Image: Octopi Media.

Despite recording a top-five finish in San Diego, Quad Lock Honda’s Joey Savatgy expressed that his 450SX main event wasn’t ‘pretty’ as he continues to make progress with the independently run team.

Setting results inside the top eight as his goal for Monster Energy Supercross 2026, Savatgy fell short at the season-opening Anaheim 1 weekend after poor starts and crashes placed him P13 leaving Angel Stadium.

Upon rebounding at round two, the experienced 31-year-old claimed fourth in his heat race before a fourth-place start in the main event saw him run up front early on, later conceding only one position to Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Chase Sexton.

“Yeah, I mean, it feels good, I’ll be honest,” Savatgy commented post-race. “The starts are important, and it’s a full field for the most part – we’ve only had one or two who have unfortunately gotten injured.

“But it feels good. Obviously, I did a lot of racing last year and then with the overseas stuff, so I felt like I had a pretty good base coming in. By no means was this pretty… a lot of mistakes, and then got into a lapper battle, which held me up a lot.

“I’m trying [though], I really am working hard, and I know it doesn’t always show. I’m proud, we dug deep after last week, which wasn’t pretty [either]. I struggled, [got a] bad start, crashed, so to turn it around… this is where I would kind of like to be more often.”

Starts have often been Savatgy’s achilles heel throughout his premier class career, with competing toward the front a far more straightforward task when track position is established early, particularly given the depth of the current field.

“The goal coming into the season was [to finish] in the top eight and build from there, so we’re off to a good start,” he added. “I think if I can get off the gate and put myself in a good spot like I did tonight, then I would think this result is repeatable.

“Like I said, I think if I can be up front, week in and week out, if I can be inside that top seven or eight, considering we’re a privateer team per se, I think that would say a lot. There are a lot of good riders in the field, a lot of factory bikes, and a lot of titles.

“I think if I can give myself an opportunity, get off the gate, then I would be ecstatic with a top-seven more times than not, and then just prove not only to myself and others that I still can do it.”

Savatgy has elevated himself to 10th on the Monster Energy Supercross 450SX leaderboard following his San Diego performance, with the series returning to Anaheim this Saturday for round three.