A few rider updates we need to note before today’s action:

-Ryan “The General” Sipes is making his 2020 supercross debut—this time in the 450SX Class. He’s riding a KTM 350 SX-F to start off his 2020 all-inclusive tour. He'll also be racing the American Flat Track Daytona TT a week from today. 

-Rocky Mountain ATC/MC-WPS-KTM has announced that Justin Bogle will be sidelined for the remainder of supercross. Bogle suffered a concussion in Glendale and the team announced yesterday that Benny Bloss would return to the team to fill Bogle’s spot.

-On Thursday, JGRMX/Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing announced that Charles Lefrancois will join the team to compete in the 450SX Class at select rounds. This comes after fill-ins Fredrik Noren and Broc Tickle suffered injuries—a broken leg and a broken hand, respectively—filling in for Joey Savatgy (heel injury). Lefrancois competed at three rounds of the 2019 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship.

For more updates on storylines to follow throughout the day, read our ten things to watch feature and for updates on injured riders, read to our Daytona injury report.

This year’s Daytona Supercross layout sports more of a vintage feel as it features more open space as compared to a typical rhythm-filled track. The track spans pretty much the entire length of pit lane, which provides for long straightaways for fans to watch from anywhere in the Speedway. We’ve got a few sand sections, an interesting split turn that features different lines, and a start similar to the racing the Speedway usually sees—a few left-hand turns. Once the gate drops, riders will barrel into a 360-degree first turn before they get underway with the remainder of the race. Watch how the track will flow below in the animated track map.

Video courtesy of Monster Energy Supercross.

Riders have finished track walk and we will be underway with free practice here shortly.

Free Practice

John Short had the best time when the 250SX Class took the track for the first time today. Jordon Smith had an issue in the sand turn after the wall jump and took a minute to get his bike fired back up again. Luckily, he wasn’t getting roosted while doing so. Shane McElrath bested Short’s time and ended the session with the best time.

Cooper Webb had the fastest lap for the first 450SX session but then Aaron Plessinger jumped to the top with a 1:14.770. Plessinger was quickly bested by Ken Roczen’s 1:14.448 but then Plessinger, Roczen, and Webb all dropped faster laps to shuffl around for the top time. Blake Baggett dropped a 1:13.531 to take over the top time until three-time Daytona Supercross winner Eli Tomac bested Baggett’s time with a 1:13.392. Tomac went on another heater and went sub-1:13.00 but then Jason Anderson, Webb, and Roczen all hit sub-1:12.00 laps of their own. When the session ended, Roczen’s 1:11.618 edged out Webb’s 1:11.652 and Anderson’s 1:11.671.

First Timed Practice

Jeremy Hand topped the 250SX B group qualifying session with a 1:14.992. When the 250SX A group took the track for the first qualifying session, McElrath held the top. Jordon Smith got a little crazy in the whoops twice as the back of his bike got sideways but he managed to stay upright both times. Sexton tipped over in the split turn before the rhythm section coming down pit lane back towards the start. That turn is starting to develop two different ruts on the inside (although there's not enough room for two bikes at once) and there’s a few other sections that are already starting to rut up. It will be interesting to see who takes which line, especially if we can get a side-by-side look at the outside vs the inside line. McElrath’s 1:10.819 tops the first official qualifying session of the day.

Webb dropped the first fast lap of the 450SX qualifying but then Roczen and Tomac both dipped into the 1:11.00s as well. Roczen dropped into the 1:10.00s with a 1:10.817, edging out Tomac’s 1:11.416. 

Second Timed Practice

In the 250SX B group qualifying, Dustin Winter’s 1:13.884 edged out Lorenzo Locurcio’s 1:14.157. Chase Marquier topped the second 250SX C group qualifying session with a 1:13.630. 

At the start of the second 250SX A group qualifying session, Sexton and McElrath jumped out front. Sexton quickly dropped a 1:10.947—over a second faster than McElrath’s first heater of 1:12.330. Sexton dropped a 1:10.830 but McElrath put down a 1:10.830 right after. Jeremy Martin sat third fastest at the time with his 1:11.856.

Rookie Jalek Swoll went down in the outside of the split turn and with the high buildup of the split it looks like several riders weren’t able to see him until they entered the turn. Josh Hill came into the turn and was able to just barely squeak by Swoll as he was picking his bike up.

Martin pulled into the pits for a quick bike adjustment and then went back out and right at the end of the session, he dropped a 1:10.738, giving him the top qualifying time of the day.

In the second 450SX A group qualifying session, Webb came out and dropped a 1:12.355 on his first heater lap. Within a minute, Webb’s time dropped all the way back to six: Roczen lit up a 1:10.228; Anderson a 1:10.751; Baggett a 1:11.044; Tomac a 1:11.595; and Plessinger a 1:12.219. Justin Hill jumped up inside the top ten but was shuffled out by Martin Davalos, Malcolm Stewart, Dean Wilson, and Benny Bloss. Stewart was impressive with his qualifying as well but we’ll have to see if he can maintain that speed throughout the entire night. Tomac jumped up to the top 1:10.106 then on the next lap set the bar at 1:09.357.

“Really tried to find the comfort early on and just staying clean,” Tomac said afterwards. “It’s a fine line between overriding and pushing here just because it’s so sandy. You’ve gotta keep your momentum flowing…that’s why I was better at this session versus the first, just better momentum. Overall, good stuff, just looking forward to the night show.”

A few other riders to note are: Ryan Sipes, who qualified 18th; Charles Lefrancois, who qualified 22nd, and teammates Logan Karnow and Mathias Jorgenson, who qualified 27th and 33rd, respectively, on their Kawasaki KX250s.

250SX Heat 1

When the first gate of the night dropped, we saw several riders go down in the first turn—including RJ Hampshire. As Hampshire and a few others remounted, Shane McElrath led the rest of the pack out of the 360-degree first turn and back past the downed riders. Hampshire had to get back on his bike and go around the turn, putting him even more behind as he exited the first turn in second to last.

As the lead pack made their way around the track through the first lap, a big crash in the whoops took out several riders. Coming through the first lap it was McElrath, Jordon Smith, Jordan Bailey, Carter Halpain, Curren Thurman running in the top five positions. Hampshire charged hard throughout the entirety of the race, passing Hunter Sayles to get into ninth for a transfer spot. But Hampshire wasn’t done as he kept fighting. He made it up to Halpain but missed taking fifth place from Halpain by 0.009 seconds.

McElrath led wire-to-wire as he built up a lead to over 13 seconds at one point. Smith brought home second with a 19-second lead over Bailey and Shimoda.

250SX Heat 2

Jeremy Martin grabbed a handful of throttle out of the gate and led the second heat through the first several sections of the track. Jerry Robin went down in the first turn but this start wasn’t as chaotic as the first heat was. However, when the pack got to the whoops the first time, another big pileup caused riders and bikes flying right and left. The top few riders made it through clean but then Garrett Marchbanks took the lead from Martin. Marchbanks built up a three-second lead over Martin as Chase Marquier ran in third, 16 seconds behind Martin.

Chase Sexton was buried back at the beginning of the race, but like Hampshire in the first heat, the defending 250SX East Region champion charged through the pack. He caught up to Cedric Soubeyras and made a pass going into the starting straight to get into fourth. He managed to catch Marquier to gain another spot. Marchbanks crossed the checkered flag as Sexton had too much of a gap to make up on Martin, who held on for second.

Following the finish of the second 250SX heat race, the track crew worked on the whoop section that bit a ton of riders at the start of both heat races. Supercross rookie Justin Rodbell finished in the final transfer spot and Rockstar Energy Husqvarna's Jalek Swoll finished 11th and will have to make a successful trip to the LCQ if he wants to make it into the main event tonight.

450SX Heat 1

When the first 450SX gate dropped, it was the man whose season ended here last year out front—Aaron Plessinger. Plessinger grabbed the holeshot over his teammate Justin Barcia and the two would eventually battle throughout the entire main event. Ken Roczen sat outside of the top five spots but quickly made his way to third right in the sand section. When the 450SX guys hit the whoops for the first time there wasn’t the carnage there was in the 250SX heats. Roczen split up the the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Racing teammates as he took second away from Barcia and he quickly went at Plessinger in the sand section on the second lap.

AP held on as Roczen took a shot at the #7 but lost a few bike-lengths in the process. As the two came into starting straight on the third lap he was right back on the tail of Plessinger. He made a move on AP in the whoops and made it stick. He started to gap Plessinger as Barcia caught back up to his teammate. Barcia tried to go at Plessinger then but AP put up a fight and didn’t back off as the two went in opposite lines in the split/option section. They were side-by-side through the sand straight back down towards the starting gates but Barcia coming up short in the section allowed Plessinger to keep a hold on second. Roczen cruised to take the win as Plessinger held off one more Barcia charge. Ryan Sipes snuck into the main event with an eighth-place finish on his KTM 350 SX-F.

450SX Heat 2

The gate dropped on the second 450SX heat, it was none other than Chad Reed that led the group around the unique starting first turn. Cooper Webb, who left it all on the track last weekend en route to his charge and last-lap pass on Martin Davalos to get a podium, was right behind the Australian legend but quickly moved into the lead. Behind Webb was a fast-paced duo of Jason Anderson and Eli Tomac.

Martin Davalos was just outside the top five when he went down hard over the sand wall and wasn’t visible to the riders behind him. He got up and was hit by another rider and went down again. Slow to get up, he managed to remount and eventually finish 16th. Tomac started his first charge at Anderson in the sand section but it didn’t work. Tomac went full send in the wall before the rollers into the finish line but it wasn’t enough either as Anderson held a strong pace of his own. The two got close again and closed the gap on Webb, who was thisclose to making a mistake in the whoops. Tomac gained on Anderson as he took one last shot at the 2018 450SX champion. As the lead three received the white flag, only a second separated them. But on the last lap, Webb and Anderson pulled away from Tomac. Anderson came in hot on the outside of a turn with only a few sections to go but checked up when Webb cut inside-inside on the S-turn. Anderson’s last attempt at Webb was in a full send over the wall into the rollers but Webb held on for the victory with only a 0.5-second margin. Afterwards, it appeared Tomac had some sort of rear wheel problem that slowed his charge on the last lap.

250SX LCQ

Jalek Swoll took the holeshot but was challenged by Pierce Brown, Grant Harlan, and Kevin Moranz. Brown was right on Swoll’s rear fender until a tip-over in the sand section cost him a trip to the LCQ. Then both Tristan Lane and Wilson Fleming went down in the sand as well and dropped to the back of the pack. Brown remounted in ninth and it appeared his hopes of making the 250SX main event were over. He managed to make a few key passes and then eventually got Kevin Moranz for the final transfer spot. Swoll took the checkered flag as Harlan held on for second and Brown stole third from Dustin Winter, who held on the final transfer spot as Moranz finished fifth.

450SX LCQ

Ryan Breece led wire-to-wire to cement himself into the main event. Behind him was his teammate Adam Enticknap then Ronnie Stewart, Joan Cros, Martin Davalos, and Daniel Herrlein. Martin Davalos managed to get his KTM 450 SX-F into a transfer spot. Davalos, Stewart, Joan Cros, and Herrlein went at one another until James Weeks joined the party. Weeks made his way around Herrlein into fourth but then Stewart briefly overtook Weeks for fourth. But it didn’t stick as Weeks then charged up to Enticknap but then went down hard in the sand section in front of pit lane. At the end of the race, Herrlein managed to get Stewart for fourth so when the checkered flag waived, it was Breece, Davalos, Enticknap, and Herrlein who made it into the main event as Stewart came up just short.

250SX Main Event

When the gate dropped for the first main event of the night, riders banged bars as they barreled into the first turn jostling for positions. Monster Energy/Pro Circuit’s Smith and Marchbanks came out of the first turn one behind the other as McElrath, Sexton, and Hampshire filed in behind. Smith got hit into in the sand turn following the sand wall and had to get helped off by the medical crew as his night ended early. Marchbanks then took over the lead as Sexton, Hampshire, Enzo Lopes, Martin, and McElrath, sat in the top six positions.

Sexton was charging hard and wasn’t going to be stopped until he got to the front and passed Marchbanks but the sophomore supercross rider put in the of the ride of his life. Every time it looked like Sexton was catching him, Marchbanks dug deeper and pushed harder and maintained the gap. About three seconds separated the two throughout the race but the last few laps Sexton started go finally make up ground. Continuing to send it over the wall into the rollers and finish line jump, Sexton was dropping hot lap after hot lap. But Marchbanks held strong through the checkered flag to earn his first career 250SX main event win! Martin made a last lap effort to steal a podium finish from the grasps of Hampshire. McElrath finished fifth, Brown bounced back from his LCQ trip to finish sixth, and Jo Shimoda finished seventh.

450SX Main Event

On an already exciting and wild night of racing, we got another nail biter! Anderson and Roczen come out of the first turn(s) side-by-side into the starting straight and into the wall jump. I thought we would be in for a Roczen-Anderson battle throughout the entirety of the race but Roczen started to gap Anderson and that turned out not to be the case. Barcia and Plessinger went back and forth with one another again right behind Roczen which made for an interesting race but a mistake by Barcia let Tomac get passed “Bam Bam” incident-free. I then anticipated another Anderson-Webb-Tomac battle like we saw in the heat race. Webb came flying into the ski jump on the inside of Anderson, taking over second as Tomac wasn’t too far behind. A few moments later and Tomac came out of that turn with both of his feet off the pegs but kept it on two wheels as he continued to get closer and closer to Webb and Anderson. Eventually, Anderson, Webb, and Tomac went at it, but it didn’t last long as I expected because after getting Anderson, Tomac had other plans. We didn’t know it yet but he had a reservation with Roczen at the front.

Whenever Tomac got into second I believe he had about a seven-second gap to Roczen. Slowly but surely, he pushed harder and harder, better Roczen’s lap time with a faster one of his own. Roczen would drop a lap of 1:13 and then Tomac would drop a 1:12. Roczen would pick it up and drop a 1:12 but Tomac set a 1:10 of his own. It was unreal, everything Roczen was doing Tomac just seemed the could to it plus one! A quick tip-over by Roczen in the off-camber turn stalled him just enough for Tomac to get next to him. It was the opening Tomac needed and he took advantage of it. They came into the starting straight away side-by-side as Tomac grabbed a handful of throttle and just shot out of the rut like a rocket to take the lead on lap 15 just as they came through the end of the lap. Tomac was able to hold onto the final three laps by a 0.7-second margin over Roczen, who left it all on the track. I still don't know how he was able to pull off what he did, but Tomac continues to write his name into the history books by doing what he does best—being gnarly on an absolutely brutal track.