The 2013 race season is officially under way after Monster Energy Supercross wowed the masses at its opening round at Anaheim over the weekend. While every series opener has its fair share of surprises and upsets, Anaheim 1 has to rank as one of the craziest nights of racing the sport has ever seen. Here are our 10 top upsets of the first event of 2013.

Davi Millsaps and Trey Canard battled hard for victory at A1. Nobody expected the performance from either of them this early in the season. Image: Simon Cudby.

The Dark Horse
Going into arguably the most stacked 450SX field in years, all the buzz was about the ‘Fast Five’ (Chad Reed, Ryan Villopoto, Ryan Dungey, James Stewart and Justin Barcia). No one picked Rockstar Suzuki’s Davi Millsaps. Well, that’s a lie – Travis Pastrana backed Millsaps before the night started (hope you put money on it, mate!), but he’s probably the only bloke to call that the privateer Millsaps would come out with all guns blazing and blitz the rest of the star-studded field.

Cinderella Man
As amazing as Davi Millsaps’ victory was, you’ve gotta give it up for Muscle Milk Honda’s Trey Canard. Almost a year ago Trey broke his back in a horrific crash at Dodger Stadium when Ryan Morias landed on him. Most people expected him to either pull the pin on his racing career, or settle for top 10 results for the rest of his life. Canard had other ideas. After a solid second in his heat, TC41 fought Millsaps to the bitter end in the main, taking the lead with a handful of laps to go, only to have Millsaps fight back for the lead on the final lap. Trey, we applaud you and your gutsy comeback.

I get knocked down, I get up again…
Reigning champion Ryan Villopoto will be hoping he’ll wake up from a horrible nightmare after a horrendous start to his title defence. The ‘Ginger Ninja’ missed the gate jump and hit the turn one in last place, then missed a berm, crashed hard in a rhythm section, then dropped it a second time. Villopoto hobbled to a 16th in the main and will be hoping to put his campaign back on track this weekend at Phoenix.

Chad Reed had a lonely ride at A1, but you can never, ever count out the TwoTwo. Image: Simon Cudby.

It’s quiet out
TwoTwo Motorsports Honda’s Chad Reed had a lonely race in the main. The Aussie crept into the night show almost unannounced with a seventh in his heat, then could’ve sworn he was one of the only riders on the track for the majority of the final. He finished fourth and picked up valuable points, but was 28 seconds off the pace of Millsaps and Canard. You can bet the TwoTwo workshop will be in overdrive this week to make up the needed ground.

Will he? Won’t he?
Oh, James… when will the drama stop haunting you? James Stewart came into the Anaheim opener with brimming confidence and a serious head of speed. After smashing out the fastest lap in qualifying, Stewart dabbed his foot in a corner and now has a 90 percent chance he’s torn his ACL. Speculation was rife that he’d pull out of the heats and final, but to his credit, JS7 gritted his teeth and rode to a third in his heat and finished the main event in seventh. Rumours are now growing that Stewie will be sidelined for the rest of the supercross. Please say it ain’t so.

Welcome to the big league
Australia’s debutant AMA Supercross racers Dan McCoy (450SX), Kade Mosig and Josh Cachia (250SX) all failed to make the final at Anaheim. DMC had shocking starts, Mosig struggled to get to the pointy end of the field and Cachia (or Cha-Chia if you listen to the US commentators) tangled with Travis Baker while running fifth in his heat, then was taken down by Christian Craig in the LCQ to miss out. Cachia’s raw speed looked promising, though.

Shock and awe
Ryan Dungey’s podium result wasn’t that much of an upset. What was a surprise was that the Dungeonator rocked up to A1 sporting what looked like an air shock instead of the conventional shock tucked into the back of his KTM 450SX. Italian World GP doyen Antonio Carioli was first spotted testing the shock two weeks prior, but there were many raised eyebrows when Dungey got behind the gate sporting the same technology. Maybe a sign of things to come for the 2014 Austrian motorcycles?

Red Bull KTM rocked up with an air shock for Ryan Dungey. That’s right, no external spring! Image: Simon Cudby.

Someone’s gotta miss out
Stacked fields in both the 450SX and 250SX classes meant there were going to be a few broken hearts left out on Angel Stadium’s infield. Some of the big names that failed to make the final included former Australian Supercross Champion Josh Hansen (who had an epic dummy spit by stuffing a rider on the last lap of the LCQ for no reason), Kyle Partridge, Chris Blose and Phil Nicoletti. With such a vast field of talent in both classes, we’re likely to see many big-name riders failing to make the main event this year.

Warning bells
250SX West Coast title hopefuls now have a standard they need to hit if they want to lift the crown at the end of the season. They need to beat Eli Tomac. The Colorado kid and defending champion keeps turning the screws and getting faster every season. How good was he? Well he hauled out a nine-second lead over second-placed Ken Roczen in the 15-lap main event and lapped Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Blake Baggett in the process. At this early stage the indicators are all showing this is his title to lose.

The more things change…
…the more they stay the same for Martin Davalos. Last year the Rockstar Suzuki rider regularly won his heat races, only to crash his brains out in the mains. After signing a new deal with Mitch Payton’s Pro Circuit Kawasaki team, you’d expect that dastardly trend to stop. Ah, negative batman. The Ecuadorian rider showed blazing speed on his way to winning his heat, but went down hard in the first turn of the main and bent up his radiator. The result? Another DNF for his growing collection.