A few weeks back Steve asked me to compare how many times Phil Nicoletti and Freddie Noren finished next to each other in motos.
The pair finished next to each other in motos 21 times with Phil getting the best of Freddie in 13 of those instance.
This led me to want to know the figures for the rest of the field. We will look at Overalls and Motos from both the 450MX and 250MX classes.
450MX Overalls – Most Times Finishing Adjacent
| Rank | Rider A | Rider B | Times Adjacent | Leader when Adjacent |
| 1 | Kevin Windham | Ricky Carmichael | 25 | Ricky Carmichael (20-5) |
| 2 | Eli Tomac | Ken Roczen | 24 | Eli Tomac (15-9) |
| Eli Tomac | Marvin Musquin | 24 | Marvin Musquin (14-10) | |
| 4 | Jeremy McGrath | Mike LaRocco | 23 | Jeremy McGrath (13-10) |
| 5 | Greg Albertyn | Mike LaRocco | 20 | Mike LaRocco (13-7) |
| Ken Roczen | Ryan Dungey | 20 | Ryan Dungey (12-8) | |
| 7 | Ryan Dungey | Ryan Villopoto | 19 | Ryan Villopoto (11-8) |
| 8 | Bob Hannah | Kent Howerton | 18 | Bob Hannah (12-6) |
| Jeff Ward | Rick Johnson | 18 | Rick Johnson (10-8) | |
| Larry Ward | Mike LaRocco | 18 | Mike LaRocco (11-7) | |
| 11 | Chad Reed | Ricky Carmichael | 17 | Ricky Carmichael (17-0) |
| 12 | Jeff Emig | Jeremy McGrath | 16 | Jeremy McGrath (10-6) |
| Kevin Windham | Tim Ferry | 16 | Kevin Windham (12-4) | |
| 14 | Ken Roczen | Marvin Musquin | 15 | Ken Roczen (9-6) |
| Chase Sexton | Eli Tomac | 15 | Eli Tomac (8-7) |
- Carmichael is the only one here with overwhelming advantage on the Head to Head, both against Windham and Chad Reed. Ricky 17-0 when finishing next to Reed in 450MX!
- This really goes to show Kevin Windham had the worst career timing of going against Ricky most of his career.
- How about Tomac in both 2nd places against Roczen and Musquin!
- Pretty impressive to see Jeff Ward / Rick Johnson with 18 despite the shorter 450MX seasons in the career vs todays numbers.
- Ryan Dungey and Ryan Villopoto only raced each other 24 times in 450MX…19 of those times they finished next to each other!
- 4 of the Roczen / Dungey combo came in 2022 in Dungey’s comeback season.
Lets look at moto totals:
450MX Motos – Most Times Finishing Adjacent
| Rank | Rider A | Rider B | Times Adjacent | Leader when Adjacent |
| 1 | Kevin Windham | Ricky Carmichael | 54 | Ricky Carmichael (42-12) |
| 2 | Eli Tomac | Marvin Musquin | 45 | Eli Tomac (26-19) |
| 3 | Eli Tomac | Ken Roczen | 44 | Eli Tomac (25-19) |
| 4 | Ken Roczen | Ryan Dungey | 37 | Ken Roczen (22-15) |
| 5 | Ryan Dungey | Ryan Villopoto | 36 | Ryan Villopoto (25-11) |
| 6 | Greg Albertyn | Mike LaRocco | 34 | Greg Albertyn (21-13) |
| Chad Reed | Kevin Windham | 34 | Chad Reed (20-14) | |
| 8 | Chad Reed | Ricky Carmichael | 33 | Ricky Carmichael (31-2) |
| 9 | Ezra Lusk | Mike LaRocco | 32 | Mike LaRocco (20-12) |
| Bob Hannah | Kent Howerton | 32 | Tied (16-16) | |
| Larry Ward | Mike LaRocco | 32 | Mike LaRocco (20-12) | |
| 12 | Jeff Ward | Rick Johnson | 31 | Rick Johnson (22-9) |
| 13 | Chase Sexton | Eli Tomac | 30 | Tied (15-15) |
| David Vuillemin | Kevin Windham | 30 | Kevin Windham (20-10) | |
| Kevin Windham | Tim Ferry | 30 | Kevin Windham (17-13) | |
| Jeremy McGrath | Mike LaRocco | 30 | Mike LaRocco (17-13) | |
| Jeff Emig | Jeremy McGrath | 30 | Jeremy McGrath (22-8) |
- Windham and Ricky ahead again, most of these numbers are roughly doubled (which makes sense)
- Ricky and Chad Reed stat again is pretty wild.
- How about Mike LaRocco in 3 spots, goes to show his longevity!
- Windham and Tim Ferry! Pretty close H2H too!
Onto the 250MX class.
250MX Overalls – Most Times Finishing Adjacent
| Rank | Rider A | Rider B | Times Adjacent | Leader when Adjacent |
| 1 | Jeff Ward | Johnny O’Mara | 22 | Jeff Ward (16-6) |
| 2 | Erik Kehoe | George Holland | 20 | Tied (10-10) |
| 3 | Guy Cooper | Mike Kiedrowski | 16 | Guy Cooper (9-7) |
| 4 | George Holland | Guy Cooper | 14 | Tied (7-7) |
| Mike Brown | Tim Ferry | 14 | Tim Ferry (10-4) | |
| Alex Martin | Shane McElrath | 14 | Alex Martin (8-6) | |
| 7 | Broc Glover | Mark Barnett | 13 | Mark Barnett (7-6) |
| Doug Henry | Jeremy McGrath | 13 | Jeremy McGrath (7-6) | |
| Jeremy Martin | Zach Osborne | 13 | Jeremy Martin (8-5) | |
| Hunter Lawrence | Jo Shimoda | 13 | Hunter Lawrence (8-5) | |
| 11 | Jeff Ward | Mark Barnett | 12 | Mark Barnett (10-2) |
| Jeff Emig | Steve Lamson | 12 | Jeff Emig (7-5) | |
| Kyle Cunningham | Martin Davalos | 12 | Kyle Cunningham (7-5) | |
| Dean Wilson | Tyla Rattray | 12 | Tied (6-6) | |
| Eli Tomac | Ken Roczen | 12 | Eli Tomac (8-4) | |
| Jett Lawrence | Justin Cooper | 12 | Jett Lawrence (7-5) | |
| Jo Shimoda | Justin Cooper | 12 | Justin Cooper (7-5) | |
| Hunter Lawrence | Justin Cooper | 12 | Justin Cooper (7-5) |
- Cool to see some older combos in this list!
- Surprised to see as high of numbers for the 250MX class given the top guys don’t stay in the class too long.
- Surprised to not see Jeremy Martin and Cooper Webb on here as a combo at the top, they finished adjacent 10 times.
- Almost all these combos are close except for Jeff Ward and Johnny O.
- Eli Tomac and Ken Roczen is the only combo that was also on the 450MX overall list.
- This shows Justin Cooper’s consistency vs both Lawrences and Shimoda.
Onto the motos.
| Rank | Rider A | Rider B | Times Adjacent | Leader when Adjacent |
| 1 | Jeff Ward | Johnny O’Mara | 45 | Jeff Ward (27-18) |
| 2 | Erik Kehoe | George Holland | 35 | George Holland (19-16) |
| 3 | Broc Glover | Mark Barnett | 27 | Broc Glover (15-12) |
| 3 | Guy Cooper | Mike Kiedrowski | 27 | Mike Kiedrowski (18-9) |
| 5 | Justin Cooper | RJ Hampshire | 26 | Justin Cooper (15-11) |
| Cooper Webb | Jeremy Martin | 26 | Jeremy Martin (19-7) | |
| 7 | RJ Hampshire | Shane McElrath | 25 | Shane McElrath (16-9) |
| Jo Shimoda | Levi Kitchen | 25 | Jo Shimoda (18-7) | |
| 9 | Mike Brown | Ryan Hughes | 24 | Ryan Hughes (14-10) |
| 10 | Alex Martin | Jeremy Martin | 22 | Jeremy Martin (12-10) |
| Donny Schmit | George Holland | 22 | Tied (11-11) | |
| Jeff Ward | Mark Barnett | 22 | Mark Barnett (18-4) | |
| Alex Martin | Shane McElrath | 22 | Tied (11-11) | |
| 14 | George Holland | Guy Cooper | 21 | George Holland (13-8) |
| Haiden Deegan | Jo Shimoda | 21 | Haiden Deegan (14-7) | |
| Hunter Lawrence | Jo Shimoda | 21 | Hunter Lawrence (16-5) | |
| Justin Cooper | Michael Mosiman | 21 | Justin Cooper (12-9) |
- Ward and O’Mara still ahead here, a bit close on moto scores when adjacent.
- The Cooper Webb and Jeremy Martin combo I mentioned before is tied for 5th here with Justin Cooper and RJ Hampshire.
- RJ Hampshire is pretty high on the list of starts in 250MX so it makes sense he has some combos here.
- Interesting that George Holland and Guy Cooper were tied for 4th in Overalls, but 14th in Motos.
- I did not see Justin Cooper and Michael Mosiman being a pair here, I think of Justin Cooper in 250MX as super consistent and Mosiman as the complete opposite. That said, both riders have a lot of total races in the class.
Thanks for reading! Any questions, hit me up on Twitter or Instagram @MXReference !
