2025 Washougal Motocross Photo Gallery

2025 Washougal Motocross Recap

After a bizarro opening round crash that left him sidelined until RedBud, Chase Sexton won Round 8 of the 2025 Monster Energy Supercross season on Saturday at Washougal MX Park in Washougal, WA and showed, perhaps, what we all missed out on this season.

The victory ended Jett Lawrence's undefeated season, in terms of overalls, but proved the sport's golden boy indeed has stiff competition, at least when everyone remains healthy.

And when Lawrence crashes.

In Moto 1, Jorge Prado grabbed the Unsponsored $600,000 Holeshot but that lead lasted shorter than the twinkle of an eye when Sexton on the next turn squirt into the lead. Lawrence lined up behind and Eli Tomac followed in third shortly thereafter putting the two former champions in pursuit of the reigning one.

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A hard track to pass on, Lawrence got close a few times to Sexton's fenders but better lines, a faster bike and/or unmatched race craft kept Sexton up front blocking Lawrence. Then with about 13 minutes on the clock, Lawrence's back tire slid out in a corner dropping him on the track. Tomac passed for second as Lawrence resumed in third and after one effort to catch Tomac he called it a race and Moto 1 ended with Sexton taking the checkers, Tomac second and Lawrence third.

In Moto 2, Hunter Lawrence grabbed the Unsponsored $600,000 Holeshot, brother Jett locked in at second, Sexton third and Tomac fourth. Sexton got close to Lawrence for the pass near the Finish Line jump four minutes in but was unable to get around his rival and two minutes after that Lawrence made the pass on his brother for the lead. A minute later, Sexton took second, Hunter grabbed it back, then finally a great Sexton pass made it stick.

But all this stellar racing for naught as a Red Flag was thrown at the 21:22 mark and the Moto stopped. A staggered restart was implemented for the first time in Pro Motocross as the rule went into effect this year. (Once two laps completed but prior to 20 minutes expiring on the clock after a Red Flag, the race resumes via staggered restart. Riders line up on gate in order of their running on last completed lap. The inside gate goes to the first place rider and so on. A race official runs across the gates starting with the inside gate releasing riders just like the first practice session in qualifying - an exercise done on purpose in case of this very event.)

The restart did nothing to affect the outcome of the running order prior to the flag thrown as Lawrence (3-1) took the win, Sexton (1-2) second and thereby the overall winner, with Tomac (2-3) third who finished third overall. Sexton, now a four-time Washougal winner, marked his first victory since the final round of 2024.

"It feels really good," he said. "Last weekend I was pretty far off second Moto and I went back to work this week and try to fix some stuff with the team. I knew I was good at this track and I knew I had the ability to win so just go out and execute was really nice. This is a good ride. Love the fans here, (at) Washougal. Really grateful and hoping to keep it going."

Sexton has no chance of catching Lawrence in points, Tomac lost his hold on second in the standings after a DNF at RedBud and with Hunter Lawrence (5-4) finishing fourth overall, Jett Lawrence increased his points lead to 61 over his brother. Tomac's third overall popped him back into third in the standings ahead of Justin Cooper (6-5) and he now sits 94 points from first with three rounds left and just 150 points outstanding.

250 Class

In the 250 class, Joe Shimoda raced to the overall on a (2-1) day including a dominating Moto 2 win by more than 20 seconds.

"Good day. This one means a lot to me," Shimoda said. "As a team we work so hard for this. Points wise we are far but I think 'let's do this a couple more times. Let's keep going.'"

Shimoda, who started the year off with four-straight second-place finishes, endured some rough rounds before finding his footing again with a sweep at RedBud. A brake failure last week at Spring Creek prevented a shot at an overall but he has the speed to make a run in the final three rounds but he'll need help being 45 points out.

Garrett Marchbanks (3-4) finished third overall, his first career podium. Austin Forker posted a season best fifth overall on a (5-5) day. The oft-injured rider, once considered the face of the sport underwent brain surgery last year after a crash in Supercross revealed an abnormal cluster of blood vessels. He has seemingly taken his time this year to get back up to speed, both figuratively and literally.

Elsewhere, Jalek Swoll, who grabbed the Unsponsored $600,000 Holeshot in Moto 1 looked ripe for the win then he went down hard two minutes into the race. Capsized on his right side, his left foot didn't move for a time indicating something more serious but he slowly got up, shook his head at one point as if to clarify himself, managed to resume racing but was black flagged (removed from racing) and did not start the second Moto.

The Swoll crash put Ryder DiFrancesco (11-8) into first and the points leader second but that battle ended less than a minute later when the two collided in midair. DiFrancesco got tossed off the bike and somehow the points leader stayed on two wheels taking the checkers without further incidence.

Riders get two weekends off before the final three-round stretch begins August 9 at Ironman.