Slaw Dog
What a weekend in San Diego for round 2 of the 2025 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship. Here are five things I learned.
JuJu Showed Us
Last week I wrote about how Julien Beaumer and Ryder DiFrancesco were in the “show me” portions of their careers. Both had decent rookie seasons. Both were great at Anaheim 1. And both needed to show the opener was no fluke. Both did that and JuJu took it up a notch and went out and dominated. He led all but one lap and had the fastest times in four of the seven sectors (see complete charts below) on the track en route to his first career victory.
Davi Millsaps, who has trained Beaumer the last two years, talked about how he needed his test track speed to translate to the races and that he needed to believe he belonged at the front. Something Beaumer reiterated after the race.
“Obviously we knew he was going to come in and be fast,” said Beaumer on Haiden Deegan. “There was no question about that. He was fast last year. He’s gonna be fast this year. But I was fast at the test track, and I knew that if I could bring what I do at the test track to the race, be right there. So, it wasn’t too big of a surprise that I was right there with him. The difference for me was I had to bring it to the race, and I feel like I’ve done that.”
JuJu showed me and you and everyone else on Saturday that he is more than a race winner, he’s a title threat.
250SX Main Event Sector Times
Sexton Survives
Watching this brought back Trey Canard LA SX 2012 memories.
This could have not only ended his season, but maybe his career. Scary, scary moment for Sexton in San Diego.
While a crash on the opening lap ended any chances Sexton had of repeating his A1 success, he stopped the bleeding and finished sixth, leaving him just one point back of Eli Tomac heading into round 3 in Anaheim this weekend.
“It was a chaotic night for me. I fell on the first lap and had to do a lot of work to catch back up,” Sexton said in a KTM press release. “I felt like my riding was really good and the bike felt good, so honestly, we just need to work on our starts and get ready for Anaheim 2. I feel pretty confident with where I’m at, so I’m excited.”
Deegan Tired of Losing
Similar to Jett Lawrence, we examine Haiden Deegan’s results through a tinted lenses. For good or bad, that’s the standard when you are at the top. A third place feels much more like a loss for Haiden Deegan than most of the 250SX West Region. For most, third could be a career night. Not for Deegan. It stings.
The heavy pre-season favorite entering Anaheim 1, Deegan is off to a slow start. A crash at the opener and a third-place finish at round two in San Diego is not the start he, nor his team, nor the fans, expected.
“First off congrats to JuJu, that was a great race on him,” he said after San Diego. “I just… embarrassing man, sorry you guys had to watch that. Just got a little pumped up in the beginning and it went on from there. All I can do is work harder this week and come out swinging.”
Deegan went on to add that he suffered from arm pump in the main.
“The boys rode good today. I was a little restricted, I got to work on this arm pump, it’s something I really struggled with. We’ll figure it out it’s no hurdle we’ve not had to figure out before.”
Like Jett just a week ago, there is no reason to panic in the Deegan camp. He’s only 10 down to Beaumer with plenty of racing left to go.
Cooper Overcomes Illness
Cooper Webb’s ride in San Diego will largely go unnoticed. Rightfully so, Jett and Eli’s charge will dominate the headlines. As we know, Cooper Webb got that dawg in him. And if Webb says he was sick, you can trust it. Cooper ain’t out here making excuses. So, while his third probably isn’t what he wanted, it will be huge come season’s end.
“It was a good race. I was able to lead a lot of laps. I got a great start, much better than last week. We saw that those two guys [Tomac and Lawrence] were coming, and then they were [by me and] gone, just like that… I’ve been a bit under the weather so at about the halfway point that was all I had. I gave it my all, had a great battle with Kenny, and was able to hold him off and get a solid podium.”
Cooper didn’t need to win the opening two rounds. He’ll be there in the long run no matter what. What he needed to do was not finish outside the top five. Mission accomplished.
Don’t Sleep on Smith
Last week I wrote about how we overlooked Ken Roczen. Well, I’m going to copy and paste said article and replace Roczen’s name with Jordon Smith’s. Smith’s career has been a roller coaster. From top amateur prospect to title contender to injuries and a career resurrection, he’s seen it all. Yet, he’s still here and has gotten back-to-back podiums on not only a new team, but what is a very new bike. While I still want to see if Smith can be this consistent over the course of a championship, it’s awesome to see him at the top again.
“It was a good day,” he said post-race. “We were changing settings on the bike all day trying to make it better. We still have a lot of things that we can dial in a little bit just to get a little more comfortable, but overall [the bike’s] been really good… the track was gnarly tonight. There were a lot of rocks coming out, even in the faces of the jumps, so you had to be careful.”
Images: @octopi.media
