What We Noticed: Anaheim 1

January 14, 2026

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The season has begun! We were present for the opening round of the 2026 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship in Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Here’s What We Noticed:

1. New Season!

   Firstly, how great is it to have a new season underway?! So many questions entering the year, and A1 gives us our first glimpse into answering them. How do riders look on new bikes? Can reigning champs defend? Has anyone made huge improvements? But generally, it’s just great to have racing back.

2. Scary Red Flag

   It was a scary 10 minutes or so while Barcia was down. Luckily we didn’t see the crash until after we knew he was relatively okay, otherwise I think it would have been even scarier. To make matters even worse though, the medics took several minutes to attend to him… he was literally lying KOed on the berm by himself for several minutes before they saw him I guess? Eventually they did, but Barcia remained motionless basically the entire time that the medics were attending to him, and they strapped his entire body to the backboard so was barely moving when they carted him off (he was moving his hands a bit). In these situations, your mind always jumps to the worst possible scenarios… it’s a dangerous sport and it’s inevitable that these athletes will eventually end up with serious injuries; you just hope it’s not today. Fortunately, both Barcia and Stewart were “okay” and don’t appear to have any life-altering injuries.

3. First Lap Triples

   With that being said about “it’s a dangerous sport”, can we do something about it? Obviously we can’t stop all injuries, but clearly Feld/AMA/whoever are eager to do certain things to reduce injuries (i.e. remove dragon-backs and cut-back on whoops). However, one of the scariest (and arguably most dangerous) obstacles on the track remains the SX triple on the opening lap of a race; doing it in a crowd of 22 riders is insane. I think it’s lucky that we don’t see more awful crashes on the opening lap over the triples, but we have seen it before, and it’s one too many times right? Personally, I think the SX triple is one of the most boring obstacles on a Supercross track…. So maybe get rid of it? Or design the tracks so that it’s towards the end of the first lap? Or don’t put it in a sketchy half-bend straight where riders are hitting it on an angle? Or put the red lights out on the opening lap and force them to roll it? So many ways to reduce danger… I’d like to see this officially addressed; we can’t have our star athletes going out like this.

4. Tomac is a Legend

   Beast Mode? Sure. Legend? Absolutely. Watching Tomac excel all weekend on the new bike with a new team cemented his status as one of the sports best. It’s hard enough to do a team switch like this at the peak of your career, yet Tomac continues to wow with stellar performances at a far older age than any of the greats have done before. Personally, I was wowed by how amazing he looked on the bike as soon as press day got underway on Friday. I was expecting him to take a few / several rounds to figure things out, but he proved me wrong. Perhaps the growing pains are still to come, but the statement has already been made: Tomac is here to contend for this championship!

5. It Was the Bike!

   Prado is back! We honored him earlier this week as the Most Impressive 450 Rider at A1, and wow, he sure earned that title. It was BAD last year with Kawi, but perhaps it really was the bike like he was saying? Obviously the bike isn’t THAT bad, but maybe it was bad enough for him that it just didn’t work. Regardless, he has redeemed himself; he bet on himself and the KTM by terminating his Kawi contract, and so far it seems it has worked out. Prado was awesome in Anaheim; it was great to see!

6. It’s the Bike?

   Sexton moves to the bike that Prado struggled on, and guess what? He struggled. But in this case, is it actually the bike? It seems to be a reoccurring problem for Chase no matter what bike he’s on. So how much is it the bike vs him? That is the age-old question with Chase, and we may never know. In the past Sexton has been quite open with his frustrations when he feels like the bike is less than ideal. However, I commented in the off-season that I don’t think we will hear the same honesty from Sexton this year… he’s putting all his eggs in the Kawi basket, and even if the bike isn’t great, I think he’ll be too hesitant to share that publicly; he knows the public image he has, and if he keeps blaming the bike for every brand he’s on, people are gonna start thinking it’s him (if they haven't already).

7. Deegan Struggles

   Struggle is maybe too much of an overstatement, but no doubt Deegan’s A1 was a disappointment to him and his camp: the goal was to improve upon last year and win the opener. Instead, one bad start and relatively sluggish opening laps will result in him finishing outside the podium; yeesh. Not the start that he wanted, but the good news is he was plenty fast for most of the day and is still the heavy title favorite. It should only be up from here for the reigning champ.

8. 250W Title Contenders?

   Despite Deegan still being the title fave, we can have some fun and revel in the speed we saw from both Anstie and Kitchen. Anstie was flawless nearly all night and gained a helpful 7 points on Deegan. Kitchen was incredibly fast all day and salvaged losing only a few points after his first turn crash. It’s only 1 race (and probably too early to tell)… but so far it seems these two will be Deegan’s main title contenders?

9. California Dreamin’

   A1 is such a vibe; if you haven’t been to this race, it’s a must visit! So much anticipation, an iconic venue for this sport, and typically beautiful weather. Get out here!

Thanks for reading! Onto to SD for round 2!

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