Most Impressive: Anaheim 1
January 13, 2026
Most Impressive: Anaheim 1 The season is finally underway. A1 always delivers some outlier results, so it’s tough to forecast future results based on the opening round. Regardless, the off-season is over, and everyone started on equal ground. Here are the Most Impressive.
450 Class: Jorge Prado
Is this real?! Prado is fast in qualifying, then wins his heat, and then podiums the main?! This wasn’t just a fluke result either… he straight up pulled away and beat guys like Hunter Lawrence and Jason Anderson who started right behind him. Seriously: read that over again. Prado was genuinely better than the majority of the field.
If Prado had done this last year it would have been surprising considering his lack of experience racing Supercross. However, I think our expectations all greatly dropped after his horrible outing last summer, which makes this even more impressive. Talk about a rebound… this entirely makes up for his 2025 season; no doubt, this is an entirely different Jorge then who we saw racing Kawasaki in Pro Motocross then. Will this last? Don’t expect podiums every weekend, but the MXGP / KTM version of Prado is back!
Prado was rightfully stoked on his result:
“This is really ahead of my expectations – the goal for this weekend was to just get through each session and do the best that I can. I had a great preparation leading into this year, but I am still so new to Supercross. Getting the Heat Race win was awesome, but I am really happy with my Main Event and to be on the podium. I rode within my limits, and still don't have a lot of words to describe my feelings right now, but all I can say is that hard work always pays off! It's great to start the season this way, so now we'll keep learning and look forward to a new opportunity next week.”
250 Class: Dilan Schwartz
If you had seen Schwartz at his Supercross season debut last year you would realize just how impressive his improvement has been since then… it’s night and day difference! He’s always been fast outdoors, but Supercross has been plain struggles for him his entire career. It seems like he finally has it figured out though; he looked comfortable all day and was noticeably fast. To top it off, he finishes with a career best 10th.
Despite his impressive opening round, Schwartz still feels he has room for improvement:
“I honestly feel like I didn’t ride great in the Main Event. I struggled to find a good flow, which caused me to get a little tight and not be able to keep pushing forward like I wanted. But with that, I know I have much more in the tank and I’m going to try and improve next weekend to keep moving up the leaderboard.”
Our Opinions
Scott's Opinion: 450 class was a no brainer: Prado wowed everyone. However, it was a bit harder to choose Most Impressive in the 250s. Of course, Anstie rode incredibly well, Yoder was good, but in the end, we had to honor the impressive improvement shown by Schwartz.
