Who Will Win? The Chase for the 2025 Championship

Three drivers are in close competition for this year’s Open Championship! Running a year-long points series means that many seasons are wrapped up well before the end of the schedule, but this year’s championship is going to stay tight until the very end as Tyler Menninga and Tristan England go head-to-head for three final races while Coty Saucier tries to hang on from the sidelines.

===== AUGUST UPRISING =====

Coty Saucier has been hanging on to his #1 ranking almost the entire year. His season started with a dominant performance abroad as he won 4-of-5 in Mexico and 4-of-4 in Puerto Rico with Monster Jam. He has 29 wins which is the 2^nd most of all drivers; and he leads in Total Points with 13138, which is the 4^th highest total all-time since 2019.

But Monster Jam launched the Freestyle Mania tour in August and we were all elated to see that racing was still included in those events. After a non-points weekend in Las Vegas, both Tristan England and Tyler Menninga saw racing action in Sacramento, CA (3 races); Fresno, CA (4 races); and Los Angeles, CA (5 races). Tristan won 5 of those 12 and scored points in 11. Menninga went pointsless in Sacramento, but rebounded with 2 wins and 5 finals over the next 9 events.

Tyler’s 1830 points brought him within striking distance of the top ranking, but that was while Tristan scored 2814 points and passed Tyler in the rankings. The two went head-to-head 7 times with Tristan winning the series 6-1.

==== SEPTEMBER SCHEDULE =====

The Open Championship season runs from October through September, so this is the final month for the 2025 points series. Current points leader Coty Saucier has had only one event (World Finals) since his Arena tour ended back in May, and he has no event scheduled in September (to our knowledge). That means he can only continue to watch and wait to see what the other drivers do.

Tristan England and Tyler Menninga, however, still have three points-scoring events left this month with Monster Jam and they’ll be racing against in each other at all three. There will be two events in Calgary, Alberta worth 339 points each and one dome event in Saint Louis on the final weekend of the season worth a whopping 508 points! That means Saint Louis is slated to be the second-biggest event of the year behind only the World Finals in Salt Lake City (569 points). Tristan and Tyler also have three more races together in Oakland, California, but we are expecting those events to be timed racing and therefore not eligible for points. If somehow we do get bracket racing in Oakland, they’ll be worth 369 points each and would really change the complexion of the points race.

===== CURRENT SITUATION =====

Coty Saucier is currently #1. He gets that ranking because he is placed 1^st in Total Points (13138) and 5^th in Average Points (208.54). That gives him a rank-score of 1 + 5 = 6.

Tristan England is currently #2 overall. He is placed 5^th in Total Points (9735) and 2^nd in Average Points (237.44). That gives him a rank-score of 5 + 2 = 7.

Tyler Menninga is currently #3. He is placed 4^th in Total Points (10164) and 3^rd in Average Points (231.00). That gives him a rank-score of 4 + 3 = 7, but Average Points is the first tie-breaker so Tristan gets the position.

To pass Coty, Tristan and Tyler need to get their rank-score below or equal to Coty’s since they would each beat him on the Average Points tie-breaker. Gaining Total Points is easier than gaining Average Points this late in the season, but Tyler and Tristan are very close in Average Points and could potentially swap positions there. However, the real way of making ground will be in the Total Points placement.

Top-ranked independent Triton Robbins of the Krazy Train team has the 3^rd-most Total Points with 10199, putting him 464 points head of Tristan and a mere 35 points head of Tyler. For comparison, each round of racing is worth about 70 to 100 points depending on the event. The three remaining Monster Jam events will be worth approximately 1186 points which gives plenty of opportunity for Tristan and Tyler to pass Triton for the 3^rd-place position in Total Points. Triton does have three or four more events on his schedule for September, but we’re not sure if they will include bracket racing or not. If they do and he wins, he can make it more difficult for Tristan and Tyler to catch him, but they definitely have the advantage.

===== POSSIBLE OUTCOMES =====

If Menninga (-35 points back) passes Robbins in Total Points but England (-464) does not, then Menninga improves his rank-score to 6 and wins the tie-breaker with Saucier, giving Menninga the #1 ranking. England would stay in third.

If both Menninga and England pass Robbins in Total Points, they will each have rank-scores of 6 which creates a three-way tie for first place. We break that by Average Points, so England gets #1, Menninga #2, and Saucier #3. That would change is Menninga manages to pass England in Average Points, of course.

If Menninga can pass both Robbins and Weston Anderson, that would also break the tie since he would have a rank-score of only 5, which would be better than either Saucier or England could manage at this point.

But those are the outcomes when just looking at Tyler and Tristan. When we add in all the other drivers still in competition, we see that several other drivers will have a role to play in deciding this championship, too.

===== THE SPOILERS =====

Weston Anderson is the only driver who can still pass Coty Saucier in Total Points. He is not able to pass him for the #1 overall ranking, but if he can score 1734 points this month and become the Total Points leader, that would knock Coty Saucier’s rank-score down to a 7, creating another 3-way tie and giving the #1 ranking (currently) to Tristan England. This is actually very do-able for Weston because he has somehow gotten himself FOURTEEN (14!) events to race this month: 5 in Savannah, Georgia; 5 in Rosemont, Illinois; and 4 in Tacoma, Washington. Even if he just maintains his current pace of 178-points-per-event, that would give him 2492-points this month. And hey! Look at this—he has already won the first night of racing in Savannah, as seen live on the Monster Jam YouTube channel.

(P.S. Savannah is worth 291 points, so he is now only 1443 behind Coty as of Friday night. Also, it looks like he has another 4011 points still available to be won which is insane).

Jon Zimmer Jr is only 10 points behind Tristan England (9725) but he still has a HUGE schedule remaining: 5 in Savannah, 5 in Rosemont, and the dome in Saint Louis! (We’re excluding his weekend in Duluth since that event is usually timed racing and so not eligible for points). Everyone know that Zimmer Jr is very capable of winning races in Monster Jam and with 10 Arena events and the largest dome race of the year yet to go, it is very possible that he could pass Tristan England in Total Points. That would knock England down to third. Now Jon scored zero points in Savannah on Friday night, but he still has around 3367 points available in his remaining events. That’s enough to where he could pass both Tristan and Tyler in Total Points but he cannot pass Coty.

Triton Robbins is the closest prey for England and Menninga since he is right above them in Total Points. Again, he is 464 points ahead of Tristan and only 35 ahead of Tyler as of August 29th. We're not sure of his schedule for September, but if he has any bracket races left and can score points, he'll make it more difficult for Tyler and Tristan to catch him.

There are also some outsiders who still have some power: Bill Payne (9463 points), Dalton Widner (9193 points), and Devin Winfield (8854) are further behind but still have events remaining in September. If they get on a hot streak, they may have a chance to catch Tyler or Tristan and cause them problems. Bill Payne of Rock Star fame with the Malicious Tour still has 11 events listed on his schedule. If he continues at his 147.86 points-per-race pace, he could score over 11000 points this year.

That’s doubly-true to Winfield who will be racing head-to-head with both Menninga and England on the Freestyle Mania tour. He and fellow drivers Kayla Blood, Alex Bardin, Jeff Souza, Tim Hall Jr, and the always-fast Camden Murphy will have a chance to eliminate Tyler and Tristan within their brackets in Calgary. When you get to Saint Louis, you’ve also got the Zimmer and the Garners, plus Mike Christensen, Dalton Widner, Armando Castro, and Bryce Kenny to contend with.

And and and! Don’t forget that Tyler and Tristan might end up racing each other head-to-head up to 3 more times. Tristan leads the series 6-1.

===== CAN COTY STILL WIN? =====

Coty Saucier fans are probably wondering what their man can do at this late stage in the season. Unfortunately for him, the answer is just to wait and see.

Saucier has finished the season as the Open runner-up twice in 2020 and 2023. This year looked promising for the Saucier, who has been a strong racer for years on the top tours in the sport, but he’s only been able to compete in 1 race (the World Finals) since his Arena Series tour ended in May. That has let others eat away at his lead and now has him in peril of losing the top spot.But as of right now, Coty Saucier IS still the #1 rank and he does still have a chance to retain that ranking through the end of the month.

First of all, Tristan and Tyler still need to win races and score points. If they fall flat on their faces this month and get goose-eggs until October, then Coty might be able to hang on.

But that will only be true if Weston Anderson is unable to pass Coty for the most points. Weston has a ton of events left and lots of points to earn (and he just won in Savannah) so the threat of Weston taking over the top-place in Total Points is very real. If that happens, then Coty has to hope that both Tyler and Tristan have their Average Points fall below Bryce Kenny’s 224.82. Then Coty loses 1 point in rank-score to Weston, but both Tyler and Tristan lose 1 point to Bryce and everything stays the same at the top. It is mathematically possible for that to happen in the final 3 races, but it would require both Tristan and Tyler to get eliminated in the first round of all 3 races.

On the other hand, if Jon Zimmer Jr puts together a September to remember and passes both Tristan and Tyler, then that would bump them each down 1 point in rank-score, and then Saucier gets a little breathing room. Zimmer Jr is currently 10 points behind England and 439 points behind Menninga, but he has around 3300 points still available while the two contenders are limited to around 1180.  

So if you’re a Coty Saucier fan this month, you’re cheering for everyone to beat Tristan England, Tyler Menninga, and Weston Anderson; and you’re hoping that Jon Zimmer Jr and Bill Payne can pick up a bunch of points and get ahead of Tyler and Tristan in the Total Points placing.

===== EVERY RACE COUNTS =====

Our goal with the Open Championship is to make every race a points race, so that no matter where you’re at in the country or whichever tour comes to town, you get to see meaningful racing. Well, every race is definitely going to count this September, so if you’re at any events please record the racing bracket and send it in so we can score the points!

We are excited for this month and for crowning our 7^th Open Champion. Let us know in the comments how you think this season will play out and who will end up as the world racing champion in 2025!