The start of the 2025 East Region of the Monster Energy Supercross Championship in Tampa brought on many questions, like who will win? How will the championship favorites stack up? Will there be any surprise winners? Little did fans know they would be asking these questions of both classes as Tampa brought much excitement all around.
It all started in daytime qualifying when defending champion Tom Vialle went down hard in the whoops, he never seemed to look comfortable after the crash but was somehow able to salvage a fifth in the main. With Vialle off his game, it seems 2024 West Region champion, RJ Hampshire, would be the next one in line for a win even though he’s recovering from injury. Still, he’s RJ, injuries don’t seem to slow him down, though tuff blocks sure do. As a tangle with a tuff block set him back an entire lap in the main.
The 250 main event saw more drama when the leader, Pierce Brown, went down in the whoops causing a red flag. Brown later reported on Instagram that he broke his back (T5) in the crash. He has already had surgery in hopes to return.
Two more surprises are when title favorite Levi Kitchen ended up in ninth, and Daxton Bennick, who has not finished on the podium since his first ever supercross last year in Detroit, finished second.
But these are all things fans have come to expect from a series opener; the unexpected. However, fans could not believe their eyes when during the 450 main Malcolm Stewart started catching Chase Sexton. His speed in the whoops was almost an entire second faster than everyone else. While everyone else complained about the whoops all day, Stewart gobbled up time and acted like they weren’t even there.
At the start of 2025, if someone were to say that a record would be made, that two brothers would win 450 main events in supercross everyone would probably assume Hunter Lawrence was about to get his first win. However, Hunter went down in his heat and was out for the night and it was Malcolm Stewart who came away with the win, putting the Stewart brothers in the record books.
Stewart said, “Just having this opportunity to win and I know there's one person that I wanna give this win to is my brother. He's definitely been pushing me and pushing me and pushing me and I know he's probably just as proud of me as I'm proud of myself.”
Every year people say Stewart has the speed to win, but it has never materialized until now. He has not been on the podium in supercross since Denver 2022 and his previous finishes so far this year have been 10-7-9-10. So yes, this win was out of nowhere, and everyone was happy for the Florida boy.
While it wasn’t a shock to see Jason Anderson on the podium again, his third of the year, he has quietly moved up to third overall in points. Anderson said in the post-race press conference:
“Yeah, I think, San Diego was obviously not the best, but even last weekend, you know, like I got 7th, and I was straight up 7th, you know, it wasn't like I was any faster than what I was. It's just the class is super deep, you know, I'm battling in 7th place, I'm battling, you know, AP and Barcia, and those are guys that have won many events in the past, so it's tough. At the same time though, being able to get three podiums so far in the season, be third in points, it's nice. I definitely want to keep moving further up and it would be nice to have maybe some of those nights where I feel super comfortable that I could make a charge for a win. That'd be really cool.”
Consistency is paying off for Anderson as he has three podiums so far, which is the most of anyone in the series.
| Position | Rider | Hometown | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Cooper Webb | Newport, NC  | 168 |
| 2 |  Chase Sexton | La Moille, IL | 158 |
| 3 |  Ken Roczen | Mattstedt, Germany  | 152 |
| 4 |  Jason Anderson | Edgewood, NM | 125 |
| 5 |  Malcolm Stewart | Haines City, FL | 124 |
“Tonight I was more likely to be a fifth-place guy," admitted Anderson. "I was figuring out my rhythm through the whoops, but was dealing with some arm pump that dropped me back a little. I hung in there and I was able to pass Chase [Sexton] at the end for third so that was good.”
Two other crazy things in Tampa were watching Eli Tomac ride around in 17th trying to salvage any points after hurting his ankle in qualifying. And then seeing Cooper Webb defend Ken Roczen in the post-race press conference after Ken got sandwiched between two lappers. Surprising because in the past the two riders have not always been the biggest fans of each other. Webb said:
“I mean, the bottom line is we saw what happened to Kenny, it ruins the championship rider's night. It's plain and simple. It really is. I get that they're going for their positions, they're going for paychecks. I have a lot of respect for anybody that's on the track, but you know it's the age-old question, what is the right or wrong thing? I personally feel like there should be penalties enforced, whether it's points or money, and that's my personal opinion. And in every other form of motor sport, the lapper always moves over. In my opinion, that's how it should be here at this level. We just costed Kenny, you know, one his health potentially, and two, a championship potentially.”
“It would have been a great night,” reported Larry Brooks, Team Manager for the Twisted Tea/H.E.P. Motorsports/Suzuki presented by Progressive Insurance Team. “We kind of struggled during the day, even struggled in the heat races, then we kind of got it together in the main event. But a lapped rider jumped on top of Ken Roczen and bent the rear sprocket. The AMA does not do anything to penalize the riders that are being lapped; they only give them a blue flag and let them kind of dictate what they want to do. And it hasn’t worked. It’s been this way for years and years and now we just got 18 points taken away from us because of a lapped rider and a DNF. It’s super disappointing. Ken Roczen was riding really good, and for him to have a rider jump on him – it’s just really disappointing. It is the sanctioning body’s job to take care of the lapped riders and all the officiating, and it just seems like we have not been taken care of. They are here to keep the riders safe, and I don’t think that happened tonight. It put our rider in danger, that’s for sure. But we’ll come back next week stronger and better. We still have a lot of racing left.”
It's just speculation now, but if Ken had stayed up, he could have potentially passed Sexton when he went down and reclaimed the red plate. He has every reason to be upset, and it's obvious Webb knows it just as easily could have happened to him or anyone else.
This season demands that riders be both consistent and lucky. As riders are going out with injuries and even after five races no single rider has set themselves apart as the outright favorite to win. At this point it is anybody’s guess who will be crowned champion 12 races from now. It is getting crazy, but it sure is fun to watch.
