What We Noticed: San Diego

January 21, 2026

---

Supercross comes to beautiful San Diego for Round 2 of the 2026 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship. Here’s What We Noticed:

1. Tomac Looks GOOD

   Not really a surprise… we all expect Tomac to be near the front right? But his pure speed and how great he looks on the KTM this early is a surprise. A1 sometimes is flukey, but he proved that his A1 excellence was no fluke. The guy is good. The bike is good. He’s for real this year. Love to see it.

2. Sexton Rebound

   So… Sexton continues to pull his old tricks… he hit the gate in the main! BUT, he had an excellent race after that and was the fastest guy on the track for a lot of the main. He came from behind to win his heat race. And he looked decent in qualifying. All in all, a good rebound from A1 in my opinion. Sexton is the guy to beat Tomac in my opinion, and after proving to himself, the team, and the fans that he can run the pace in SD, he should be up there from now on out.

   Personally, I love to see the urgency that he had in those opening laps in the main. It’s quite impressive how quickly he was able to come through the pack. Move aside Webb, Sexton is coming through!

3. Aggressive Moves

   Perhaps the talking point of the night was some of the aggressive racing we saw. Let’s rank them in order of most aggressive to least:

   1. Haiden Deegan on Max Anstie. The fans loved/hated it. Deegan got booed on the podium and when we asked him about that in the post-race media scrum he said everyone was soft. Let’s be real… it really wasn’t that bad. Unnecessary? Yes. Bad? No. Deegan slid his back tire around and Max was in the wrong area. No doubt Deegan was making the pass with authority, but it wasn’t a bad takeout.
   2. Chase Sexton on Cooper Webb. This is fine. I’ve seen folk online comparing this to what Deegan did, and sure, they’re both aggressive (they’re both fine), but Sexton was coming through the pack and needed to pass Webb ASAP! I was watching Sexton for the prior lap and noticed how Webb was riding a wide line and kinda stalling Chase’s momentum. Good on Sexton for being aggressive and getting past Webb quickly. It’s just too bad Webb crashed in the process.
   3. Levi Kitchen on Max Anstie. Yeesh… Anstie ends up on the wrong side of this list twice. This wasn’t bad at all and fortunately Anstie didn’t crash in this one. It wasn’t drastically different from what Deegan did (in the same corner), however, the main difference is that Kitchen was coming through the pack (and like Sexton above) needed to make the pass ASAP. He did just that. Congrats!
   At the end of the day, all moves were aggressive but okay. However, Deegan didn’t need to be aggressive on Max… there was no need for urgency in that moment; that’s the main difference. Perhaps it’ll come back to bite him.

4. Tough Track

   Track seemed kinda simple at first. Personally, I’m not a fan of these smaller “football” stadiums… they’re tight and don’t allow for great tracks. However, the track crew designed some neat sections. Firstly, the whoops were awesome: an entire length of the stadium was provided for a whoop section split up by a steep table into a single. The result was a challenging section that threw a lot of riders off guard. Plus, it allowed for a fun jump option on and off the table. I want to see more unique sections like this!

   Next, the few switch back rhythms were great. After coming down the start, getting the triple out of the 2-3 gave riders problems all day. Then, the following triple into the next section (going 3-3-1 vs 2-3-2) was incredibly tough and was only done by the upper echelon of riders. But perhaps the best section was the long rhythm running along the side of the stadium. The fast line was jumping over the table, then going 3-3-3-1. However, the transition between the first and second triples was incredibly tight and gave guys problems all day. To cap it off, the two sections after weren’t simple and challenged riders in getting the 2-3 then 3 out of the next corner. It was jumpy and great!

   Overall, we loved the track, and want to see more challenging designs like this! We have the pleasure of watching the greatest riders race Supercross every weekend… they deserve the greatest tracks.

5. Loud Fans

   Another sold out race?! Excellent start to the season for the sport. We thought the fans were kinda subdued in A1, but that was definitely made up for by the energy that the SD fans had. Yelling, reacting to everything on the track, and of course booing Deegan on the podium. The fans are the heart of the sport, and it’s great seeing them so into the racing.

Thanks for reading! Back to Anaheim for round 3.

Related Articles: