Slaw
Hymas Makes Good
Entering the Pro Motocross Championship, there was a lot of Chance Hymas hype talk behind-the-scenes. It was more than a “flying at the test track” conversation. It was “he has a real shot at the championship” convo. It showed at times at the opener, where he finished third overall. Then he battled food poising at Hangtown and couldn’t ride the second moto. On Saturday, the championship promise showed through. He led every lap of both motos and was the first rider in 2025 to dethrone Haiden Deegan, beating the points leader straight up in both motos.
“Today was a perfect day,” he said post-race. “I was fastest in both qualifying sessions, led every lap in both motos, and got both holeshots. I really could not have asked for a better day. I’m so happy to finally get the monkey off my back and have a day like this.”
The good news: Hymas got the proverbial monkey off his back. The bad news: he is 49 points down in the championship through three rounds. While the championship may be out of reach, if Hymas can build off this, he could be the favorite in 2026—if Deegan moves up to the 450 Class as expected.
Jett Gonna Jett
This wasn’t the typical Jett Lawrence get to the lead and runaway win. Nope, he had to fight through this one. In the first moto, it looked like the typical Jett race. Get up front, sprint out to a big lead and cruise to the win. Aaron Plessinger had other ideas. He fought through Hunter Lawrence and then went after Jett, even passing into the lead. Jett responded and grabbed the win. Much of the same in moto 2, as Jett had to fend off a hard charging Eli Tomac late in the race and got some help when Eli washed the front.
“[Today] was a combination of working hard and being patient,” Jett said post-race. “Justin [Cooper] and Eli [Tomac] were riding well [in Moto 2] and I was able to capitalize on mistakes from everyone else while not making many of my own. This track made it easy to do so. I could hear Eli behind me, but then I heard the fans and knew something had to have happened. They made it tough on me today, but happy to be back on top.”
This is what impresses me most about Jett. He can withstand pressure and not flinch. At Hangtown, he had Tomac breathing down his neck for 30 minutes and didn’t make a big mistake. Same at Thunder Valley, with AP and Tomac applying late pressure. He can win in multiple ways and has now 18 overalls in 19 450 Class races.
Tomac Returns Home
Colorado’s own was back. For the first time since 2022, Tomac raced his “home” National at Thunder Valley. While Tomac didn’t race here much in the amateur days, it’s his home race, no matter what anyone says. The crowd is different when Tomac is here. And he was good! After a third in the first moto, he went Beast Mode in the second and nearly caught Jett for the moto win. While a crash took him out of contention, he finished second overall on the day.
“It was back and forth,” he said post-race. “We [Lawrence and I] had our spots on the track to gain time and lose time. The turn after I went down was the spot where I thought I could get him, but I rushed the prior corner. It’s a bummer, but it was a good race. We’ll try again next weekend.”
While nothing is official, a lot of chatter around Tomac going to KTM next year. In the post-race press conference, Plessinger was asked about potentially having Tomac as a teammate in 2026, and let’s just say Eli didn’t look pumped about the question.
I’ve seen some thoughts around the Internet regarding the question and I’ll just say this: it was fair to ask. Rumors are out there, and the job of media is to ask about those rumors.
Schwartz Is Back
Dilan Schwartz has found his way again. I followed Dilan a lot during his amateur days. Mostly because he was like the last fast guy still riding a Suzuki and it was cool. Since turning pro, Dilan has been a very under-the-radar guy. He’s super-fast, evident by his fifth overall at Spring Creek last year, but inconsistency has hurt his chance of getting a ride with the likes of Pro Circuit, Star, etc. After missing all of Monster Energy AMA Supercross in 2025, the BarX Yamaha rider has found his footing in Pro Motocross again, with consecutive top 10s the last two rounds. His seventh at Thunder Valley was the most impressive, as he finished ahead of the likes of Mikkel Haarup, Ty Masterpool, Max Vohland, Jordon Smith, Garrett Marchbanks and many more. First non-factory rider in the results.
AP is Really Good
We must start looked at AP differently. He is now a threat to win every weekend. That is how “we” will approach this moving forward. Something is just different about him this year, and the consistency is there. Speed has never been an AP problem, but we’d only see it from time to time. Not this year. EVERY weekend he is challenging for wins. Its damn cool to see and much needed to have another rider up front.
“I had a great first moto, luckily, because I didn’t do too good in the second moto,” he said post-race. “I made some changes to the bike and should have just left it alone. All in all, it was a good day. I’m happy with our progress and always glad to be on the podium. We’ll keep going and hopefully we’ll win one of these someday.”
Images: octopi.media
