SUPERMOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYOFFS

September 13, 2025

Seth Hammaker

Nate Thrasher

The Dome at America’s Center

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: Jo Shimoda won't be joining us today. He is feeling under the weather, so he will be absent from this press conference. But we have Seth Hammaker and Nate Thrasher.

Seth, we'll start with you. This has been another strong day. What is your approach going into the finals next weekend? You're in a good spot.

SETH HAMMAKER: Yeah, I'm in a good spot. It was a solid day all around. I felt better physically today. Obviously we were inside. It wasn't as hot out.

Had two more consistent motos than I had been, and the second moto was a big step in the right direction, just with being more consistent in lap times, didn't drop off as much. Wanted to try to get Jo, but he was riding pretty well on a track that kind of had a limit to it. Just had to ride a little bit safe.

Yeah, overall, good day. As far as next weekend, I just want to go in there and try to win the race and see where that puts me and just keep this consistent kind of riding going. Wherever that puts me into the championship, hopefully it will be up there, but we're getting one more race, and then we're into the off-season.

It's been a pretty good year so far. Just looking to keep that going.

Q. Seth, it seemed like -- obviously both of those motos, you were kind of right behind Jo, within a second, a couple seconds. If you were able to kind of get right on him, did you have a place in mind where you think you could have made the pass?

SETH HAMMAKER: The sand was kind of a passing opportunity the whole time. If you could kind of get close, and maybe in that next bowl corner. That was kind of the plan.

But I was struggling in the sand. I wasn't great in there all day. It was just kind of like if an opportunity came about, I could kind of plan it there.

Or after the finish line and then that left right before the pass, like squaring that up and getting on the right side of that rhythm lane, and he would be on the inside heading into the sand and kind of chop the guy. They would have to go to the outside, and he would just funnel to the inside and make a pass.

That would have been two areas where I feel like I could have made a pass if I was close enough.

Q. You were one of the few guys that was kind of able to work forward in both races, but it looked really hard to make up time on this track. Where do you feel like you were making those strides each moto?

NATE THRASHER: I feel like in the first moto I had a terrible start. I was just quite a bit more aggressive than everybody else. I felt like last weekend I really struggled not being aggressive enough and didn't make my way forward. I focused on that going into that. It didn't matter the start. I was going to be as aggressive as possible.

Yeah, just kind of made -- I was just setting up the passes really well and kind of blew me out a little bit on that second. I was a little tired going into that one. It's what you do when you don't get a good start.

On that second one I gave it all I had, but I just didn't quite have the fitness to run all that time. Just a little tired from that first one.

Q. Seth, question for you. This is the first -- third year of SMX. First time we've been in a dome, a really tamed-down supercross track, not really outdoors at all. Thoughts on this track tonight compared to a traditional SMX, the ones that you've done?

SETH HAMMAKER: It was definitely a challenging one. Obviously there's only so much they can do with the track and obstacles and everything like that. I just feel like the way -- there's only so much they can do. The layout just funneled into a racing line that was the fastest and it was hard to make passes on. We say that all the time, one line, hard to make passes, but it kind of showed up more here.

I think it's a good mix, like for them to do at least one race like they did, and the middle one here in St. Louis, I think it mixes it up.

I don't know. I feel like maybe have even one that is more supercross-y than this and then one -- like maybe the first one, maybe be like more of an outdoor style, even more outdoor than a dragstrip race, and that would make it tough on us, like we're just kind of going back and forth.

I think it just -- you know, SuperMotocross is supposed to be combined with both, and then leave the last one as a dragstrip and a hybrid. Maybe something for the future. But overall I feel like they did as best as they could with what they were given.

Q. For Seth, when you get into these double points, triple points scoring rounds, how much does strategy go out the window when it's just a matter of effectively fighting the whole way?

SETH HAMMAKER: The double and triple points, I mean, at these races you need to be on it. The first race is the one to make the mistake at if you have a bad race. But coming into the second and third round, it's super critical to be up front, land on the podium, and give yourself as good of a shot as you can heading into the last final race in Vegas.

I believe I'm 14 down, and obviously with triple points, if I go out and win, and even if Jo gets second, I still won't win, but hopefully I can just put myself in a good position and let all that play out how it does.

Definitely super critical. I've been consistent. Those five points that I got docked last weekend are definitely huge now because that would put me, I think, nine back. It is what it is, but those points matter in a short championship like this.

Yeah, just grateful to be in the position I am, third overall heading into the last round.

Q. Nate, I feel like I see you so often be so good and then the next weekend you're not quite in the mix. Can you give us some insight on what was the reason that you were so fast tonight?

NATE THRASHER: Yeah, I feel like towards the end of -- even the end of supercross, after I got hurt after that first round, I was pretty solid. I had some bad races but mainly just didn't -- just went down. There I was pretty solid coming in. And then I was really struggling, just hadn't rode it in a long time there in the beginning, and was just struggling with the bike, honestly.

With two to go, I found something with a different link and with the bike, and made me so much more comfortable. And then went and got seventh at Undadilla and then Budds was fifth. So it was just kind of trending.

Going into these races, once I got back on the SMX track, I was really going fast in practice there. In Charlotte, just didn't have my -- just wasn't aggressive enough, like I said. But, yeah, I had the speed there too, I feel like, to run inside the top five.

Then today, just a little bit tighter, which kind of suited me a little bit better. Yeah, felt good from the get-go. This turf is amazing, and was just trying to be as aggressive as I could all day.

Q. Seth, looking at what has happened through Supercross at Salt Lake City, we've seen what your teammate did today. Going into Vegas next weekend, are you prepared to do what you can do to win this championship? Then winning this championship, is that redemption for Salt Lake City and Supercross?

SETH HAMMAKER: It would definitely be nice to get the championship and kind of get some redemption on what happened at Supercross. Going into the last round, I feel like for the experience that I went through in Salt Lake City, I've never been in a championship fight like that, so I feel like I should be more comfortable and a little bit more calm next weekend.

Just like I said, I'm a little bit -- like I'm not out of it by any means, but anything can happen. At this point, a lot of money on the line. All of us will do whatever it takes to get that win. Going to just put my best foot forward, probably just try to execute starts and put that stuff behind me if I can and see how it plays out.

But try to stay out of the chaos and just do my thing.

Q. Nate, you guys have this track, this exact pretty close replica at the compound, and you guys have done a lot of scrimmages and all that. Did you know it would race the way it did after all the laps you guys have put on it, and how did you set a strategy for this weekend?

NATE THRASHER: Yeah, I knew it was going to be one line. I feel like the biggest passing point in a supercross race is the loops, it comes down to that. If a guy is not as good in the loops, he's going to ride a little bit tighter around the rest of the track. So I think it opens up a lot.

I knew it was going to be one line. Our track wasn't quite the same. We didn't have the tunnel, so we never went out of the stadium. It was a little bit different. Ours was even more one line than this after that section.

So I knew it was going to be one line, but I think you could make a pass, but you just had to really dive bomb tonight. There just wasn't -- even in the split lane, I feel like they could have made the outside a little bit better. The inside was too good. I feel like, if you went out there, you just lost time. I feel like, if they made that a little bit better, even closer, you could rush that outside and get a pass. I knew it was going to be one line.

I feel like all of these tracks are one line. Even last weekend, like it was so deep in the outdoor section, if you went to the inside, you just kind of got stuck on the 250. I feel like even last week was one line. I don't think it's any more one line here than it was last weekend.

THE MODERATOR: For our 250 SMX division, Jo Shimoda, Seth Hammaker, and Nate Thrasher.