Hunter Lawrence secures first career victory at 2026 Arlington AMA Supercross

Honda’s Hunter Lawrence took his first career AMA Supercross victory in the 450SX class at the Arlington round.

The seventh round of the season saw Lawrence enter as championship leader by one point over Eli Tomac. When Lawrence started second and Tomac was back in ninth after the first turn it was hard to see that they would end up battling for the lead together, but some quick passes from Tomac early on plus a stern defence of the lead by Ken Roczen meant their paths converged.

Lawrence and Roczen, of course, were only one week removed from their collision at the end of last week’s Seattle Supercross when they lined up for the Arlington race. 

Suzuki’s Roczen was able to hold the led on this occasion for over half the race before Lawrence finally made his way through in the left turn before the 3-3-4 rhythm with five minutes remaining.

Lawrence escaped at that point, but Roczen was soon passed by Cooper Webb, who had never been far behind Lawrence as the Australian was trying to work out a way around Roczen.

Webb made the pass in the same corner as Lawrence, but close behind him was Eli Tomac, who immediately passed Roczen, too. At the same time, Tomac recognised that the timing of his own pass would mean Webb could be caught off-guard by a block pass in the next right-hander, as he would’ve been expecting Roczen to still be the rider behind him and the way Webb took the line away from Roczen when he made the pass meant that there was no way the Suzuki rider could be close enough to pass into the following corner.

Tomac took the chance to surprise Webb, sent his KTM down the inside of the turn before the whoops and ran Webb out of track. Webb took to the concrete on the left-hand side and rejoined behind Roczen, eventually making his way back through to secure third place.

Tomac, on the other hand, set on after Lawrence, but the Australian was able to respond to Tomac’s pace, and held on for his maiden win.

The difference between the front two means that Lawrence now leads the points standings by four over Tomac, while Webb is now 16 back.

Roczen is now 18 points off the lead after finishing fourth, while fifth for Chase Sexton leaves the 2023 champion 27 points behind the red plate.

<H2>250SX: Brown opens with an East Coast win

The 250SX class saw the beginning of the East Coast division in Arlington. Pierce Brown came out on top for a maiden 250SX win, and a second professional race win.

The Star Racing Yamaha rider got off to a decent start and lay second behind Jo Shimoda in the early stages, until the Japanese rider made a mistake in the double before the finish jump which meant he had to go single-single through the finish.

That erased the three-second lead Shimoda had built and allowed Brown into the lead.

The two were than almost inseparable for the remainder of the race, Shimoda ultimately unable to find a way to regain the lead he cost himself with the earlier mistake and finally forced to take second – still a decent result considering the short amount of time he’s had to prepare for the Arlington round after his preseason injury.

Daxton Bennick had two Supercross podiums before Arlington 2026, both coming in the opening round of a season, the first in 2024 and the second in 2025. After Arlington he has three podiums, still all at season openers, after he took third in his first ride for the Rockster Husqvarna team.

The start saw Shimoda take the holeshot, but behind there was some chaos involving pre-race favourites Cole Davies and Seth Hammaker.

Davies crashed in braking for the first turn, taking several riders with him – including Star Yamaha teammate Nate Thrasher – and holding up Hammaker who was 10th on the opening lap.

A decent comeback ride from the Pro Circuit Kawasaki rider saw him climb up to fourth in the opening half of the race, but he was unable to progress from there.

Davies, on the other hand, used his superior whoop speed to charge from near last to finish fifth ahead of Drew Adams.

Coty Schock, Devin Simonson, Cullin Park, and Kyle Peters completed the top-10 on the opening night of racing for the 250SX East class.