1. What Hangover?
After being heartbreakingly close to winning the 450 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship, the AMA Pro Motocross Championship season opener was set to go one of two ways for Hunter Lawrence. Either he was going to come out firing with a point to prove, or he was going to struggle with the dreaded “Supercross hangover.”
It turned out to be the former, as Hunter put in the most dominant performance of his 450 outdoor career. He went 1-1, leading all but one lap on the day. Jorge Prado kept him honest both motos, but it never felt like Hunter’s wins were seriously threatened by the Spaniard.
Hunter went on Monday night’s PulpMX Show and was asked if he expected Pala to go so well with limited riding and outdoor testing after the Salt Lake City SX.
“Maybe not like that. I mean, I knew I could win. I knew I’d be competitive even with the short amount of time”, Lawrence said. “I still have a lot of faith in the fact that I have been racing all year, and I felt that all year I have been strong and stuff. So, I had a pretty good gut feeling that, yes, I would be okay.”
If Hunter has improved as much in Pro Motocross as he did this year in supercross, it could be a long summer for the competition.
2. Redemption Season
If you follow MXGP at all, you will know that the Jorge Prado we saw last summer was not the real Jorge Prado. He’s already proven in supercross that the switch back to his beloved KTM was the right move for him, but how would a 100 percent Jorge Prado stack up in one of the deepest 450 Pro Motocross fields in history?
Turns out, pretty darn good. Prado went two 2-2 at Fox Raceway and was the only rider to keep Hunter Lawrence in his sights all day. He was able to get by Lawrence and lead early in moto two, but Hunter quickly regained the position as Jorge settled in behind him. For much of the day Lawrence maintained a five-to-six second gap over the Red Bull KTM rider. Despite Jett Lawrence getting close to Prado at the end of moto two, Jorge was the clear second-best rider on the weekend and secured his first American Pro Motocross podium.
Prado did most of his pre-season testing in SoCal, so Fox Raceway has become familiar territory for the four-time world champion. Can he maintain this level on a week-to-week basis?
3. Comeback Season
Nobody wants to see a rider get injured, but your first reaction to the Jett Lawrence injury was likely about how wide open the 450 class was without him in it. However, as time goes on, you begin to appreciate and miss Jettson being the freak that he is on a dirt bike.
The Lawrence camp kept Jett’s return very low key. There were zero riding videos and very little insight into how his recovery was going. The biggest insight we were able to get was from Jett’s appearance in Nashville where he walked around with a serious limp and talked on the broadcast about how difficult this recovery has been. It was an eye-opener as to just how serious of an injury the broken talus bone may be.
Jettson was solid in his return going 4-3 for third overall, but this was far from being the glorious comeback story we saw one year ago. He got two uncharacteristically bad starts but slowly gained momentum as the motos went on. While he may have ridden well enough to challenge his brother had he started up front, it was clear he was not at 100 percent.
In the post-race press conference, Lawrence commented that, “The ankle feels like sh*t right now.” He went on to talk about how riding too much sets him back as far as the pain and stiffness he feels in his ankle. It will be interesting to see how he balances his training and his recovery throughout the season and how that affects his riding on race day.
4. Eli Down…… Again
For the third time in the last four races Eli Tomac crashed out of a race day. On the opening lap of moto one, Tomac came together with Garrett Marchbanks and went down hard. It should be chalked up to a racing incident as their lines came together and they both went down in a heap. Eli immediately crawled to the side of the track and laid there. The Alpinestars medic unit attended to him for several minutes before taking him off on a backboard and transporting him for further evaluation.
Early reports were that the initial on-site scans revealed no broken bones after straining his neck in the incident, and he would undergo further evaluation this week. If you have seen the crash and screenshots of Eli landing on his head, you know how fortunate those reports are. It was a scary sight.
On Wednesday afternoon, KTM announced Tomac would miss the "upcoming rounds" of the championship as he is "taking time to recover." Tomac's return to racing has yet to be determined.
Tomac’s fall from grace over the past three months has been one of the most bizarre stories we have seen from a rider of his caliber. It has been difficult to watch, and you have to imagine it has been as much of a mental setback as it has physical. If we do see Eli return this season let’s hope he is 100 percent.
5. Dangerboy Goes 450
Haiden Deegan made one of the most anticipated 450 debuts in recent history at Fox Raceway. As the two-time and defending 250MX champion and with his new-found level of dominance in 250SX this season, many figured he would make an immediate impact in the premier class.
In true Haiden fashion, he contributed to the hype by making several claims about wanting to come in and beat Jett Lawrence, while also mixing in some “wanting to come into the 450 class and learn.” To cap things off he showed up on press day wearing a shirt with several notes and sketches taking jabs at Jett.
To Deegan’s credit, he didn’t pull any antics on the track or talk any crap in interviews throughout the weekend. He was happy with his 5-4 for fifth overall on the day. He started mid pack both motos, so to work his way into the top five was a good showing. We got a brief glimpse of a Jett vs. Haiden battle in the first moto as the two made their way through the pack. Deegan made a pass on Jett which seemed to light a spark under the defending 450MX champion, and he was able to make the pass back and slowly inch away from Haiden. Surprisingly it was all good, clean racing.
There is no reason to think Haiden Deegan will not figure this 450 thing out, but he will not be able to carve his way through the field like we have seen him do so many times on the 250.
6. Hammaker’s Maiden Victory
Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Seth Hammaker came into the 2026 Pro Motocross opener at Fox Raceway with 31 career 250MX starts and zero overall podiums; a shocking stat for someone with the speed and starting prowess that he has shown throughout his career.
Hammaker finally put all the pieces together in Pala, going 2-1 for his first career outdoor victory. He was one of few riders to pull two good starts and two good moto’s together and he was rewarded not only with the win, but a 13-point lead in the championship standings after just one round.
Following two consecutive seasons of battling for 250SX East titles, Seth was certainly on peoples radar as a potential title contender, however, there were some questions surrounding his health and preparation following his crash in Salt Lake City. In the post-race press conference, Hammaker admitted that his preparation was not optimal saying, “I tore my trap muscle and had to take two weeks off the bike. I only had three days on the bike before this. Didn’t do any motos, just kind of tested with the bike.”
It was an impressive and unexpected start to the season for Pennsylvania native.
7. Dud the Stud
Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s 16-year-old rookie Caden Dudney had a controversial supercross season. Dudney showed impressive speed but could not translate that into results. Crashes held him back and he exited the series after six rounds to get a head start on Pro Motocross preparation. He received the 250SX Rookie of the Year Award...although he did not even finish the season (the award is based on the most points, which he had).
There was a lot of “flying at the test track” buzz surrounding Caden in the weeks leading up to Pala, and he delivered with an impressive second overall on the day. Like Hammaker, Dudney was one of the few to get two good starts and he rode steady laps for the entire 35 minutes. It was the opposite of what he showed in SX, and with the inconsistency throughout the field, his 6-4 result put him runner-up on the day.
After the race, Dudney was asked about his ability to reset after a difficult supercross season.
“I think it just gave me more drive to do better," he said. "I went back to the farm and obviously put in the work. I don’t really think it hurt my confidence. I came in here confident, knowing how I can do on outdoors.”
Expect this to be the first podium of many for this young prospect.
[Editors' note: I coined "Dud the Stud" so I will text you for my residuals, Travis! - Mitch]
8. Lux Turner’s Stock Surge
Lux Turner’s flashes of speed and good starts during supercross opened some eyes and raised the question as to what the Toyota Redlands BarX Yamaha rider’s true potential could be (especially considering he came into the season with a wrist injury). Despite the flashes, Lux was only able to translate that into one top ten finish during supercross, but he started the Pro Motocross campaign with a bang at Pala.
Lux put in the ride of his career going 8-6 for seventh overall. He looked like the total package getting decent starts both motos, having legit speed, and charging late in the race. It was an impressive showing and blows his previous best of 14th overall out of the water.
There are whispers that Turner has caught the attention of a couple of factory teams and if the rest of his Pro Motocross season bears any resemblance to Fox Raceway, somebody is sure to get him a contract.
9. Good Juju
Red Bull KTM’s Julien Beaumer came into Fox Raceway a little under the radar after being sidelined since the Charlotte SMX round last September. Beaumer suffered a burst fracture in his back, one of the most frightening injuries in the sport. Original diagnosis was 12 months off the bike, but Beaumer was able to recover and get back on the bike in half of that. He began riding in late February, then opted to get the hardware removed from his back which put the comeback on pause for a few weeks.
Julien had about six weeks of prep coming into the Pro Motocross opener, and instantly reminded us just how good he is, qualifying third overall. His first moto was mediocre, starting around 15th and working his way up to 11th, but he came out swinging in moto two. Beaumer grabbed the holeshot and led for the first half of the moto. He showed impressive fitness in his first race back and held on to second, finishing just four seconds off Seth Hammaker.
On the podium, Beaumer talked about the work it took to get back to this point saying, “The last nine months were the hardest nine months of my life. To come out here and get second shows the hard work we put in and just doing everything right. We stuck behind the doctors and everyone behind me to make sure we took the right steps, and my team believed in me from the beginning.”
10. ¾ Dominant
Monster Energy/ Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Levi Kitchen was arguably the best 250 rider at Fox Raceway. Kitchen topped both qualifying sessions, hoisting the fastest lap of the morning by over a second and a half. He then got off to a good start in moto one, worked his way around his teammates Nick Romano and Seth Hammaker, and took off for a dominant moto win.
But things went sideways in moto two. Kitchen started mid pack and then got tangled up with a downed Michael Mosiman and Coty Schock. He remounted in dead last and salvaged a few points after working his way up to 13th, but it was not enough to land on the overall podium.
It was a missed opportunity for Kitchen to assert himself as the man to beat in the post-Deegan era. It is also not the first time we have seen Levi be the fastest guy only to have a bad start hinder his result. However, if he can bring that same form week in and week out and get even decent starts, Kitchen is going to be tough to beat over the course of 11 rounds.
