Two 250SX Regional titles were decided in the East/West Showdown, with GEICO Honda’s Chase Sexton pulling away to win the race and the Eastern Regional 250SX Class Championship by nine points, while three spots back in the race, Monster Energy/Star Yamaha Racing’s Dylan Ferrandis took home the Western Regional 250SX Class by a 20-point margin over his teammate Justin Cooper.

 

The tension was high for Tomac to deliver his first 450SX Class title in his seventh year in the class and after three second-place season finishes. Off the start, Dean Wilson got into the lead and ahead of his two Husqvarna teammates Anderson and Osborne. Tomac crossed the holeshot line in ninth position. The only rider still with a mathematical shot at the title, defending-champion Red Bull KTM’s Cooper Webb, was knocked over by another rider and started the race picking his bike up off the ground in the first corner.

 

Tomac slowly moved up the leader board. Webb recovered from his tip over but never caught up to Tomac. After sliding out on the opening lap, Team Honda HRC’s Ken Roczen split the two title contenders for the rest of the race. Roczen never broke free of Webb with enough positions to make up the points deficit he had on the second place spot in the points. Up front, Anderson wrestled the lead from Wilson six minutes into the 20-minute plus one lap event; immediately after that Osborne took second place from Wilson. Osborne got within striking distance a few times, but it wasn’t until late in the race, when Anderson’s seat had been pulled off his bike, that Osborne made the pass with just over one minute on the race clock. The three Husqvarna riders swept the podium, followed by a career-best fourth place finish from Smartop/BullFrog Spas/Motoconcepts Honda’s Malcolm Stewart. Tomac crossed the line fifth, as the 2020 champion.

The restart benefitted both points-lead holders, Sexton and Ferrandis, each also the defending champion in their division. Sexton got quickly into the lead, with McElrath right behind. After some cat-and-mouse gamesmanship, Sexton put the hammer down and pulled clear of the pack and out of reach of any aggressive moves from McElrath; Sexton grabbed the race win, his fifth of the season, and earned his second championship. Ferrandis, with his main title challenger Forkner out, circled the track in fourth and put in a steady ride to repeat his title. It marked the first time since 1992 that the defending champions have won the title in both 250SX Classes.

 

All season long Chase Sexton felt he needed to back up his Eastern Regional 250SX Class Championship title. Once he did, in convincing style, Sexton said, “Everyone said I got lucky [last] year and it kinda fired me up coming into this season. Man, that feels good, I won five Main Events. This kid from Illinois. I grew up in a town with 800 people. I feel so good. And this is my last 250 race, [it’s] on to the HRC Honda. Man, I could not be more excited. I won the race; Shane was trying to play a little bit of games there which was – whatever. But I pulled away and made it happen. I can’t thank my team enough. They’ve been behind me since I turned pro and man, that’s just so good. I cannot begin to explain where I’m at right now.”

 

After grabbing his second consecutive Western Regional 250SX Class title, Ferrandis was asked after the race if he was ready for his move up to the 450SX Class. The Frenchman answered emotionally, “Yeah for sure I’m ready. Right now, it’s crazy. The most difficult day of my life, so much emotion today after being in the LCQ. And in the Main we needed to battle on the outside [of the starting gate]. I got a good start and wanted to push. And when I saw Austin [crashed], it broke my heart for him. Also it [could] break my legs to ride good, and after that I couldn’t push. We had a red flag and had to restart. I got another good start and it was so amazing. But I never expected to do back-to-back championships in my life. It’s unbelievable.”

 

In a turbulent year, the extreme sport of Monster Energy Supercross managed to return to racing with a unique format of two-a-week races for the final seven rounds. Feld Entertainment and its partners, with the help of the Utah Sports Commission, were able to make history not only by completing the season’s full 17-race schedule, but by also becoming the first professional sport to complete its interrupted championship in 2020.