After 16 rounds of twists, surprises and momentum swings, the 2026 AMA Supercross Championships came down to one final gate drop, round 17 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Just a single point separated Ken Roczen and Hunter Lawrence entering the season finale, with the equation simple: whoever finished ahead of the other would leave with the 450SX championship.
The pressure could hardly have been higher, but both riders appeared calm heading into the weekend. Roczen and Lawrence spoke during Friday’s press conference about trying to treat Salt Lake City like any other race, despite knowing everything would be decided in one final main event.
For fans, it was the type of title fight the sport rarely sees, a championship decided head-to-head in the final race.
The 250SX class arrived with much less pressure after both regional championships had already been wrapped up by Star Racing Yamaha team-mates Cole Davies (from New Zealand, pictured here) in the East and Haiden Deegan in the West.
Even so, the Dave Coombs Sr. East/West Showdown promised one last clash between the season’s best riders, while Deegan’s final outing aboard a 250 before moving to the 450cc class added extra intrigue.
The Salt Lake City circuit itself looked straightforward on paper, but the huge whoops section immediately became the talking point. Featuring 12 whoops, more than riders had seen all season, it caused problems throughout practice, while a long, sweeping sand turn offered another potential challenge on a hot, dry and increasingly slick track.
450SX CLASS
The opening 450SX heat race saw Jorge Prado fire into the holeshot ahead of Chase Sexton, Justin Cooper and Justin Hill.
For several laps, Prado looked comfortable out front while Sexton patiently stalked the Spaniard. With under two minutes remaining, the Kawasaki rider finally made his move, diving inside Prado before sprinting clear to claim the heat race win.
Both Lawrence and Roczen launched strongly out of the gate as heat 2 got underway, although Lawrence emerged with the holeshot while Roczen found himself shuffled back slightly in the opening corners.
The race quickly took an unfortunate turn for hometown favourite Eli Tomac, who crashed heavily in the second corner after clipping another rider on a jump. The KTM rider stayed down for several moments, clutching his leg, before eventually walking off under his own steam but would not take any further part in the night, citing a hip injury.
At the front, Lawrence looked sharp and quickly stretched his advantage over Justin Barcia, while Roczen worked his way into contention.
After eventually moving around Barcia, Roczen looked to be building momentum before a self-inflicted mistake changed the complexion of the race.
The Suzuki rider crashed alone in a right-hander, with his bike spinning awkwardly as he attempted to remount, dropping him back several positions.
Lawrence took full advantage, claiming the heat race win ahead of Barcia and Malcolm Stewart, while Roczen salvaged fourth.
With the heats done and dusted, everything came down to the final 450SX main event.
When the gate dropped, the championship contenders delivered exactly what everyone expected. Both Lawrence and Roczen launched perfectly and rounded the opening turn in first and second.
Roczen wasted no time. The German struck in turn two, making a decisive pass entering the whoops to take over the race lead and, with it, control of the championship.
From there, Roczen settled into rhythm and immediately laid down quick laps. Within the opening stages, he had stretched the gap to around one-and-a-half seconds, but Lawrence refused to let him escape entirely, slowly clawing chunks back out of the lead.
For much of the first half of the race, the pair looked remarkably composed considering what was at stake. Roczen appeared calm and controlled at the front, while Lawrence remained close enough to strike.
Soon, however, Prado entered the equation.
The KTM rider began edging onto Lawrence’s rear wheel, forcing the Australian to ride defensively at times rather than focus solely on Roczen. Whenever Lawrence appeared ready to challenge, Roczen responded.
Then came the moment that changed the championship.
On lap 10, Lawrence tucked the front entering a right-hand bowl turn and crashed.
As he scrambled to remount, he dropped the bike a second time, costing valuable seconds and effectively handing the championship momentum to Roczen.
Lawrence remounted and kept pushing, but the title battle had shifted dramatically.
With Lawrence buried deeper in the field, Roczen no longer needed to take risks. The Suzuki rider visibly settled into a more controlled pace at the front while still maintaining enough speed to protect his position.
Behind him, Prado remained in second, but Sexton was beginning to close rapidly.
The Kawasaki rider looked increasingly comfortable as the race progressed and, with just minutes remaining, executed a clean move on Prado over the finish line jump to move into second.
From there, Sexton turned his attention to Roczen.
The gap steadily closed, but with the championship situation still unfolding, Sexton picked his moment carefully.
Eventually, he made a clean pass for the lead and rode away to secure his second win of the season and fourth straight Salt Lake City finale victory.
“I’ve known Kenny [Roczen] a long time,” Sexton said after the race. “He was like a big brother to me growing up. It’s obviously a bit different now that we race each other, but I’m really proud of him. Hunter [Lawrence] was [also] great all year. Great competitors.
“I was watching their race from the back and didn’t know what to do, then stuff happened, I started riding better and got to the front. It means a lot for me, personally, to get a win. It’s been a really tough year, but this hopefully is a good omen for outdoors.”
Behind Sexton, Cooper clawed his way through the pack to match his season-best result in second.
“I didn’t get off the gate great,” Cooper explained. “I tried second gear and dropped the front. I need a little more gas, but it’s tough at elevation because we’re fighting between first or second gear. That didn’t pay off but I was able to work my way through. I had to trust my pace and wait for guys to wear down a little bit. Everything tightened up at the end, and it was a tough last couple minutes, but we got close [to the win] there.”
Prado completed the podium to bookend his rookie Supercross season with third-place finishes at Anaheim 1 and Salt Lake City.
Roczen eventually crossed the line in fifth — enough to finally secure his first 450SX championship and deliver Suzuki its first premier-class Supercross title since Ryan Dungey in 2010.
Afterwards, Roczen admitted the pressure had taken its toll.
“I was an emotional wreck today,” Roczen said. “It was not an easy task by any means. I’ve been exhausted, physically and mentally, over these past few weeks, but I’ve dreamed of this since I was a little kid.
“This is just a testament of you never give up. Anybody, at any age, whenever you’re competing and you feel anxiety, you feel strange emotions that rob your energy, you’re not alone. I feel those too, but I don’t give up. I work on it daily and [the championship] is how it pays off. You can do it too.”
Lawrence fought back to seventh at the flag, enough to secure runner-up in the standings after taking the title fight all the way to the final round.
250SX East/West Showdown
The Dave Coombs Sr. 250SX East/West Showdown brought together the best of both coasts for one final race, and fittingly, it quickly became a battle between the two riders who had defined the season.
Heat one went to Seth Hammaker, who worked his way past early leader Landen Gordon before holding off a fast-finishing Cole Davies.
Heat two was far less dramatic up front, with Haiden Deegan storming clear from the holeshot to comfortably take victory.
Australian rookie Kayden Minear briefly held second before slipping behind Cameron McAdoo and Levi Kitchen, though still showing impressive speed.
When the gate dropped for the main event, Star Racing Yamaha controlled the front immediately, with Max Anstie, Deegan and Davies occupying the top three.
Deegan quickly moved around Anstie for the lead, but Davies was right there with him.
The two champions wasted little time going after each other.
Davies launched an aggressive block pass to take the lead, making slight contact with Deegan in the process. Deegan immediately regrouped and charged back onto Davies’ rear wheel before attempting an aggressive response of his own.
Instead, disaster struck.
The West champion tucked the front and crashed while attempting to retaliate, before suffering another fall in the sand section moments later, this time all by himself.
Davies remained composed at the front and never looked back, controlling the race to secure the East/West Showdown win and cap an impressive rookie season.
“That was a great race,” Davies said. “I didn’t get off to a great start, but I made it happen. The pressure is off [with the championship] so I could come out here and ride full out. It was fun racing like that, going back and forth, cat and mouse. I enjoyed it.”
Kitchen capitalised on the chaos to finish second for the second week in a row, locking down second overall in the 250SX West standings.
“I got another okay start, but I made moves early. I’m proud of that,” Kitchen said. “I was really aggressive. I could see the leaders and felt like I could get up there, then both of my teammates went down. I had to nearly stop to avoid them and had to make it all back up. It was chaos, but I’m just so stoked to be up here battling with these guys.”
Anstie completed the podium, ending a difficult but resilient season with his third top-three finish of the year.
“It’s been a tough year,” Anstie said. “I had my appendix taken out and a lot of things in between the races, but the whole team has been amazing sticking behind me. Awesome season. Congrats to my two teammates [on their championships]. It was awesome to be a part of that this year. Hopefully we can be up here again next year and in the title hunt.”
Deegan recovered to fourth in the final 250SX race of his career before turning his attention to a long-awaited move into the premier class.
“What an amazing 250 career,” Deegan said. “I’ve got to give it up to Cole. That was a dog fight. We were giving the fans the best show possible. We were hitting each other; it was awesome. Even though I came out in fourth, that was one of the funnest races I’ve had. It’s a little sad we’re hanging it up, but ready to move on to the 450 Class.”
And with that, the curtain closed on the 2026 Supercross season, Roczen finally has his title, Lawrence pushed him all the way to the finish, and attention now turns outdoors as Pro Motocross series looms in two weeks.
Photo courtesy AMA
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