One Awesome Season

The series did dodge a bullet with Tomac, though, who is very close to proving he’s just the all-around fastest guy on the gate but has also been very close, twice, to getting hurt. That’s the thin line here. Eli went OTB in Houston and escaped okay, then he went down in turn one in Glendale and was slow to get up. It’s those moments that make your breath stop, especially since we’ve seen it too much recently with Tomac. He appears to be okay again, though, as the team said he didn’t even mention any pain or injury when he talked to them after the race.

Like we said, phew. If you’re a Tomac fan (and who isn’t?) seeing the man on the ground is a terrible sight. But think of it another way. He might have been the best guy in four of the five races this year. If Eli took doesn’t crash these last two weekends he very easily could have won the last two weekends and really taken “the man” status in this title chase. Imagine Eli sitting on four wins in five rounds and a 20-some point leads? Instead, he’s pushed back to third in points with some work to do. This is making it interesting.

Then you have the emergence of Hunter Lawrence, now points leader. The four-straight second-place finishes are really putting consistency in bold and italic, but you can dig a little deeper for a bigger point. Hunter has finished second to four different riders (Tomac, Sexton, Webb and Roczen) but he’s also beaten those guys several times, also. This isn’t the usual string of seconds, where one guy always gets beat by someone that’s faster, but is fast enough to beat everyone else. No sir. If you’re Hunter, you’ve already taken these guys down at some point. You expect the averages to play out and one of these times you’ll end up winning. This is why he’s not frustrated at all.

So, Hunter is a real contender, not a pretender who just got lucky for a few weeks. Add him to the list of guys you know would be good: Tomac, Sexton, Webb, Roczen. Webb is back to doing Webb things and headed toward two magical venues for him. He didn’t just win Seattle and Arlington the last two years; he did it in instant-classic fashion. Seattle 2024 and 2025 featured battles with Sexton that went to the last lap, and Arlington has hosted the most Cooper Webb of Cooper Webb wins. The last two years were insane and that doesn’t even include that “closest finish in history” win over Roczen in 2019. He just rules in Seattle and Arlington. Down just 15 points after five races? It’s game on for the champ.

Sexton and Roczen are also right in this, although with a few more questions of where it goes from here. Roczen looks great but has started many series well before only to trail off later. For him, the challenge is simply to stay at this exact same level. For Sexton, his challenge is to level up. He won Anaheim 2, but the next two have been way below par. Can he ramp it back up to his usual speed? Judgements and outside noise will be closing hard and fast in his switch to Kawasaki, and he and the team have to block that out. Sextons’ first supercross season with KTM was all over the map, also, and he was much, much better in the second year. So, there’s a perception versus reality thing going here. Doesn’t help that Tomac and Jorge Prado are crushing it on their KTMs. Oh yeah, Prado! What level should be expected from here? Jorge maintains that it’s still a learning year in supercross and even told me on Saturday (after qualifying first) that he absolutely will not go over his limit to try to get a win. With his rate of improvement, though, is a win a possibility in supercross already? That’s as fascinating to watch and improbable to predict as the title chase.

What a year so far. Most seasons see the intrigue wane with every passing round, as each race usually provides some answers. This time, it’s changing every week. Keep it going, boys.