Eli Tomac doubles up in San Diego AMA Supercross after late Hunter Lawrence battle

After dominating the opening round of the 2026 AMA Supercross season in Anaheim, Eli Tomac took his KTM to the top step of the podium once more in San Diego.

Tomac made a cautious start to the race, settling into third position early on, while Ken Roczen and holeshot winner Hunter Lawrence battled for the lead.

Lawrence began to drop back after a couple of laps, Roczen and Tomac both making their way through in quick succession after six minutes.

The two veterans then battled between themselves for the lead, Red Bull KTM's Tomac passing Roczen at the 90-degree corner at the end of the long rhythm, only for the Suzuki to come back through in the turn after the whoops.

Tomac then took a few laps to regather himself, finally making his move to the front with six minutes to go, this time one corner later in the lap than on his first attempt.

For Roczen, his victory challenge was done there as Tomac quickly put a second on the German, who was soon passed also by Lawrence – who never dropped more than two seconds behind the lead after dropping to third – in the first turn after the finish only a couple of laps after he lost the lead.

Lawrence was almost two seconds behind Tomac when he got into second, but was able to whittle that gap down to nothing by the final lap. A first 450SX victory was within touching distance for the Australian, but with only one lap to make the pass on the second-most victorious rider in Supercross history there was almost no margin for error.

The Honda HRC rider made ground in the whoops sections, and was on Tomac’s rear tyre as they jumped the over-under bridge for the final time. Lawrence switched from outside to inside in the braking zone for the following corner, but pulled out of the move at the last minute, sensing the potential for heavy contact with Tomac. 

Backing out of the pass cost Lawrence momentum and time, and he was unable to make that up in the remainder of the lap, leaving Tomac free to take victory and maintain an early unbeaten run in the 2026 AMA Supercross season.

A 55th win for Tomac increases his points lead at the top of the standings to eight points over Roczen, who held on to third, while Lawrence is now 10 points back.

Chase Sexton had a better night on the KX450 than in Anaheim, since he made no real riding errors in either his heat race or the Main Event. But the 2023 champion hit the gate on the start of the Main.

Despite the early setback, Sexton was able to get back into the top-10 within only a couple of laps. But from there the going was more difficult; he was up to fourth by the halfway stage in the race, but got no further, finishing over 15 seconds off the win in the end. 

If things were better for Sexton than a week ago, they were much worse (at least on paper) for Jorge Prado, who started 10th and finished 13th after his excellent podium in Anaheim. A1 fifth-place finished Jason Anderson was little better, taking 11th in his second ride for the HEP Suzuki team.

Back towards the front, Joey Savatgy put in an impressive ride to finish fifth, being passed only by Sexton throughout the 20 minutes and beating a host of factory riders on his Firepower Honda, including Justin Cooper in sixth and Aaron Plessinger in seventh.

Reigning champion Cooper Webb was also behind Savatgy, finishing eighth after crashing when he was passed by Sexton for what was sixth at the time. Not entirely his fault, but another messy night for Star Racing Yamaha’s #1, who has now shipped 21 points to Tomac in just two rounds.

Behind Webb, Dylan Ferrandis repeated his ninth-place finish from Anaheim, and Malcolm Stewart rode through the pain of a rib injury, a recently dislocated shoulder, and a fractured scapula to race in San Diego, finishing 10th a week on from his scary crash with Justin Barcia.

250SX: Deegan rebounds

If the 450SX race was decided only on the final lap, the 250SX encounter was over much sooner, as Haiden Deegan took the lead from his teammate, Max Anstie, after six minutes.

Deegan made a fair enough move to the inside - in the same corner where later in the night Tomac would make his race-winning pass on Roczen - locked up his rear wheel to try to prevent Anstie from cutting underneath him on the exit, and, as Anstie slowed to avoid the bike of his teammate, there was slight contact which was enough to cause the English rider to fall.

Deegan was mistake-free from then on, winning comfortably ahead of Cameron McAdoo and Michael Mosiman who completed the podium.

Levi Kitchen fell in the first turn for the second time in as many races, but recovered to fourth, finishing ahead of Anstie who made no ground after the Deegan incident.

Chance Hymas took sixth, the Honda rider surviving a mid-race scare when he rotated forwards off the take-off of the triple before the penultimate corner with around two minutes left on the clock.

Ryder DiFrancesco, Max Vohland, Dilan Schwartz, and Anthony Bourdon completed the top-10.

Round three of the 2026 AMA Supercross season takes place back in Anaheim on 24 January.