The 2026 SuperMotocross World Championship kicked off in Anaheim, Calif., at Angel Stadium on Saturday.
During the opening weekend, the series announced the playoff schedule. Round one will be in Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. Round two will be at Dignity Health Sports Park in Los Angeles. The World Championship Finale will be at Bass Pro Shops Thunder Ridge Nature Area in Ridgedale, Mo.
In the racing action, there was one racer who put on a show in the 450 class that no one was expecting. Jorge Prado won his heat race, along with finishing third in the main event.
Prado has had an unconventional journey in American racing so far. In 2023, Prado was still racing in Europe with the MXGP series, a 20-round series that is strictly motocross. He had talked about making a full-time switch over to America to race the SMX World Championship.
In 2024, Prado came over and raced the first three rounds of the Supercross season. He was able to pick up a heat win at San Diego, which was an absolute mud-fest.
In a surprising turn of events, Prado left the KTM group, which he first joined in 2011, to join the Monster Energy Kawasaki team to race full-time in the U.S. As last year went on, this turned out to be a complete disaster. He was hurt three weeks into the Supercross season and was out for the whole Supercross season. When Prado came back to Motocross, it was undeniable that he rode terribly, and he and the rest of the team did not get along.
It was a bad summer for both parties, and a change was needed badly before his reputation was fully destroyed in America.
The four-time world champion shocked everyone this past weekend, and he made a positive step in the right direction for the future of his career.
In the 450 class, Prado’s teammate, Eli Tomac, won the main event while battling with Suzuki’s Ken Roczen.
In the 250 class, title favorite Haiden Deegan had a challenging evening. He was near last off of the start, but he was able to push back to fourth place. His biggest rival, Levi Kitchen, also had a poor start but was able to recover for a sixth-place finish.
The podium consisted of veteran Max Anstie winning the race, with Chance Hymas taking second, and Ryder DiFrancesco taking third.
This was monumental for Anstie and DiFrancesco. Anstie is now the oldest winner in the 250 class, at 32 years old. For DiFrancesco, this was his first Supercross podium.
As a talented amateur, DiFrancesco was a thorn in the side of Deegan. However, DiFrancesco’s career hasn’t been smooth yet, due to injuries. This will be a momentum shift for him and hopefully a confidence booster.
This weekend, the action shifts to San Diego at Snapdragon Stadium. The weather is going to be partly cloudy in the high 60s. Fans will be able to catch all of the action throughout the day live on Peacock. Qualifying starts at 12:30 p.m. Eastern and the racing starts at 7 p.m. As always, another great weekend of racing awaits.
