2025 AMA Supercross season starts with surprise winners
By Team TMX on 13th Jan 25
News Supercross AMA Supercross
Anaheim’s Angel Stadium was alive with excitement for the opening round of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship that saw Red Bull KTM Racing's Chase Sexton take the win and an early lead in the series standings. Progressive Insurance ECSTAR Suzuki's Ken Roczen battled forward, reaching second place early and holding the spot until the finish.
The first Main Event gate drop of the year was fairly messy with several riders - including defending champion Jett Lawrence (HRC Honda) -ending up on the wrong side of the tuff-blocks. Monster Energy Kawasaki's Jason Anderson managed to avoid the first-turn chaos and found himself in the lead on the first lap and after intense battles with Sexton and Roczen he finished the race on the podium with third place.
However, on lap one it was Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing's Eli Tomac who took the lead before slipping off. Jett Lawrence, made two big mistakes in the opening laps and was only able to climb back to 12th spot while a crash for MXGP World Champion Jorge Prado saw him place 14th.
“I kind of knew where I was at coming in here. I knew I had good speed. I feel more like myself in 2023 when I was fast, but I feel like I'm a little more mature now and I can get out front and kind of run my own laps and not make mistakes, so it was a fun race,” enthused race winner Chase Sexton. “I had so much fun on this track tonight. I can't give it up to the team enough. They put in so much hard work this off-season to get me comfortable, knowing that I wasn’t comfortable last year and coming in now we're back where we need to be.
“We still have lots to improve; it's only one race in and there's 16 left, but we're off to a good start and first time winning A1 feels pretty good.”
In the 250SX West Main Event, Team HRC’s Jo Shimoda took the win without being challenged while Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Julien Beaumer put in a strong performance to finish second. Triumph Racing Factory Team’s Jordon Smith recovered brilliantly from a tip-over in a left-hand turn to secure third place.
“This is the start I was looking for every single year,” said Shimoda. “I came out with a good start and just put in some consistent laps and never looked back.”
A crash hampered Haiden Deegan’s performance and he eventually finished fifth. “Not really happy to get interviewed for fifth, but better than last year. We’ll take the positive. Obviously not a great start. It happens, I went down, fought my heart out and made my way back up to fifth and that’s all I could do.”
The championship now moves to Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, for round two.
