The 2025 Supercross season entered Tampa this weekend for the fifth round of the season. It marked the start of the 250 East Coast series and we would get our first glimpse at the historically deep field. It was also historic as Malcolm Stewart, a fan favorite, and racing in his home area grabbed his first win in the 450SX class. He was a 250SX champion, but had not been able to reach the top of the podium yet in the 450’s.
450 Supercross Results
There were a number of great story lines heading into the Tampa weekend with the Jett Lawrence injury being the top of the mountain. There was a strong list of title contenders trying to unseat Jett and they would now be free to battle amongst themselves. Out of Tomac, Roczen, Sexton, Webb, Hunter Lawrence, and Anderson, who would take control of the series? The 450 Main Event started off with a Chase Sexton holeshot and that was exactly what he needed as Chase has been starting poorly and wasting valuable time and energy trying to work his way to the front through a very deep field. Roczen and Anderson were behind him and running a furious pace early, at one point Jason passed Ken and looked like he had the speed to catch and pass Chase but that never happend and he ended up loosing a few positions.
Chase stretched his lead out to eight seconds around the mid point and Malcolm was moving towards the front fast from his eighth place start. Stewart had set the fastest lap of the race at this point and just before mid-moto when Ken was running up front, he had a racing incident with two different back markers and had a pretty rough crash. He luckily was fine from the crash, but as he remounted his Suzuki, it would not start and he later noticed that his chain had come off the sprocket as part of the crash. At the end of the race Malcom was pressuring Sexton and he got out of control in the whoop section and went down allowing Malcolm to move into the lead and notch his first win.
As part of the crash Sexton was noticeably off pace for the remaining last laps and fell back steadily from second place to fifth place. He later mentioned that his front brake lever and throttle were damaged in the crash and that he was doing what he could to nurse the bike to the end and salvage as many points as possible. Was a pretty devastating outcome for Sexton as he looked to have the race win in the bag and would have strengthened his points lead. Instead the points lead has shrunken to just five points over Webb at this point in the season.
“Big bro, you know. You’ve done this a long time, racing Daytona and Jacksonville, and you know there’s something about that hometown crowd, buddy. I don’t know if they were twisting the throttle for me, because, for a split second, I was like, ‘Alright I need to get this done.’ I was feeling really good, and you know what, Stewart is back in the whoops, Y’all!” – Malcolm Stewart, being interviewed by his brother and former Supercross champion James Stewart from the broadcast booth.
“I ended up spinning out of the gate and that was all she wrote. I made a good charge through the pack. I’m a little bummed on myself. I was right there with Malcolm coming through the pack and he got around guys and I wasn’t able to [as quickly]. And as you saw with me and Kenny [Roczen], the lappers were really bad… With that being said, Malcolm was crushing the whoops, he deserved that win, and I got a little bit of a gift with Chase going down. But just gotta be better… We’ll take a hard-charge second tonight.” – Cooper Webb, who moved into second place in points.
“To be honest, tonight I was more likely to be a fifth place guy, but I hung in there. It was a bummer for what happened to Ken, it was out of his control, and I was able to pass Chase at the end, so that was nice. This class is tough, and you never know what can happen. Congrats to Malcolm, it’s pretty cool to watch him win his first one after so many tries. It’s cool.” – Jason Anderson, who moved into third place in points.
250 Supercross Results
The 250SX Class was a wild ride on Saturday night. We had a number of riders returning from injuries, and Cameron Mcadoo confirmed he tore his ACL and would be trying to race and hoped it would go alright. Last year’s West coast Champion RJ Hampshire had a fight with a round tough block and ended up going down a lap and ruining his night. Austin Forkner was trying to manage the flu and ended up on the ground several times during the race, thankfully none of them serious. Other notables would be finishes below expectations by Vialle and Kitchen who did not have any serious issues.
In 250SX Class racing, Anstie grabbed the holeshot but Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Pierce Brown quickly took over the lead. Brown crashed hard while leading, handing the lead to Anstie and requiring a red flag stop to the race. The staggered re-start tightened up the racing with eight minutes left. Anstie quickly broke away from the pack for the win with his teammate Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Daxton Bennick holding on to earn a career-best second-place finish. Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Cameron McAdoo, after a race-long battle with teammate Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Seth Hammaker finished third; the performance was especially remarkable because McAdoo was racing with a torn ACL. Defending champion Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Tom Vialle finished in fifth place. Defending 250SX West Champion Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing’s RJ Hampshire, contesting the 250SX East season, landed on a track obstacle and his bike became stuck. Hampshire recovered to finish 18th.
“Pierce [Brown] went down. I hate to see that. He was riding so well and just spun and ended up going over the bars… After that, it kind of took the wind out of my sails. They red-flagged it, me and [teammate] Dax were up front and it was like a day at the Goat Farm [Training Facility]. And honestly, I was like, ‘Let’s not do anything silly right now.’ The whoops were really tricky and it’s round one so you’re always a little more nervous.” – Max Anstie
“I told [Max], I looked at him and said, ‘Hey, it’s just like the practice track now, so we’ve got this covered.” – Daxton Bennick, on what he said to teammate Max Anstie at the mid-race re-start.
“I’m so grateful for the strength that God gave me to be able do this tonight and to be here racing. It was a difficult day. It’s been difficult since the occurrence [of the knee injury one week prior] and we’re making the best of it. I’m so stoked with how tonight ended and how we were able to manage.” – Cameron McAdoo
