First Kawasaki win for Chase Sexton at Anaheim 2 AMA Supercross

The AMA Supercross series’ return to Angel Stadium for 2026’s second visit to Anaheim saw Chase Sexton take his first victory abord the Kawasaki KX450.

Sexton started well at Anaheim 2, setting the fastest qualifying time when he was the only rider to lap below one minute. 

In the night show, the 2023 450SX Champion seemed on to continue his positive form when he took the lead of his heat race, but moments later he crashed in the sand turn, as the mind of mistakes that blighted him in the first two rounds seemed to re-emerge.

A second-place start for Sexton in the Main Event, behind only Jason Anderson, seemed to put the Kawasaki rider in prime position to chase his first victory of the season. But before he was able to attack the Suzuki rider, HRC’s Hunter Lawrence demoted him to third.

Sexton was able to quickly reclaim second placer from the Australian and set on again after Anderson. As he did so, red plate holder Eli Tomac made his own move towards Lawrence’s third place, knowing he would need to minimise Sexton’s time at the front on his own to have a chance at a third straight win to start 2026.

Tomac was able to pass Lawrence, but not before Sexton had passed Anderson. It was when Tomac tried to make his own move on Anderson that the KTM rider lost momentum for the first time this season, as Anderson’s resistance put him back in the clutches of Lawrence, who retook third place before setting about making his own move for second.

Lawrence made the move with seven minutes to go, at which point he was around three seconds behind Sexton.

The Australian was able to trim that gap to two seconds at points, but – partly thanks to some uncooperative lapped traffic – was ultimately never able to get into position to pressure Sexton as he had Tomac in San Diego.

A final disruption to Lawrence’s path to Sexton from Triumph’s Austin Forkner on the last two laps was also the final nail in the coffin of the Honda rider’s victory hopes for another week.

The win for Sexton at that point was secure, and he finally had a result aboard the Kawasaki that reflected the kind of speed he’s shown since the start of the season.

Lawrence took second place to continue his consistent start to the season, beating Tomac who maintained a 100 per cent podium record for 2026, although his winning start came to an end in the same stadium at which it started two weeks ago.

After he was passed by the finishing top-three, Anderson was also passed by Cooper Webb, but the reigning champion fell for the third week in succession and dropped back behind the Suzuki rider to fifth at the finish. Anderson’s fourth marks his best AMA result with the HEP team since joining for this season.

Joey Savatgy took another impressive finish in sixth after finishing fifth in San Diego, although this time it was a case of making up positions rather than holding on to one. The same was true of Ken Roczen, who was at the back of the field after an early crash but recovered to eighth by the end.

Jorge Prado seemed set for another disappointing ride when he started outside the top-10, but unlike last week the Spaniard was able to push forwards and got up to seventh.

RJ Hampshire and Justin Cooper rounded out the top-10.

Aaron Plessinger fell on the final lap of his heat race, going over the bars in the final rhythm section of the lap. He was able to cross the line eighth to qualify for the Main Event, but pulled out midway through after battling inside the top-10.

Heading to round four next weekend in Houston, Tomac now leads the standings by eight points over Lawrence, while Sexton is now up to third in the standings and 13 points adrift, one point ahead of Roczen. Reigning champion Webb is now 24 points off the lead, tied with Anderson.

250SX: Deegan doubles up

The 250SX race in Anaheim was dramatic from the beginning, with two factory riders out of the race after the first turn.

Privateer KTM rider Avery Long straightened up in the middle of the first corner when he made contact with Cameron McAdoo’s Kawasaki. That sent him straight into the path of HRC’s Chance Hymas, who fell and consequently retired from the race.

Levi Kitchen was the other major casualty of the first corner, although he made it all the way around the first turn and was not involved in the Long-Hymas incident. Kitchen instead fell on the first jump out of the first corner as a result of his start device being locked down, which gave him almost no control as he hit the first rhythm. The crash was his second of the day after a huge over-the-bars moment in his heat race, from which he was able to remount and finish in the top-nine. It was also the third first turn crash from three rounds so far for Kitchen, who is now realistically out of title contention with a 33-point gap between himself and the top of the championship.

In addition to Kitchen’s own poor results to start the season, his unofficial elimination from title contention so early in the year has also been caused by Haiden Deegan’s strong start. Okay, the reigning 250SX West Champion was only fifth in Anaheim 1, but his victory at Anaheim 2 was his second in succession after chasing down Michael Mosiman in the closing minutes of the race. 

Early on it seemed like Mosiman might have something to fight with against Deegan, but the 20-year-old ultimately proved too strong. Mosiman, though, moved up to second in the championship as a result of his second podium finish in succession.

Behind the two Star Racing teammates, Ryder DiFrancesco denied the aforementioned McAdoo a podium late on, the Rockstar Husqvarna rider securing his second top-three finish of the year while McAdoo was forced to settle for fourth.

Max Vohland rounded out the top-five in an under-the-radar ride on the ClubMX Yamaha, beating Max Anstie whose title challenge is faltering slightly after his round one win – two non-podiums in a row for the British rider leave him 10 points behind Deegan and third in the standings.