450 Class
Hunter Lawrence
The math is simple for Hunter Lawrence entering Ironman: Finish ahead of Jett, win the championship. He even has the tie breaker in the unlikely scenario Jett finishes one point ahead of him to tie up their points totals. Ironman is the only track that Hunter had an overall win at in the 450 class entering 2026. However, he did it without winning a moto, going 2-2. He struggled a bit there in 2024, his rookie 450 season, going 3-6 for fourth overall.
Hunter won his 250 MX title at Ironman in 2023 after a modest 5-9 effort to cruise to the championship victory. In 12 career pro motocross motos there, he does not have a moto victory. He does have two moto victories there on a 450 though as he swept both of his motos at MXdN in 2025.
Hunter is one overall podium away from tying Tim Ferry for 27 all time in the Premier class. He is one moto win away from tying Mike Kiedrowski with 18 and two away from tying his compatriot Chad Reed with 19.
Jett Lawrence
Jett Lawrence will likely have to go 1-1 in order to secure his third 450 MX Championship. A third championship in the class would tie him for the third most all time, leaving Eli Tomac (4) and Ricky Carmichael (7) the only riders with more. It would also be his first successful non playoff title defense on a 450. If Jett fails to win the title, it would be the first time since the 2021 East Coast Lites SX season that he has not won the championship of a series in which he started every round.
Jett has a good record at Ironman. He finished sixth overall after his “jumping the gate” one lap penalty last season but prior to that, he had won three straight overalls there, dating back to the 250 class. He has six moto wins in his last eight there. On a 450, only one rider has more laps led than his 54 at the venue and it’s Ken Roczen who has 83.
Haiden Deegan
Haiden Deegan is riding a five race overall podium streak, longest in the class, and a three race moto win streak at Ironman, dating back to his last 250 visit there last year. Deegan has finished off the moto podium just once in his last six motos at Ironman. It’s very early days in his 450 career but Haiden Deegan has a podium rate of 70% in the class which is good enough for ninth best all time.
Deegan has had to earn his results the hard way this season after multiple bad starts to motos. With one round to go, he has a net gain of 111 positions from the end of lap one to the finish. Only Garrett Marchbanks has more with 118. What makes it more impressive for Deegan is he has seven overall podiums this season, the next closest rider on the net gained chart with an overall podium is Jett Lawrence who has a net gain of 37.
Jorge Prado
One of Jorge Prado’s best performances in 2025 came at Ironman where he matched a season best fifth overall, fifth in a moto, and fourth in qualifying. He enters Ironman in 2026 in much better overall form as he has now finished on the podium at back to back rounds for the first time, both of them being second overalls. He has four straight moto podiums and just one moto outside the top five since moto one at Thunder Valley. He has five fastest laps in a moto this season, three of them coming in the last four motos.
KTM as a team has fared quite well at Ironman in the 450 class. They have the most wins (4) and overall podiums (13) in the 450 class. Their thirteen podiums are six more than the next closest manufacturer.
R.J. Hampshire
R.J. Hampshire is essentially locked into fifth place in the points standings with one round to go. He is 43 points behind fourth and 43 points ahead of sixth. That would mark his second fifth place in the points standings in his first two seasons aboard a 450. He would join Hunter Lawrence, Justin Cooper, and Chase Sexton as the only riders to do so since 2017. Hampshire is good at Ironman, three of his thirteen career podiums across both classes have come at the venue. In 2025, he scored his first and only podium so far on a 450.
Although Hampshire finished tenth overall at Budds Creek, a career low in the 450 class, he extended a record I have mentioned multiple times now throughout the season. He remains one of the few riders to have never finished outside the top ten overall in the class. Jean Michel Bayle, Hunter Lawrence, and now Haiden Deegan (who has ten starts) are the other riders to do so.
Garrett Marchbanks
Only the Lawrence brothers, Deegan, and Prado have more top five overall finishes than Garrett Marchbanks does through ten rounds in 2026. He has five but a few 0 point motos have him tied for sixth in points with Dylan Ferrandis. This has been the best season aboard a 450 in Marchbanks’ career. He had just one top five overall in 24 prior starts in the class and has gone five for ten this season.
He has persevered despite bad starts like he did in 2025 where he led the 250 class in net positions gained with 197. He is likely to lead the 450 class in that category this season with 118 net positions gained.
250 Class
Cole Davies
Cole Davies enters Ironman with a comfy 14 point cushion over Levi Kitchen. It should be enough to cruise to the championship barring any abnormalities that have bit Davies a couple times already this season. Davies has never raced Ironman as a professional but he did win the SMX Moto Combine there in 2024 with 2-1 moto scores. Also on the podium that day were his current Star Racing Yamaha teammates, Kayden Minear and Landen Gordon.
Since Davies’ tumultuous day at Spring Creek, he has been on a tear. He has won four of the six motos since then, earning two overall wins and a second at those three rounds. He’s led 67 out of 98 laps in those six motos, a rate of 68.37%.
Levi Kitchen
Levi Kitchen will need to mount a monumental comeback at Ironman if he wants to secure his first professional championship. Sitting fourteen points down, he likely needs to win and get a little help. Unfortunately, he needs to do this at statistically his worst track. Kitchen averages an overall finish of 12.40 there and has just one top ten overall finish, coming last season where he finished eighth with 14-4 moto scores. His lone moto podium came in moto 1 in 2024 via a second place. DNFs have hurt him there, he has only finished the second moto just one time in five attempts. He has four DNFs in the second motos.
Kitchen is one overall podium away from tying Christophe Pourcel, Cooper Webb, and Zach Osborne in the class with 20. Despite being down in the points, Kitchen does have the best average overall finish this season with an average of 3.30. He is the only rider to finish in the top five at all ten rounds so far.
Chance Hymas
Chance Hymas has been on a hot streak since Spring Creek and is inching up on Julien Beaumer for third in the points. He is five behind the KTM rider with one round to go and in the three rounds since Spring Creek, Hymas has averaged 14.00 points per round more than Beaumer.
Hymas has been doing his best work in the second motos since his break through moto win at Spring Creek. He has finished on the moto podium in four straight second motos, averaging a finish of 1.75 in those motos. Hymas has one prior start at Ironman in his career and it was a good one, finishing second overall via 6-2 moto scores.
Ryder DiFrancesco
Ironman has treated Ryder DiFrancesco well at times as he has nine of his twelve career laps led there. He led in both motos there in 2023 en route to sixth overall which was a career best at the time. That finish has remained his career best at that specific venue and he will be looking to bounce back from a fifteenth overall there in 2025 and fifteenth overall one round ago at Budds Creek after a crash in moto two relegated him to 25th for the moto.
DiFrancesco is well positioned to hold onto fifth in the series as he has 22 points on Kayden Minear behind him and 26 points to make up on Hymas ahead of him. It would be his best championship finish by far in motocross. His current best is tenth which he has finished in three straight seasons.
Julien Beaumer
Julien Beaumer sits third in points and likely needs a venue best day at Ironman to hold off Chance Hymas who sits five points back. Beaumer hasn’t had the best of results at Ironman in his career, averaging an overall of 16.33 in three starts. His best finish is fourteenth set in both 2024 and 2025. Southwick was a similar bogey track earlier this season and he rectified it by finishing inside the top five.
Going off of moto two at Budds Creek one week ago, Beaumer seems to be heading back to the form in which he earned his first moto and overall win at Spring Creek. His fourth was his best moto since his fourth in moto two at Spring Creek. Starts have been his enemy since that breakthrough ride, his average first lap positioning has been 15.50 in the six motos since.
Kayden Minear
Kayden Minear looks destined for sixth overall in the points standings unless he can make up 23 points on Ryder DiFrancesco at Ironman. The next closest active rider behind him sits over 100 points back. Minear has eight top tens this season and only four riders have more: Kitchen, Davies, Hymas, Beaumer. Minear has never raced Ironman as a professional but he does have an SMX Moto Combine podium there back in 2024.
A fifth in moto one at Budds Creek one week ago was his best moto finish since a third in moto one at Spring Creek. His sixth overall on the day at Budds Creek was also his best overall since that day in Minnesota. In his 20 motos raced this season, he has finished in the top ten in 15 of them.
WMX Class
Lachlan Turner
Lachlan Turner holds a 21 point lead over Charli Cannon going into the final round at Ironman. Turner dominated Ironman in 2025, winning both motos and leading every lap. She finished second there in 2024 making it one of just four venues where she does not have a perfect win rate. Turner has been on fire this year, winning four of the five overalls so far and setting the fastest laptime in nine of the ten motos.
One more overall victory and Turner will tie Kylie Fasnacht with 14, tying her for the third most in WMX history. Another overall podium would be her 18th, tying her with Tania Satchwell for seventh in WMX history.
Charli Cannon
Charli Cannon will likely need to win and get some significant help if she wants to pull off the 21 point upset and claim the WMX crown. Cannon has been the only rider to unseat Lachlan Turner in multiple categories this season. Cannon is the only other rider to have an overall victory and is the only other rider to set a fastest lap time in a moto.
Cannon is tied with Turner for most pole positions this season with two a piece. Another podium at Ironman would get her to eleven career podiums, tying her with 2003 champion Steffi Laier.
Mikayla Nielsen
Mikayla Nielsen has raced Ironman twice in her WMX career and come away with a third in 2024 and a fourth in 2025. She was destined for a podium in 2025 as well before a last lap crash in moto two pushed her to sixth in that moto. Nielsen is one of just two riders to have finished ahead of Lachlan Turner in a moto at Ironman. Kyleigh Stallings is the other and she won the overall there in 2024.
Nielsen is in a three rider duel for third in the championship standings. She is tied with Jordan Jarvis for fourth, just three points behind Australia’s Taylah McCutcheon. Nielsen’s superior first lap positioning could be her biggest weapon in surging to third in the standings. She averages a lap one position of 3.60, compared to 6.60 from McCutcheon and 9.60 from Jarvis. Only Turner has a better first lap positioning this season than Nielsen.