By The Numbers
Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Garrett Marchbanks took his first career heat win at the Daytona Supercross before going on to lead all 14 laps of the 250SX main event to earn his first career win. Marchbanks becomes the 111th different rider to get a win in the 125/250SX Class and becomes the fourth rider to get their first 250SX main event win in Daytona International Speedway—and the first to do so since Marvin Musquin won his first 250SX main event in the speedway on March 9, 2013. The other two riders to earn their first career 125/250SX race at the Daytona Supercross were Todd DeHoop, who won the 125SX Class on March 5, 1988, and Travis Pastrana, who won the 125SX Class on March 10, 2000. In only his second year of supercross Marchbanks recorded the win in his 14th career main event start (10 in the 2019 250SX West Region and four in the 2020 250SX East Region). My favorite stat from the weekend is that 18-year-old Marchbanks is the first racer born in the 2000s to earn a main event win, this courtesy of @sxresearchdept:
GEICO Honda’s Chase Sexton finished second and is the only rider in the 250SX East that’s been on the podium at all four rounds of 2020. Sexton (98 points) will head to Indianapolis, Indiana, this weekend with a ten-point lead over Shane McElrath (88) and an 18-point lead over RJ Hampshire (80) in the 250SX East Region points standings.
In the 450SX main event, Honda HRC’s Ken Roczen led the first 14 laps of the race. However, Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac moved into second and erased an eight-second gap behind Roczen to take over the lead. Tomac would lead Roczen and the rest of the field the final four laps of the race before eventually taking his 32nd career 450SX win and his fifth win of the 2020 championship. Tomac’s win over Roczen came by only 0.707 seconds—the closest gap the class has seen in a main event finish so far this year.
Daytona has become the home of Tomac, as he now has now won four of the last five Daytona Supercross races (Justin Brayton earned his first 450SX main event win there in 2018). By doing so, Tomac became only the fourth racer to record four or more premier class wins at Daytona International Speedway, tying him with Jeff Stanton and Ryan Villopoto for second-most all time in Daytona premier class wins. Only the GOAT Ricky Carmichael (five Daytona Supercross wins) has more. While Tomac has been handling business at Daytona in recent years, this is the first time he will leave Daytona with the 450SX points lead.
Here’s a breakdown of how Tomac pulled off his eight-second deficit to take over the lead:
And make sure to check out the PulpMX Daytona Advanced Analytics for more on the tenth round.
This was the second consecutive time Kawasaki finished first in both classes at the Daytona Supercross. In 2019, Austin Forkner claimed the 250SX main event win and Tomac topped the 450SX Class.
Through round ten of the 2020 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship, Tomac (226 points) leads Roczen (223) by three points. Cooper Webb (197), Justin Barcia (195), and Jason Anderson (170) round out the top five 450SX riders.
Ryan Sipes finished 16th in his first 450SX main event since he finished 14th in the 2009 Jacksonville Supercross on April 4, 2009—or 10 years, 11 months, three days or 3,990 days prior. Sipes, who raced the 250SX main event in 2019, competed on a KTM 450 SX-F this year. Not a bad start to the year for the “General” as he will undergo the second event of his all-inclusive year this weekend at the Daytona TT at the Daytona International Speedway.
Quotes From Around The Paddock
Jason Anderson | 4th in 450SX
“My weekend went alright,” Anderson said. “The heat race went well, I almost got into the lead there but I ended up finishing second. In the main, I got the holeshot and fell back to fourth but I pushed forward and almost had third. All-in-all it, was a good race for me and I just have to keep racing out there with the boys.”
Dean Wilson | 7th in 450SX
“In the Main Event, I knew the start was very crucial so I put a lot of focus into that and I had a decent start but I got a little tight at the beginning. About midway through, I started finding lines and getting close to the top-five but I just wasn’t able to make it happen. I’m frustrated with not being in the top-five but I’m happy with my riding progress and I feel like my confidence is coming back so every weekend I’m getting a lot better.”
Malcolm Stewart | 8th in 450SX
“Today was one of the hardest races of the season. In the main event, I got a terrible start but made my way back up to eighth. Overall, I am happy with the way I rode. I’m starting to find the balance within myself. I just need to keep the ball rolling with another top-10 finish.”
Justin Hill | 9th in 450SX
“Daytona is never a typical Supercross track, but this wasn’t even a typical Daytona. It was just straight away, turn, straightaway, sand rollers. It was a lot of speed into jagged, weird stuff. I think that I was moving well at the beginning of the Main Event. I was making passes and moving forward. I crashed in the sand, picked it up, got a few spots back, and ended up ninth. I’m happy to be out of here healthy and am looking forward to Indianapolis.”
Justin Brayton | 10th in 450SX
“I’m pretty disappointed; it doesn’t seem like I can catch a break, honestly. I got an okay start but was shuffled around on the first lap and came around in about 10th. I wasn’t able to make the moves I needed to and was back in the chaos. On the final lap, I was completely taken down by Vince [Friese].”
Said Honda HRC team manager Erik Kehoe:
“It was another unfortunate end to the night for Justin. He was riding steady but on the last lap had a pretty bad crash with Friese. He still managed to finish 10th but I know he wants more and has been frustrated the last few weeks.”
Vince Friese | 14th in 450SX
“In the main event, I rode a little tight and got pushed around in the first few laps. I put myself in a good position but had a couple of bobbles in the sand and dropped back. I was riding and battling with my teammates, stayed with Justin in the middle part of the race there, and Brayton was on me from the middle part until the end. A lapper got in my way, and JB got by me, so the lapper was still in between us, and I went for a pretty aggressive move. I had to lock up the front brake and high-sided into JB, and we both hit the deck. He got up and still beat me to 10th, which was a bummer. I hope he is okay, and I feel pretty bad. My intent was just to put the bike in front of him because he would have seen my bike and stopped, but with the lapper in the way made things more hectic. It’s such a bummer because I want to put it in the top-10 for the team. Everyone is working so hard and to go from 10th to 11th like that is tough.”
Charles Lefrancois | DNQ for main event
"I felt comfortable on the bike from the start of timed practice. I managed to get the 19th fastest time in the first timed session and qualified 22nd overall after the second session. I knew a direct transfer into the main was possible for me with a good start, and usually starts are my strength, but not tonight. I worked hard to make passes, but it was not enough in my heat or the LCQ to transfer to the main. Despite my bad result I really liked the bike, and also the track, and will work hard this week to get better results in Indy."
Said JGRMX/Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing’s team manager Jeremy Albrecht:
"Charles rode well in qualifying and improved each time he hit the track. He showed speed, but bad starts did not help him get into the main event. We will focus on starts to help him improve for next weekend. He has a great attitude and wants to prove he can make us and Suzuki proud. I believe he will make improvements each weekend."
RJ Hampshire | 4th in 250SX
“Obviously I would have liked to finish on the podium but all-in-all, I’m pretty happy with how tonight went. While I was running third, I dabbed my leg in a corner and it gave me a stinger on my knee, which kind of caused me to mess up the rhythm a couple of laps and [Jeremy] Martin was able to get around me. With the track being as high-speed as it was, I made the decision to be smart and take fourth so I could move on to Indy and get better results.”
Jo Shimoda | 7th in 250SX
“The whole practice, in timed qualifying, I didn’t get in good laps, but I felt loose all day. I was a little bit tight in the beginning of my heat but got fourth. In the main event I started okay but [Shane] McElrath crashed in front of me and I got stuck behind him which put me behind a lot of riders. I was able to get to seventh and I was catching up to sixth, but then I went off the track with three laps to go. Had to settle for seventh.”
Injury Updates
Justin Brayton
On the final lap of the 450SX main event, Vince Friese hit into Brayton while attempting to make a pass in a 180-degree berm and took them both out. Brayton managed to remount and finish tenth but later said on Instagram that he knew something was wrong right away. The team said in a statement on Monday afternoon: “On Monday following the race, he was evaluated by his physician, and it was determined that he had fractured the metacarpal in his pinky finger. Brayton’s recovery will take three to six weeks, and he will be reevaluated at the three-week mark (following the Seattle Supercross).”
He would later post on Instagram the video on Instagram:
Jimmy Decotis
Although qualifying 34th overall (under 40th-place cutoff), Decotis did not compete in the night show. Decotis posted an update on Instagram on Tuesday, saying he has “been feeling pretty run down with extreme fatigue, anxiety and just not myself.” While he’s taken several tests to figure out what he’s dealing with, he doesn’t have the results back yet.
“I really hope my sponsors and fans understand I would never sit out of a race unless I felt It was my only option,” he said in the post. “I pushed through my injuries at the first couple of rounds but this is way different than a broken bone. I’ll update everyone when I get my blood work back.”
Below is Decotis’ full post:
Here’s what JGRMX/Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing team manager Jeremy Albrecht said on Decotis in a release:
“We went into the weekend wanting to turn things around for Jimmy D. He had a few crashes that have held him back over the last few weeks and has felt weak and not himself. After qualifying for the night, he made the decision to not continue in his heat race. He will get some testing this week and try to figure out how to get back to competing.”
Nick Gaines
Gaines was one of several riders to go down in the whoops section on the first lap of both the 250SX heats. He posted this update on Instagram, saying he suffered a broken hand:
Jerry Robin
Robin said in an Instagram post that he had suffered a broken hand as well after landing on top of a Tuff Block during the night show. He posted pictures of his hand and the X-rays of the break on his Instagram story.
Jordon Smith
While running in the top three at the start of the 250SX main event, Smith tangled with Shane McElrath and went down in the sand section on the first lap. He had to be helped off the track by the Alpinestars medical crew and the team released this statement on Smith on Sunday:
"The day started out well for Smith who qualified sixth and went on to finish second in his heat race. In the main event, Smith tucked in right behind Marchbanks on the start at the front. A few corners later, he collided with another rider, going down and tweaking his knee. Smith was forced to call it a night, but is hopeful the tweak isn’t serious and will be evaluated this week."
On Wednesday, Smith posted on Instagram saying an MRI had “confirmed a complete ACL tear with multiple lateral and meniscus tears.” Here is his full post:
The team said in a press release ahead of the Indianapolis Supercross this weekend that Smith will be out this weekend:
“Marchbanks will be representing the team on his own as teammate Jordon Smith will be sitting out this weekend after hurting his knee in Daytona.”