2025 Monster Energy Supercross Recap - Philadelphia

Last year, Philadelphia played host to the first of two East-West Showdown rounds in the 250 Class and might've been the best Supercross race of the season; right up there with Seattle's 450 Main. Tom Vialle, after a horrible start, got by then title rival Haiden Deegan and played defense while simultaneously marching into the podium, while Seth Hammaker, Jalek Swoll, and Max Anstie, all spent time up front, having some spectacular battles throughout. A year later, two of those names sadly aren't here due to injury, but the other three are central figures in both of the 2025 250 Championships.

Tom Vialle's sizeable 250 East points lead evaporated after a stunning 22nd last week in Foxborough, leading to Seth Hammaker taking a share of the red plate coming into this weekend, while Haiden Deegan, just weeks removed from revealing he does not know how the public record works, has the chance to effectively slam the door shut on new rival and overall fastest qualfier Julien Beaumer in the 250 West title race. Safe to say there was a lot on the line at the Linc once again.

Onto the ensuing tit for tat game between Cooper Webb and Chase Sexton for the 450 Crown, the KTM rider, who cannot afford to trade wins at this juncture, put up a buzzer beating top qualifying performance over Webb by two-tenths. It's almost certainly a "win out or bust" scenario for Sexton to claim his second Supercross crown with Webb as consistent as he has been, but the good news would be that if Sexton could get that ball rolling Saturday afternoon in Philly, he'd have the tiebreaker on wins if it got to that point. Of course, none of that matters if he couldn't get that done in the home of the Super Bowl Champions.

Daytime Program/Injury Notes: 

At the very least, the weather held up enough for qualifying. There was lots of leftover standing water, though.

- Haiden Deegan somehow went down on a hot lap in the perfect spot to belly flop into a pool of water, so his day started off swimmingly (ba-dum-tss).

- Ken Roczen, whose shoulder injury certainly doesn't appear to be getting better, qualified 15th.

- 250 West Fastest Qualifier: No. 23 Julien Beaumer (49.205) (6 of the 10 fastest 250 qualifiers were 250 West riders)

- 250 West Fastest Qualifier: No. 56 Seth Hammaker (50.366) (5th fastest overall 250 time)

- 450 Fastest Qualifier: No. 4 Chase Sexton (48.491)

250 Class Recap

1st - No. 100 Cole Davies (Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha)

We never got to see Jett Lawrence run a full season's worth of Supercross on a 250 in 2020, but I imagine what Cole Davies is currently doing is on par at the bare minimum. You would've probably wanted to see him not give up nearly four seconds in those final handful of laps to anyone, let alone Deegan, but to go from fifth to first in five laps and then lock this down in the fashion he did vs. a combined field was spectacular. It feels like I'm saying the same things about him every week now, but he's been incredible; there's no other way to put it. One last thing: I have no idea how Haiden Deegan didn't torpedo him here; it was a good job on him to be as hard on the brakes as he probably was.

3rd - No. 24 R.J. Hampshire (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing)

Only Rick James Hampshire can go from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs in lieu of a red flag restart. We're talking about a monumental points swing that now has him tied for the points lead when his title hopes would've been shattered had the unfortunate Daxton Bennick crash not happened. Also, he's now well in contention to be one of only a handful of riders dating back to 1990 to win both Supercross regionals: That list currently is Jett Lawrence, Grant Langston, James Stewart, and Eneresto Fonseca.

5th - No. 30 Jo Shimoda (Honda HRC)

This was probably the best showing for the Agenda post-hand injury, giving ex-250 East points leader Tom Vialle all he could handle in the back half of this one, and he ended up making an off-camera charge for his third top five in his last four outings. Worth noting that Shimoda is now also only nine points out of third out west, thanks to Julien Beaumer's brutal second start, which, given how things were leaving January, wouldn't be a bad place to end up.

6th - No. 1E Tom Vialle (Red Bull KTM)

Not the best way to end the day for Vialle, losing out to Shimoda after seemingly dropping him, but compared to how things started out with the Heat Race crash, he and this Red Bull KTM team should feel content to live and fight another day. Coming home sixth overcoming multiple Main Event gate drops starting hard inside is pretty damn good all things considered and he's still right in this title fight with Hammaker and Hampshire.

12th - No. 23 Julien Beaumer (Red Bull KTM)

If there were an opposite side of the coin to Hampshire yesterday, it would've been Beaumer, who messed up off the gate, put himself around 18th on the second start, and didn't have the juice to make a giant push inside the top 10. His 250 West Title hopes are just about done, and it's hard to say anything other than he didn't make the most of his opportunities from January to now.

250 East-West Showdown Philadelphia Top 10 and Points Standings

450 Class Recap

1st - No. 4 Chase Sexton (Red Bull KTM)

Every journey begins with one step, and in Sexton's late season push to steal the Supercross title out of the grasp of Cooper Webb, this dominant win would be just that. This was the quintessential Sexton ride for when everything goes right: He didn't panic, didn't let a couple of small mistakes derail him, and he let things come to him and let his raw pace take over once he got out in front. That's the most important thing that KTM needs to remind him of. Webb is not faster than him, but he's craftier and can capitalize on any/every mistake he makes. He limits those for four more rounds and is again a Champion. It was a great ride yesterday, especially after nearly going down in turn one.

2nd - No. 2 Cooper Webb (Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha)

Webb didn't have the cleanest start himself, and trailing Sexton most of the day despite having some quality opportunities to contend with him has to be a little disappointing. However, if he's simply content with trading wins the rest of the season, that isn't a bad way to go about it. However, if Sexton ends up winning in East Rutherford next week as well, I'd imagine it'd start to get tight at that 450 Star Yamaha rig.

3rd - No. 94 Ken Roczen (HEP Progressive/Ecstar Suzuki)

Hard not to tip your cap to Roczen for simply leading for as long as he did in Philly, let alone still coming home with a podium. I can't imagine the paint management he's dealing with that shoulder alone, never mind the ankle, especially on tracks like these last two weeks. Gladiator-like performance after qualifying 15th in the early afternoon.

8th - No. 7 Aaron Plessinger (Red Bull KTM)

Sadly, last week's winner never got a real shot at making it two in a row despite having the pace to do so. Plessinger, however, does deserve props for doing enough to make a 10-position rally after that turn-one mishap. If it's any consolation, his future at KTM appears to be secured based on his interview with Matthes from last Monday, so it's not all bad for AP right now.

450 Class Foxborough Top 10 and Points Standings

Main Image via KTM