When Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, reaches its one and only “infield” venue this Saturday at Daytona International Speedway, it will actually mark the Forty-Fifth Annual Daytona Supercross by Honda, as the race goes all the way back to 1971. Over the years there have been many multi-time winners here.
Coincidentally, you won’t see some very big names on this list: Jeff Ward never won here, nor did Mark Barnett, nor Jean-Michel Bayle, nor Mike LaRocco, nor Johnny O’Mara. Believe it or not, neither has current Monster Energy Supercross points leader Ryan Dungey, who must be the favorite going into the weekend. And while men like Rick Johnson, Jimmy Ellis, and Jeff Emig captured Daytona wins on their way to AMA Supercross Championships, their success here was limited to one or two races over the span of many visits. This list is about ranking the ten best Daytona Supercross winners—how does it compare to your list?
12) Jim Weinert: The Jammer was a winner in 1972, when he was a rising star from New York and the race marked the last round of the Florida Winter-Ams. Then he won again in 1979 as the sport’s veteran master, upsetting Bob “Hurricane” Hannah in an epic battle that marked the last hurrah of Weinert’s career. You can see right here.
11) Rick Johnson: Hard to believe RJ only won this race twice, but something always seemed to go wrong: He hurt his wrist the week before the 1989 race at Gainesville, and then he broke his hand here in 1990. And in 1987 he got stuck in a first-turn pile-up with his rival Ron Lechien and got his head stuck on Dogger’s rear fender and wheel, forcing him to come up from dead last in the mud without a visor! (That was the epic race won by privateer Ricky Ryan.) But RJ did get the job done here twice, in 1986 and ’88, both on the way to AMA Supercross Championships.
10) Pierre Karsmakers: It’s almost unfair to put the Flyin’ Dutchman on this list, since the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famer came from the sands of Holland to dominate the Americans in the early seventies—especially in the sandy infield tracks built back then by Gary Bailey. Karsmakers used his stamina and pure sand skills to dominate the race twice: first in 1973 when it was part of the outdoor nationals, and then in 1974, when it marked the first round of the first-ever AMA Supercross Championship.
Here’s a little bit of trivia for you: Because the 1973 Daytona race predated an actual AMA Supercross Series, it was part of the AMA Motocross Championship that year, so technically Karsmakers won the 500 National MX Class. The 250 MX Class winner at Daytona 1973 was Bob Grossi on a Husqvarna. And that’s the last time a Husqvarna won this class in supercross, even though it didn’t count as an actual AMA Supercross!
9) Darrell Shultz: In a wild and very short AMA Supercross career, Darrell Shultz managed to win the Daytona Supercross two years in a row: first on Suzuki (1981) and then Honda (’82). But injuries to his knees made for a quick career for the northern Californian, who only raced Daytona a total of three times. In fact, at the end of the 1982 season, during which he won the AMA 500cc Motocross Championship, Schultz hung up his boots for good. Had every race been at Daytona, he would have probably had a lot more titles than that.
8) James Stewart: If you ever had to bet your house on someone doing the single fastest lap around Daytona, many would put it all on James Stewart. His ridiculous speed and ability to do incredible things with his motorcycle (jumping the Gator Pit!) made him the go-to guy for that fast lap, but they also led to some agonizingly big crashes and painful defeats here. James only won Daytona twice on the big bikes. But he didn’t get to race the premier class until 2006, and his missed the event in other injury-marked seasons, which means he has less experience here that one might guess, even though he grew up not far away in Haines City, Florida. Here’s hoping that #7 gets back on track and back out there for a shot at a third Daytona win in 2016.
7) Bob Hannah: The Hurricane seemed tailor-made for success at Daytona. He loved Florida and he was incredible in the sand, but he was also unlucky and made some costly mistakes here (including a broken hand one year). Hannah was the first dominant champion of AMA Supercross, though he only won Daytona once in a championship season (1977) with Yamaha. His other two wins would come in the second act of his career, in 1983 and ’85 with Honda, the last of which marked his final AMA Supercross victory.
6) Mike Kiedrowksi: The nickname said it all: “MX Kied.” Mike Kiedrowski was a Hall of Famer in motocross, but supercross was never his strong suit. But when the AMA Supercross tour came to Daytona, he became seemingly invincible. He won three straight years (1993–’95), including his first major SX win and his last, here at Daytona. Kiedrowski never won the SX title, but he knew his way around Daytona—and fast!
5) Jeremy McGrath: When the King of Supercross was just beginning work on the masterpiece that became his unparalleled career, the knock on him was that he couldn’t win outdoors, and he would never do well at Daytona. (Believe me, I know, I was one of the guys who wrote as much—and missed badly!) McGrath finished a convincing second in 1993, his first time at DIS, and then fourth and seventh in his next two visits. It certainly appeared that Daytona was his Achilles heal… It was until 1996 that he decided that he would make a point that he had no weaknesses, and would win Daytona three of the next four times, emphatically. He had a shot at a fourth win in 2000, as Ricky Carmichael was just getting up to speed in supercross, but it didn’t work out. Still, three wins at a track so far out of his comfort zone is impressive.
4) Chad Reed: Chad Reed won in his first-ever visit to Daytona, back in 2002, when he rode the Yamaha of Troy YZ250F in the 125 East Region. He moved up the next year in the premier class and gave Ricky Carmichael a run for his money; then he won in 2004 and ’05. He should have won in 2008, but instead his motor melted down in the swamp water that submerged the track with about two corners to go! This place owes Reed one—and not the one he got back in 2009. He’s had an up-and-down season, and winning at Daytona this year, which would be the fourth in his career, would be huge.
3) Ryan Villopoto: Over the span of five years, Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto won Daytona four times in the premier class. His one loss came in 2013 at the hands of James Stewart, in a mudder (RV crashed on the first lap and finished fifth). His four Daytona wins in total puts him in a tie for second, all-time, with the next man on the list.
2) Jeff Stanton: Jeff Stanton’s four straight wins at Daytona (1989–1992) must rank among his career highlights. Stanton is a Michigan man, familiar with the sand and the terrain of Florida—he wintered there as a kid, doing the Florida Winter-Ams with his dad. He won for the first time here in 1989, one week after Rick Johnson broke his wrist at Gainesville and basically began the downside of his career. Stanton quickly picked up the slack for Team Honda. All told Stanton won three AMA Supercross Championships but just seventeen total main events—one-quarter of them here at the World’s Center of Racing.
1) Ricky Carmichael: From 1999 to 2006, Carmichael rode Daytona seven times in the premier class, winning a record five times. He sat out 2004 with a knee injury, and he skipped 2007 so that he could focus on completing his career the next weekend in Orlando. RC won on three different brands (Kawasaki, Honda, Suzuki) and earned his first career premier class SX win at DIS in 2000. His surprising loss to Chad Reed in 2005 could be viewed as a testament to Reed’s competitiveness, and it may be the one SX loss that Carmichael might look back on as the one that got away. No matter, he’s Mr. Daytona Supercross.
