Factory Red Bull KTM’s Julien Beaumer had a career night to start off his 2025 Monster Energy AMA Supercross campaign, taking second in the 250SX main event. Beaumer was the “flying at the test track” rider of the off-season and he backed up the hype last night at A1.
"We’re in a lot better space mentally and physically than we were last year, and I have a lot more belief in myself that I can go the distance," said the second-year supercross pro in a team statement. "Today I concentrated on minimizing the mistakes on race day, I rode with a lot more maturity than I did last season. I rode calmly, smoothly and tried to ride like I do at the test track. I feel like I achieved that and showed that I’m one of the title contenders this year."
Beaumer told our Jason Weigandt that while he did have good one-lap speed at the test track a year ago, he still lacked the fitness base to translate that into 15-minute main events on Saturday. Note that he holeshot Anaheim 1 last year but eventually finished sixth. Now a year further into building a pro fitness base, he was much stronger.
“Juju” set the tone for the day by coming out on top of a lap time duel with Haiden Deegan in the second qualifying session and claiming the first pole position of the season. He kept the momentum rolling into the night, coming out on top of an exciting heat race battle with Jordan Smith to claim in second career heat win. Beaumer shadowed Jo Shimoda for most of the main event to come home in second and claim his first career 250SX podium. He explained the race to Steve Matthes saying, “Jo rode really good. I almost went for it, and I was like you know what? It’s round one, you can’t win the championship here, but you can most certainly lose it.”
In the press conference, he credited his Anaheim success to a great off-season saying, “The biggest thing for me this off-season was perfect for me, and I put in a lot of work. I had a lot of confidence in the work I put in and the way I was riding at the test track.”
Anaheim 1 was Beaumer’s best round in 2024, so it will be interesting to see if he can repeat this level of performance next weekend in San Diego. Last year any momentum from Anaheim was washed out with back-to-back mud races at the next two rounds. This year he believes he can stay in the fight to the end.
When comparing this performance to last year he notes, “(I) rode calm, smooth, and tried to ride like I ride at the test track. I think we showed that tonight and I definitely think I am one of the title contenders for this year”.
