450 Class
Jett Lawrence
Jett Lawrence goes into Budds Creek holding a ten point points lead, his largest of the season. Budds Creek is one of four tracks on a 450 where he has not lost an overall or pole position. His only blemish is a second place moto finish in moto two to his brother, Hunter, in 2025. Jett has holeshotted two of the four motos he has raced there.
One more overall podium would be his 35th in the Premier class, tying him with Jeff Ward and Jeremy McGrath. He has 27 holeshots in the class and he is on away from tying Justin Barcia and Ryan Dungey.
Six of the last seven Budds Creek overall winners in the class won the championship that same season. This will be the first time Jett will race Budds Creek with the championship still undecided. He had clinched the title before both of his only two visits.
Hunter Lawrence
Hunter Lawrence went from up double digits to down double digits in the points standings after Unadilla. Luckily, Budds Creek has been his best track on a 450. He had five moto wins in two seasons entering 2026, two of those five came at Budds Creek. It’s the only track he had more than one. He had 43 laps led there entering the season which is the most he had at a track by 13 laps. Unfortunately, neither moto win resulted in an overall win on the day but he has never finished off the moto podium there in the Premier class.
The odds are stacked against him when looking at historical data. No rider has overcome a double digit deficit to win the title with two rounds remaining. However, no rider in that situation had as many overall wins (5) and moto wins (10) entering the final two rounds. Hunter is well equipped to pull off a comeback.
Jorge Prado
Jorge Prado is coming off arguably his most competitive performance at an AMA national, challenging for the win in both motos. He had the fastest lap time in both motos which brings his count up to four this season for fastest laps in motos. Only Hunter Lawrence (5) and Jett Lawrence (9) have more.
He is knocking on the door of his first “win” of the season when considering qualifying, motos, and overalls. He has multiple second places this season in each category. Prado has three podiums this season and all have been second place finishes.
Prado sits in fourth place, 25 points behind Haiden Deegan, in the overall points standings. Third is not out of the question but would likely require a rare bad moto from Deegan. Prado’s 311 points so far this season are already much greater than his 262 in the 2025 campaign.
Haiden Deegan
Budds Creek has been a place of good memories for Haiden Deegan. He clinched his 2024 250 MX title one round early there and won his 2025 title there on the final day with an overall victory. He has led 50 laps at the venue which is the third most he has led at any track, only four laps fewer than his most at Hangtown. He has two official moto wins at Budds Creek but a third was taken away via penalty.
Benchmarks continue to slowly get checked as Deegan has earned his first pole position, holeshot, and lap led on a 450 at the last two rounds. He has the second longest overall podium streak in the class and has finished worse than fourth just twice since the first moto of the season.
Garrett Marchbanks
Garrett Marchbanks quietly had his second best day of the season in terms of points scored (35) at Unadilla one week ago, despite starting in 18th both motos. His fourth in moto two was his second best moto finish of the season, best if you don’t want to count his third at Thunder Valley which was aided by penalties from other riders. His performances for most of the season have been right around the top five, even though his starts have not been top notch. He hasn’t rounded lap one better than 14th place since moto two at Southwick.
Marchbanks is sitting seventh in points and despite having three motos this season with 0 points scored, is only two points behind Dylan Ferrandis for sixth. He is also only fourteen points away from tying his previous best points tally in a Premier class MX season.
R.J. Hampshire
Budds Creek has been a good venue for R.J. Hampshire. Both of his overall victories in the 250 class came there and his 23 laps led there are the most he has at any track in either class. His good form there continued into the 450 class as his 4-3 moto scores there last year earned him fourth overall with 38 points scored, tying his most ever in the class.
Unadilla last round was Hampshire’s 20th career 450 MX race. He is averaging an overall finish of 5.80. That is the fourth best average of all time by a rider without an overall win. Two of three riders ahead of him are also current riders: Haiden Deegan (3.78), Donnie Cantaloupi (5.33), Justin Cooper (5.36). Hampshire’s early 450 success has flown under the radar.
250 Class
Cole Davies
Cole Davies only raced four motos in 2025 and two of them came at Budds Creek. He led five laps in the first moto and was awarded the moto win after the race due to penalties to other riders. It was his first flash of brilliance on an outdoor track as a professional. Since then, he has stacked seven more moto wins and four overall wins. That is the most in the class in that time.
Davies’ eight moto wins through his first eleven starts are tied with Travis Pastrana for fourth most all time in the Lites class. These are the only riders with more: Marty Smith (15), James Stewart (15), Bob Hannah (11), Christophe Pourcel (11), Ricky Carmichael (10), Grant Langston (10).
Levi Kitchen
Levi Kitchen’s average overall finish at Budds Creek is 8.25, second from his worst. However, he has won the overall and finished third there in his last two appearances with seventeen laps led. It is one of six tracks he has led laps at in his career.
Kitchen showed he has the speed and endurance at Unadilla one week ago. He dominated moto one with the win, fastest lap, and fastest average lap. In moto two, he set the fastest lap time in three of the last four laps and had the fastest average segment time in sector four.
Kitchen is one moto win away from tying Ryan Dungey with eleven and he is one overall podium away from tying Zach Osborne, Cooper Webb, and Christophe Pourcel with twenty.
Chance Hymas
Chance Hymas has just one career start at Budds Creek and it came in 2024. He earned a fourth overall and finished second in moto two that day. Hymas has continued to round into form as of late. His average overall finish through the first half of the season was 9.33. In the three rounds since, he has averaged a finish of 2.67 while finishing on the podium at all three rounds.
Another podium at Budds Creek would be the ninth of his career and it would tie him with Damon Bradshaw and Keith Bowen. He is two moto podiums away from tying Austin Forkner and Branden Jesseman with 19.
Ryder DiFrancesco
Ryder DiFrancesco’s best season keeps on going. He is entering Budds Creek with three moto podiums in his last four motos after having four in his previous thirteen. He could be in for a venue best day because his best finish at Budds Creek in his first three starts there is a ninth, coming in 2025. His points total this season is 275 which is already more than his previous best for a season which was 250, set in 2024.
Better starts could help DiFrancesco continue his great season. He is averaging a first lap position of 11.00 but has managed a net gain of 66 positions this season, tied for fourth most in the class. He is average 3.67 positions gained per moto this season.
Carson Mumford
Carson Mumford is in the best form of his career by far. He has finished in the top five in each of his last five motos after having just one top five in his entire career before this run. Two of those five motos he got on the box in third. With back to back fourth place overalls, he will be pushing for his first career overall podium at Budds Creek, a track he has finished in the top ten in both his last two visits, most recently in 2023.
Mumford has not been doing this the easy way either. His average holeshot position is 13.67 at the last three races. He has turned that into an average moto finish of 5.00. In this three race/six moto run, he has averaged 8.67 positions gained from the holeshot line to the finish. Only Levi Kitchen (15.67) and Dilan Schwartz (10.50) have a better mark.
Tight Title Race
We are in an unprecedented title race in the 250 class. The one point gap between Levi Kitchen and Cole Davies is the smallest with two rounds in the class since 1990. There have been seven seasons where the points lead has been single digits entering the final two rounds, the rider leading the points going into those two rounds won the title just twice. The good news for Kitchen is both instances of the leader holding on are the two most recent cases of a single digit lead with two to go. Ryan Villopoto (+6) in 2007 and Jeremy Martin (+2) in 2015.
To make matters even more interesting for Budds Creek, the race winner there in the Lites class has only won the title in that same season THREE times in past sixteen races held there. A percentage of just 18.75%.
WMX Class
Lachlan Turner
Lachlan Turner returns to Budds Creek where she went 2-1-1 for the overall win and clinched her championship in 2025. Turner has never, not finished on the podium in her WMX career which means her podium streak sits at sixteen. That is already the second longest podium streak in WMX history. Ashley Fiolek holds the record with 23 in a row.
Turner has led 66.1% of the laps this season and her average lap one position is the best among racers who have raced all four rounds so far (2.38).
Charli Cannon
Charli Cannon sits second in points, fifteen behind Lachlan Turner with two rounds to go. In her second season in the states, Cannon has already improved her results. In 2025, she averaged a great 2.50 overall finish and has bested that so far in 2026 where she is averaging an overall finish of 1.75. She has not finished worse than second place this season and does have one overall victory. Cannon is on a career podium streak as well. Her nine podiums in a row is tied with Kylie Fasnacht for the sixth longest streak in the class all time.
Mayla Herrick
Mayla Herrick is one of just ten riders in recorded WMX history to win a moto and finish on an overall podium in her first two starts. Her moto win came at High Point and her overall podium came one week ago at Unadilla. The only other riders to accomplish this feat in the last ten years are: Hannah Hodges (2016), Jordan Jarvis (2018), Lachlan Turner (2024).
Herrick’s average start position in the three motos she has completed is 2.00 and would be best in class. She has two holeshots in her first three motos. The only moto she did not start first was moto two at Unadilla where she started fourth.