Welcome to the Race Day Feed, coming to you from The Wick 338 in Southwick, Massachusetts. From practice reports to the blow-by-blow from this afternoon’s points-paying motos, you’ll find it all right here on the Racer X Race Day Feed. Updates are posted in chronological order, so be sure to scroll down for the latest info. For even more updates be sure to follow us on X: @Racerxonline.

In order to stay up to speed on what does happen today, stay tuned into this post, as well as our social media pages for more updates.

Good morning race fans! After our first weekend off this summer, we are back in action at one of the gnarliest tracks on the AMA Motocross circuit. Arguably the toughest track riders will face this summer, this narrow track shows who has the fitness and best sand surfing skills. This is no highway…this is The Wick 338.

After it appeared we might get a significant amount of rain today on race day, at the moment we are looking at a much better situation that it appeared just two days ago. The high temperature for today will be about 80° Fahrenheit and we are expecting some afternoon showers. Maybe if we get lucky the rain will come after the checkered flag has waved for the final time. Fingers crossed.

Expect the championship leaders in both classes to be out front as Haiden Deegan and Jett Lawrence have proved to be the class of the field thus far through four rounds. Deegan’s biggest competitor—the only rider to beat him so far this summer—Chance Hymas is out with a fully torn ACL in his right knee. The double moto winner at the Thunder Valley National had just gotten into a tie with Garrett Marchbanks for third in the championship behind Deegan and Jo Shimoda but now will miss this race and the remainder of the 2025 SMX season due to his injury. That is a tough blow to not only Hymas and the Honda HRC Progressive team but the series in general. You may not realize it, but Shimoda is sneaky good here at Southwick: he has won both the second moto here in 2023 and 2024 and has scored on the overall podium all four times he has raced here as a professional. Will he keep those streaks alive? Could he get his first Southwick win today? Levi Kitchen has also ridden well here before and his teammate Marchbanks has had blazing speed this summer. It will be tough to beat Deegan, who took an impressive step in his sand skills from 2023 to 2024. If someone is able to best Deegan, who is will it be?

As far as the 450 Class goes, Jett Lawrence is two-for-two in 450 Class overall wins here at The Wick 338, but he did get beat in a moto last year by Chase Sexton. Sexton is still sidelined with an undisclosed injury so if someone is to best Jett Lawrence this weekend, it will have to be someone other than 2024 450 Class Pro Motocross Champion Sexton. Could it be Eli Tomac? Tomac likes and has done well here in the past: three overall wins and five overall podiums in six 450 Class starts. Hunter Lawrence, Aaron Plessinger, and Justin Cooper have all shown speed and the ability to lead laps. Hopefully we get these front runners up front like we did at the Thunder Valley National a few weeks ago.

No changes here as Haiden Deegan and Jett Lawrence enter with the points lead once again...

Making his return to racing is Justin Barcia, who has not lined up for an SMX race since the East Rutherford SX in late April, when he suffered a knee injury. Barcia told our Tom Journet on Friday he has no expectations for this weekend except to have fun.

Related: TJ Albright Joins Phoenix Racing Honda as Fill-In Rider for Pro Motocross

One final thing to note this weekend: the 450 Class races first today. NBC has a one-hour window of live TV coverage starting at 1 p.m., so the premier class is racing first. This change in the schedule we often see could very well significantly impact qualifying. Typically, riders in the 250 group B qualifying session are the first riders on the track and have the best, smoothest track. But now, with the NBC window adjusting the schedule, the 250 group B first session will be the fourth session on track and the 450 group B session will be the first group on the track. It would not be surprising to see 450 B riders near the top in overall qualifying, similar to what Jimmy Decotis did in the first session on track here in 2023 from the 250 group B session. Progressive Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) Racing’s Josh Toth and Michael Witkowski will be two riders to keep an eye on, as well as local legend Tony Lorusso, who will try to qualify again this year at a whopping 54 years old. You know the locals would be pumped to see that one happen!

Check out the full race day schedule. Again, the 450 Class is racing first today.