What We Noticed: Anaheim 1
January 15, 2025
The 2025 Monster Energy Supercross season is underway! Here’s What We Noticed:
- Lawrence Struggles
Basically all weekend both brothers didn’t seem their usual self. Hunter was on the ground often… meanwhile Jett was clearly struggling with the bike off the starts. It’s strange after a whole off-season that they show up to A1 with the bike in such a bad spot.
For what it’s worth, I’m also not worried at all about the bad start to the season for them; in my opinion Jett still could have won if he had gotten a top 3 start. So does it just boil down to that? Keep an eye on Jett’s starts… cause his speed seemed to be there for the most part. Prior to his last fall in the main, he was coming through the pack at the same pace (if not faster) than Tomac was. It was strange to see him slow down a lot after the crash, but I think they’ll rebound nicely for SD.
- A New Beaumer
Beaumer showed up with a new whole tenacity to start the season! His confidence was clear all weekend, and it showed with great speed on the track and a good result to finish it all. I’m very impressed with the huge step he has seemingly taken in the off-season, and genuinely expect him to get his first win this season! He was the Most Impressive 250 rider in my opinion!
- Beast Mode
That’s it: it’s back! Despite his amazing career thus far, Tomac was still a slight question mark entering the season: were we going to see 2022 Eli? Or were we going to see 2024 Eli? Well, 2022 Eli showed up! And honestly, this might be the best Eli we’ve ever seen? His speed was amazing all weekend, and no doubt could have won that main if not for that silly first lap crash.
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Much Improved Prado
I’ve heard so many mixed opinions on a) what to expect of Prado entering the season, and b) how his debut on the Kawasaki went. Well, I’m at least thoroughly impressed! He looks SOOOOO much better this year than he did last year. He was also starting up front and not losing a ton of time to the front-runners (at least for the first quarter of the race). If he stays healthy, we can only expect more improvements from him. So, job well done for A1 at least!
- Impressive Debuts
The 250W class has A LOT of rookies this year: Cole Davies, Gavin Towers, Avery Long, Parker Ross, Stav Orland, Blake Davies, Preston Musiciangelo, and Noah Viney. Overall, I feel like this is the strongest rookie class we’ve had in many years. Cole Davies, Towers, Long, Ross, and Viney ALL qualified for the main in a pretty stacked field. In particular, Davies, Towers, and Long all looked pretty impressive and rode the part well. In fact, I have sneaky hunch that Davies could be a podium threat every weekend! He was super smooth and rode pretty much mistake free. Unfortunately he got tangled up in a first lap incident, but he did an incredible job coming through the pack at pretty much the same pace that Deegan did!
- Exciting Start to the Season
I think we all entered A1 with two clear favorites: Jett and Deegan. However, after less than ideal starts for both of them, we leave A1 with a more exciting outlook due to more potential winners! In the 250s: Shimoda and Beaumer have proven they can compete against Deegan for wins. In the 450s: Sexton and Tomac have shown the same versus Jett. I still do expect Jett and Deegan to eventually rise to the top and become that clear favorite again, but until they do, we have ourselves some other potentially winners!
