As steady and somewhat normal as race one seemed to go to start off the night, the reality was the chaos was only just about to start. In the second race, it was Webb who got out front first while Sexton was left mired way down in the pack. The #1 machine was back there with Eli Tomac and Ken Roczen who all had horrible starts with their inside gates as Roczen even fell going into the first turn. It was an enjoyable treat for the Anaheim crowd as Sexton, Tomac, and Roczen followed each other forward working through the likes of Justin Barcia, Jorge Prado, Hunter Lawrence, and Dylan Ferrandis. It was going well for Sexton who had made it up to sixth with a handful of laps left when the KTM man crashed out of sixth and slipped back to 12^th. Meanwhile, Webb had led for only two laps before coughing the lead up to Jason Anderson. Jett Lawrence spent a lot of the race tailing points leader Aaron Plessinger before he made it around him and even put some pressure on Webb for second before ultimately settling for third. Anderson would cruise to the second race victory and put himself just one point off Cooper Webb’s 2-2 score to Anderson’s 4-1 heading into the final race.

The third race was all Eli Tomac as the big #3 machine got out ahead of Chase Sexton early on and set sail with the lead. The real story was that of Jason Anderson, who crashed just outside of the top five on the first lap and watched the whole field go by. Anderson picked the bike up just before the whoops while slightly off-track and pinned it alongside the whoops to get back on the track. More on that later. Cooper Webb ran a comfortable fifth, and thanks to the myriad of mixed results throughout the field, Webb actually was easily on his way to winning the Triple Crown. It was on Anderson to catch Webb from way back and he certainly tried his best. He made it all the way up to seventh around Dylan Ferrandis and inched the gap down to Justin Cooper in sixth and Webb just ahead in fifth. If Anderson could catch and pass Webb, he would win the overall. Try as he might, it just wasn’t enough when the flag waved. Eli Tomac took the win in the final race ahead of Sexton and Aaron Plessinger, but it was Cooper Webb’s 2-2-5 scores that got the job done to win the Anaheim Triple Crown and the 25 points that come with it. It was Webb’s 22^nd career victory.

“If you do really well the first two [races], the third one sometimes is easy,” said Webb of the Triple Crown format. “I had a lot of wiggle room [in Race 3] and could just, honestly, have a solo ride in fifth place. But it is a little bit weird, for sure, to not go over the checkered flag first. But I think that’s kind of the unique thing about the Triple Crown, is we’ve seen a lot of this happen. You can have big point swings, and you can have one bad race and then have two good ones [and] you end up on the podium and something like that. So it’s never over for sure in these kind of situations.”

Second place on the night was set to be Jason Anderson who just pipped both Plessinger and Tomac overall by one point each to nab the second spot. However, AMA reviewed Anderson’s charge off track on the opening lap of the final race and deemed it an advantage based on time gained. As such, they hit him with a one position penalty as per the rulebook guidelines which dropped Anderson to eighth in the race. That meant he then tied Tomac and Plessinger and as the tiebreaker is better final moto score, they both got him. So, second overall then was Eli Tomac whose 5-7-1 scores were good enough for second place points on the night. It was Tomac’s second podium of 2024, but it was that win in the final race that has everyone excited for what version of Tomac we may get moving forward.

“I was pretty frustrated after those first two [races],” said Tomac. “I was like, ‘Okay, here I’m just - what am I now, fifth – seventh place guy right now?’ I don’t know. I just had to go do something, I had to get off the gate there, so it was good. It was good. Had a good flow. I was able to get the whoop combo down, and I felt like that was important for me, and yeah, felt good.”

Points leader Aaron Plessinger rounded out the podium with 6-4-3 scores and also retained the red plate thanks to the result. Plessinger was quite sure coming into Anaheim that the speed he was feeling on the KTM was not just a result of back-to-back mud races, but that of genuine form out of the orange crew. It certainly looked to be true as Plessinger slowly got better all night long and actually extended his points lead when the dust settled.

“This race was really important for me, just to stay consistent and not let things get to my head,” said Plessinger. “I feel like I did a good job of that – I got great starts all night, I tightened up a little in Race 1, before in Race 2 I rode really good, and then Race 3 I was right there behind Chase [Sexton]. Tonight was tough, a lot of the success had to do with being consistent, and I think I did a good job of that."

Jason Anderson and Chase Sexton rounded out the top five overall positions. Anderson certainly had more than a shot at the win Saturday but that crash in the third race proved costly. Still though, a week on from a drama filled San Diego, Anderson looked fired up to win and has a strong case to make about why he could be the fifth different winner in five rounds after next week’s action. Sexton’s P5 overall on the night was simply a product of a frustrating second main event. He went 1-11-2 for fifth overall but probably had the speed to win with a reasonably consistent result in the second race. Heck, had he remained sixth in that second race and not crashed, he would have won the overall instead of finishing fifth. Reports suggest that Sexton was quite frustrated after the race, but he only lost three points off Plessinger in the championship and still sits second overall.

Finally there’s the story of Jett Lawrence. The usually well-liked Jett was fairly soundly booed in opening ceremonies this week thanks to his altercation with Anderson in San Diego. He then crashed on the first lap of the first race and the last lap of the final race to go 7-3-4 for sixth.  He’s still right in the middle of this epic title fight through four rounds, but the top of the world feeling from him after winning the opener seems to be all but gone.

Fortunately for him, and the rest of the field, they all get to go again next week inside Detroit, Michigan’s Ford Field.

Switching gears to the 250SX class, Jordon Smith entered Anaheim 2 as the points leader, and in doing so became the first rider in either class all year to hold the red plate for consecutive weeks. But the field was hot on his heels with Levi Kitchen only seven points down, Garrett Marchbanks 10 markers back, and Anaheim 1 winner RJ Hampshire only 13 points off.

Smith’s Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Nate Thrasher picked up the win a week ago in San Diego to make it three different winners in three rounds, but Thrasher carried DNF-18-1 scores on his card heading into Anaheim again and he was well out of the title fight because of it. A similar sentiment could be felt for Honda HRC’s Jo Shimoda who has had some solid rides so far, but was still seventh in points, over 20 points back before A2. With such a short season in 250SX West, the title hopes were almost all but dashed for Thrasher and Shimoda as we were inching down to a Kitchen, Smith, Marchbanks, Hampshire title fight.

The first race of the night for the 250SX class saw Levi Kitchen get out front and try to sneak away while Hampshire and Thrasher fought over second place. Smith was buried off the start and crossed the line in P14 after one lap. Thanks to the Triple Crown format, a bad result doesn’t necessarily ruin your night so long as you can back it up in the other races. But Smith had other ideas than that as he ripped through the field, making it all the way up to fourth place. Kitchen had Hampshire breathing down his next when the checkers waved to conclude the first race, but The Chef cooked up a victory instead.

Phil Nicoletti led three laps of the second race as the whole stadium experienced a collective flashback to when Nicoletti led nearly the entire second 250SX race in the Triple Crown at Anaheim in 2023. However, this time Nicoletti was shuffled back as Hampshire went to the lead and brought Kitchen with him. Smith crashed in the first turn with his teammate Thrasher and MotoConcepts Honda Racing’s Mitchell Oldenburg. As Smith worked forward, he had a second crash before the whoops that really set him back. While Hampshire held off a hard charging Kitchen to win the second race this time, Smith could only muster an eighth-place finish.

Hampshire and Kitchen entered the third race tied on overall points with both riders knowing how big the points haul could be based on Smith’s two tough races to that point. The third race saw Nate Thrasher get the lead this time with Kitchen right behind him. Smith was inside the top 10 this time, but only just. Meanwhile, Hampshire started behind him but quickly charged forward into fourth. Just as Hampshire got there, he crashed in the whoops and slipped back to eighth. Hampshire then got a flat tire and would cruise it home seventh, but it would not be enough for the overall today.

Levi Kitchen broke through for his second career 250SX win as he claimed the Anaheim 2 Triple Crown with 1-2-3 finishes. Interestingly, Kitchen’s first and only win to this point came right here at Anaheim for the Triple Crown last year. With the big result and a wild night for Jordon Smith, Kitchen now moves to a tie for the championship lead.

“We’re all really close right now,” said Kitchen. “Obviously I want to be the dominant guy, but yeah, it’s closer now. You can’t start in like fifth and sixth with these guys and have them up front. You’d have to have a pretty amazing – I don’t even know what you’d have to do to be able to get up to them. I think it’s tighter than in years’ past. Especially the top five of us, we’re all pretty experienced by now, so it’s definitely tight racing."

While Kitchen celebrated out front, RJ Hampshire limped home seventh in the final race to earn second place overall. It wasn’t exactly what Hampshire wanted, but it was a salvage job in the final race that saw Hampshire gain good points on Smith who finished fifth behind him. After crashing away a podium last week in San Diego with two turns to go, a second-place finish was a welcomed sight for the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna man.

“It was a solid night at A2, and I was fast all day,” recalled Hampshire. “We topped all three practices, and the first two Races were awesome – I had so much fun battling with Levi [Kitchen], we put on a good show, which was sick. Third Race, not a great start, and then just a bit of a mishap. Still made up a lot of points, cut the deficit in half, so I’m stoked on that.”

Rounding out the podium was third race winner Nate Thrasher. Erase a weird second main event where Thrasher fell with his teammate Smith in the first corner and you’re maybe looking at back-to-back wins for the #57. Alas, a podium result will have to do after Thrasher spent the first two rounds on the ground a lot.

“I felt like it was a big step in the right direction for me, and we’re still learning, still working, still trying to get a little bit better, but last week [in testing] I think we found a little bit and it showed this weekend,” said Thrasher. “It was a very hardpack track out there today and on the bike, I was racing a couple weekends ago I was struggling pretty bad with the hardpack. So yeah, it was definitely a little bit better spot for me.”

Jo Shimoda and Jordon Smith rounded out the top five as Smith will lament a tough day at the office as the points leader. He is still the points leader heading into this short break or 250SX West, he just now jointly shares it with Levi Kitchen. As for Jo Shimoda, it’s his third fourth place finish across the first four rounds and Shimoda still doesn’t quite have a podium in 2024. A crash in the first race when he and Jordon Smith made contact was the real trouble problem for Shimoda, but the speed was very much there in the second and third races. Four different riders have won races in 250SX West so far, and Shimoda will be aiming to make it five different winners when the series returns at Glendale in a couple of weeks.

Many props to Toyota Redlands Bar X Suzuki’s Anthony Bourdon who ended up sixth overall on the night with 8-6-8 scores and now sits fifth overall in the points. Bourdon has been quietly very solid and really deserves more attention on him as he continues to impress in his first ever experience racing supercross in the USA. As mentioned though, the whole West Region group takes a small break now as the series heads east for the first 250SX East Region round in Detroit, Michigan next week. West Region action will return in just two weeks’ time though in Glendale, Arizona, where two red plates will now hit the track in both Jordon Smith and Levi Kitchen.