450 Storylines:
JETT LAWRENCE: After an incredible rookie campaign that saw him defend his SMX World Championship title and be crowned as Supercross Champion, he is trying to make history by becoming only the second athlete to go back-to-back to start his 450SX Class Supercross career. Jeremy McGrath is the only rider to accomplish this and did so by winning his first four titles. Jett has an incredible 65 podiums in his 98 career SMX starts.
ELI TOMAC & COOPER WEBB: Of the five former Champions on the gate, two will be under the same tent. Last season Cooper Webb gave the rookie phenom all he had, even snagging the red-plate at one point late season. He added nine podiums to his 450SX Class total last year, moving him into 11th all-time and in position to move into the top-10. Webb’s 44 SMX victories are good for fourth on the active list. First on that active list is Eli Tomac, who is only behind Jeremy McGrath in 450SX Class victories. Tomac finished with six podiums and a victory in St. Louis last season, lackluster for his standards. Considering his quick recovery from a brutal Achilles injury sustained in 2023, it was almost unbelievable.
CHASE SEXTON: Disappointing third in the 2024 Supercross points to Sexton, but objectively great season statistically. 9 podiums and 2 wins, including the finale. Most athletes through the decades would give a swingarm for a year like 2024 Chase Sexton. He hauls 22 SMX victories heading into the 2025 season.
JASON ANDERSON: After his second winless season in-a-row, Anderson is looking to build off a late season run that saw him in the top-4 for each of the last five rounds. Only 17 athletes in Supercross history have more 450SX Class wins than Anderson’s 14, so never count the veteran Kawasaki rider out.
450 Class: Anaheim Facts
TENURE: On December 4, 1976, Marty Smith (Honda) won the first 450SX Class round held in Angel Stadium. The exhibition did not count in the Championship that Jimmy Weinert had already wrapped up but is counted in AMA record books. It was the first time the Heat Race system was implemented, used to qualify 80 athletes into a 24-gate Main Event. Supercross has returned to Angel Stadium every year since excluding ‘80, ’88, ’97, ’98, & ‘21. The 2025 Opener will be the 84th 450SX Class race held in Angel Stadium and 26th season Angel Stadium will host multiple rounds.
OPENERS: Angel Stadium is set to host their 34th season opener in 52 seasons of Supercross. Camping World Stadium (formerly known as the Citrus Bowl) is second on the list with six. Jett Lawrence won the Anaheim Opener last season joining Eli Tomac, Ken Roczen, Justin Barcia, and Jason Anderson as active athletes with an Opener victory going into 2025. Jeremy McGrath’s five Opener victories lead the way in 450SX Class history with Roczen’s four in second place, with a shot at tying McGrath.
SLOW START: Opener winners have won the Championship in 18/51 (35%) seasons. The percentage drops to 33% (11/33) when sorting Anaheim Openers and to 25% (7/28) in the last 28 seasons. Jett Lawrence improved these numbers with his first career 450SX Class victory in the ’24 Opener followed by an exciting title run. Before him, the last Opener/Champion combo came from Ryan Villopoto in 2011-2012. Chad Reed, James Stewart, McGrath, Jeff Ward, Johnny O’Mara, David Bailey, and Donnie Hansen also completed the Anaheim Opener to Championship pipeline.
OPENER OF CHAMPIONS: The 2016 Anaheim Opener broke a 450SX Class record with 15 former 250SX Class Champions on the gate. The 2024 Anaheim Opener was on track to tie this record, but Colt Nichols was injured, and Hunter Lawrence did not qualify for the Opener. None of the other 16 rounds in 2024 could match the record, but the 2025 Anaheim Opener is once again trending to tie with the Lawrence brothers, Anderson, Stewart, Barcia, Sexton, Plessinger, Tomac, Webb, Craig, Cooper, Roczen, Nichols, Ferrandis, and Justin Hill.
250 Storylines:
HAIDEN DEEGAN: Deegan fell four points shy of the title in 2024’s Eastern Regional Championship and finished runner-up in the East in 2023. 2025 sees Deegan moving to the West for the first time in his 250SX Class career, and he will have his hands full with a loaded gate. Deegan was caught up in the Eastern Regional Opener’s Detroit starting line fiasco that took out half of the factory competition, and he only mustered a 16th place hampering his Championship hopes. Deegan has nailed down 6 SMX victories in his first two full seasons of professional competition, and he looks to add to that in the 2025 Western Regional.
JO SHIMODA: Shimoda had a hard time getting on the podium early in 2024, and that along with a DNF in the San Fran mud ruined his Championship aspirations. He gets inside the top-5 with the best of them, however. He is the only rider in Supercross history with 40+ 250SX Class starts and a 68%+ top 5 percentage.
LEVI KITCHEN: Just like Deegan, Kitchen finished second in his respective Regional. RJ Hampshire beat Kitchen in the winner take all finale, losing by five points in the tally. Having earned a podium in over half of his 250SX Class starts (11/21), Kitchen is certainly a top of the line Championship contender.
CHASING PACK: Jordon Smith, Austin Forkner, Julien Beaumer, Garrett Marchbanks, Ryder DiFrancesco, Coty Schock, and Jett Reynolds highlight the rest of the top-tier Western Regional athletes. Smith and Forkner make their Triumph debuts, Forkner returning for the first time since a head injury in Supercross last year left him out for the remainder of the season. Smith consistently battled for Championships last year, finishing third behind Levi Kitchen in the Western Regional and fifth in the post-season.
250 Class: Anaheim Facts
HISTORY LESSON: The first 250SX Class round held in Anaheim was on February 2, 1985, and Mike Healey (Suzuki) won by a bike length over Honda’s Brian Manley. It was the second 250SX Class round ever. The 2025 Anaheim Opener will be the 76th time the gate will drop for a 250SX Class Main Event in Anaheim.
OPENER: Anaheim has hosted 29/40 250SX Class Openers, and with RJ Hampshire last season, the winner has scored the Western Regional title in only 11 of them. It was the fourth straight season where the Western Regional Opener victor won the title, which ties the record set when the Opener victor secured the West from 1995-1998.
SWEPT: Christian Craig joined Ernesto Fonseca, Ivan Tedesco, Josh Hansen, Webb, and Villopoto as the only athletes to sweep Anaheim in the 250SX Class when he went 3/3 in 2022. Villopoto is the only athlete to sweep Anaheim in both classes. Webb is the last athlete to pull off a two-race sweep of Anaheim (2016).
STEPPING STONE: All 450SX Class Champions in the last 16 seasons won 250SX Class race(s) in Anaheim during their 250SX Class careers except for Sexton, who primarily raced in the Eastern Regional. Before last season, none of the previous nine 250SX Class winners in Anaheim had won a single 450SX Class race before J. Lawrence achieved this feat of winning multiple 450SX Class rounds in his rookie season.
