450 Storylines: Southwick Recap
JETT LAWRENCE: (1st; 2-1): Tied Bob Hannah for fourth all-time in 450SMX Pro MX wins with his 27th win in 33 starts. Comparatively, Hannah needed 62 starts to earn 27 wins. Eli Tomac is next on the list at 32 wins. Jett is seeking to become the eighth athlete to earn 70 career SMX League victories when he lines up at Spring Creek. He made his 130th SMX League start at Southwick and regained the red plate by a single point.
HUNTER LAWRENCE: (2nd; 1-4): Tied Greg Albertyn for 25th all-time in 450SMX Pro MX podiums with his 23rd in 28 starts. He is also 25th on the all-time SMX League podiums list with 85. He lost hold of the red plate to his brother and will look to regain in at Spring Creek, where he has finished runner-up the previous 2 seasons. He won Spring Creek in 2023 aboard a 250.
HAIDEN DEEGAN: (3rd; 3-2): Earned his third podium in 6 starts as a 450SMX rookie in Pro MX. His second-place finish in Moto 2 was his best to date. He holds a 16-point lead over Jorge Prado for third in the standings. Deegan became the 43rd athlete in SMX League history to score 60 podiums.
NOTES: Jorge Prado (4th; 4-3): After only 2 top 5’s during the 2025 Pro MX season, he has 4 in-a-row and is 5 of 6 on the season. He has 7 top 5’s in 17 career Pro MX starts.
Garrett Marchbanks (5th; 5-5): Had just a single top 5 finish in his first 25 premier class starts, but now has 4 in the last 5 races, including back-to-back. He is seeking his first career 450SMX podium.
Dylan Ferrandis (7th; 6-11): Made his 45th 450SMX start in Pro MX and seeks his 200th career SMX League start at Spring Creek.
Cornelius Tondel (11th; 9-13): Norwegian made his debut with Monster Energy Kawasaki as a fill-in. Earned a career-best finish and is one step closer to a finish inside the top 10. Gus Riordan (21st; 23-18): The current GNCC XC2 points leader made his first career SMX League start and scored 4 points in the process.
450 Class: Spring Creek Facts
- HISTORY LESSON: The first 450SMX round at Spring Creek was on August 28, 1983, as the season finale for all 3 classifications (125cc, 250cc, & 500cc). Bob Hannah won the 250cc overall, but David Bailey clinched the title with a runner-up effort. That year’s Grand National Championship, the 1980’s version of the SMX World Championship, combined SX and Pro MX points across all classes and showed Bailey and his 125cc counterpart Mark Barnett tied in points going into the final moto of the day. Bailey won his moto by a thin margin over Hannah, while Barnett finished runner-up to Ron Lechien in the 125cc finale. This gave Bailey the Grand National Championship by 1 point.
- 35 SEASONS OF PREMIER CLASS RACING: All 3 classes raced at Spring Creek from 1983-1985, until the format was changed in Pro MX scheduling. The first half of the season would be 125/250cc rounds and the second half consisting of 125/500cc rounds. During the 1986-1993 seasons Spring Creek exclusively hosted 125/500cc rounds. The 450SMX Class returned to Spring Creek in 1994 and hasn’t missed since.
- SWEEP CREEK: During Ricky Carmichael’s 8 seasons in the premier class (2000-2007) he won 7-straight titles (2000-2006) and multiple motos at 13 different venues. Spring Creek is the only track that Carmichael swept across all 8 seasons. He won 16 straight motos at Spring Creek in 450SMX and 17 if you include the second moto of the 125cc round in 1999. Sweeping is not foreign to Millville as 25 out of 35 races have been won via 1-1 scores, not including last season when Hunter and Jett split moto wins, with Jett earning the Moto 2 tiebreaker.
- CHAMPIONSHIP AND OPENER %: The winner at Spring Creek has won the 450SMX title in Pro MX 21 times in 35 seasons (60%) and each of the past 4 years. While Spring Creek has never hosted the opening 450SMX round, it was the opening round of the 500cc season in 1989 & 1991.
250 Storylines: Southwick Recap
SACHA COENEN: (1st; 1-1): The Belgian MX2 points leader earned a dominating victory at Southwick to become the 97th different 250SMX Pro MX winner, ninth riding a KTM, and third first-time winner this season alone. It was KTM’s 25th 250SMX victory in Pro MX and the first since Tom Vialle in 2024. Even though he has only competed in 2 Pro MX rounds (Thunder Valley / 4th), Coenen sits 14th in the 250SMX Pro MX standings and has the second-most moto wins with 3, only 1 behind Cole Davies.
LEVI KITCHEN: (2nd; 2-4): After 5 motos consecutively off the podium, Kitchen rebounded with second overall and moved to just 2 points shy of the red plate. His 35th SMX League* podium moves him into 70th all-time. Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki is looking for its first 250SMX title in Pro MX since Adam Cianciarulo in 2019.
COLE DAVIES: (3rd; 7-2): Rebounded from a rough first moto to land on the overall podium and take the points lead from an injured Jo Shimoda. The young New Zealander has already made 30 SMX League starts with great results, including 10 wins and 17 podiums. He has only made 8 250SMX starts in Pro MX with 2 wins and 4 podiums.
NOTES: Kayden Minear (4th; 6-3): Career best SMX League finish in 10th start. Has made 8 Pro MX starts and 2 SX starts while compiling 3 top 5 finishes and 6 top 10’s.
Julien Beaumer (5th; 4-5): Rebounded from his 18th overall at RedBud and moves into third in the point standings. It was his fourth top 5 of the season and seventh in his 27 career Pro MX starts. He made his milestone 50th start in Pro MX and earned his 16th SMX League top 5.
Francisco Garcia (8th; 9-8): The EMX250 points leader made his first career SMX League start, while Bud Racing Kawasaki teammate and current EMX250 runner-up Jake Cannon (18th; 35-14)made his second career SMX League start.
Jesson Turner (16th; 27-13): SMX Next athlete with podiums at Daytona and RedBud from 2025 made his first career SMX League start.Cole Szestakow (36th; 32-32), TJ Lanphear (37th; 33-33), & Jan Krug (43rd; 38-41): Also made their first career SMX League starts. Krug has been competing in MXGP, with a best finish of 20th in Germany this past May.
250 Class: Spring Creek Facts
- HISTORY LESSON: The first 250SMX round at Spring Creek was on August 28, 1983, when Ron Lechien went 1-1 aboard a Yamaha. Johnny O’Mara’s 4-5 effort was enough to score a 9-point victory in the Championship over Kawasaki’s Jeff Ward, who went 6-3. The 3 athletes who won titles that year each failed to win the Spring Creek finale (125cc Johnny O’Mara / 250cc David Bailey / 500cc Broc Glover).
- 4+ DECADES OF HISTORY: 250SMX racing has not missed a season at Spring Creek since the inaugural 1983 round, making 2026 the 44th consecutive race at Spring Creek. Between all 3 classifications there have been 89 rounds of Pro MX held at Spring Creek.
- END OF AN ERA: This year signifies the first Spring Creek National where both Martin brothers are formally retired from SMX competition. Their parents, John and Greta, own the track and both athletes found plenty of success on it. Alex retired after the 2022 season while Jeremy unretired last season for a farewell at Spring Creek, where he delivered an incredible Moto 2 victory and second overall in his final race. Alex made 15 starts at home, every season from 2008-2022. Jeremy made 9 starts – 2013-2017, 2019-2021, & 2025. Jeremy won 3 of his 8 starts and Alex scored 5 podiums. Combined, the Martin brothers raced in their backyard 23 times with 3 wins, 11 podiums, 14 top 5’s, and 17 top 10’s from 2008-2025.
- CHAMPIONSHIP %: The winner of the 250SMX round at Spring Creek has won the championship in 20 times in 43 seasons (47%), including last season when Haiden Deegan edged out Martin for the win.
