RECAP – Round 5: Southwick

Track Conditions Play A Massive Role in Qualifying at Round 5

Southwick is one destination on the Pro Motocross calendar where qualifying lap times are crucial in the first session. Since the race track is built on the sand of Massachusetts, track conditions quickly becoming challenging and slower. As more motorcycles completed laps around the track, the sand is easily moved, creating large bumps from braking and accelerating. Considering this, Southwick poses as the unique race track where the first qualifying session laps times are quicker than the second session. For example, let’s compare 450 class rider Justin Cooper’s lap times from qualifying session one to two. In the first session, Cooper secured the fastest time among all 450 Group A riders with a 2:01.330 lap time compared to a lap time of 2:07.068 in the second session. Cooper still managed to set the second fastest time in session two considering his lap time was nearly six seconds slower than his previous time set in the first qualifying session.

New Faces Top the Charts in Qualifying at Southwick

The sand of Southwick is notorious at bringing new competition to the top of the 450 class, typically those who are Massachusetts locals or Europeans. Local riders have the advantage due to the familiarization with the track and what it takes to be fast in deep sand conditions. Europeans generally excel due to their experience racing in sand conditions in their home country. A lot of European motocross track are sand based and one of the toughest sand tracks in the world, Lommel, is apart of the MXGP series located in Lommel, Belgium. European talent, Cornelius Tøndel from The Netherlands racing for JWR Honda Racing team was the breakout rider of 2025 finishing as the third fastest 450 rider in the combined qualifying results. His European background and MXGP experience gained him an edge on the 450 class competition, scoring 11th place in moto one but would unfortunately only complete one lap of moto two before exiting the race.

Championship Leaders Take Commanding Sweep at Southwick

For championship leaders Haiden Deegan and Jett Lawrence, round five at Southwick could not have been better. Both riders set fast lap times in qualifying and established early leads at the beginning of each moto to take home the overall victory on the day. Considering both riders had equal levels of domination in their respective class, let’s compare some statistics to see their performance.

Haiden Deegan

Jett Lawrence