2024 Budds Creek Motocross Photo Gallery

2024 Budds Creek Motocross Recap

Haiden Deegan grabbed the MotoSport.com Holeshot, burst into an insurmountable lead, fell, kept the lead and crossed the checkers first. He needed Levi Kitchen to not finish second.

Kitchen finished third.

The two, then, tied in points after the first Moto on Saturday at Budds Creek for Round 10 of the 2024 Pro Motocross Championship series gave all the spoils to Deegan. The outspoken and sometimes cocksure second-year rider and son of freestyle MX pioneer Brian Deegan secured the 250 Class Pro Motocross Championship, his first, and by all accounts, likely not his last.

Outside a short streak of hiccups that knocked him off the podium just once, he pretty much won all year. At least, that's how it feels. Nine out of 20 Motos, so far, and five of 10 Overalls. He finished 10th in the second Moto at Budds Creek and still finished third overall.

"All I cared about was destroying these dudes as bad as I could. I just wanted to annihilate everybody," Deegan said. "I pulled the Holeshot. Got to a 25 second gap, I wanted 30 seconds but tucked in the front. It is what it is, I got the championship."

Kitchen, who did not ride much in the week leading up to Budds Creek because of an illness, ran second for a while, dropped to fourth then squeezed into third when Chance Hymas fell on the last lap while tailing Deegan. A second-place would have merely delayed the inevitable until after Moto 2, which by the way, Kitchen won wire-to-wire. Deegan mailed in the second Moto enjoying a Championship victory lap after getting pinched to 15th on the first turn.

Kitchen (3-1) meanwhile has won three of four Motos to put him in second for points 14 ahead of Tom Vialle (2-3) who finished second overall on Saturday. The two will battle to see who stands to the left and right of Deegan on the Championship podium as Chance Hymas sits too far out to get on the ultimate box.

SO! Motocross gets a final round showdown in the premier class between Chase Sexton and Hunter Lawrence with Sexton holding a decent 28 point lead heading into the final round while holding most of the momentum.

The two traded wins and second-place finishes as they did the week prior with Lawrence grabbing the MotoSport.com Holeshot in Moto 1 and winning after fending off a charging Sexton, who started eighth then went down while chasing Lawrence in second after tucking his front end in with about five minutes on the clock. Sexton mounted a brief comeback and settled for second as Lawrence easily crossed the checkers without anyone on his fender.

In Moto 2, Lawrence again grabbed the MotoSport.com Holeshot with Sexton in fourth. Never one to make it easy on himself, Sexton rode wide open making a stellar cross jump pass on Aaron Plessinger, fell again, made the same pass in the same spot on Plessinger with 12 minutes left then began his descent on Lawrence.

A power pass around the outside with about five minutes left propelled Sexton into the lead and he pulled away from there, taking the win by nearly 10 seconds and securing the overall on the tie-breaker.

"First Motos I don't know why they have been tough for me just haven't had the flow, the second Moto I come around," Sexton said. "Didn't make it easy on myself, fell over again, for some reason - this track - I just can't stay on my bike. Every year I just seem to fall over. But it was a good race. That second Moto was awesome."

If the two repeat Moto 1 with Lawrence winning and Sexton second for the final round, Sexton will secure the 450 class Championship with a race to spare..

Elsewhere, Malcom Stewart finished fourth overall his best result in 11 years. Eli Tomac raced for the first time since an injury in Supercross sidelined him. He took fourth in Moto 1 but a rough start in Moto 2 landed him 11th for seventh overall. Justin Coope had a gnarly crash in Moto 1 and his bike almost took out Lawrence. He fought back for 20th in that race and a fourth in Moto 2 got him 10th overall.

Ironman hosts the final round of Outdoors on Saturday in Crawfordsville, IN then the SuperMotocross Playoffs commences in September with lots of money at stake and unlikely champions a possibility in the 250 and 450 classes, even if unlikely.