One round remains in the 2025 Boost Mobile AUSX Supercross Championship, which has delivered a range of intriguing storylines throughout the four events contested so far. Entering the season finale in Adelaide this weekend, MotoOnline answers some of the burning questions leaving Melbourne’s AUSX Open last Saturday.

Image: Foremost Media.

Q: What has changed in the SX2 championship picture?

A: A lot is the understated answer to the above question. We lost series leader Lux Turner during free practice in Marvel Stadium, with the 20-year-old overshooting the corner after the whoops, before having a tangle with the nets that resulted in a fractured right wrist. It’s a massive bummer for him, with three for three victories across the opening AUSX races cementing the American as the championship favourite for 2025. That said, Monster Energy Yamalube Yamaha teammate Ryder Kingsford now leads the series, with NFAL Honda’s Alex Larwood 12 points in arrears. More consequentially, this is set to be the first Australian champion in the SX2 division since Jay Wilson’s win back in 2018! There is a cool feeling about that, with both Kingsford and Larwood having earned their position in the standings to this point, and may the best rider win in Adelaide.

Q: How has Ryder Malinoski emerged with the SX3 points lead?

A: This one was a little more confusing, and remains that way with former series leader Kayd Kingsford’s status currently not clear. We have received word from Honda Racing that he is ‘okay’, although it sure didn’t look that way as he exited Melbourne’s SX3 final around the halfway mark. In short, he cased the triple before the finish line, then rode the bike to the ground next to the tunnel, which was all the night wrote for the number 20. This has had a big impact on the championship, with Malinoski now claiming the red plate after a convincing win on 78 points. Husqvarna-mounted Jack Deveson is second on 75, while Kingsford falls to P3 on 72, and level with Jet Alsop. The SX3 division has been full of fireworks all season long, and with four riders still well within the title fight entering Adelaide, this will be a showdown that you won’t want to miss.

Image: Foremost Media.

Q: What are the characteristics of the Adelaide round?

A: This flows well from the prior two questions, because the Adelaide venue is tight, judging by last year’s event. Larwood mentioned that it is one of – if not the tightest – races on the fixture, and so a rider’s strategy is as follows; Get a good start, and run and hide while chaos ensues behind you. Or, if you are in the heat of battle, then aggression is the name of the game, coming as a direct result of the tight confines of the circuit. Block passes, and bold moves in corners become almost your only option, so in both SX2 and SX3 given the current landscape, you can expect that some bar banging is almost guaranteed. The event also runs alongside the Supercars Championship, which is a positive in drawing new eyeballs to supercross as a motorsport in its own right. All of the above may provide some nerves for the riders, but from a fan perspective, it’s great, with the intensity dial turned all the way up for the series finale this weekend.

Q: Can Hayden Mellross secure the final place on the SX1 podium?

A: He certainly can! There’s something strange that happens when you introduce a certain degree of parity, or perhaps it is due to downright inconsistency, but KTM Racing Team’s Dylan Walsh finished P8 overall in Melbourne and climbed from sixth to fourth in the SX1 standings. Those two things don’t seem likely, and yet it did happen, with Mellross’ steady sixth overall at the AUSX Open seeing him extend that advantage between him and the hungry pack of contenders behind him. Mitchell Harrison, Luke Clout, and Aaron Tanti all had shockers on Saturday, and so Mellross is sitting in a pretty stable position – 15 points ahead of Walsh – and could very well put his privateer KTM on the overall series podium in 2025.

Image: Foremost Media.

Q: What was the injury toll from Marvel Stadium?

A: We did pick up some more injuries in Melbourne, starting with Nathan Crawford. The KTM Racing Team didn’t go into detail regarding the Queenslander’s absence on Saturday, but quietly announced that his supercross season is over after it was expected he’d make a racing return for the fourth and fifth rounds. We lost Turner with a wrist fracture – as mentioned previously – as well as Honda Racing’s Tiger Wood, who has a ruptured ACL. Teammate Wilson Todd was also in the wars on Saturday, racing to seventh overall in SX2 despite having fractured four bones in his foot. Continuing the bruising weekend for Honda Racing was Kingsford, as the tail end of the series continues to catch some riders out.

Q: Who are the title-contenders in the SX1 division?

A: The SX1 championship comes down to Honda Racing teammates Dean Wilson and Cedric Soubeyras. This has to make team owner Yarrive Konsky happy, knowing that one of his riders will seal him an eighth consecutive SX1 crown, which is a run that is becoming increasingly impressive. So much so that the other manufacturers are going to have to have a real think about how they can overcome this red run, with Daniel Reardon in 2015 – now a decade ago – being the last non-Honda rider to win with the Monster Energy CDR Yamaha program. For this year, Wilson has a 42-point advantage over Soubeyras, which effectively means he needs to score nine points over the two final format to earn a second SX1 championship, complementing his 2023 victory. That’s the premier class story entering the 2025 finale, in what has been an exceptional campaign for Wilson and his CRF450R so far.