He raced the 250cc class in July’s Super Bowl of MX in LA, a race that (technically) wasn’t part of the Super Series because Jimmy Ellis had clinched that title back in March.

Even Four Champs is Rare

In 2024, four champions lined up at round one for the first time since 2012-2014. And before the ‘Ryans’ era of Ryan Villopoto and Ryan Dungey winning eight straight titles (with former champions/rivals Chad Reed and James Stewart keeping the racing interesting), we have to go all the way back to 1990.

Six different riders won races that year, an exciting year for Supercross with several key rookies squaring off against champion veterans and the defending champ, Jeff Stanton. But Rick Johnson (15th O/A) and Johnny O’Mara (11th O/A) were never in the fight.

O’Mara, the 1984 champion, got one podium. A nagging knee injured aided his decision to retire.

Likewise with Johnson, who suffered a wrist injury in 1989 that he never full recovered from. He also scored just one SX podium in 1990 and abruptly retired after the 5th round of 1991.

After the retirements of Jeff Ward (1992) and Jeff Stanton (1994), the ghosting of Jean-Michel Bayle (1992) and Damon Bradshaw coming oh-so-close to a title in 1992, Supercross entered a long stretch of 1-2 (and once ZERO) champions on the line.

The 1986 LA SX Should Have Had Five!

The Los Angeles Supercross on June 7 was the 1986 finale and should be recognized as the one night that five Supercross champions lined up against each other.

Here’s how:

• Rick Johnson (the LA winner) clinched the title four weeks earlier in Tempe, Ariz. So, technically, he was a champion, right?
• Johnny O’Mara (1984) and Jeff Ward (1985) were in the field and finished second and third that night, respectively.
• Bob Hannah (1977-1979), winner of the 1985 Daytona SX, didn’t ride SX in 1986 until LA. And then didn’t qualify for the main (oh so close).
• David Bailey (1983) missed the LA Supercross because of… chicken pox (true story).

So where was Hannah earlier in the year? His new contract with American Suzuki gave him the flexibility to do whatever he wanted, which was so Bob Hannah.

At the Anaheim opener, he told reporters “I didn’t plan on racing, and I’m not up to it.” He was expected to race in Seattle a month later but broke his collarbone.

And notably, Mark “The Bomber” Barnett (1981) retired at the end of the 1985 season because of a recurring knee injury. Had he decided to line up in 1986, there could have been five champs on the gate.

Speaking of injuries…

Injuries (especially knees) kept many former champions from lining up for races, or retiring all together.

• 1975: Pierre Karsmakers had just switched from Yamaha to Honda for a “rumored high five figure a year contract,” according the Cycle News coverage from the opening round of the second annual “Yamaha Super Series of MX” in Irving, TX. Karsmakers returned at Daytona but decided to race the 500cc class instead of the 250 class.
• 1983: Donnie Hansen, the 1982 Supercross champion, suffered a career ending head injury in Sept. 1982 while in Europe training for the Motocross of Nations. “I wanted to get back to racing, but I had lost my timing, lost my depth perception and lost my balance,” he told Motocross Action in 2022. He never lined up for another Supercross race.
• 1982-1983: Mike Bell (’80) missed races, including the opening rounds, because he was recovering from knee surgery.

• 2004: Ricky Carmichael’s recovery from reconstructive knee surgery (Dec. 2003) left no champion at all on the starting gate for all 16 rounds.
• 2008: James Stewart raced the first two rounds of the series but withdrew because of a knee injury after practice at round three. Chad Reed was the only champion on the line for the rest of the season.