Ken Roczen takes Glendale AMA Supercross win after points leader hits trouble

Ken Roczen took a commanding first win of 2026 at the Glendale AMA Supercross following a first corner crash for Eli Tomac.

Roczen started the race second behind Hunter Lawrence, who made yet another strong start aboard his Honda CRF450R.

As at San Diego last month, Roczen was able to find a way past Lawrence in the opening five minutes of the race, but unlike the second round of the season Lawrence’s subsequent fall-off was not reversed and the Australian was unable to challenge the Suzuki rider for victory down the stretch.

It was nonetheless a solid ride for Lawrence, though, maintaining second place with a relatively comfortable gap to Cooper Webb in third, the reigning champion taking his third straight podium following his overall win in Houston last week and doing so at what has been, historically, one of his worst venues on the AMA Supercross calendar.

Fourth place went to Justin Cooper, who was under the radar in the Main Event after showing promising speed in practice and his heat race.

Jorge Prado rounded out the top-five, once again proving that he is likely to finish a race more or less wherever he started it. Then came Joey Savatgy, the Quad Lock Honda rider taking his third top-six finish in as many regular-format races.

Chase Sexton had an underwhelming ride to seventh. The bad starts are one thing for Sexton but the lack of speed coming through the pack this week and last has been perhaps more concerning. He was just ahead of Aaron Plessinger who charged up to the back of Sexton mid-race but couldn’t go anywhere from there and instead spent the final part of the race fending of Dylan Ferrandis, the Frenchman ultimately finishing ninth and ahead of Justin Hill who scored his best finish of the season in 10th.

Eli Tomac came into the race with a narrow four-point championship lead, but that was essentially erased in the opening corner when he went down in a crash with Christian Craig and Colt Nicholls. 

Craig folded the front of his Honda just ahead of Tomac, who had nowhere to go. Initially after remounting, Tomac looked in some discomfort, but by the end of the race he was posting some of the fastest lap times of the whole field and was able to climb to 12th. An impressive recovery from Tomac considering most of it was done in the final 10 minutes or so, but it was not enough for him to keep hold of the red plate and he heads to Seattle next week third in the standings.

Hunter Lawrence now leads the 450SX points despite being yet to win a race. Ken Roczen moves back up to second and five points adrift of Lawrence, while Tomac is three points further back. Houston winner Cooper Webb is now 15 back, while Chase Sexton now trails the red plate by 17 points in fifth place.

250SX: A Kitchen charge can’t stop Deegan

The 250SX class once again saw a straightforward victory for Haiden Deegan. 

There was once a point where Deegan had a kind of 2014 Marc Marquez quality about his races – you knew without doubt he was the fastest rider, but mistakes, and in particular bad start, could present opportunities for the others.

Deegan has largely cleaned this up in 2026, though, and the others are left with little chance to take the fight to the Star Yamaha rider, who is now unbeaten in the last four races and in full control of the championship after taking a start-to-finsih win in Glendale.

Michael Mosiman ran second for most of the race, but he was bumped back to fourth late on by, first, Levi Kitchen and then Cameron McAdoo. It was a particularly impressive ride from Kitchen, who went from 13th-to-second in the 15 minutes plus one lap. However, that he was back in 13th to begin with was as a result of the continuing start issues plaguing the Pro Circuit Kawasaki rider.

Behind Mosiman was Ryder DiFrancesco in fifth, the Husqvarna rider having started third – he, too, was pushed back by the Pro Circuit duo of Kitchen and McAdoo.

Max Anstie was another rider to suffer yet another bad start, but the British rider was only able to get back to eighth in comparison to Kitchen’s podium charge. Anaheim 1 continues to feel increasingly long ago for the 2025 SX2 World Champion.