Words by Kyle Scott and Jason Weigandt
450 Main
We got what we’ve been asking for, a battle up front with Eli Tomac and Ryan Dungey. Tomac put down the fast pace he ran all day with Dungey and Marvin Musquin following. These three put a sizable gap on the field and ran their own race from the get go.
Lappers are always a factor at Daytona and there was no shortage of blue flags waving. With the breakdown of the sand and clay of the infield, everyone was searching for new lines, but Dungey couldn't find one that worked.
Even though Dungey had a 33 point lead going into Daytona, he isn’t the kind of guy to just settle for second place and he definitely didn't want to give Tomac any kind of confidence. He shadowed and pushed Tomac the whole way, until lap 14, when Dungey made a mistake and went off the track, which allowed Tomac open up the lead to three seconds. Dungey put on another charge and caught back up to the rear wheel of Tomac again, but couldn't make it work and had to settle for second. Musquin had another solid ride and another podium for Red Bull KTM.
There was a huge gap to the rest of the field, because Musquin bobbled on lap one and bumped into Christophe Pourcel. Pourcel crashed and a good ten riders got jammed up behind him, slowing everyone down. Pourcel's teammate Jason Anderson snuck through to get into a lonely fourth, everyone else was much further back. Ken Roczen had a horrible start, but eventually worked his way up to fifth.
Cole Seely has another solid ride of his own with a hard charge to tenth after being in twenty first from a first lap crash (he and Mike Alessi got the worst end of the Pourcel chain reaction). Perhaps the biggest surprise of the night was Josh Grant finishing in seventh place in his first race since the MXGP in September of last year.
250 Main
This was one of the most exciting races in a long time. Malcolm Stewart got out front early with the holeshot with Jeremy Martin right behind him. Martin pressured Malcolm and was on his rear wheel the entire race. The track was tight tonight and the in all of the switch backs, the inside was fastest and preferred line in a lot of places. On lap six Martin passed Malcolm after the wall jump, but Malcolm had the inside and took the line away from Martin. Martin patiently checked up and continued to hound him. Martin’s fitness really showed as relentlessly stuck applied pressure and switched up his lines trying to make something happen.
Justin Hill made a charge of his own catching Martin Davalos who ran in third. On lap 6 the top four were within 1.2 seconds of each other! Toward the end of the race Malcolm started making some small mistakes and his rear wheel started bouncing and hopping out of the ruts.
On lap nine Hill made the move on Davalos, but Davalos didn’t make it easy and they switched positions twice before Hill could make it stick. The top four continued to pull away from the field and after 12 laps of intense battling, Martin finally made the move and took the lead from Malcolm. Malcolm didn’t get a good drive out of the corner after his rear wheel skipped exiting on the edge of the track before the second triple. Two laps later in the same section, Malcolm made the same mistake and Hill made the same move to make his way into second.
After Davalos moved to fourth, the top three pulled a small gap on him, but on the last lap, he had caught the back of Malcolm. Davalos was on the outside of Malcolm at the end of the rhythm where he was previously passed. Davalos squared up Malcolm in an attempt to rail the outside in the final switchbacks and it probably would not have been enough, however, Malcolm stalled his bike with two turns to go and allowed Davalos to cruise to the final podium spot. This allowed Davalos to keep the red plate with a three point lead over Martin heading into Toronto.
Semis and LCQs
450 LCQ: Chad Reed didn’t get a good start again, but made some fast, aggressive moves on lap one and finished lap 1 in second. Kyle Cunningham rode great and took the LCQ win. The “Milestone Assassin” Nick Schmidt and Tommy Hahn were battling in third and fourth respectively, and it looked like it was going to finish that way until Hahn made a last lap move and took the 3rd place spot from Schmidt.
450 Semi 2: Justin Bogle started out front, but crashed on lap 2. His crash allowed Vince Freise to take the lead, but Freise wasn’t able to jump the finish which allowed Filthy Phil Nicolleti to go from third to first. Bogle got up quick and was able to jump back into second. When Bogle caught back up with Nicoletti he jumped into the back of Nicoletti and almost went down, again. Bogle’s bobble allowed Blake Baggett (who was questionable to even race today) to take second. Jake Weimer and Chad Reed battled the entire race, but Chad Reed wasn’t able to make the move stick and missed the last transfer spot to the main. First through sixth were within 4.6 seconds, this was an exciting race.
450 Semi 1: Jason Anderson took the early lead and cruised for the win. Kyle Cunningham rode really well and pressured Weston Peick in fourth the whole race. Seely had a scary moment and almost went down, but was able to save it. Cunningham tried to make a move on Peick, but lost the front end and will take a trip to the LCQ.
250 LCQ: There was a big pile up in the first turn. Shane MCelrath got out front and stayed there. Van Martin started in third and took pressure the whole race, but was able to hold down the spot and qualify to the main.
Heats
450 Heat 2: Josh Grant made his 2016 appearance with a second place start. Eli Tomac got the holeshot and absolutely checked out. He’s been looking good all day and made a statement in this heat. Tonight could be the night he takes the top spot of the podium. Ryan Dungey started in 3rd and made his move into second place on the second lap. Tomac finished with a 6 second lead over the champ. Grant made an impressive fourth place finish.
450 Heat 1: Christophe Pourcel, Marvin Musquin and Davi Millsaps started 1, 2, 3. Stewart looped out in the whoops on lap 1 and crashed out. The Daytona and Asterisk medical crew helped him off the track, but he got back on his bike and headed back to the pits. He won’t be lining up for the semi. Musquin pulled a new line on lap 2 after the second triple going double, triple before the switch back, but didn't do it again after that. Maybe he's going to save it for the main now that he knows it can be done? Roczen got a bad start, charged through the pack, but ate roost from Millsaps for the rest of the race in fourth. Roczen tried going inside and he tried going outside, but could never make anything work and had to settle for the final direct transfer spot into the main.
250 Heat 2: Hampshire, Justin Hill, Nick Kowenberg. Malcolm moved quickly into third on lap 1. On lap 2 Malcolm made an aggressive move on Justin Hill when Hill took the outside line before the dragons back. Mookie took the inside and set his sights on Hampshire. Although Malcolm charged hard, tried some different lines than Hampshire and was close, but he ran out of laps and the GEICO Hondas went 1-2 with Hill taking third.
250 Heat 1: Davalos continued where he left off last week with a heat race holeshot with Jeremy Martin behind and Matt Bisceglia in 3rd. Bowers got a bad start and had to work his way up. Davalos opened up a sizable gap in the middle of the race, but Jeremy Martin found his flow towards the end and closed it back up to 1.2 seconds. The standard line for most through the whoops so far tonight is to launch into them with a triple, triple, triple.
Second Practices
This 450 session turned into a battle between Eli Tomac and Christophe Pourcel. Tomac looked on fire putting down a fast lap early, then Pourcel topped him, then Eli took it back to end up with the fastest time. Does this more outdoorsy style suit him better? As for Pourcel, he looked incredible through some of the tight left-right and right-left corners, but as usual the question is in he has 20 more of these laps left in him for the main.
Dungey washed his front end in the right handed before the mechanics area, a rare crash, but got up without issues and finished out third.
There's a big wall jump just after the riders race back across the starting line. If it wasn't for the roller before that wall jump, these guys would be triple doubling instead of double, double, single--they're already pretty close and charging hard across the starting gate, maybe some one will send it in the races.
In the 250s, Jeremy Martin and Malcolm Stewart went at it like it was a darned moto as soon as the session began. Martin was hauling, but Stewart shadowed his every move--some serious intensity there. Stewart was trying out a new line in the rhythm before the whoops rolling the dragons back and then doubling to get a clean charge into the whoops. Martin was trying some new lines of his own. One included a triple, single over the roller, triple and then double over the tough block and using the roller in the corner as a landing. Both were the only two doing these lines.
While everyone was watching this, Martin Davalos was out there quietly logging heaters, and then he ended up at the top of the charts. Then Justin Hill came through to log the top time of all. Stewart had one more fast lap in him but it wasn't enough to top Davalos or Hill.
Meanwhile, seemed like everyone had Aaron Plessinger pegged for a win on this rough track, but his dad just told us Aaron has been sick all week, and has a fever. So that explains why he's just tenth overall in times.
First Practices
In the 250s, Malcolm Stewart was the fastest by over half a second ahead of Jeremy Martin. Martin showed his usual outdoor speed and might have been fastest all the way around the track, except for the whoops. He was trying to use an inside line out of the corner that led to them, and with no drive, he couldn't get through the whoops quickly at all. But if he finds a way through there, look out, because he's bad fast everywhere else.
The track is looking pretty one lined and the classic Daytona ruts are really starting to form. The jumps and sections are pretty simple, but the ruts are going to make it challenging anyway.
In the 450s Christophe Pourcel is looking smooth as always, but Ken Roczen took the top spot with Ryan Dungey close behind. Pourcel, like Martin, is trying some different lines trying to make things happen. But even the good lines aren't easy on this track. With two laps to go, Roczen got stuck in the the deepest rut of the year in the switchback turn before the finish. He was stuck so deep that he had to kick his bike back to life with his left leg, because he couldn't get his footing any other way.
Morning Report
No other race is like the Daytona Supercross by Honda. This is technically the ninth round of Monster Energy Supercross for 2016 , but heck, you won't even find Monster logos surrounding this track--or Monster Girls. You will find a massive, completely rebuilt Daytona International Speedway, which has just completed its two-year long $400 million #DaytonaRising project. Every spot for the fans today is redesigned, from the seats to the entrance ways. And it's spectacular, Daytona now calling itself a "Motorsports Stadium" with the goal of creating a feel similar to NFL castles like the one we see in Dallas.
But that matters only somewhat to supercross fans, who just want to see some good racing on the thing that hasn't changed--the infield. This year's track is in the same spot as usual, but it seems tighter than before, and there aren't any of the standard Daytona roller whoops. Those whoops have been part of this track since Richard Petty was a NASCAR star, so it's strange to see the track without them. Lap times are over a minute, so this will still be longer than the typical supercross.
On the gossip front, Josh Grant is here making his 2016 debut as a full privateer on a Suzuki. We talked to Grant yesterday and he literally told us he was planning a trip to Florida to go fishing with some buddies, and he decided to bring a bike with him and go racing! "My friend has a really nice charter boat," he explained with a laugh. Josh says he rode a supercross track for two days last week, then drove 33 hours to Florida, and rode this week at Chad Reed's place. He's not even close to 100 percent prepared, but says "You know me, I'm going to go for it."
Blake Baggett will attempt to race today despite his sore shoulder. He told us he rode four days this week at his track in Florida and feels good, so, he decided to give this a shot. His Yoshimura Suzuki teammate James Stewart is also racing. Lost in last week's Lapper Gate is the fact that Stewart jammed his knee is his semi final qualifier, and he was hurting during the main event. His team said he needed to take a few days off this week to try to get the knee to recover. When it comes to Stew, when it rains, it pours.
As for that Lapper Gate, KTM put out a PR a few days ago where Roger DeCoster clarified his take on what happened on the last lap in Atlanta (where Musquin lost the lead when he made a mistake while lapping Stewart). “After the race a lot of blame was given to James and I just want to make things clear that the mistake from Marvin was not directly caused by James and we shouldn’t blame him for it,” said DeCoster in the statement.
When we first talked to DeCoster right after the main event last week, he told us he thought Stewart should have moved over and made it easier on Musquin. We talked to him about it this morning, and he says that when he went back and watched the TV coverage of the race, he realized Stewart hadn't done anything wrong. "I feel like if I got the blame for something I did not do I wouldn't like it so I just wanted to explain that it wasn't James' fault," he told us this morning.