{"id":13977,"date":"2026-01-13T22:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T05:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/eli-tomac-of-cortez-wins-round-1-of-supercross-in-anaheim\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:42:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:42:46","slug":"eli-tomac-of-cortez-wins-round-1-of-supercross-in-anaheim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/eli-tomac-of-cortez-wins-round-1-of-supercross-in-anaheim\/","title":{"rendered":"Eli Tomac of Cortez wins Round 1 of Supercross in Anaheim"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Eli
Eli Tomac wins Round 1 of the 2026 Supercross season at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California, on Saturday. (Courtesy Red Bull KTM)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Eli Tomac of Cortez silenced doubts about his age and new team by dominating the opening race Saturday in the 2026 Supercross season after joining the Red Bull KTM Racing team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The win at Angel Stadium marked Tomac\u2019s 12th consecutive season with a 450SX main-event victory and his 54th career Supercross win. Teammate Jorge Prado finished third.<\/p>\n

In qualifying rounds, Prado won Heat 1 with Tomac second. Ken Roczen took Heat 2.<\/p>\n

Tomac, 33, grabbed the holeshot in the main event, but after overjumping and entering an early corner wide, reigning champion Cooper Webb slipped inside of him to take the lead.<\/p>\n

Hunter Lawrence stayed close to Tomac while both chased Webb. Jett Lawrence, Hunter\u2019s brother, will miss the 2026 season because of injury.<\/p>\n

Before the first lap ended, a crash involving Malcolm Stewart and Justin Barcia stopped the race. Barcia was hospitalized with a concussion and a fractured transverse process, while Stewart sustained a separated shoulder.<\/p>\n

Officials restarted the race after clearing the injured riders.<\/p>\n

On the restart, Prado led early, but Tomac quickly passed him and held first the rest of the way.<\/p>\n

Roczen moved into second and stayed two to three seconds behind Tomac. Prado finished third \u2013 more than 20 seconds back.<\/p>\n

Tomac won, Roczen was second and Prado third \u2013 Prado\u2019s first 450 Supercross podium.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Tomac) looked like he was locked and loaded,\u201d commentators said about Tomac following his win.<\/p>\n

After the race, Tomac discussed the win, his age and his new KTM bike.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, it puts a lot of questions to rest for age and, of course, switching teams,\u201d Tomac said. \u201cChanging motorcycles, changing teams, that\u2019s obviously the biggest thing you can do in our sport. Hey, we did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The race was Prado\u2019s Supercross debut with Red Bull KTM. The multi-time MXGP world champion qualified sixth while adjusting to the KTM 450 bike, then grabbed the holeshot in his heat race and held off Tomac for the win.<\/p>\n

In the main event, Prado, 25, launched to another holeshot and rode smart to finish third \u2013 his first Supercross podium \u2013 giving Red Bull KTM a double podium.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really ahead of my expectations,\u201d he said in a team news release<\/a>. \u201cGetting the heat race win was awesome, but I am really happy with my main event and to be on the podium. \u2026 Hard work always pays off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veteran racer Aaron Plessinger, 29, returned to KTM action at Anaheim 1, led his heat early, then went to the last chance qualifier after contact with another rider. He won the LCQ and finished 10th in the main event for solid points.<\/p>\n

Round 2 is Saturday, Jan. 17, at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego.<\/p>\n

\n

2026 Supercross 450 Overall Point Standings1. Eli TomacKTM25 points2. Ken Roczen Suzuki223. Jorge PradoKTM204. Hunter Lawrence Honda185. Jason AndersonSuzuki176. Justin CooperYamaha167. Cooper WebbYamaha158. Chase SextonKawasaki149. Dylan FerrandisRed Bull Ducati1310. Aaron PlessingerKTM12<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Red Bull KTM Factory racing team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,162,28,60,29,346,447],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-eli-tomac","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-sports","tag-supercross"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13977"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19260,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13977\/revisions\/19260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13977"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}