Greetings! Welcome to this post-Anaheim SX Monday Gate Drop Column, which is once again brought to you by Yamaha Motor Canada. Later this week, the folks at YMC are launching their new Adventure bike at the Vancouver Motorcycle Show. So, stay tuned for that announcement as YMC, and the Blu Cru always seem to have exciting things going on.
Let’s begin this week with the opening round of the 2026 Monster Energy Supercross Series at Angel Stadium in Anaheim Ca. Just as it usually is, the season opener in Anaheim was a wild one, complete with great battles, surprising results, and sadly, several big crashes. However, at the end of the day, it’s Supercross, and as we’ve come to expect over the years, the racing is never boring. As we witnessed, the big winners of the night we’re Eli Tomac and Max Anstie. Both riders rode flawlessly in their main events and certainly deserved to win. Given the off-season that Eli and Max had, it wasn’t a surprise that they were able to get out front early, and not get involved with all of the drama behind them. Part of their success I believe came from racing the WSX events during the off-season (Tomac raced two WSX events while Anstie won the SX2 WSX Championship). It gave Tomac the information he needed on how his new KTM would handle under various race conditions. If you recall, Vancouver was soft and rutted, while the Australian round was hard packed, dry, and slick. So, not only were they racing and getting gate drops, but they were also testing and getting their bikes dialed in. I cannot stress enough how important this is to any riders’ program during the off-season. You don’t have to race a lot, but you do have to race a little to figure out how your mind, body, and machine are going to perform under the stress of competition. In the 450SX main event, four of the top five riders all competed in at least two off season SX races.
So, Tomac obviously looked comfortable on the Anaheim track. I honestly cannot remember him looking this fast and aggressive this early in the SX Series. Even his positioning on the bike looks better than ever, as his head is more forward than it was on his Yamaha. If Tomac can keep getting good starts and avoid that ‘big’ mistake in the coming weeks, he’s going to be hard to beat in these early West Coast rounds. Ken Roczen looked great on Saturday, and was able to keep Tomac within striking distance for the entire main event. This came as no surprise as Kenny always begins the SX Series like he was shot out of a cannon. Jorge Prado’s third place finish was a little surprising considering how bad he was last year, but he obviously is comfortable on a steel frame. I think training at the Baker’s Factory has been huge for him and he basically got a good start on Saturday evening and stayed out of trouble. Prado was the exact opposite of Chase Sexton, who found trouble all evening long, even when he wasn’t looking for it. I’m not sure what Sexton’s issue was in Anaheim? He was ultra-fast in qualifying, so that would tell me that he’s comfortable on his new Kawasaki. I think it was a case of him just trying too hard at times in the main event, and making life harder than it needed to be. Sexton has always been the type of rider (on any bike), that can mentally get ahead of himself on the track and then have the mistakes compound themselves. I’m sure he was frustrated with having to battle from behind on a deteriorating Anaheim track, but that is what happens when you don’t start up-front. I feel like if Sexton can get a win in the next two or three rounds, then he could go on a run in the 450SX Series. Whether he wins or not in 2026, I just hope he goes back to making Vlog’s, I miss the Chase Sexton edits from the three years. Another rider who was fast in Anaheim, but got a little unlucky with the restart was defending 450SX series champion Cooper Webb. Cooper was leading the 450SX main event before it got red flagged due to the Barcia/Stewart crash, and then on the restart he got shuffled back, and had to battle from behind. Webb will be fine moving forward, as will Jason Anderson, who looked great on his new Suzuki. Overall, it was a great night of racing in the 450SX class and I cannot wait to see what happens this weekend in San Diego.
As I mentioned above, the 450SX main event had to be red flagged after just one lap due to the horrific crash over the triple jump. Unfortunately, Mookie tangled with Roczen leading up to the take-off of the first jump, causing him to back off the throttle and not jump the triple. Mookie did the right thing, if he tried to jump the triple, he either would have came up well short, or jump sideways and cleaned out a few riders in the air. Sadly, Barcia didn’t notice him and still jumped the triple, and then clipped Mookie on the landing and went straight over the bars. Barcia landed on his head, and then his body cartwheeled into the next turn. The crash also collected several other riders, so it really was a complete mess, and stopping the race was the correct move. It was certainly a scary crash and it was even scarier seeing Barcia lying motionless on the track for what seemed like an eternity before the medics got to him. For a race that takes place inside the tight confines of a stadium, I’m not sure why it took so long for the medics to get to the part of the track where the incident took place. I’m assuming that before the gate drops, there is a medic team near the first turn, in case something happens off of the start. However, the triple jump wasn’t that far from the first turn area, so again, what was the hold up? I know, things happen, lessons are learned, and then improvements are made moving forward, but this was not a great look for the biggest series in our sport. I’ve had the scary experience of watching my son have two big crashes in the past three years, and I ran to get to him. But, even after sprinting at Donovan Bailey 100m gold medal winning pace, the track medics beat me there both times. Anyway, I’m sure there were meetings after the race, and that slow response will never happen again. Also, it was great to see Barcia put out a post on Social Media yesterday stating that he was very sore, but doing okay. As for Mookie, sadly he will be out for at least a month, possibly longer with a shoulder injury. We definitely send our best wishes to both the Barcia Family as well as the Stewart Family.
As for our Canadian riders, unfortunately all three failed to qualify for the 250SX West Series main event in Anaheim. Preston Masciangelo was pretty fast all day, but just wasn’t able to get a good start in the LCQ and was unable to finish inside the top four. Blake Davies was also quick at the series opener, but he made some mistakes that cost him any chance of qualifying for the main event. Tyler Gibbs qualified for the night show in Anaheim, but never seemed to find his grove on the technical Anaheim track. Obviously, the opening round is full of stress and uncertainty, so I would expect all three of our riders to be better this weekend in San Diego.
Moving on from SX to AX, and the AMA Arenacross Series which made its way to the International Centre this past weekend in Toronto. The race itself took place in Hall #5 of the International Centre, and ran in conjunction with the annual Motorcycle Super Show, which was set up in Hall #1, 2, and #3. So, if you were visiting the show you could easily walk through a hallway, and be right in the middle of all of the AX race action. It was certainly a unique and exciting event, and overall it was very well attended all weekend long. Even the Amateur day yesterday had the stands full of spectators as both race families and people from the show packed the seats. On the track, the racing was fun to watch, even though the drama between Ryan Breece and Cole Thompson didn’t spill over from the previous weekend. Breece dominated the pro class main events on both Friday and Saturday night, while Thompson struggled with set-up issue on his 2026 YZ450, and just didn’t look comfortable in Toronto. Quinn Amyotte was also racing, as was the new West Coast AX Series Champion Julien Benek, who was flown out to race a Kawasaki SSR KX450. Quinn hasn’t ridden a dirt bike since late November, so he appeared a little rusty on his new Priority MX Thor GASGAS machine. It was cool that Quinn was there though, as he was very popular with the fans all weekend long. As for Benek, he was his usual entertaining self as he showed some incredible speed, even leading some main event laps, but also hit the deck a few times. This kid has so much speed and potential that if he could ever string together a few injury free seasons, his phone would be ringing off the hook with teams wanting to sponsor him. However, I will give Julien credit for working hard, providing a plethora of entertainment on the track, and for being one of the nicest riders off of the track. I had a few chats with him this weekend under Steve Simms new Kawasaki team tent (it was very cool that Steve brought his team truck down and parked inside the arena), and I came away thinking about what a good dude he is. Finally, yesterday I travelled back down to the race to take in Amateur Day, and I was so surprised at how big it was. As I mentioned above, the stands were packed with people, the gate was full of riders, there were classes with multiple divisions, it looked like a massive success. The riders and families appeared to be having a great time, despite there being enough fumes in the building to kill a small army. It made me wonder where all of these riders were several years ago when Gopher Dunes had their SX races? Perhaps times have changed in Ontario and there is a want and need for a small winter indoor series? Perhaps I should call Ryan Lockhart and Kyle Beaton and find out how to run a successful four race indoor series? Anyway, it was a great weekend of racing in Toronto, and I have to give Jetwerx, the track builders, the AMA, our trusted crew of Ontario MX Medics, and also Andrew McEwan for making this cool event not only happen, but also for being such a great success. Hopefully, this race is back next year, as I believe it could be even better.
Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great week, and I hope that 2026 has started off well for everyone. My pick for the Motovan Rider of the Week is every rider who signed up yesterday in Toronto and braved the fumes and the cold temperatures to help make Amateur Day a success. I’ve always loved indoor racing, and watching yesterday not only reminded me of being in Chilliwack two months ago, but also when my Dad and I used to travel to AX races in Toledo, Columbus, and Cincinnati in the middle of winter to race AX events. Thank you for reading, and if you have any comments or questions, please email me ateditor@mxpmag.com.
