The racing in round 11 of the SMX World Championship in Seattle over the weekend was pretty average in the 450 class, but the 250 West class featured some of the best racing of the year.

That was primarily because of two racers: Haiden Deegan and Julien Beaumer. 

Back in round one of the season, these two racers had gone back and forth, and it was expected that there would be a fun rivalry between them. But at this point in the season, the rivalry is not friendly and these two racers are out for each other.

Earlier in the season, these two would purposely run into each other and try to mess each other up. This is common in SMX racing, with racers trying to fight for a better finishing position. 

Then Deegan was arrested on March 22 and charged with stunt driving/street racing, with police alleging he was doing donuts in his car in an empty parking lot. He was released two hours after his arrest on a $1,000 bail.

But then Beaumer posted Deegan’s mugshot and arrest information, which included Deegan’s home address, on his Instagram account. Deegan got mad that Beaumer posted his address and said it was going to be a rough weekend for Beaumer. 

Deegan messaged Beaumer on Instagram the night before this weekend’s race, calling him a legend and said he hoped Beaumer was practicing for the race conditions. 

This led to one of the best races of the season. Deegan did not have a good start, but viewers could see in his body language that he wanted to catch up to Beaumer and clean him out. Deegan caught up with less than three minutes left, and he ran hard into Beaumer.

Deegan looked back to see if he had knocked Beaumer over, but Beaumer was still on his bike. Beaumer needed to quickly regroup, but he was unable to catch back up with the short amount of time left. Deegan beat Beaumer, and this extended Deegan’s points lead to 14 points. 

As soon as the race was over, the two racers got into a heated argument, grabbing each other’s helmets and slapping each other. They both proceeded to call each other out on the podium, saying that they would be going after each other at their next 250 West race in Philadelphia in two weeks.  

Ultimately, this has led to some of the best racing of the season. These two are determined to win the championship, and they are not afraid to hurt each other in the process. This rivalry is showing no signs of slowing down. These two racers are starting a good rivalry that will make for awesome racing in the upcoming years. 

In the month of April, the Supercross championship is racing in the Northeast. This weekend, Supercross will be in Foxborough, Mass. The weekend after is in Philadelphia, then in East Rutherford, NJ., and the final stop will be in Pittsburgh, where the Purbalite will have coverage of the entire weekend of racing. 

Going into an off weekend for the 250 West Class, the championship has lots of excitement and anger that should make Philadelphia a great race.