Image: Octopi Media.

Liqui Moly Beta and Mitchell Oldenburg have been undergoing an intensive testing schedule entering the 2026 Monster Energy Supercross Championship, the Texan targeting improved starts as he aims to move toward the top 10 this season.

In his first full season in the premier category last year, Oldenburg finished 13th overall in the Supercross series standings, highlighted by a ninth-place finish at the penultimate round in Denver.

Entering his second term on board the factory RX 450, the 31-year-old said that an emphasis has been placed on engine development and starts throughout the off-season, which he believes could contribute to pushing him closer to the top 10, alongside teammate Benny Bloss.

“We’ve got a new engine package this year [and] the bike seems a lot stronger,” Oldenburg said during the SMX Media Days in December. “We’re really focused on starts right now, seeing what we can do to the bike to make it more consistent on the starts.

“That was kind of my biggest issue with the bike last year, and it wasn’t really the bike. It’s just with a new bike in general, figuring out what it likes and how it likes to be started. I think we did like 75 starts in one day – trying different setups, different clutches, different gearing, different everything, trying to figure out what works the best.

“I don’t think I’ve ever done this much testing – just like long days and having this much available to test.”

Now in his 14th year as a professional, Oldenburg acknowledges that he is in the later stages of his career and is adopting an ‘all-in’ approach in pursuit of top 10 results over the coming seasons.

“I’m 31 now, and I don’t feel like I have many years left,” he continued. “So the way I’m looking at it is I’m all in for these next couple of years, whether that’s two, three years, I don’t know. I’d like to be a consistent top 10 guy.

“It’s very stacked coming into Anaheim 1. So if we can come in and be in a decent 10 to 12 [place], then I think that’s a success, and we just keep building from there. So yeah, like I said, I don’t have many years left, so I’m all in, and then we’ll see how it plays out.”

Oldenburg will again be joined by Bloss in the official Beta organization, with the latter entering his third term with the Italian marque after claiming 15th in last year’s Monster Energy Supercross 450SX standings.