Chase Sexton rolls into town more confident this weekend after picking up his first win of ’26 at the Anaheim 2 SX following battles with Jason Anderson, Hunter Lawrence, and Eli Tomac. Tomac continues to lead the championship so he will again have the red plate backgrounds on his #3 KTM 450 SX-F here today. Lawrence’s strong start to the years (4-2-2 finishes, respectively) has him second in the standings as Sexton, Ken Roczen, and Anderson round out the top five. Cooper Webb earned his first top-five finish of the year last weekend, finishing 7-8-5 to start his title defense. Webb and Sexton both had tough nights at the opener but Sexton has a podium/win, whereas Webb’s results have not taken him to the top three yet, so he sits sixth in the standings. A little further back, do not count out the following three riders: Justin Cooper, Joey Savatgy, and Jorge Prado. The three are each off to a solid start and with today’s shorter, more sprint races, this trio could find themselves in the mix for podiums/race wins. The guys that get great starts repeatedly—Lawrence, Prado, Cooper, Roczen, etc.—all will be ones to watch with today’s three-race format. Thinking back to last year’s first Triple Crown event of the ’25 season (the Glendale SX), there were three different riders that won the three races (Webb, Roczen, then Tomac) and a fourth different rider won the overall (Sexton). Glendale was the fourth round last year, just like today’s first Triple Crown of ’26 is. Maybe we see similar results with several different races winners?
As for the 250SX Class, Haiden Deegan’s 4-1-1 leaves him with a nine-point lead over his teammate Michael Mosim and a ten-point lead over his other teammate Max Anstie. And the 411 on the championship is that Deegan has started to take control after his second consecutive win in a row. Mosiman has started 5-3-2 so far and looks to be in his best form since 2022 when he earned his maiden 250SX main event win. As for Anstie, his 1-5-6 results are trending in the wrong direction. Also trending in the wrong direction is Chance Hymas, who left San Diego seventh in the standing after 2-6 finishes. Then, he suffered a dislocated shoulder at Anaheim 2 and he will now miss the next several rounds of SX, if not the entire series, as he had shoulder surgery yesterday (Friday). Ryder DiFrancesco and Maximus Vohland round out the top five in the standings, then Cameron McAdoo, Hymas, Dilan Schwartz, Levi Kitchen, and Carson Mumford. McAdoo and Kitchen were both hoping to be title contenders but have ran into bad luck, McAdoo with a 21st at the opener after a collision with Deegan and Kitchen with three straight main event first turn crashes—and a DNF a A2—to start the year. Will the Yamaha teammates out front be the top three finishers tonight? Will Kitchen bounce back and finally land that podium? Could Vohland—or his teammate Hunter Yoder—sneak out a podium/race win in the three sprint races?
Give us your winners and some predictions for tonight in the comments section below!