{"id":148519,"date":"2026-01-25T03:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T03:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/148519\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T03:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T03:22:16","slug":"chase-sexton-overcomes-two-crashes-in-anaheim-2-prelims-to-win-his-first-race-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/148519\/","title":{"rendered":"Chase Sexton overcomes two crashes in Anaheim 2 prelims to win his first race of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ANAHEIM, California: Chase Sexton crashed twice during the preliminaries but saved his best for last at Angel Stadium in Round 3 of the SuperMotocross schedule. <\/p>\n<p>With heavy battles behind him, Sexton cruised to his first win of 2026 and snapped Eli Tomac\u2019s two-race winning streak.<\/p>\n<p>Hunter Lawrence kept Sexton honest throughout the race but ultimately had to settle for his second consecutive runner-up finish.<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"Link\" aria-label=\"Hunter Lawrence: \u2018How you win is important as well\u2019\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/motor-sports\/news\/hunter-lawrence-how-you-win-is-important-as-well\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"SX 2026 Rd 02 San Diego 450 Hunter Lawrence battles Ken Roczen.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769311335_913_.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hunter Lawrence has three career Pro Motocross and SMX Playoff wins, but he\u2019s also finished second 14 times in the combined series.<\/p>\n<p>Tomac took too much time getting around the holeshot winner Jason Anderson, which cost him a shot at securing the victory.<\/p>\n<p>Eli Tomac won his heat earlier in the afternoon, which he hopes will translate into a dominant form in Round 3 at Angel Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>After being pushed wide in the middle stages of the race, Anderson recovered to finish fourth.<\/p>\n<p>Cooper Webb stalled his bike in the closing minutes, but held on for fifth.<\/p>\n<p>In-Race Notes<\/p>\n<p>Jason Anderson got the jump on the field and led Chase Sexton on Lap 1.<\/p>\n<p>Hunter Lawrence took second away from Sexton on Lap 2. Sexton may be sore from two hard crashes earlier in the day.<\/p>\n<p>Tomac patiently moved up to fourth on Lap 3 with Aaron Plessinger, who also had a hard crash in his heat, rounding out the to five.<\/p>\n<p>Ken Roczen had a rocky start and was barely in the top 20 five laps into the Main Event.<\/p>\n<p>Defending champion, Cooper Webb, was just outside the top five in sixth.<\/p>\n<p>Sexton was all over Anderson on Lap 6 and took the position. <\/p>\n<p>Lawrence and Tomac caught Anderson as he stated to fade after losing the top spot.<\/p>\n<p>Tomac passed Lawrence on Lap 8 and set his sights on Anderson. Tomac was 2.4 seconds behind the leader.<\/p>\n<p>Webb moved into fifth as he had one of the best starts to a race in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>On Lap 10, Tomac took second from Anderson briefly as they rode side-by-side for the second half of the lap.<\/p>\n<p>That broke Tomac\u2019s momentum and he fell to fourth.<\/p>\n<p>Lawrence got second on Lap 12.<\/p>\n<p>One lap later, Tomac got to the inside of Anderson and rode him wide. Tomac took the final podium position. Anderson dropped to fifth.<\/p>\n<p>Plessinger retired on Lap 13.<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"Link\" aria-label=\"2026 SuperMotocross Round 3 Anaheim 2 450: Heat Results, Updates: Jorge Prado, Eli Tomac win heats\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/motor-sports\/news\/2026-supermotocross-round-3-anaheim-2-450-heat-results-updates\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"SX 2026 Rd 02 San Diego 450 Jorge Prado leads Jason Anderson.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769311336_468_.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Heat results set the lineup for the Main Event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANAHEIM, California: Chase Sexton crashed twice during the preliminaries but saved his best for last at Angel Stadium&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-148519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}