What We Noticed: SMX Playoff 2

Prado was Most Impressive in LA. The former MXGP champ has finally arrived in the US! We saw it at the end of Pro Motocross, and now he’s bringing that into the stadiums (or at least SMX). Prado just needs to finish 3rd in order to secure this title. If he rides like he did in LA, he has a good shot of getting his first title stateside.

Wow. Teammates (for not much longer) are getting into it. Webb was clearly very frustrated after the race: it showed during his TV interview and then spilled over into the pits. It appears no penalties will come from their actions behind closed doors in the paddock, but is the drama is here to stay? Deegan managed to get by his 250-career without much retribution for his on-and-off-track antics, but it didn’t take long for him to feel the consequences in the 450 class. Deegan is surely fast, but he lacks respect for these guys. Will they take it? Webb sure won’t.

The story arcs of both Prado and Beaumer are special and feel good stories for KTM. They took a “chance” with Prado and it’s paying off massively. Beaumer’s injury last year was career-threatening (and potentially life-changing). It’s great to see both of them rebounding and rising to the occasion. We had the opportunity to question KTM team manager Ian Harrison at the post-race press briefings: he’s rightfully very pleased with them both.

Wow. So much change throughout the moto. Prado seemed to have the overall and 16-point lead locked up, but then he crashed and things started looking crazy. We were watching live timing with live overall and live points (all available on our live timing page!) as the race unfolded. Roczen was leading the overall with Deegan leading points. Then Hunter was leading the overall: Deegan leading points with Hunter and Prado tied 2 points back; at this point, the top 4 overall were all tied with 5 points! Finally, Prado regained the overall and the resulting 16-point championship lead. It was a whirlwind! Very impactful on the title chances for all top-5 riders.

Davies was doing everything he needed to… then it started to unravel. First the crash in moto 1. But the real mistake was his self-inflicted moto 2 crash resulting in the DNF. With the clear title favorite (Davies) most likely out of it, it all comes down to a winner-take-all scenario between Kitchen and DiFrancesco. Kitchen has been in title fights before but has never prevailed (arguably cracks under the pressure). On the other hand, this is uncharted territory for DiFrancesco. Will the experience win out? Or will the rising momentum of DiFrancesco prevail?

Cool new venue! It felt modern (despite being a bit old) and had a cool open-air press box. The pits were easy to access and the floor space was big. We liked it!

However, a lot of riders were not happy with the simplicity of the track. The reality is that we can’t have a proper hybrid SMX experience with limited stadium floor space. We either need to expand outside the floor (like St Louis last year) or make these venues true Supercross tracks.