450 Class
Hunter Lawrence
Fresh off his 450 MX Championship, Hunter Lawrence will enter Columbus for the first round of the SMX Playoffs with the number one seed in the class. This is the first time in his Premier class career he finished as the number one points scorer in the regular season. Hunter will be a strong favorite to earn the SMX Playoff World Championship as he is one of just three riders to have a 450 playoff overall victory. He was won two of the nine playoff races. His brother Jett, has won six. With Jett out, no one else has more 450 playoff wins than Hunter and no one else has more than one.
If Hunter goes onto win the SMX title, he will be the first rider to enter the playoffs with the red plate and win the championship. Jett, who has won all three, was seeded third, sixth, and second, in his triumphs. Hunter’s 820 points from SX and MX this season are the most by a rider entering the playoffs. He narrowly beats out Chase Sexton’s record of 811 set in 2024.
Jorge Prado
With 590 points scored during SX and MX in the 450 class, Jorge Prado enters the SMX Playoffs seeded in second place. The Spainard first raced in the United States in 2024 but this will be his SMX Playoff debut. He will try and get KTM on the board in terms of SMX overall victories as Honda as won all nine playoff overalls to date.
Prado is coming into the playoffs in a rich vein of form. In the final six motos of the motocross campaign, Prado set the fastest lap time in five of them. Most recently, he dominated Ironman winning both motos and securing his first overall victory in the States. Over the final three rounds of the MX series, Prado had the best average first lap position (3.00), average overall finish (1.67), and average moto finish (2.17). He finished off with three straight podiums and has the longest active streak in the class.
Cooper Webb
Coming off a podium at Ironman, Cooper Webb has made himself the three seed going into the SMX Playoffs. His seeding is a career high, besting his fourth seed in 2025. The 3x Premier Class SX Champion is one of seven riders to start all nine SMX Playoff rounds in the 450 class. In those nine starts, he has one podium, four top fives, and a perfect top ten record. His best moto finish of third came in moto two at the 2023 finale in Los Angeles.
Webb has done his better SMX work at the stadium venues. He finished third overall at that race in Los Angeles and he finished fifth in St. Louis in 2025, his best finish of last year’s playoffs. Third is his best SMX finish and fifth is his second best. He has finished fifth three times in SMX. Columbus will be geared more towards Supercross, playing into Webb’s hand.
Dylan Ferrandis
The fifth seed in the 450 class to begin the SMX Playoffs is Dylan Ferrandis. It ties his best seeding and his 445 SX/MX points are just ten points short of his career most in the SMX Playoff era. Ferrandis is one of seven riders to earn an SMX Playoff overall podium in the 450 class. He did this in 2023 at the first ever playoff race at zMAX Dragway by way of 2-4 moto scores. He is also one of seven riders to start all nine playoff races on a 450.
Ferrandis had his best MX season since 2024. He had eight top ten overalls which is tied for the most since he had ten in 2023. He and his teammate, Justin Barcia, will be putting Ducati into the SMX Playoffs for the very first time at round one in Columbus.
Ken Roczen
Ken Roczen, the reigning Premier Class Supercross Champion will mark his return to dirtbike racing in Columbus. The German rider is slotted into the tenth seed despite not racing any of the motocross series for the first time since 2017. Roczen is one of just five riders with an SMX moto victory in the 450 class and is one of just three that will be lining up at round one. Roczen’s SMX career got off to a great start, battling Jett Lawrence to the end in 2023 and finished second at all three rounds that season. Since then though, he has not earned an overall podium.
Roczen has only one finish worse than sixth in his SMX career and boasts a 66.67% top five percentage. In 2025, in The Dome at America's Center, Roczen finished a playoff season best second in moto one. Columbus will be more Supercross-centric and he will hope to tap into that expertise easier than his competitors since he did not race any MX.
Haiden Deegan
Haiden Deegan, the winningest rider in 250 SMX Playoff history, will be making his 450 playoff debut in Columbus from the seventh seed. Deegan won two out of three SMX World Championships during his time in the Lites class. His four overall victories are the most all time in the class and his eight moto wins account for nearly half of all 250 SMX Playoff moto wins. The next closest riders have two, Hunter Lawrence and Jo Shimoda.
This will be Deegan’s 450 AMA debut on a Supercross style track. He is coming into it as one of the more in-form riders in the class. He had just one moto outside the top four in the final thirteen motos of the MX season. He finishes strong as he podiumed the second moto in nine of the eleven second motos this season.
Eli Tomac
The beginning of Eli Tomac’s farewell tour will begin in Columbus, Ohio at round one of the SMX Playoffs. Tomac comes into the playoffs as the eight seed. He is one of five riders in the 450 class to earn an SMX Playoff moto victory. He did that in his playoff debut in 2024 and finished second overall with 1-2 scores. That still stands as his best overall finish. His results since then have been 4-3-3-3-3.
Tomac’s five overall podiums in the playoffs are tied with Chase Sexton for second most all time. He has never finished outside the top five overall or in qualifying in his six playoff appearances. He has 41 playoff laps led which puts him fourth behind Hunter Lawrence (49), Chase Sexton (49), and Jett Lawrence (99).
250 Class
Cole Davies
Cole Davies will enter Columbus as the 250 class’ number one seed on the back of his SX and MX championships this season. Like his MX results entering 2026, his SMX results in 2025 are not flattering. He has overall finishes of 8-11-23 in his three starts in the playoffs. He very quickly squashed any qualms about his outdoor capability and won the championship this season, dominating most statistics. It will not be a surprise to see the same happen in SMX, especially at the Supercross heavy Columbus venue.
Davies ended the Supercross season with an average main event finish of 1.80, only Haiden Deegan had a better mark across both coasts (1.70). He had the best average overall among 250 riders who raced at least half the rounds this summer with a 4.45.
Levi Kitchen
Levi Kitchen enters the SMX Playoffs as the number two seed. It is the second time in his career he has been seeded second and third time he has been seeded in the top three out of the four years the playoffs have been around. Despite his wins and success in SX and MX, Kitchen has modest SMX results. He has one podium in nine starts but has only finished outside the top ten once and it came at the finale in 2025 after a moto two bike failure. He does have a moto win and is one of eight 250 riders to do so in the playoffs.
Kitchen averages 0.80 positions better in Supercross main events compared to Motocross overalls. Kitchen has quietly been ultra consistent across both disciplines this year. Excluding Ironman, he has just three finishes outside the top five across both series. A 6th at Anaheim 1, a 21st DNF at Anaheim 2, and a 7th at the E/W Showdown in St. Louis.
Ryder DiFrancesco
Ryder DiFrancesco comes into Columbus as the three seed in the 250 class. This is by far his best seeding, beating his previous best of ninth in 2024. He scored 490 points across SX and MX this season, 150 more than his previous best of 340.
DiFrancesco has a moto podium in SMX, doing so in moto two of the first ever playoff race at zMAX Dragway in 2023. He ended fourth overall that day which remains his career best. That third at the time was his best result as a professional. His second best overall of sixth also came at zMAX Dragway in 2025.
Chance Hymas
After only scoring 38 points in Supercross due to injury, Chance Hymas surged in pro motocross to end up with the fourth seed for the playoffs. This is his best ever seeding after previously being fifth in 2024. Hymas is relatively green when it comes to SMX as he has only started one playoff race in his career and it came in 2024 at zMAX Dragway. It did not go to plan and he finished 16th overall.
Hymas might be the most in-form rider in the 250 class coming into the playoffs. In the second half of the MX season (rounds 7-11), he was the only rider to podium all five rounds and he had the best average overall finish (2.20) and average moto finish (2.80). In that stretch he earned an overall win and three moto wins, second most in that time.
Julien Beaumer
Julien Beaumer will come into the opening round of the SMX Playoffs with a lot of momentum due to winning the second moto and overall at the final round of SMX at Ironman. Beaumer has started three playoff races and has averaged an overall finish of 5.33. That is the fourth best in the class all time and second best among current riders behind Jo Shimoda’s 2.33.
The playoffs in 2024 is when he asserted himself as a contender in the class as he went 2-4 for second overall at the opener. He led laps in both motos and was credited with a holeshot. His previous best result in any professional discipline was sixth, set originally in Supercross and twice more in Motocross. If Beaumer earns another overall podium in these playoffs, he’d be just the fifth rider with multiple 250 SMX Playoff podiums. If he earns an overall victory, he’d be the fifth rider to do so in the class and first on a KTM in either class.
Jo Shimoda
Jo Shimoda, the reigning 250 SMX World Champion, will be making his return to racing in Columbus to defend his crown. Shimoda has been statistically the most consistent rider in 250 SMX. He has three overall wins, second to Haiden Deegan’s four, he has seven overall podiums, tied with Deegan for the most, and he has the best average overall finish of 2.33. His two moto wins are second to Deegan’s eight. His SMX Playoff points standings finishes have been 2-4-1.
Shimoda is one of two riders with multiple playoff overall wins in the class and he is one of three riders with multiple playoff moto wins. Due to missing time in both SX and MX, Shimoda will enter Columbus with the 12th seed. The lowest seeded rider to win a championship in SMX is Jett Lawrence who was seeded sixth in 2024.