2026 SX - Practice Sessions Dropped

Will press days also be dropped, or do the factory riders still get more practice time than privateers?

They should open up Friday as an actual practice day so they get some familiarization with the track. Having to go balls to the wall after two 12 minute sessions seems worse than track breakdown during qualifying.

Or they could rent an extra skid steer and hire another operator, but that would cut into profits I guess...

Most of these guys dial a track in within 4 laps.  Factory guys are all on record saying they don't need the free practice.  It really only benefits the privateers who can't ride as much through the week due to travel. I think they should leave Friday press to the privateers, allowing some extra seat time because it is hard to dial a bike in when the track is at its worst in qualy for them boys.  

Everyone gets the same amount of opportunity to ride on press days...and its always on a shortened track

I get dropping free practice.  But I think Friday should be opened up a little.  Everyone should get a 6-8 minute session on the track.  Not just a “selection” of riders.  Bypass whoops, no problem.  But that gives the track crew lots of time to clean it up for Saturday.

These fresh tracks need time to setup a little bit before 450’s with scoop tires destroy them. Built on Thursday, ridden Friday, and raced on Saturday may actually be worse for track conditions. 

SPEC TIRE SPEC TIRE SPEC TIRE SPEC TIRE

Hard, Soft, and Wet.  AMA determines when each tire is allowed based on preset weather/soil conditions. Let the down votes begin. 

Good move. I'm glad they continue to be flexible. Try new things, and make sensible changes

"Whoops are always challenging just because of the time that it takes to build them,..."

Exactly how long does it take to build two whoops?

I know a few privateers who got way more press days than any factory riders last year because they do the 5am or 6am local TV press day riding. You don't see that coverage on a traditional site like ours or Racer X because we're not there that early. The track is usually half complete anyhow and extremely dry. I did the math one time to see if a rider's results after doing a press day were any different than their average finish for the season. It wasn't

This would require a ton of riders and team staff to fly in a day earlier than they are right now.

Didn't they add the untimed practices in to help avoid injuries? I remember them saying they were using the Pro racing to set an example for local races too. There were a lot of people going out and getting hurt on the first laps they hit the track, trying to be like the Pros.  

Maybe that never helped the way they hoped it would?

I like the idea of offering an untimed  Friday Practice for riders who want it as an option. Then it helps in a couple ways. Gives the riders the extra time that want it. The riders that don't want or need it can skip it. And the track crew gets input on the track with enough time to make big changes before Saturday if they need to make them, or plenty of time to get the track back in shape that is not eating into the raceday program. 

 I would like to see them have at least 1 or 2 untimed laps to start the sessions with. Just to be safe and still set the example to local kids that You should check the track out before going wide open. But what do I know.

Tell me you know nothing about SX press days without telling me..

They could just quit trying to live by a TV schedule and start focusing on the online streaming crowd so they can push or pull in start times to give the track builders more time in between races as needed. An extra 10 minutes won't kill the spectators and the operators could literately move mountains with the extra time. Plus, they could probably charge for the extra 10 minutes of advertising time.

Make it optional Friday practice.  Then the riders and teams that want to get there early can, and the ones that can't or do not want to do not have to. 

They could get some input on the track layout and have time to make changes, maybe allow them to experiment with a section. 

untimed and optional.

But then again, if they talked to the teams and riders and they all or most of them agreed that dropping the untimed practices was a good idea, it makes sense to drop them. 

I just was thinking back to the original reasons they stated when they started having untimed practices. And they still seem like good reasons to keep them to me. But again, I'm not at every race and not riding any of them.

They need to drop timed qualifying and go back to points based qualifying and putting tuff blocks in the lines to force riders to make more lines during practice sessions. More lines equals better racing. 

12 Whoops…

Minimum.

Make Supercross legit…again.

I’m jus’ sayin’…

Or they could let it get rough like a motocross track ? 🤔

kidding..... kidding.... 

Everyone wanted to sleep in a little longer?

Start time 3:30 pm pacific time.  Old start time was 7:00 pm , maybe the last 2 years might have been at 6:00 pm. Free practice started around 11:30ish.  Gates opened at 12:00. NOW for 2026 ya got this. Qualifying starts at 9:00 am, Gates (FanFest) open at 9:00 am, Opening Ceremonies at 3:30 and racing starts at 4:00 pm.  

It's about not having enough time.

 Don't think the riders would want to do free practice at 7:00 am.

11 whoops is better than 9.

Speaking of whoops, have we explored the idea of the 450 class having an additional whoops section? It would be blocked-off during 250 class races.

You can thank me later.

If anything press day helps the privateers. 

I say they drop alllll the races and just have someone else hold the races from now on.... feld mxs is the chitshow of all chitshows

I don't like it.

So its starts 9AM Anaheim time?! Way to early for a Saturday.

Dumb + Ass = Dumbass

"From: Boulder, CO"... enough said. Put the weed down dude.

I don’t think it’s even available to the public to watch and every rider I’ve heard asked about this change are in favor of it. Sounds like they made a good change. 

Not a full block off. BUT (in the late 90's-2003) they used to block off a bike width lane or 2 in the whoops during practice so 2 good lines would be available later in the night. I say go back to doing that.

So to give the track team more time for prep. I wonder if the start time stays the same so we have a larger gap between Q2 and the night show. 

And more dirt. I watched in St. Louis where they got the dirt from. They had a ton and I mean a shit ton, metric buttload of extra dirt. What gives