Round two of the Monster Energy SuperMotocross World Championship took place in California and we can get into the whole SMX series thing again if you guys want. I’ll keep it short…

This was basically the 18^TH SX of the season, or maybe the 19^th considering last week’s race was also in a stadium. That is not what anyone was told this SMX would be. Now, having said that, at least it didn’t monsoon down this week.

My listeners, people in the industry, people on social media all have “ideas” on how to fix SMX. Maybe the vibe changes a bit this weekend since this is a true hybrid track instead of what feels like a supercross. I do hear some fans saying they like the idea of one big money race (like the old Monster Cup) and then maybe just count one SX and one MX as the rounds that seed the riders into it? I dunno man. I really hope something is done for next year to at least get riders/teams excited for this extra work/extra chance of injury, etc.

Okay, well that second 450SMX moto was a banger, huh? Wow, Ken Roczen took off for the first moto win and the second race, well, that was something else.

Hunter Lawrence holeshot, Jorge Prado passed him quickly, made a mistake and Lawrence went on by. Hunter would stretch it out a lot to win the second race and salvage his day after a bad start in race one.

But behind him, wow. Prado, Cooper Webb, Haiden Deegan, and Roczen lurked. Roczen gets Deegan right away and you have to think he’s gonna pull his usual opening lap bezerko speed thing, right? Roczen and Deegan get Webb, and you think Webb’s gonna drift back, right?

Nope. Only around nine minutes in, Roczen starts to drift back. Deegs and Webb get him and Roczen went from second overall to fourth overall just like that.

Oh yeah and Webb drifting back? Not going to happen as he ended up passing Deegs! Cooper Webb does NOT know his place folks. Deegs banzai-ed his way back by in the sand so the rightful order was restored but as we’ll see, Coop was on it.

Then Prado drops it in the sand and, hey, it’s been a good run but it’s halfway now, and Jorge you have Lawrence, Roczen and Deegs ahead of you. Thanks for coming out.

Right after this, Roczen is BACK to winning the overall except…OOPS, Deegs gets him!

EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING!!!

With nine minutes to go, Roczen’s still gonna win the OA and he’s going to have a four-point lead on Deegs in the series although the last round is TRIPLE POINTS. Not sure if you heard that or not?

Eight minutes to go and is that Prado’s music we hear? The Spaniard is on then gas and all over Roczen. James Stewart says “I think Kenny’s in trouble here,” spoken like a man that forever scared by things like Benny Bloss’ speed at Washougal.

Hunter Lawrence is now the OA winner! I’m sure he’ll send Prado a thank you card, maybe even in Spanish. The SMX points now show Deegs leading the series with Roczen back to fifth in the standings but again, the final will be TRIPLE POINTS so, like, whatever man.

Four rider tie for the OA at this point, ICYWW.

Five min to go, Prado creeps closer to Deegs, what a comeback from his fall, and Webb is onto his old friend from Germany. Things might get spicy here. Meanwhile, Hunter Lawrence is checked out and probably thinking of ways he can trash the series afterward.

Prado and Deegs both clearing the 3-5-3 except my friends at Dirt Wurx told me it was actually a 1-5-2 which, hallelujah, is something I’ve been saying for years! There’s no way those jumps were three footers. They changed some of the shapes! My dream was right in front of me on TV and I didn’t even realize it. Anyways, it’s pretty impressive to get some pop off a one-footer and send it over the five-footer.

Just under four min to go and Haiden is looking around while the Spaniard is all over him. Then Webb finally gets Roczen. Roczen later says that the effects of not racing had caught up to him.

Also, three minutes to go and Hunter Lawrence IS GONNA WIN LA SMX. Maybe he won’t trash the series?

Prado makes an ill-advised pass attempt on Deegs and loses time. Deegs looks back again, “You okay back there?”

Deegs is down!!! He hits the sand roller going in, gets buck wild and crashes. Shane McElrath clips Deegs’ left handlebar while going back by. Deegs later calls him “some goon.”

Deegs and Kenny collide in the sand because, well, it’s a split lane, it’s sand and there’s no room.

Webb gets them both back!!!! Weege is having a stroke in the booth.

The next turn, Deegs hits Webb and takes him down. Was it that bad? No, but it definitely fires up Paul Webb, there’s no doubt about that. Deegan doesn’t really get the benefit of the doubt from most (all) of his competitors because, well, (points to 68 things Haiden has said and done to piss off other riders in his career).

Incredibly, even after his own crash in the sand, Prado now moves into the OA lead, and Hunter Lawrence has to be wondering what he did to the motocross gods. No microphone is safe now!

The race ends, Prado was damn impressive to get up from that fall and wins the it with his 2-2 scores and he’s just got to get third this weekend to clinch the SMX title.

What a main event! I need a smoke after rewatching it. Imagine telling someone a year ago that Prado would be doing this in 2026…. The guy didn’t even have the speed to qualify for Budds Creek last year! I kid… I kid.

The Levi Kitchen/Ryder DiFrancesco battle for the 250 title this weekend is going to be interesting. Kitchen has a small lead but with TRIPLE POINTS awarded, well Kitchen needs to basically beat the Husky rider. The two of them set up quite a dichotomy of speed. It’s the battle of the tortoise and the hare basically! Although I’d love to be “slow” like Ryder D, you get what I mean. Kitchen has won races indoors and out; Ryder D has not. But Ryder D has been crazy consistent for a while now.

In these two SMX races, Kitchen has gone 2-2-7-1 while DeFrancesco has 3-4-2-5 but Levi’s only up three points with TRIPLE POINTS this weekend. If Kitchen can start up front, he can win this thing, but he can’t always do that which leaves Ryder D a chance pick up the pieces. After getting caught up with Cole Davies and his crash, Ryder D deserves props for getting it going and making some late passes to get second overall. But Kitchen has been the faster rider…but as we’ve seen with Levi, that always doesn’t matter.

Lost in this battle is Julien Beaumer getting the overall with 1-3 finishes. He was leading the second moto also before getting passed which seemed to leave him a bit pissed off afterwards, but he had to know while out there that he had the overall win? Motos don’t pay anything in the Playoffs, but overalls do so Julien did enough to get the DOUBLE POINTS and take the overall win. Beaumer is lurking and can win this thing with some luck. If Ryder finishes third and Levi finishes fourth, Beaumer wins the SMX title. It’s doable, especially if Davies is back this weekend. He got banged up pretty good in LA but there’s a good chunk of change on the line so you’d think Cole would show up, and if he does, he adds to the drama. And we are expecting Davies to race this weekend.

Thanks for reading OBS from LA (well, from my couch) and we’ll see you next week where the crew looks like they’re putting in a pretty good track for the SMX finale. You can email me at [email protected] if you want to chat about this or anything else.