Troy Dog
Mission accomplished. Chase Sexton has won his first Pro Motocross Championship and also gave Red Bull KTM their first 450 MX title since Ryan Dungey in 2015.
Sexton entered Ironman, a track he considers one of his home races on the tour with a 28-point lead over Team Honda HRC’s Hunter Lawrence. However, he provided insight in the press conference that it wasn’t enough to keep his nerves at ease.
“I’m not going to lie I was pretty nervous today even though I had a 28-point lead,” Sexton said. “I just was more worried about the stuff that I could not control, more than what I could.”
You wouldn’t think that he was nervous at all with his performance. Sexton went 1-1 on the day in dominating fashion.
“After Supercross, being really down and struggling, I needed this outdoor series,” Sexton said. “I knew when I got on the bike on outdoors, I’m like man, ‘I could win on this bike’ and automatically i felt comfortable.”
Sexton has been on a surge here in his 450 career, especially in the Pro Motocross Championship. This is a guy who never finished better than fifth overall in 250 MX points and he also never won an overall in the 250 class. In fact, Sexton only had five overall podiums in 32 starts.
Since moving up to the 450 class in the summer of 2020, Sexton has been improving steadily every year in the premier class. He battled tooth and nail for the 2022 title with Eli Tomac and really was the only threat to Jett Lawrence despite sitting out three rounds and not being entirely healthy last summer.
“I think the 450 just suits me and also racing Eli taught me a lot, racing Jett last year, those two seasons put together is what you got this outdoor season,” Sexton said.
This year he feels he has reached new heights.
“I think this year I hit a new level and I definitely need it because the competition is really stiff,” Sexton said. “Yeah, I want to win championships so, I expect myself to be in this position. It’s not easy, its tough, and these outdoor series are really hard to win because their are so many motos. So many opportunities to do good and also bad. You’ve got to be on your game. “
Sexton won seven overalls this outdoor season and won the last six in a row. He also won 13 out of the 22 motos, including 11 out of the last 13 on the season.
It was an all around amazing run for Sexton and now he sets his sights on the next challenge, which is the SuperMotocross Playoffs in just two short weeks. He holds the number one seed in that, just like he did entering them last season.
Main Image Courtesy of MX Sports Pro Racing, Inc
