Eli Tomac wins 2026 AMA Supercross opener, huge crash takes out two contenders

The 2026 AMA Supercross season kicked off as usual at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, with Eli Tomac taking a landmark victory after a red flag.

It was Tomac who made the holeshot on the first start of the 450SX Main Event. He quickly gave up the lead when he went wide in the second turn, allowing reigning champion Cooper Webb into the lead.

Webb’s time at the front was cut short due to a crash at the end of the second rhythm which brought out the red flags which stopped the race almost as soon as it had started.

Multiple riders were involved, but most significantly were Malcolm Stewart and Justin Barcia. Stewart was forced to pull out of the Supercross Triple at the end of the rhythm because of his converging trajectory with Ken Roczen as they approached the take-off. Behind, Barcia had committed to jumping the triple, and had no way to avoid Stewart, who was on the third lip of the obstacle as the Troy Lee Designs Ducati rider was landing.

Barcia landed on Stewart as a result. He fell from his bike and tumbled towards the bowl turn that followed the triple, being hit by the bike as it flipped end-over-end.

The latest update at the time of writing is that Barcia was conscious when speaking to medical staff at the stadium, and was transferred to a local medical centre for assessments after initially being taken to the on-site medical unit. Malcolm Stewart was also taken to the on-site medical unit.

The restarted race again saw a KTM rider take the holeshot, but this time it was Tomac’s fellow Supercross debutant Jorge Prado. The Spaniard led only briefly, being passed by Tomac before they reached the finish line. Soon after, Ken Roczen demoted Prado to third.

Roczen was the only rider to stay within touching distance of Tomac, but was never able to get within two seconds of his long-time American motocross rival. 

Tomac, for his part, was faultless as he rode to a second Anaheim 1 victory of his career, following the 2023 win that came after an early crash. The omens are good for the rider who now sits on 54 career wins, second on the all-time list: in 2023, he was on course to win the title with a race to spare before retiring from the lead of the penultimate round – his home round – in Denver due to a freak Achilles tendon injury.

Second place for Roczen marked a solid start to the championship for the German veteran, who won his heat race. He was over 20 seconds clear of third place by the end.

That third place belonged to the other 450SX heat race winner, the aforementioned Prado, who fell no further than third after being passed by Roczen.

Prado came into the season with pressure on his shoulders after a controversial season with Kawasaki which ended with him departing the Japanese factory halfway through his two-year contract to rejoin KTM, aboard whose bikes he won four world titles in the MXGP series before moving to the US last year. 

Like Tomac, Prado was largely mistake-free in his run to third, and he was able to take a first 450SX podium in only his third start. After the race, Prado's bike failed its sound test and so he was docked three championship points, but retained his podium finish.

Hunter Lawrence had an odd race. He started towards the front on both starts, but even in the short-lived first start he was slipping backwards on the opening lap before the red flag. On the restart, he slipped to fifth, but then regrouped and eventually found a way past Jason Anderson for fourth with three laps to go. Unfortunately for Lawrence – the only HRC representative after Jett Lawrence’s preseason injury ruled him out of at least most of the Supercross season – there was not time to catch Prado, despite being slightly faster in the final part of the race.

Anderson held on to fifth in his first ride for the HEP Suzuki team. He was ahead of the Star Racing Yamaha pair of Justin Cooper and Cooper Webb; the former finishing sixth after going through the LCQ, the latter taking seventh after uncharacteristically crashing twice in contact with other riders.

Webb’s first crash came in his heat race when he rode into Aaron Plessinger in the corner after the over-under bridge. It seemed that Webb was anticipating Plessinger going to the outside of the corner and railing the berm, but instead he went inside and Webb – who was also under pressure from Prado at the time – had no space to stop. Webb was able to get back up and qualify directly to the Main Event, while Plessinger had to go to the LCQ, which he won, before finishing 10th in the Main Event.

The second crash for the reigning champion came while trying to take fifth place from Hunter Lawrence as he recovered from a start that left him 10th on the opening lap. Lawrence had jumped off the track and rejoined just in front of Webb, who tried to pass him while he was out of his rhythm. 

He made the attempt in the same turn where the crash that caused the red flag happened, trying to run Lawrence high and force him to give up the position. But he misjudged it, made contact and fell. 

Webb does not have a reputation for unnecessary contact in on-track battles. It was an unusually messy night for the defending and three-time champion.

Behind Webb was his primary 2025 title rival Chase Sexton, the other top rider – along with Tomac and Prado – to make a high-profile team change in the off-season, moving from KTM to Kawasaki. 

The day started well for Sexton, setting the fastest time in qualifying. But he crashed in his heat while battling for the lead with Roczen, and then made multiple mistakes in the Main Event after getting a poor start. Sexton came into this season knowing that his speed was good enough to win the title in 2025, but he was too inconsistent, the difference in position between his good nights and his bad nights was too great. Anaheim 1 2026 showed little change in that regard.

Kawasaki could not turn to its second rider for positivity, either; Garrett Marchbanks crashed in the whoops in the LCQ and missed the Main Event in his first round aboard the factory KX450.

Behind Sexton, Dylan Ferrandis gave Ducati a top-10 on its AMA Supercross debut, a much needed shot of positivity for the Troy Lee Designs team after Justin Barcia’s lap one crash.

250SX: Anstie dominates

If the 450SX class was dramatic, the 250SX class – despite the Haiden Deegan-Levi Kitchen factor – was considerably more mild.

Ryder DiFrancesco made the holeshot in the Main Event in his first ride on the Rockstar Husqvarna. He had Chance Hymas behind, and then Max Anstie.

It was Anstie who made the most impact, passing Hymas and DiFrancesco in the first half of the Main Event before taking command of the race and securing his second straight win at a 250SX regional season opener, after winning round one on the East Coast last year.

Hymas, too, passed DiFrancesco before the end of the race, and secured his first dry weather Supercross podium, after his win in the Foxborough mud last year.

DiFrancesco was being closed down by the aforementioned Deegan late on. The reigning West Coast champion was recovering after starting 10th, but could get no further than fourth in the end. 

Deegan’s main rival now is considered to be Levi Kitchen because of their contact in the St Louis SMX round last September, rather than because of a perceived parity in their performance potentials. Kitchen’s day started well with a fastest time in qualifying, but he went down in the first turn and only got back to sixth, two places behind Deegan with Michael Mosiman between them.

As in the 450cc class, Kawasaki couldn’t turn elsewhere for positivity, since the returning Cameron McAdoo crashed halfway through the Main Event when he made contact mid-air with Deegan, as Deegan himself was trying to pass Max Vohland for what at the time was sixth place. McAdoo remounted and finished a lap down; considering the injury woes that have struck him in the past few years it would be a shame for his latest return to be over after effectively eight minutes of the first race.

Vohland, on the other hand, was passed by both Deegan and Kitchen before the end of the race and finished seventh, ahead of Hunter Yoder, Avery Long, and Dilan Schwartz in the top-10.