By Kyle Scott and Jason Weigandt
Marvin Musquin | Red Bull KTM | 3rd in 450SX
Racer X: Your first Daytona Supercross by Honda victory came in 2013, and then another last year. Take us through your race tonight.
Marvin Musquin: First off all, Daytona is a unique race. To be able to have my very first win here on a 250, it was a great memory, and last year too. So to think about it, the goal today was obviously to win. When I saw what I was capable of doing last weekend, obviously I was trying to win today. I knew it was going to be difficult. But obviously practice went pretty good. I felt decent on the bike. We made some changes and the team worked really good together and we learned things. Like Eli [Tomac] said and Ryan [Dungey] said, the start is really, really important. To be able to win the heat race for the first time for me it was nice today. To get second gate pick, obviously I can get a good jump and I was still inside. I was still fourth or third. It was the key to be inside on the start. And then I was obviously trying to follow those guys. They were going pretty fast. Like they said it was not very rough but still it was difficult to push, I felt like. You had to be smooth and hit the lines. It was real easy to make some mistakes and then when got around 15 laps they kept pushing, pushing and I just tried to keep it safe. To be third tonight is big for me. – Kyle Scott
Jason Anderson | Rockstar Energy Husqvarna | 4th in 450SX
I rode by myself the whole night. – Jason Weigandt
Christophe Pourcel | Rockstar Energy Husqvarna | 8th in 450SX
Racer X: First of all, was that your best start in a main event this year?
Christophe Pourcel: No, it was San Diego 1, but I wasn’t ready to fight yet.
If you had not made the mistake, do you think you were ready tonight?
Yeah, I have the 20 laps and stuff. I feel good. It happened so quick. We just watched the video again. Marvin [Musquin] cased the thing and went a little too fast and just T-boned my wheel. The bike just popped out of me and it was too late. I was riding seventh or eighth and the gap for the three guys because I crashed. They were gone. Because Marvin made me crash.
Six guys were stuck behind you.
Jason [Anderson] went on top of my bike, and then the other guys, they went into the hay bales. It was a mess.
You felt good, though? Practice was good and the heat race was good.
I put myself in a good position in the main and then it’s not up to me. I crashed because of somebody else. It kind of ruined my night a little bit, but still top ten. We fight and we improve. It’s a lot better than the first few races, so we got to take it. I think I was a top five guy tonight. – Weigandt
Justin Bogle | GEICO Honda | 11th in 450SX
Racer X: How’d it go?
Justin Bogle: It was good. I felt a lot better this weekend than I have. Riding-wise was way better. Making progress. The results don’t show it, but…
But you felt better than the eighth last week?
Yeah, I felt much better, more comfortable. I feel like I belong further up front than I’ve been showing. Confidence is getting there, I just got to do it once and once you do it once you’re there. It’s coming. I’m definitely a lot more comfortable on the bike now too and that helps a lot. Just getting time under my belt. This weekend was a little tough with just barely missed that heat race transfer again and was all by myself up front in the semi. Went down once and then had a run-in with Phil [Nicoletti] there. That was my bad. But main event just got stuck and just rode behind a few guys the entire main event. It was tough. The track was extremely one-lined. It’s all good. We’re making progress. – Weigandt
Justin Hill | Red Bull KTM | 2nd in 250SX
Racer X: Bottom line, these first two races you definitely have to feel good with your speed. You’ve been going fast.
Justin Hill: Yeah, I haven’t had a speed problem as of yet. It’s been start problems and run-in problems and whatever. But tonight was okay. We got up on the box. We made points on a couple guys, lost a couple points on somebody else, but it’s the way the cookie crumbles and we’ve got a lot of rounds left. I’m pretty stoked though on the way the team’s working right now. I’m stoked on the bike. I’m stoked on how I’m riding. I’m ready to go.
Take us through that. You had a little gap to make up on those three.
Yeah, for sure. I thought I had the holeshot. I had a real good jump. Got the shift real nice, and then I came into the first corner and couldn’t see anybody. And then all of a sudden, it might have been Malcolm or maybe Davalos, somebody ran my leg over, just ran into me like that. I was like, okay, okay! I backed off. But I had some time to make up. I got stuffed a couple times and got shuffled back, but that’s on me. I need to get up front to where I’m used to things like that to where I can just break away. So that’s on me. I’m hoping I can do that from here on out and not worry about getting shuffled back.
What’s that like though when you’re creeping up on them? We see you looking ahead. Does the confidence start building when you’re closing and closing and closing?
It’s like, the anticipation is killing me. It’s like one of those deals, what’s going to happen when I get right up on him? But the idea for me is I just want to carry the speed and get up on him and around him. Very hard to do that this track. It was very hard to pass on. Me and Jeremy were running really fast times and we were just trying to get by Malcolm. It was one of those things where he’d come, drop the anchor and we were like, Dude, just get out of here. It was one of those deals. Very frustrating. But me and Jeremy both kept our heads down, got by him, did our deal. I wanted five more laps; wish it was a 20. That’s me and my fitness. I was excited about it. I wanted more laps. It’s also hard to see the lapboard. Couldn’t exactly tell what was what. I looked at one point and I’m like nine laps, okay, so I’m doing math. I think I have six laps, let me drop the hammer harder if I can, and that’s when I started to creep up. But then it’s hard to tell. Then I knew I had some ground to make up on Jeremy, and then I saw the white flag. But it’s okay. We made up a lot of ground on a couple guys and I gained a bit of confidence with my starts, and that’s what I need right now. I need starts.
You said something interesting on the podium. You said that it feels good to be healthy enough to moto down like this.
Yes. Now that I’m feeling 100 percent it’s exciting riding with these guys. It’s exciting for me to battle like this. This is fun. This brings me back to a better time in my life when I felt better. Now that the bike’s good, my head’s good, my body’s good, it’s time. It’s a good thing right now. Like I said, if we can get the start and break away from these guys, I think we can run away with it. – Weigandt
Martin Davalos | Rockstar Energy Husqvarna | 3rd in 250SX
Racer X: It was definitely an exciting race. I don’t know what it was like being in it, but it was fun to watch.
Martin Davalos: It was awesome. We were able to run together for the 15 laps. I didn’t get the start I wanted but I put myself in a good position. Unfortunately the guys in front of me were kind of bumping each other, so I was able to watch throughout the whole race. It was hard to gain some time. The track played out to be just one line. [Justin] Hill took a little bit of advantage of a mistake that I did and he was able to pass me. I knew I had some energy at the end so I put a hard charge from lap 12 until lap 15. It was definitely an exciting race. I’m happy because I felt like I rode good. I felt like I should have gotten a little better, but I’ll take third. It was a good night.
Take us through the last lap. Did you have a pass? Did you have a spot you thought you could get him? How close was it? He stalled in the end, but did you think you could have gotten him?
I seen a few laps before that Jeremy Martin was faster than Malcolm him there, and I was actually the same speed with Martin. So as soon as I saw that I knew I had to be close to him going into that section. So I put a hard charge on lap 14 and I made a pass. I got really aggressive and jumped over the berm and put a lot of pressure on him. Obviously he made a mistake and stalled the bike. I’ll take third. It was a good night for us. – Weigandt
