Cooper Webb enters tonight as defending Monster Energy Supercross champion for the second time in the last three years and will look to successfully defend this time against a similar cast of challengers. The winningest active rider, Eli Tomac, has moved to the Monster Energy/Star Yamaha Racing program and looks as fit and ready as ever to chase his second 450SX title. Last year's runner up Ken Roczen will enter his sixth season with Honda HRC in 2022 but heads into his second year aboard the current generation CRF450R. Perhaps a full year of testing and development on the bike will be enough to push Roczen to this title.

Of course, there's a long list of talent looking to break through. Justin Barcia is eyeing his fourth straight opening round victory this evening which would break the all-time record. Aaron Plessinger and Marvin Musquin will accompany Cooper Webb at KTM as they look to win races and contend whereas Chase Sexton returns as Ken Roczen's teammate at Honda HRC and has a lot of hype around him heading into his second year in the 450SX class. Monster Energy Kawasaki brings Adam Cianciarulo and 2018 450SX champion Jason Anderson to the line this year as both appear more hungry than ever to prove any doubters wrong. Rockstar Energy Husqvarna marches new rider Malcolm Stewart and veteran Dean Wilson to the line this year as both look to step up as team leaders. And of course, reigning 450 class Pro Motocross champion Dylan Ferrandis has a lot of momentum rolling into this year and a new teammate in Eli Tomac as an extra push to find success in 450 supercross.

The list goes on and on but the talking stops now. All that's left is to hit the track and see what happens. We'll be providing updates throughout the day as the first sets of practice are getting ready to hit the track momentarily. Be sure to keep up with the racing via Race Day Live and the TV schedule below.

FREE PRACTICE

Free practice kicked off the day in Anaheim with a little bit of an earlier start time as riders hit the track at 11:30. There are C groups in both the 250SX and 450SX classes as the field is larger for the opening round. So, the 250C guys were first on track and it was immediately clear that both sets of whoops were going to be factors. Particularly the set after the finish line jump has been built pretty tall and the C group struggled to get the flow going. The session was eventually topped by supercross debutant Kaeden Amerine.

When the A group found their way out there, it was no surprise to see SmarTop/BullFrog Spas/MotoConcepts Honda rider Vince Friese grab the early lead in the first practice of the year. Quickly though, Monster Energy/Star Yamaha Racing’s Christian Craig hopped to the front of the group and right to the top of the time sheets. Craig didn’t ever appear to be going 100% at any point in the session, but he continued to lower his times to end up in the 56’s. Riders like Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/GasGas’ Michael Mosiman was up near the top of the sheets as well as many other usual faces.

In the 450SX class, Eli Tomac looked to find his grove immediately aboard his new Yamaha and went to the top of the table early. Tomac looked particularly aggressive on his new machine and may come out swinging early to finally tick Anaheim 1 off his list of races to still win in his illustrious career.

Cooper Webb’s new KTM 450SX-F Factory Edition has had a lot of talk about the improvement that bike will have in the whoops. Webb and teammate Marvin Musquin were known to be some of the first riders to begin jumping through whoops as they deteriorated, but both appeared to attack these large whoops throughout the session. Based on the eye test, Webb looks better in the whoops.

Their new teammate Aaron Plessinger had a strange moment after the first set of whoops when he ended up on the backside of the berm after said whoops. Plessinger seemed perplexed as to what went wrong as he picked his bike up but was uninjured and continued on. Other highlights included Alex Ray losing a shroud and with his bike smoking, Jason Anderson and Chase Sexton exchanging pleasantries at one point, and Dean Wilson ending up down on the whoops with Brandon Hartranft.

In the end, a surprise leapt to the top of the board right near the end when Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Malcolm Stewart ended up P1. Stewart looked incredible in the whoops which has been true no matter what brand of bike he’s on and the story continues into 2022.

FIRST QUALIFYING SESSIONS

The first qualifying sessions of the day got underway and it was clear the whoops were going to be the focal point. The set after the finish line at now fully cupped out with a hard top that was unchanging and riders were clearly struggling. Several B and C group riders crashed throughout their respective sessions with Christopher Prebula taking a good hit to his arm.

By the time the A group went out, they were even more cupped out and AJE Motorsports/Motul GasGas rider Chris Blose was the first victim. Blose cartwheeled and had the bike land on top of his legs. He was then helped off the track without putting any pressure onto his right leg before being loaded up on the medical mule and hauled away. No word on his condition at this time.

Christian Craig appeared to have the whoops completely dialed as well as the rest of the track as he continues to not put a foot wrong in the first half of the day. Craig would once again top the sheets ahead of Mosiman but there was more of a gap between the two this time.

In the 450SX class, the story was not much different. Riders like Adam Cianciarulo, Aaron Plessinger, and more found themselves on the ground courtesy of the whoops. Cianciarulo actually crashed in both sets of whoops and after nearly hitting the deck a third time in the big set of whoops, Cianciarulo pulled into the mechanics area and appeared flustered.

Eli Tomac once again set the early pace but there was a lot more competition for the top spot this time around. Ken Roczen leaped over Tomac as the now 450SX class veterans continue for their ninth year. But it was the fresh talent of Dylan Ferrandis and Chase Sexton that actually found their way to the top of the sheets by the end of the session.

Sexton was the only rider into the 57s as the track was clearly slowing down throughout the sessions. What remains to be seen after this is whether or not the whoops will be changed going forward given the attrition race. The final qualifying sessions are coming up soon.

SECOND QUALIFYING SESSIONS

In the final qualifying sessions of the day in Anaheim, the sun was starting to set and nearly the whole track was now shadowed. Typical to Anaheim, once the sun goes down, the moisture really starts to come out in the dirt and conditions are certainly shaping up to be about the best you can ask for by the time the night show begins.

There was still qualifying to run though and the 250A group hit the track. This time Hunter Lawrence got out front and began putting down early top times. Lawrence has looked particularly comfortable throughout today but also has seemed to be just a tick off of what the top guys have been putting down.

That was true again for the final session as once again Michael Mosiman and Christian Craig found their way into a lap time battle for pole position. Mosiman briefly held the spot but Craig laid down a blistering lap late to secure P1 on the day. That makes Craig perfect so far in three sessions to start the year and he is certainly carrying a lot of confidence with him into this opening round tonight.

The final 450A session was finally when we saw the true potential from everyone. There were minimal mistakes as guys locked in one more time before tonight's racing and the top times kept shifting from rider to rider.

It also became an early trend where guys were starting to eye out jumping through the whoops. Ken Roczen led the first few laps around and was actually jumping through both sets of whoops. The second set is clearly still an blitz section as the whoops are simply too big, but keep an eye on the deterioration of the track this evening as the jump line might come into play.

Chase Sexton hopped to the top of the board early on and held that position for a little while before Monster Energy Kawasaki's Jason Anderson laid down a hot lap to show his face up front. That lasted for mere moments though as once again Malcolm Stewart would not be denied. Eli Tomac tried a late hot lap to tip Stewart, but Stewart held on in the end by less than a tenth of a second.

In fact, all of the top 10 were separated by less than a second as times were really starting to get close by the end of the day. Tonight could be as simple as a good start being the catalyst between winning and finishing 10th. We will see as the gates get ready to drop soon.

250SX Heat 1

To no one’s surprise Vince Friese started the year with the very first holeshot of the year. Colt Nichols was right behind followed by Chris Blose and Seth Hammaker. Hammaker moved into third by the end of lap one while Friese continued to lead. Nichols took a few shots at Friese but Friese held him at bay—which is his specialtuy, finally on the third lap Nichols made the move. Hammaker was sitting right behind them and tripled into second, but then Friese got back inside, made the move and held Hammaker up. This allowed Michael Mosiman to slip into second. Two laps later Nichols went down hard in the whoops! The champion of last year’s 250SX East division was not moving. Finally he would sit up, it appeared the Alpinestars Medics were fitting him with a cast on his arm.

Dylan Schwartz was running fifth and then he crashed and headed to the mechanic’s area. This left Derek Kelley, Robbie Wageman, Mitchell Harrison, Cole Thompson and Ryan Surratt with the final main event transfer spots, with Thomas Do just short.

250SX Heat 2

Christian Craig grabbed the holeshot and early lead as the rest of the field ran into some early chaos behind him. When Hunter Lawrence missed the first triple while in second place, Jalek Swoll was collected in some of the cross-jumping and went down hard on the supercross triple landing. Swoll would remain down for several laps.

Behind Craig, Garrett Marchbanks had moved into second place as Hunter Lawrence then settled into third. Lawrence ran third for two laps before he fell as well but he would remount. The red flag was then displayed as the medical team tended to Swoll. A full restart would commence after Swoll was taken away on a backboard with a soft cast on his left arm. No update currently on his condition.

For the restart, it was Hunter Lawrence who grabbed the holeshot and early lead away from Dylan Walsh. Christian Craig quickly found his way into second place and set sail after Lawrence out front. The two pulled a pretty good lead over new third place man Jo Shimoda in the early running as well.

Craig slowly reeled in Lawrence for the race lead and went for a block pass before the first set of whoops. Lawrence almost kept it on two wheels as Craig sliced underneath but alas the #96 machine fell to the ground. That left Craig with a huge lead over Shimoda, Marchbanks, Lawrence, and Carson Mumford inside the top five.

The win in the end would go to Craig from Shimoda, Marchbanks, Lawrence, Nate Thrasher, Mumford, Dominique Thury, Logan Karnow, and Devin Harriman.

450 SX Heat 1

Mr Opening Round Shane McElrath nailed the holeshot over Chase Sexton and Cooper Webb, then Marvin Musquin Webb made a quick pass on Sexton around the outside but Sexton got him back by using a drive from the outside in the whoops. Eli Tomac was on a charge and made short work of Musquin and then put an attack on Webb. Musquin was followed by Justin Barcia. Up front Sexton was the threatening a move on McElrath, he tried the outside in the whoops and almost made the pass, but McElrath was able to triple out of a turn and hold him off. The next lap Sexton tried the same pass and made it stick.

Behind them, Tomac made a charge toward Webb, then lost some ground, then reeled Webb back in, then Webb tucked the front in a corner and went down. This let Tomac slip into third.

Barcia got inside of Musquin and put him into the tough blocks, then Musquin went down again trying to get back going on the slippery concrete. This put Musquin outside of a transfer spot so he went to work, catching Cade Clason for ninth on the last lap. Clason caught his teammate Alex Ray for eighth and ran him high in a berm, allowing Musquin to get by ARay as well. Then in the final corner Musquin block passed Clason and put him down, too! This let Freddie Noren sneak into the main for ninth. He was 11^th on the last lap before the trouble for A Ray and Clason.

Sexton took the win, McElrath was solid in second ahead of Tomac. Then it was Tomac, Barcia, Webb, Anstie, Oldenburg, Musquin and Noren.

450 SX Heat 2

Ken Roczen nailed the start ahead of Adam Cianciarulo. Justin Brayton and Malcolm Stewart were next, but Jason Anderson got Anderson in the whoops. Two turns later Malcolm shoulder checked Anderson in a corner and took him down! Brayton made a move on Cianciarulo for second in a battle of the “guys who got hurt in December.” A spots further back Alex Martin and Dean Wilson were in a battle and Martin crossed rutted and went off the track and down. It appeared the crash broke his bike, and Martin was out and headed to the LCQ.

In the final laps Cianciarulo’s shoulder must given out, as he started jumping the whoops and lost pace. He faded from third to seventh. Roczen took the win over Brayton, then Stewart was closing on Brayton to the end but settled for third. Then it was Plessinger who held off Ferrandis. Then it was Joey Savatgy, Cianciarulo and Anderson made a good charge from his early crash to get to eighth over Dean Wilson.

250SX LCQ

The 250SX Last Chance Qualifying kicked off with a holeshot from Maxwell Sanford. Two corners into the race, however, Sanford crashed while leading and took a few other riders with him including Frenchman Thomas Do. Do and Sanford would both not finish the race.

Dylan Walsh went to the lead then and led every lap from there to move on. Kaeden Amerine caught him late but would settle for second place. Hunter Schlosser and Dilan Schwartz would round out the transfer spots.

450SX LCQ

The holeshot in the final Last Chance Qualifier of the night went to Josh Hill, but similar to Sanford, Hill would also crash in the same corner near home plate just moments later. That put Joan Cros into the lead with Justin Starling and Justin Bogle giving chase. Bogle quickly passed Starling and went after Cros for the lead, but in a bizarre moment, Bogle and Cros made minor contact going into the whoops and Bogle never planted his feet back on the pegs and crashed five whoops later.

That put Starling into the lead with Ryan Breece in second, Brandon Hartranft in third, and Cros rounding out the top four. Alex Ray and Alex Martin, two main event hopefuls, each found the ground a lap later essentially ending their nights.

Starling pulled away for the win with Hartranft in second, but the drama was going on behind them. Cros and Breece got into a block pass war and allowed Cade Clason to make it through and into third. Breece and Cros continued to pass each other back and forth with Breece eventually nabbing the final spot.

250SX West Main Event

Vince Friese the holeshot over Seth Hammaker and Chrisian Craig. Nate Thrasher and Jo Shimoda hit the starting gate. Craig immediatel tried a move on Hammaker but couldn’t quite pull it. Mosiman went down on lap one and was dead last, behind even Shimoda and Thrasher.

 raig made a move and Hammaker then went after Friese for the lead. Friese was riding well, not holding Craig up but holding his own. Then Craig closed back in and started getting aggressive, which is a game Friese knows how to play. He couldn’t get him after multiple attempts, then finally got inside and  made it stick. Next it was Hammaker’s turn to work on Friese, took a lap but he finally got by. Next came Garrett Marchbanks, then a big gap back to Carson Mumford, Hunter Lawrence and Robbie Wageman.

Thrasher and Shimoda were having a  terrible time moving forward, each suffered crashes as they tried to come through the pack. Mosiman was fairing slightly better, in tenth near the halfway mark.

Hunter Lawrence got a bad start and had to work his way forward slowly, he finally caught and passed Friese for fourth 11 minutes into the main. Down the stretch Marchbanks caught Hammaker and the battle was on for second. Then Marchbanks must have bobbled because Hammaker pulled back away. Lawrence then started closing on Marchbanks, then Marchbanks started closing on Hammaker again as the white flag was about to come out. As they hit the white flag, Marchbanks was all over Hammaker, who went for a wild ride in the whoops but somehow hung on and saved it. Lawrence was lurking and pulled a quick pass on the inside on Marchbanks to steal third. He kept charging and go to the rear wheel of Hammaker. He showed Hammaker a wheel and almost got inside of him, Hammaker sent the jumps before the finish and cased it, barely got across the line and rolled the finish, just barely able to hold onto second. Lawrence took third ahead of Marchbanks, who was bummed to let a podium slip away in the final lap.

Friese was fifth, Mosiman came back to sixth.

 “This is a dream come true for me,” said Craig, of Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha. “I didn’t get the best start, but I made some clean passes. The track was really sketchy. Once I got out front I just tried to ride clean laps. Man, I can’t be any happier than this, back at Anaheim, big crowd, I’m really pumped.”

“That was a wild race, probably one of the craziest races I’ve been in,” said Hammaker, of Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki. “Last few laps I had Garrett right behind me and I saw Lawrence coming. It got pretty gnarly at the finish, but that’s racing and I’m stoked to pull off the second place finish.”

“It was maybe five laps to go, I saw them, I kept pushing, kept charging, I hope it was fun to watch,” said Lawrence, of Honda HRC. “I got a bad start, about seven guys hit the gate so it flinched. I wanted to get the pass there but I was still trying to keep it a little but civilized. I’m bummed because I could have won. It sucks, really.”

450SX MAIN EVENT

The first round of the year kicked off and it was Ken Roczen grabbing the holeshot with his teammate Chase Sexton right behind him. Adam Cianciarulo sat in third place with Justin Barcia quickly moving into fourth around Shane McElrath.

Eli Tomac sat outside of the top 10 early on as he and Malcolm Stewart began charging forward from rough starts. Cooper Webb found himself right in the thick of the mid-pack with Malcolm Stewart and Jason Anderson banging bars early on. Anderson made the move and set sail after McElrath for fifth place. Anderson made the move on McElrath into fifth place then before the third lap of the race was over.

Webb and Musquin were then next to get around McElrath and Stewart followed soon after. Eli Tomac suddenly had teammate Dylan Ferrandis closing on him quickly as the two we set to battle for 10^th. Tomac then saw his opportunity to get around McElrath as well and moved his way into ninth as he follow Stewart ahead of him.

Up front, Sexton was following Roczen right on his rear tire for several laps as they both worked on pulling away from Cianciarulo in third place. The gap slowly widened to nearly five seconds as Sexton started to look for opportunities to pass into the race lead.

Just when it seemed like Sexton was about to figure it out, he went down when he high sided into a berm. That moved him behind Cianciarulo into third then with Barcia and the rest of the pack suddenly right on him. That also gave Roczen a huge lead out front as he could practically put it on cruise control at the halfway point.

Sexton made quick work of Cianciarulo but immediately found the ground in the whoops just moments later. That pushed Sexton all the way back to ninth behind Ferrandis. So, the new running order saw Roczen with a massive lead over Justin Barcia with Anderson, Webb, Cianciarulo, Musquin, Ferrandis, Sexton, and Tomac right behind them in a line.

Suddenly, Musquin and Stewart came together and that pushed them back behind Tomac. Then Ferrandis and Sexton came together before the whoops and Ferrandis stalled the bike halfway through which allowed Tomac, Musquin, and Joey Savatgy to get through.

It all came to a head with Anderson and Barcia as they battled over second place. Anderson made a pass on Barcia in the first set of whoops and Barcia promptly put Anderson on the ground two turns later to hold on to second place. It ended up being for not for Barcia who then relinquished second place moments later to Cooper Webb.

From there, Roczen held on to a comfortable lead to cruise home and win the Anaheim opener. Cooper Webb would follow him home in second with Barcia rounding out the podium. Marvin Musquin drag raced to the finish and Musquin just got Sexton by a nose for fourth.

After the race, Malcolm Stewart came up to Musquin and was heated. Replays showed that Musquin essentially took himself and Malcolm out when they were battling early on, but both recovered well to finish fourth and seventh, respectively.

"I don’t know what to say. My December has been horrendous," said Roczen, who said he suffered from a gnarly illness for several weeks." Me and the team did everything we could to get better. I didn’t expect that at all coming here. We’re really focused on our starts and everything went right, I’m really thankful for that. Towards the end I just wanted to keep it on two wheels, I haven’t often had a gap like that."

“Man it was a fun night on a tough race track, really a lot of us duking it out," said Webb. "I kind of got shuffled back the first few laps, but I felt good tonight, felt like I fought really hard. Got myself into a good position. Ken rode away but I got second, best I’ve ever done at the opener so I’ll take it.”

“That was an awesome race, I had a lot of fun, some great battles out there,” said Barcia. “I rode steady, smart and smooth. I felt good today, it was awesome.”

“That was one was tough I kinda feel like an idiot for making those mistakes,” said Sexton. “The first one kind of caught me off guard, and the second one was pretty much me just riding off emotion. Unfortunate for me but I showed a lot of fight in that one. I didn’t give up, Marvin and I had a good few battles there, he ended up getting me at the end. That was frustrating because it’s not the first time I was the fastest but I didn’t get the win.”