SAN DIEGO, California: Eli Tomac took grabbed the top spot on Lap 15 and led the final nine circuits around the Snapdragon Stadium track, but he was rarely uncontested as there were several surprises during the race.
Tomac is not always known as the best starter in the field, so his third-place position at the end of Lap 1 put fear in the hearts of his competitors. He stalked Ken Roczen for much of the race and managed to get his front wheel alongside the veteran, but experience revealed he would not be able to complete the pass. Tomac lost his momentum for a time before remounting his charge to get around Roczen for one trip around the track on Lap 10.
Roczen battled back, retook the lead, and then ultimately lost it and the second-place position as Hunter Lawrence also charged forward.
“I tried to play the patience game,” Tomac said in the post-race media scrum. “Hunter and Ken were really dicing it out, so I kind of just tried to warm up into the race there and stay on them, but also try not to do anything too wild. And then of course made my way forward a pass Hunter and then started dicing with Ken back and forth.
“The first pass I’m like, ‘okay, I think I’m going to make the stick and I can get away.’ And sure enough that didn’t happen and Ken came back. Then it was tough. Once I got in front of him the second time, got back into a good groove again, I thought I was all good.”
Tomac remained up front through out the remainder of the race to score back-to-back wins to start the season.
But it was not quite that simple because Lawrence refused to fade.
“The last lap, I go over the tunnel and I hear this rev and I look over and I see a red fender and I’m just like, what in the world is that? And it was Hunter, so I’m kind of bummed with myself,” Tomac continued. “I just wasn’t paying attention.”
Tomac left San Diego with an eight-point lead over Roczen in championship points.
Lawrence earned the holeshot and led early. He lost the lead on Lap 8, but did not lose contact with Tomac and Roczen. Lawrence moved into second on Lap 18 of 24 and mounted a fierce challenge to Tomac in the closing laps.
“We did a lot of stuff during the week to try and help that out where I felt like we struggled in Anaheim,” Lawrence said. “All of the things I could have done better at Anaheim, [my brother] Jett fastly reminded me in the truck after, so we’ll go back and wait, hear what he has to say about this one.”
Lawrence chuckled at the prospect.
After finishing second last week, Roczen stood on the podium for the second consecutive week. This is one of his best starts to season in recent memory.
“I led the most laps, but I got last podium spot,” Roczen said. “But no, it was an amazing race, honestly. I had a lot of fun. We were going back and forth and ultimately after I got passed by Eli, I just had a lap and a half of falling in a terrible rhythm and got passed by Hunter too.”
Chase Sexton earned the Hard Charger award this week, gaining 18 positions to finish fourth after riding over the holeshot line in 22nd. He hit the gate to start the race and was the last rider to get going.
Joey Savatgy earned his first top-five since finishing fifth in the final race of the 2025 Supercross season in Salt Lake City.
