Philadelphia SMX Next 2026: Speed in the Dry, Lessons in the Mud

Philadelphia wrapped our SMX Next – Supercross season at Lincoln Financial Field for Round 15 of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship. We lined up Will Canaguier (#95) and Chace Lawton (#50). The story of the weekend was two different tracks: dry qualifying where Will showed top-five speed against the best amateurs in the country, and a mud main where anything could happen—and did.

Event context

The afternoon stayed clear and cool, but intermittent showers hit the night show and turned the Supercross track into a survival test. That is the kind of equalizer where gate position and patience matter as much as raw speed. Racer X’s Philadelphia coverage captured how wild the conditions got across the pro program—and our SMX Next main ran right in the middle of it.

Because we do not have a MotoPivot package for this round, this report leans on official Supercross Live results for lap times, qualifying order, and the main event scoring.

Will Canaguier (#95)

Will made a big step in qualifying. In Q1 he was 7th with a 51.221 best lap, and in Q2 he improved to 4th with a 51.412—exactly the signal we wanted to see. That is elite-level pace on a legitimately rough dry supercross track, racing the best amateurs in the country when the surface was not perfectly smooth or groomed. He actually looked more comfortable the rougher it got, which is a huge confidence builder for us heading outdoors.

The main event was a different animal. In the mud, Will grabbed roughly a 7th-place start, moved forward quickly into 3rd, then washed the front on the face of the finish line and lost a chunk of time getting going again. He charged back up, went down a second time, remounted, and brought it home 11th—just outside the top ten. We believe he had top-five, and maybe podium, speed without those mistakes, but that is racing in the mud.

The bigger takeaway for our program is that qualifying mattered more than the muddy result. It proved he can run at the front on a real supercross track when traction is still available. We also learned we likely need to go even stiffer on suspension next season as he keeps pushing the pace.

Official main: 11th — 6 laps, total 8:44.681, best lap 1:23.815 (lap 6).
Official qualifying: Q1 — 7th (51.221) · Q2 — 4th (51.412) · combined ranking — 8th on best lap.

Chace Lawton (#50)

Chace had an off night by our standards. Qualifying was not where we expected him to be (17th in Q1 at 52.515, 15th in Q2 at 53.126), and the main unraveled early when a rider went sideways on the first straight and sent Chace into the tough blocks. His bike buried in the mud, and from there the result never reflected what he is capable of on a normal night.

He was scored 16th in the main (5 laps, 1 lap down to the winner) with a best lap of 1:32.225 on lap 2—more a story of damage control than pace.

The box score does not tell the whole story. We are already looking ahead to what he can show at the SMX Combine at Redbud and Loretta Lynn’s in August.

SMX Next National Championship — Main Event results

Pos	#	Rider	Best lap	Total / laps
1st	199	Deacon Denno	1:14.977	7:45.061 / 6
2nd	177	Kade Johnson	1:18.841	7:54.371 / 6
3rd	2	Jeremy Fappani	1:19.422	8:00.034 / 6
4th	57	Jesson Turner Jr	1:16.201	8:02.376 / 6
5th	23	Landon Gibson	1:20.856	8:07.713 / 6
6th	170	Ale Carminati	1:23.048	8:12.688 / 6
7th	99	Kayden Minear	1:20.967	8:16.456 / 6
8th	10	Wyatt Thurman	1:23.065	8:18.533 / 6
9th	93	Seth Dennis	1:21.857	8:20.119 / 6
10th	14	Kane Bollasina	1:22.552	8:21.369 / 6
11th	95	Will Canaguier III	1:23.815	8:44.681 / 6
12th	343	Cole Timboe	1:50.252	9:27.841 / 6
13th	240	Alvin Hillan	1:27.882	9:12.869 / 6
14th	9	Ryder Malinoski	1:22.804	7:48.948 / 5
15th	373	Gavin Betts	1:30.933	7:56.993 / 5
16th	50	Chace Lawton	1:32.225	8:27.368 / 5
17th	29	McKayden Fitch	1:28.403	8:43.714 / 5
18th	18	Gabriel Andrigo	—	DNF

Full field and sector breakdowns: SMX Next National Championship — Main Event (official).

Our riders — qualifying snapshot

Rider	Q1 (pos / best)	Q2 (pos / best)	Combined (best lap rank)
Will Canaguier (#95)	7th / 51.221	4th / 51.412	8th
Chace Lawton (#50)	17th / 52.515	15th / 53.126	17th

Philadelphia photos

Photo credit: Align Media

Closing

I am proud of how Will validated our program in dry qualifying—that is the kind of speed that matters when we turn toward outdoor prep. The mud main was frustrating, but it also reinforced a setup direction for next year. For Chace, Philadelphia was simply one of those rounds where racing luck never arrived; we know what he is capable of, and we will prove it again when the calendar shifts.

Huge thanks to our sponsors for standing with us through every kind of conditions.

We turn our attention to the great outdoors: the SMX Combines and Loretta Lynn’s in August.