Team manager breaks down Anaheim 1 double podium.
Anaheim 1 marked a dream start to the 2026 Monster Energy Supercross season for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, with Eli Tomac claiming victory on debut with the team and Jorge Prado finishing third. Substantial changes were made leading into this year for the Austrian organization, with team manager Ian Harrison featuring in this Industry interview.
Ian Harrison, congratulations on the team’s success and your success. You have watched Eli Tomac – we’ll start with him – you’ve watched him sometimes beat your guys, you’ve studied him for years. What of Eli are you most proud of tonight?
Sometimes? He beat us a lot [laughs]. I would just say the amount of work they put in is impressive, and that always pays back dividends. So, yeah, he’s a workhorse, for sure.
After the rounds of World Supercross, I feel like there might have been a little bit of concern, especially in the whoops. Other than the scoop, did you guys make any significant changes, or did you realize pretty quickly it was really just the scoop?
No, definitely tire choice there [in Australia] wasn’t the best, but we also got new suspension components that actually came in a couple of weeks earlier, but we had no chance of changing them there because that was in Australia, the stuff was in a crate, so we had to wait for that. And when we got back, and we tested that stuff, I felt like we made another nice little step forward.
You obviously put a lot of work into the last couple of years getting the bike ready with Chase [Sexton]. How different is the bike that Eli is on compared to what Chase ended off with last year? And is [Jorge] Prado’s bike very similar as well?
Good question. They’re actually quite different, all three of them. Just the way they set up the engine, the way they set up their suspension, and the suspension that we have with Eli and Prado is all new stuff. We just got it a few months back. So, yeah, it’s actually very different.
With landing two guys on the box, was that expected, or what were you shooting for?
No, that’s what we shoot for, and I just feel so blessed and humbled that we have two guys on the podium tonight. This field is deep, it’s stacked, and to do that is truly a big feat. So I’m proud of the team and everyone who’s put the work in behind the scenes and the riders themselves. Yeah, really, really proud.
The new fork and shock that you have from WP, can you maybe expand on how it’s different, why it’s different, and also whether you expect it to go over long haul and ultimately not have the same issues as you did last year?
Yeah, of course. You’re always trying to improve, and it doesn’t always go that way, but we have a good group of guys there now, and I think they really have a good grasp of what we can do to get better. We all put our heads together. Everyone had ideas that we could try, and we were lucky enough to roll that into one package. And when we put it on the bikes, it took some fine-tuning for each rider, of course, but they all said, ‘Yeah, this is better.’ And for the amount they ride, I knew that it was better. It wasn’t just a guess. It wasn’t just a one-lap thing. It was hours and hours of riding. So, yeah, good.
Jorge Prado, pretty amazing. He was quick all day. Did you see that coming in testing, or do you feel he upped his level on the first round?
No, I’ve always felt like Jorge’s an incredible rider. I haven’t worked with him that much. He did most of his riding in Europe, but you can see that he’s talented, and he went through some equipment this winter, and he put in a lot, a lot of hours. And when you put in that much time, there’s going to be some reward behind that.
What was the conversation that you had between yourself, the team, and Eli about this whole scoop situation, because I know he had the scoop tire in Australia. He likes the rear high, that smaller knob is going to allow the rear end to be even higher. Was that in the conversation, and was it like pulling teeth? Take us through it verbatim.
I think after that race, going there, the good thing about doing races like that is that it shows you your weak points, right? And then when you have data on the bike, and you can show them facts that, ‘Hey, this could be part of the reason,’ then I think they’re a lot more open-minded. So when we got back to the test track, and we tried a few things, we even tried to… This is the first time I’ve ever heard of it, but the pizza cutter, that’s the smaller tire. But, yeah, we tried all those things, and we really just gave it a fair shot. And then in the end it was his decision. He’s got to ride the bike, so that’s what he decided on. And yeah, I think in my opinion, he made the right choice for tonight anyway.
What about the third musketeer, Aaron Plessinger? He was about one corner way of having a phenomenal night. Where’s Aaron’s spirits at right now? And then what have you seen during the week on what we can expect to see Aaron moving forward?
Yeah, thank you for asking that. Yeah. Aaron… he’s the life of our team. The guy is so upbeat, and the hair is blowing in the breeze there, but he also had a good off-season, put in a lot of laps, and he just steadily made progress. In the beginning, he was a little bit off Malcolm [Stewart], and then apparently he got a little better, a little better. We went there a couple of weeks ago, and he was getting better. And in typical Aaron fashion, he seemed to roll into the end of his boot camp with speed and endurance, which is nice after how things went last year. It was good to see that he could really handle doing the motos and the pace and all of that. And then tonight, this is our sport. Its highs are high, and the lows are lows. And before you know it, things just changed, but I have no doubt he’ll be back swinging next week.
Would this win have been possible without the warm-up races? How much of a fast track was that for you guys?
I think they definitely helped us in this case with a rider coming to a new brand. I mean, how impressive is that for Eli? He switches brands for… I don’t know, he’s ridden a lot now, and he’s won on all of them, and then he wins for us. It’s just amazing. And he’s just turned 33. Yeah, incredible.