ST. LOUIS, Missouri: Haiden Deegan took the lead from Coles Davies midway through the East/West Showdown at The Dome at Americas Center and rode away from the field to an easy victory of more than 15 seconds.
With a lead of 57 points over Levi Kitchen, Deegan wrapped up his second consecutive West Championship with two rounds remaining in his 250 career. Deegan has nothing left to prove in this class and will concentrate on testing his 450 bike before moving into that class for the Pro Motocross opener at Fox Raceway in Pala, California.
Deegan is scheduled to compete in Denver, Colorado in the penultimate round of Supercross 2026 and in the final East/West Showdown in Salt Lake City.
Davies held on for second, but lost sight of Deegan in the closing laps. He led the Eastern riders, including third-place Seth Hammaker.
Fourth-place Nate Thrasher and Ryder DiFrancesco rounded out the top five.
Max Anstie entered the race second in West points, but crashed late in the race and fell to third overall with a three-point deficit to Kitchen, who finished seventh in the Showdown. Kitchen was suffering from a sore back suffered in an incident at the gym.
In-Race Notes
Davies got the jump on the field with Deegan slotted into fifth.
Hammaker and Nick Romano rounded out the top three briefly, but Deegan was into second on Lap 2.
Thrasher rounded out the top five.
Davies and Deegan will settle which of them is the best among the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing team.
On Lap 6, the margin was half a second.
Deegan settled it in his favor later that same lap.
Hammaker remained third with Thrasher up to fourth and Kitchen in fifth.
Deegan gained four seconds on Lap 7.
Anstie was outside the top 10 midway through the race, which gave Deegan the points needed to clinch as they ran.
Anstie moved into 10th on Lap 10.
On Lap 12, Deegan led Davis by nine seconds and Hammaker by 15.
Anstie fell on Lap 12 and lost a lap.
Deegan was 15.6 seconds ahead of Davies at the checkers.
Hammaker took the final position on the podium.
Fourth-place Thrasher and Ryder DiFrancesco rounded out the top five after DiFrancesco took that position from Kitchen on the final lap.
