There have been 35 different riders to win the 250MX Motocross Championship in the 51 complete seasons of the class. 14 of those riders went on to win the the 450MX championships. What this article is going over is the ones to not find much success in the 450 Class.
To clear up any confusion the classes I am referring to. We are talking about the 450MX (Previously 250 2 stroke class) and 250MX (Previously 125 2 stroke class) classes throughout this article.
There are two 250MX champions that have zero 450MX starts.
Those riders are: Haiden Deegan (2024 250MX Champion) and Jeremy Martin (2014 & 2015 250MX Champion).
Because these two have no 450MX history, I won’t include them in any tables/charts.
250MX Champions with Zero 450MX Overall Wins
| Rider | 250MX Championship Year(s) | 450MX Starts | 450MX Overall Wins |
| Aaron Plessinger | 2018 | 52 | 0 |
| Dean Wilson | 2011 | 50 | 0 |
| Steve Lamson | 1995, 1996 | 36 | 0 |
| Guy Cooper | 1990 | 22 | 0 |
| Mike Brown | 2001 | 20 | 0 |
| Micky Dymond | 1986, 1987 | 16 | 0 |
| Hunter Lawrence | 2023 | 12 | 0 |
| Mark Barnett | 1980, 1981, 1982 | 11 | 0 |
| George Holland | 1988 | 8 | 0 |
| Travis Pastrana | 2000 | 4 | 0 |
- I was surprised to see that Aaron Plessinger is the leader in 450MX starts without a win among champions here, I would have thought it was Dean Wilson. AP has 13 podiums, 5 of which are 2nd overall, but hasn’t been able to win one. It will be tough going forward with the Lawrences, Tomac and Sexton to compete with.
- Dean Wilson is second here which really goes to show how injury plagued his career has been. Deano only started all the races in a season one time – 2017. He has 2 career podiums in 450MX.
- Steve Lamson won back to back 250MX titles in the mid 90s. His 1996 title was fairly dominant as well with an average Overall Finish of 1.77. An average better than all of Ryan Villopoto’s 250MX title years. However, he never saw that success in the 450 Class. Interestingly for Lamson, his 4 career 450MX podiums came in 1993 – before his two 250MX titles.
- Guy Cooper never podiumed in the 450 Class.
- Mike Brown spent most of his outdoors career in the 250 Class. His time in the 450 class was well after his prime years.
- Micky Dymond also never podiumed in the 450 Class.
- Hunter Lawrence only moved up to the 450 Class last year. Hunter has tied for the overall win three times, but has lost the tiebreak in all three.
- Mark Barnett had very few 450MX starts, but he did podium two times. He is the only three time 250MX champ with no 450MX wins.
- All of George Holland’s 450MX starts came in 1984 before his 250MX title.
- By the time Outdoors came around, Travis Pastrana was likely injured from racing or FMX. Pastrana’s outdoor 450MX overall average was 36.75 in his four races.
250MX Champions with Few 450MX Overall Wins
Here is a list of 250MX Champions with just one or two career 450MX overall wins:
| Rider | 250MX Championship Year(s) | 450MX Starts | 450MX Overall Wins |
| Cooper Webb | 2016 | 47 | 1 |
| Trey Canard | 2010 | 36 | 1 |
| Ivan Tedesco | 2005 | 35 | 1 |
| Blake Baggett | 2012 | 57 | 2 |
| Johnny O’Mara | 1983 | 37 | 2 |
| Adam Cianciarulo | 2019 | 26 | 2 |
| Broc Glover | 1977, 1978, 1979 | 18 | 2 |
| Marty Smith | 1974, 1975 | 13 | 2 |
- Cooper Webb’s one victory was at Millville 2019, where he went 1-1. This race has Webb’s only 450MX moto wins in his career as well.
- Trey Canard had 11 450MX podiums but only one win. A 1-1 at the final round in 2014 in Utah.
- Another example of 1-1 overall win here. Tedesco went 1-1 at Thunder Valley 2009. Interesting that Webb, Canard and Tedesco’s career wins were 1-1 finishes. Tedesco’s only moto wins came in this race as well.
- Both of Blake Baggett’s career 450MX wins came in 2017 when he was competing for the title.
- Johnny O’Mara has 17 career 450MX podiums, 5 2nd Overalls but just 2 wins.
- Adam Cianciarulo had few 450MX starts due to injury, 11 of which came in 2023 when his arm was really impacted his riding ability. However, AC was incredibly impressive in 2020, getting two Overalls and finished just 12 points behind Zach Osborne in the covid shortened season. AC led the most laps that year (43.67% of all laps!) and had more moto podiums than champion Zach Osborne. Unfortunately for Adam, his DNF in moto 2 at the mudder at Loretta Lynn’s hurt his title shots.
- Broc Glover and Marty Smith both won just two races each.
Guy Cooper, Mike Brown, Micky Dymond, George Holland and Travis Pastrana are the only 250MX champions to have never podiumed in the 450 class.
250MX Average Overall Finish vs 450MX Average Overall Finish
| Rider | 250MX Overall Avg | 450MX Overall AVG | Difference |
| Hunter Lawrence | 6.58 | 2.67 | 3.91 |
| Ivan Tedesco | 13.30 | 11.77 | 1.53 |
| Johnny O’Mara | 6.66 | 5.43 | 1.23 |
| Trey Canard | 6.43 | 6.19 | 0.23 |
| Adam Cianciarulo | 6.84 | 6.62 | 0.22 |
| Blake Baggett | 5.55 | 6.88 | -1.33 |
| Cooper Webb | 6.20 | 7.91 | -1.71 |
| Aaron Plessinger | 6.52 | 8.63 | -2.11 |
| Broc Glover | 3.08 | 5.67 | -2.59 |
| Mark Barnett | 3.39 | 7.45 | -4.06 |
| Marty Smith | 3.21 | 7.54 | -4.33 |
| Mike Brown | 11.23 | 15.80 | -4.57 |
| George Holland | 4.37 | 9.13 | -4.76 |
| Micky Dymond | 3.43 | 8.94 | -5.50 |
| Dean Wilson | 5.29 | 10.82 | -5.53 |
| Steve Lamson | 10.04 | 16.08 | -6.05 |
| Guy Cooper | 5.87 | 12.82 | -6.95 |
| Travis Pastrana | 5.32 | 36.75 | -31.43 |
Looking at the average finish difference between the 250MX and 450MX class for these riders is pretty interesting. Some of these are a bit skewed by sample sizes.
- Obviously Pastrana stands out here.
- Surprisingly to me there are any improvements here. I would have thought all these riders would have had a worse average.
- Hunter Lawrence makes some sense to see an improvement, especially given his early 250MX days were not good.
- But seeing Ivan Tedesco with an improvement here kind of shocks me.
What about the other way around, 450MX champions without 250MX success?
450MX Champions with Few 250MX Overall Wins
There are five 450MX Class champions without any 250MX class starts: Gary Jones, Tony DiStefano, Donnie Hansen, Jeff Stanton and Greg Albertyn.
Gary Jones and Tony DiStefano were already established in the premier class before the 250MX (125MX at the time) started in 1974. Jeff Stanton went straight the the Premier Classes in his career both in motocross and even supercross.
Greg Albertyn was a already an MXGP world champion in the premier class before coming to the US and winning the 1999 outdoors title.
So I am not including these guys.
| Rider | 450MX Championship Year(s) | 250MX Starts | 250MX Overall Wins |
| Chase Sexton | 2024 | 32 | 0 |
| Rick Johnson | 1984, 1986, 1987 | 8 | 0 |
| David Bailey | 1983 | 1 | 0 |
| Chad Reed | 2009 | 12 | 1 |
| Jeremy McGrath | 1995 | 39 | 2 |
| Ken Roczen | 2014, 2016 | 25 | 2 |
- Chase Sexton really stands out here with not having much 250MX success despite being a top level 450 rider. Sexton never won a 250MX moto and only had 5 overall podiums.
- Rick Johnson had zero wins his his 8 starts.
- David Bailey only had one 250MX start.
- Chad Reed only competed in the 250MX class in 2002, winning one overall. Unfortunately for Reed, the most memorable part of that 2002 outdoors season is James Stewart letting him by and then passing him right back at Unadilla.
- The last two are interesting, Jeremy McGrath and Ken Roczen only won two races each.
- Roczen was more of a title threat in his time in the class compared to Jeremy McGrath, especially in 2013 when battling Eli Tomac for the title.
- Roczen also competed in the 250MX class just last year in 2024 on a Suzuki, he raced at Ironman and had 9-12 scores for 9th overall. I already completely forgot about Kenny doing this last year.
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