James Stewart has -as expected- won the first race of the AMA SX season. However, this did not go smoothly because not Chad Reed, but Ryan Dungey drove a great race and harassed Stewart until the last meters. Kevin Windham surprisingly came third but the news of the evening was the DNF of Reed, who had to retire with a broken front wheel after a collision with Stroupe at the start.
Dungey took a blitz start and crossed the holeshot line first ahead of Villopoto and Stewart. The young Suzuki rider immediately found a fast rhythm and rode away from the others. Stewart moved into second position quite quickly but still had to wait until the thirteenth lap to put pressure on Dungey. He took over the lead but Dungey did not give up, in the final phase Dungey crawled to Stewart's rear wheel and even came next to Bubba. However, he remained calm and won the first match of the new season. Dungey came second and Kevin Windham surprisingly third, after showing himself to be the better of Short and Villopoto. Grant Langston finished tenth in his first race after many years.
Stewart was very happy with the victory: “This is definitely a better start than last year! In the beginning of the race I had some problems with the adjustments but as the race went on I saw Dungey getting tired. I was then able to apply pressure and passed him. However, he rode very strongly and came back. Some new players have joined the game, and that makes it fun! I saw Reed return to the pits, but don't forget that I also had this in mind last year and still won the title, so this doesn't mean anything.”
The French riders Aranda and Izoird did not do badly in Anaheim. Both advanced to the final and finished 13th and 14th respectively.
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