450 Class
Haiden Deegan
Haiden Deegan will return to his home state of California with an abundance of momentum after going 1-1 at the SMX Playoff opener in Columbus. He has won his last two stadium races in the state of California, San Diego and Anaheim 2, earlier this season. This is the first SMX visit to California since the 2023 finale where Deegan won the overall and the SMX World Championship in the 250 class.
If Deegan can win the overall again in Los Angeles, he will be the first 450 rider to sweep the first two rounds of an SMX Playoff. Counting both classes, he is one overall win away from tying Jett Lawrence for the most all time in SMX with six. He currently has eight overall SMX Playoff podiums which is tied with Jett all time, one more in LA will put him solely on top with nine. He already holds the record for most SMX Playoff moto wins with ten.
Jorge Prado
A red plate will don Jorge Prado’s Factory Red Bull KTM for the first time in his experience in the United States. He is the first European rider to hold the red plate in the SMX Playoffs in either class. Prado’s overall podium streak of four is the longest active streak in the class and it started at Unadilla in pro motocross. His starting position has been a huge catalyst in his uptick in form. He has started third or better in five straight motos dating back to Budds Creek. He has just one moto starting worse than sixth since Spring Creek moto two.
In the state of California this season, Prado has been strong. He earned a third at Anaheim 1 along with a heat race win. In motocross, he had moto scores of 2-2 at Fox Raceway and was running P4 at Hangtown before a mechanical derailed his afternoon.
Ken Roczen
After a very strong second in Columbus, Roczen will roll into California eight points off the SMX Playoff points lead. Roczen’s stadium form has been spectacular this season, obviously as he won the Supercross championship. Taking away his fifth at Salt Lake City where he had the championship in mind and finished fifth, Roczen has podiumed at eight consecutive races, including four wins. He has started inside the top five in eleven consecutive gate drops dating back to Detroit. Nine of those eleven were in the top three.
Roczen is still searching for that first SMX Playoff overall victory. He is one of six riders in the 450 class to have a playoff moto win, doing so at Chicagoland in 2023. He is one of nine riders to have an SMX Playoff overall podium.
Cooper Webb
Third in the standings entering Dignity Health Sports Park is Cooper Webb. Webb had an impressive showing in the mud of Columbus last weekend, finishing on the moto podium in the second moto. He will be looking to go one step further in California and earn another SMX Playoff overall podium as he only has one in his career. If he earns the victory, he’d be the fifth different 450 rider to win a playoff overall.
It was a “down” year for Webb in Supercross but his form as of late is showing him trend back in the right direction, especially at a stadium track. He has a couple moto podiums in his last two races, one at each of Columbus and Ironman, also earning the overall podium at Ironman. Those are his best back to back results in 2026 since he rattled off three second place finishes in a row at rounds 13-15 of the Supercross series.
Hunter Lawrence
Entering Columbus with the points lead and slipping down to sixth when it was all said and done, Hunter Lawrence will be looking for a bounce back in a big way in Los Angeles. The odds would appear to be in his favor because he is undefeated at the second rounds of SMX Playoffs. He has raced all three second rounds of the playoffs and won them all, including four of the six motos. Those three overall wins are his only SMX Playoff overall wins. He earned his first ever 450 victory in Texas at round two in 2024.
Hunter is currently one of just two riders, his brother being the other, to have multiple SMX Playoff overall wins in the Premier class. His three moto wins in the class are tied for second most in the playoffs and his four overall podiums are tied with Ken Roczen for the third most.
Eli Tomac
Eli Tomac will be aiming to shrug off his 14th place result in Columbus and get back towards the front in Los Angeles. Tomac’s SMX results coming into this season were some of the best in class. He does not have an overall win in the playoffs but in his six starts, coming into 2026, he had five podiums. The one off the podium was a fourth.
Tomac proved to be a winner in California this season in Supercross. He won the opening rounds in Anaheim and San Diego and followed them up with another podium at Anaheim 2.
250 Class
Levi Kitchen
Levi Kitchen will be wearing the red plate in California for the first time in the SMX Playoffs. It will be the first time a Pro Circuit Kawasaki rider will have it in the playoffs. The SMX Playoffs have visited California one time, back in 2023 at the LA Coliseum, and Levi Kitchen’s lone playoff moto victory came there in moto two. He is one of ten riders to win a moto in the 250 playoffs but if he earns another one in Los Angeles, he will become one of just four to win multiple motos.
Kitchen’s points lead is seven over Ryder DiFrancesco. At rounds two and three, which offer 2x and 3x points, Kitchen has averaged an overall finish of 8.17. He will likely need to finish better than that average to keep his lead and his starts could be the reason why he does. He has started in the top five in four of his last five gate drops and it is the first time he has done this since Houston-Seattle in Supercross this year.
Cole Davies
Cole Davies had a dominant showing in Columbus but only a tenth overall to show for it. He led 22 laps out of 26, his first laps led in the SMX Playoffs and it pushed him all the way to fifth most laps led in the 250 playoffs all time. Despite the tenth, he is still third in the playoff standings, ten points out of the lead with the 2x and 3x rounds remaining. A win in Los Angeles could get him right back in the mix and the rider who wins round two in the 250 class has won the title in the last two seasons.
Davies’ starts have been phenomenally good recently. He has rounded lap one in the top three in every moto since Washougal moto one. That is ten straight motos. Davies will be hoping those starts can help him earn his first SMX Playoff top five, podium, or win this weekend. His best overall finish is still eighth, set in the one moto format at zMAX Dragway in 2025.
Ryder DiFrancesco
Ryder DiFrancesco is sitting in second place in the SMX Playoff points standings going back to California. It is the best position in a points standings he has been in his professional career. DiFrancesco did not have a podium in any discipline entering 2026, but now has three in SX, three in MX, and one in SMX. If he earns another in SMX, he will be the first rider on a Husqvarna to earn multiple SMX Playoff overall podiums.
In Supercross this season, DiFrancesco earned two of his three podiums in the state of California. He also had a moto podium this season at Fox Raceway, which was the first of his career at the time.
Daxton Bennick
With his second place overall in Columbus, Daxton Bennick was one of the higher movers in the points. He was the tenth seed entering round one but now he sits in fourth. The stadium tracks have been Bennick’s bread and butter this season as his Supercross average finish was nearly 4x better than his pro motocross average finish. Up until a DNQ at the Salt Lake City finale, Bennick had finished sixth or better in every main event he started.
In his three SMX starts entering 2026, all coming last season, round two was his best result by four spots. It came at a stadium venue in St. Louis, the other two were outdoor hybrids.
Chance Hymas
Chance Hymas salvaged a seventh overall one week ago in Columbus and quietly had one of the better rides of the day, going from 22nd to 9th in moto one. He did slide back one spot from his four seed to fifth in the standings but is just one point behind Daxton Bennick. He has two SMX Playoff starts, his only other one entering the season being zMAX Dragway in 2024.
Hymas may be happy that round two of the playoffs is in California because he finished second place in the state at Anaheim 1 earlier this year, his second career main event podium and second best main event finish. He only finished two Supercross races this season so he will be hoping to prove what he has got in Los Angeles on a dry, stadium track for the first time since early January this year.
Jo Shimoda
The reigning champion, Jo Shimoda, did not have the best of times in the mud of Columbus. He finished thirteenth overall and now sits eleventh in the points standings, 27 points off the lead. Shimoda will be looking for a massive recover in Los Angeles and will lean on his winning experience in the playoffs to do so. Shimoda has seven overall podiums in the playoffs which is tied for the most in the class all time. He has led 32 laps which is the fourth most in the playoffs in the class.
Shimoda did not get to race the full season of Supercross due to injury but did show off his consistency on the stadium stracks. He finished fourth or better all five of the races he finished, including three podiums. He also won at a stadium venue last season in the SMX Playoffs in St. Louis.