That’s a wrap on the 2026 motorcross season people! What a finale in Indiana huh? Anything to talk about at all? Let’s dive into this!

Hunter Lawrence won the 2026 450MX title, and some people are very unhappy about this news as you may have heard. Hunter’s charge up after hitting Haiden Deegan and going down was pretty good. He was pretty consistently the second fastest rider on the track, and working through traffic at that. It was a hell of a ride, and all the while his brother Jett, was decidedly NOT having a hell of a ride after a bad start.

We all know what happened next, Hunter zoomed by Jett doing 2-3 seconds faster laps and got up to eighth. Jett got 11^th and the gap was four points going into moto two. Once there, the brothers were both better but finished 4-5 and bingo bango, Hunter wins his first 450 title!

In talking to people after the race and Darren Lawrence on Monday’s PulpMX Show (at the 31:00 minute mark)...

It seems that Jett tweaked his tender ankle in practice and then worse in the opening laps of moto one. We did see him in pain after moto one getting into the team mule, and the media got a text saying he was being evaluated for moto two. He got a different tape job on the ankle for moto two and fought through it to get that fourth. First time all season a Lawrence didn’t win a moto or stand on the podium.

So… yeah, going into the race the conspiracy people were out in full force with talk of the younger brother finally giving the older brother a championship, how they could manipulate the betting odds and cash in, how they pool their money together and it doesn’t matter, and all sorts of nonsense we get nowadays. I don’t care what side of the political aisle you’re on, but the President of the United States spouts off conspiracy theories a lot, so it has enabled a lot of people to also feel like the obvious answer just isn’t the answer. It’s the world we live in, and it’ll just get worse as we go on but that’s a soap box for another day.

So going into the weekend there was that stuff floating around and I’ll be honest, with what we saw on Saturday I can’t sit there and say some of those theories, key word-some, are that crazy.

We’ve seen Jett struggle with his ankle all year long here and there on certain tracks, but never this bad. We’ve seen Jett get bad starts here and there (like, last weekend!) but never not be able to get higher than 11^th. If you want to sit there and say that Jett gave this title to his brother, again I can’t say you’re nuts.

The one theory that Jett came around on lap one and saw Deegan and Hunter laying on the ground, made a split-second decision that Deegan took Hunter out, that he didn’t want to win a title like that and he’s gonna lay-up, it makes some sense to me. I kind of thought in the moment watching the race that once Hunter got up to him, Jett was now going to race him straight up but nope, Hunter went right on by. As Darren Lawrence said on the show, 'Jett wasn’t Jett'.

Darren explains on the PulpMX Show why they decided to risk it and take off their extender peg-thingee for Ironman and how it might have backfired as well.

I’m not in that camp because if he was going to give it to his brother, then why ride his balls off last week in the second moto? If he was such a generous brother, why take the last two 450SMX titles away from Hunter at the last round? As Darren told us on the show, Jett gets paid for titles only while Hunter has top three so if the “family” wanted to throw it, why not have Jett win and get his bonus money, and Hunter get second place money, which is the most money they can win. Instead, Jett got $0 while Hunter raked in a lower title bonus. As far as the contract stuff goes, Hunter’s deal was signed earlier this year, so he’s set there. Yes, he would get a kicker from winning a title, but it was already negotiated earlier.

Jett was in pain after the moto, I know from talking to people who were there, and Darren also mentioned the SMX series might not be in the plans after they confer with their doctors.

Was this weird? Yes, it was but I don’t believe in Bigfoot or aliens or whatever else, so I take people at their word until proven otherwise.

Jett was never on Hunter’s level in the first moto and in the second moto I’m sure Hunter was just bringing it home so he wasn’t too worried about going after Jorge Prado or Deegs. Jett’s previous actions don’t speak to him laying up, that’s for sure.

But this was weird.

But also, Hunter was the best rider this 450MX season. He had more wins, more podiums, more laps led, better starting average, and better qualifying average. He was just better than Jett. He fully deserved this title and good for him. What a comeback from his 450SX heartbreak.

Poor Jorge Prado! His dominating 1-1 in Ironman was definitely lost in the drama. Unbelievable day for the Spainard taking his first AMA win and it wasn’t close at all. The dude was gone, checked out in both motos and what a day. His comeback from the depths of, let’s face it, not trying on the Kawasaki is complete. He said he made some bike changes out of the break that he liked and he backed it up. Great for Prado and also, Red Bull KTM took a chance on him and they got a win!

RJ Hampshire ended up second overall on the day with a couple of strong rides. Good for Hampshire, he had his typical day where he just dug deep. He said at one point he felt like he was going to go after Prado but quickly saw the KTM disappearing and decided that was it for him.

Cooper Webb had himself quite a week. First, he committed to Team USA for MXoN on a bike he’s going to have very little time on. Webb wasn’t pleased with some of the riders' attitudes in not wanting to go and he stepped up again. Then I have to think the MX gods rewarded him with not only a third in moto one but a third overall at that! The man goes 3-8 for that, tell me that’s not doing something right? Awesome to see for Webb. He told me he hoped that in this last summer of doing the nationals, he hoped he would get a top five overall! Well, he ended it third for just his 7^th career 450MX podium. Pretty awesome if you ask me.

And that’s a wrap for Eli Tomac on his national career. The legend that he is went out with respectable 7-5 scores. It was the best race of the year for him outdoors combined. He had fifth best time in second moto, passed 7 guys to get that spot and yeah, he looked good.

As we know, ET announced that he’s hanging it up after the SMX series despite earlier agreeing to a SX only deal with KTM for 2027. I think that neck injury was a very serious one, he has all the money, wins, and titles a rider could possibly want, and climbing up that hill again was going to be tough. In a way, he went out a lot like Ryan Dungey and his neck injury suffered in Colorado. Now, Dungey was younger, but I wonder if Eli comes back for some fun races at some point?

Who had Webb beating Tomac in their last outdoor motocross race forever?

It was going to be tough for Levi Kitchen to make up 14 points on Cole Davies at the last round. For the most part, Kitch’s title chances went up in smoke the moment he lost his front end in the mud opening lap of moto one last week. But he was sure going to try, the problem is Davies average holeshot position is 5.5 and Kitchen’s is 13. You combine that with Davies obvious speed/talent and yeah, tough ask.

Of course, Kitchen went down early in moto one and his bike was broken. Then he broke himself and couldn’t line up for moto two. He also lost second overall in the points so that was probably a 30K hit right there. Levi Kitchen had a bad day at Ironman.

Davies won the title after moto one and cruised around in moto two to bring it home. His second year in the USA full-time and the kid already has two titles. Who wants to bet he gets a third in a month?

Julien Beaumer. Wow man, what a comeback for this kid. He went 2-1 for the overall, his second of the year, and secured second overall in the points as well. No one, not even Julien himself, as he admitted on the PulpMX Show Monday night, thought he could do this. He was telling us that when he started riding seriously for the summer, Ryder DiFrancesco was almost lapping him in motos during the week. Heck, he said before High Point, where he got second overall, he was getting destroyed at the practice track!

Pretty cool story for sure and was Chance Hymas probably the fastest rider at Ironman? Yeah, sure but he didn’t get the start and made a mistake. Beaumer wins! Oh, and also he told us as they were warming up in the morning, he told Prado they were both going to win!

I told Hymas at the end of the day that his best moto of the year probably resulted in a second! Chance was absolutely ripping all day long coming off his Budds overall win. He caught Beaumer late in moto one and took off for the win and in the second moto, he fell twice (!!) and still got to second. He was jumping this little wall thing into a turn that was 2-3 seconds faster, he was coming through everyone, and at one point was catching JuJu. Beaumer wicked it up and kept the win but man, another great day for Hymas. He’s going to the MXoN at the right time, that’s for sure.

Hymas told me after the race that stepping up to the 450 for that race is not a worry, he’s got lots of time on a 450 and even rode one of the Lawrence’s last week for a bit. He’s excited to go to MXoN after having to miss it few years ago when he hurt his knee.

Ryder D got another podium on the year and I said this before, 2027 has to be a season where he’s going for moto wins and overalls. He’s yet to have “that” ride, you know where he just rips off a moto win in dominating fashion. His progress has been slow and steady, unlike Davies or even Beaumer. It might get him frustrated at times but dare I say…we’ll get there, we’ll get there when it’s time.

Thanks for reading OBS, we’re onto SMX! Columbus, catch the fever! You know, near the end of SX, I’m always looking forward to the outdoors and then by end of outdoors, I’m looking forward to getting back indoors. Just three races left in the 2026 calendar. Where did the time go? You can email me at matthes@racerxonline.com if you want to chat about this race or anything else.