ANAHEIM, California: The first race of the season sets the tone for the 2026 SuperMotocross season, at least Eli Tomac hopes that is true as he held off Ken Roczen in the 2026 SuperMotocross World Championship opener at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California.
With the win, Tomac extended his winning streak to 12 consecutive seasons.
Tomac has now won for four different manufacturers.
In-Race Notes
A major crash on the opening lap of the 450 Main sent two riders to the ground as Malcolm Stewart and Justin Barcia collided.
Barcia was transported to a local hospital.
Their catastrophe was countered by highlights for Eli Tomac as he took the early lead with heat race winner Ken Roczen giving chase.
The early contact also created a huge gap between second and third, which was greater than 10 seconds at the halfway point, turning this into a two-man show.
Jorge Prado was as close as two seconds for much of the race until Tomac found another gear and began to stretch his advantage three-quarters of the way through the event.
Sexton went down four minutes into the Main.
Jason Anderson was another pleasant surprise in fourth.
In addition to Sexton’s early problems, Hunter Lawrence also had ground to make up as he battled to stay among the top five. Lawrence and Anderson have bad blood between them, so the position was a grudge match.
Also battling for the top five, Cooper Webb clipped Lawrence with three minutes remaining on the clock and fell from sixth. He handed the sixth position to Sexton, but had a large enough lead to keep Dylan Ferrandis at bay.
As they contested the position, Justin Cooper, who advanced through the Last Chance Qualifier, assumed the position.
As time ran off the clock, Lawrence moved up to fourth.