We’re here for SMX Playoff 2, the last race before the SMX World Championship Final next week, and in some ways, it feels like the first round after last week’s hellacious mudder. But as far as the championship goes, it is very much the second round, with Jorge Prado leading the championship in the 450 class by two points over Haiden Deegan, who got his first 450 win last week, and Levi Kitchen up top in the 250 class by seven points over Ryder DiFrancesco.

We’re set for a wild one today, and with no clouds or rain in site and an expected high of 78 degrees, it should be a fantastic day for racing. In yesterday’s press conference Deegan said his win last week really boosted his confidence, and that he looks forward to going out and getting it done in dry conditions too. Hunter Lawrence, who is dealing with a sore wrist after his collision with Deegan at Ironman Raceway, had a horrible day last week, going 21-8 for 15th overall in the slop. He now sits tenth in points, which would normally be a very difficult position to rebound from already one race into a three-race series, but the points payout is double at the second round, which means if he wins today he’ll be right back in it for the finale. Giving up more points will put him in a difficult position, however. Let’s not forget Eli Tomac either, who went 15-13 for 14^th last week. He’s on the verge of closing out his career, but he looked great in yesterday’s free practice, and even set the fastest lap time of the afternoon. Jason Anderson his here too, and is somehow racing despite getting landed on last week and injuring his wrist. Check out our Injury Report for a current look at who’s hurt.

In the 250 Class Kitchen, who’s been dealing with a hurt thumb since crashing in the first moto at Ironman, said in the press conference it’s feeling a lot better. He also said his win in last week’s press conference was one of the “lamest” wins of his career. But hey, the points still count and he’s still sporting the red plate.

Today’s track looks very much like a supercross track, but other than the obvious lack of whoops, there are some actual differences. There are no triples, but there are two big doubles. And the soil, in addition to the sand section, features two lanes of extremely soft and sandy dirt that is going to get really torn up as the day progresses. The track started developing ruts pretty fast yesterday, even with just Justin Brayton and Adam Cianciarulo riding it early, and the track crew has continued to work water into it since and are doing so right now. But with the sun shining  directly on the dirt, don’t expect it to stay soft all day.

Qualifying is set to begin shortly, so check back soon for a first look at who’s ripping in Southern California.

The unseeded 250 class has some heavy hitters in it, with names like Pierce Brown, Cameron McAdoo, Nick Romano, Max Anstie, Parker Ross, and more all vying for fast times. Early on it was Simonson too, but after just a few laps Brown took top honors with a 52.170. He’d eventually better that with a 52.060, which held up for the rest of the session. Cameron McAdoo looked fast everywhere, but it didn’t translate into fast lap times, with McAdoo ending up ninth-fastest with a 53.703. His teammate, Romano, was seventh-fastest with a 53.586.

The second unseeded 250 session got red flagged a few  minutes in when Parker Ross went down hard. He was crouched in pain for a little while and his visor was tweaked. Alpinestars Medical Crew members tended to him and put a neck brace on him, but he was able to walk off the track under his own power before riding out on the Medical Mule.

When qualifying resumed Nick Romano held the fastest time, but Pierce Brown quickly took over with a 53.247. At this point Brown and Romano started going back and forth with the lead. Romano took it back and proceeded to then spend a lap throwing big, one-legged whips, and Brown responded by posting another fast lap, a 52.830, to which Romano immediately responded with a 52.830! You know what happened next, of course—Brown put in an insane lap and recorded a 52.158. After that the checkers came out and Romano didn’t get another chance to try to best Brown. Situations like this are part of what makes qualifying fun to watch.

The first meaningful fast time came from none other than Cole Davies, who recorded a 52.361 on this third lap. Times would keep falling after that, and rapidly. Ryder DiFrancesco was fastest, then Levi Kitchen, then Julien Beaumer, with the latter turning a 51.099 on his fourth lap. He did have one small mistake when he bobbled while going from outside to in exiting a rhythm lane, a mistake to which he shook his head at immediately after, and later it looked like he caught his leg and ripped his foot off the peg while blowing through a highspeed sand roller section. No matter, a few laps later he lowered his time again with a 51.096, and he even threw in a whip on that lap and took the inside of the split lane and ensuing sand section. Time expired after that and Beaumer emerged as the day’s fastest 250 qualifier.

Hunter Yoder and Dax Bennick shared some on-track communication in this one. Yoder looked back in the air and put his hand out at Bennick , to which Bennick responded by putting his hand out. We’re not sure what they were communicating and we didn’t see any incident unfold between them prior to, or after, that moment.

The top six transfer in this race and when the gate dropped it was Devin Simonson who jumped out to the early lead with Max Anstie right behind him, but Simonson crashed a few turns in. The order shuffled a bit and Pierce Brown emerged with the lead. At this point the top six consisted of Brown, Josh Varize, Marshal Weltin, Anstie, Cameron McAdoo, and Avery Long. Nick Romano was all over Long though and when Long went down in a turn Romano took the spot. Henry Miller now held seventh and was all over Romano, who had to be careful because Miller was close enough to throw it in on him and risk a hard block pass. Long, meanwhile, had caught back up to the rear wheel of Miller and you could throw a blanket over all three as the came into the final lap. Long was able to get by Miller, then put in some serious effort to get close enough to put a move on Romano, but Romano held on, crossing the line less than half a second ahead of Long. Brown won, and Varize, Anstie, McAdoo, Romano, and Weltin filled the remaining transfer spots.

The top five transfer in this one and Shane McElrath wasted zero time in moving to the front as soon as the gate dropped. Behind him Vince Friese and Colt Nichols were going at it for third, with Freddie Noren, Cornelius Tondel, and Benny Bloss all battling for fourth. Nichols was able to take the spot from Friese, but then Nichols crashed all by himself coming into the sand section. It took him a while to get going and when he did, he was way too far behind to race back into a transfer spot.

As the race unfolded Bloss worked up to second ahead of Friese, with Noren and Mitchell Harrison comfortably holding the final two transfer spots about five seconds ahead of Grant Harlan. McElrath took the win, with Bloss, Friese, Noren, and Harrison filling the final transfer spots.

Hunter Yoder nearly nabbed the holeshot in this one but went too wide and Julien Beaumer took the spot. Ryder DiFrancesco held second, with Drew Adams, Levi Kitchen, and Cole Davies filling out the top five.

As the race progressed Beaumer was holding a steady gap over DiFrancesco, but Beaumer made a mistake in some sand rollers, swapped, and had to slow up to avoid crashing. That put DiFrancesco right on his rear wheel for about half a lap, but Beaumer was able to inch back away. Back in fourth Davies had gotten by Kitchen and was starting to surge. When he got up to Adams he blew by him in the sand rollers like Adams was on a 125. A few laps later he caught DiFrancesco, who was only about a second back of Beaumer. The pass wouldn’t come so easily for Davies this time, however, as DiFrancesco responded, refusing to let Davies get close enough to show him a wheel. It’s also possible that Davies was biding his time here too, because there was still ten minutes left in the race and Beaumer wasn’t getting away up front. In any case, Davies ended up making a small mistake and sliding out a little which gave DiFrancesco a few seconds of extra breathing room.

Kitchen, meanwhile, must have had a problem or went down because suddenly he was in tenth place chasing Dilan Schwartz. Up front DiFrancesco was enduring an all-out onslaught from Davies, who’d caught back up. Davies tried to throw it inside on DiFrancesco, but DiFrancesco held him off. When Davies went inside in the split lane it looked like the pass was made, but then Davies pushed the front in the sand section and went down, handing third to Adams.

DiFrancesco had done a great job of keeping Beaumer close all moto, but with about three minutes left Beaumer started widening the gap, and with nobody anywhere near DiFrancesco to threaten him from behind, it looked like DiFrancesco settled in to bring it home for second. Beaumer took the win with DiFrancesco, Adams, Davies, and Kayden Minear filling out the top five.

Jo Shimoda didn’t get a good start and was only able to work up to sixth, while Kitchen battled back up to seventh. Hymas didn’t get a good start and at one point he stalled. If he crashed, we didn’t see it, but it’s unusual for him to finish 15^th. Max Vohland got together with Marshal Weltin early in this one and DNF’d, while Weltin took 19^th. 

Jorge Prado  shot out to the lead right away, but Haiden Deegan, who initially ran fourth, made quick moves around Cooper Webb and Roczen in the sand section. Roczen wasn’t having it though, and about a lap later he came up the inside of Deegan and took back over second. As Roczen started laying down laps, up crept Eli Tomac into fourth and looking to join the party. Hunter Lawrence, meanwhile, ran seventh early after a bad start. But after a few laps the top four started to spread out ever so slightly. With about thirteen minutes left Prado still led, but Roczen was closing on him slightly, with Deegan closing back in on Roczen. They’d distanced themselves from Tomac at this point, who was all alone in fourth.

As the race continued Roczen and Prado were yo-yoing, with each having sections of the track where they were better than the other. Prado seemed especially capable in the split lane and sand section that followed, and no matter how close Roczen got Prado would inch it back out in that part of the track. Roczen was finally able to get close enough in his strong section to make a pass by charging up the inside of Prado in a lefthand bowl turn and pushing him high. Roczen then dropped the hammer and put in some sprint laps to distance himself from Prado.

Lawrence was riding well and was putting up some great lap times, but once he got around Tomac for fourth he had a long way to go to catch Deegan. With five minutes left he had almost seven seconds to make up, and he wasn’t taking chunks that big out of Deegan, and he even gave some time back up on a few laps. He ended up settling in for fourth.

With three minutes to go Roczen had about a second-and-a-half on Prado, but Prado looked like he might be gearing up for one final push. With less than a minute on the clock Prado had reeled in Roczen, and in sections of the track was only half a second off his rear wheel. Roczen kept inching back away in sections though. On the final lap Prado was right on Roczen’s rear wheel and was tantalizingly close to coming up the inside of Roczen, coming within mere inches at times. Roczen held him off though, to the delight of the crowd, and brought home the win. Deegan took third, Lawrence fourth, and Cooper Webb rounded out the top five.

Dylan Ferrandis crashed in the first turn and charged back up to 13^th. Justin Barcia had some sort of trouble, perhaps with his bike, signaled to his mechanic, and the two of them rode back to the pits while the race was still going.

Kade Johnson looked like he was going to nab the holeshot coming on the inside of turn one, but he had to check up and Wyatt Thurman and Ryder Malinoski went 1-2 to start it off. But then Thurman crashed all by himself in a lefthander and Malinoski and Johnson sailed right by. Johnson was right on Malinoski as the laps clicked off, but not close enough to make a move. Luke Fauser held third, about three or four seconds back, with Kane Bollasina a few lengths behind him.

With about three minutes left Malinoski led, and Johnson looked like he’d settled in for second, which was good enough to hand him the title. Malinoski rode off with the win, Johnson took second, Bollasina third, while Darren Pine and Landon Gibson rounded out the top five.