What isn’t Monster Energy/Yamaha Star Racing winning? From Eli Tomac carrying the points lead in the 450 class of Monster Energy AMA Supercross, to Nate Trasher and Levi Kitchen being the only “non-Lawrence brother” winners in the 250 class this year, to Haiden Deegan’s strong pro SX debut rides, the BluCru keeps churning it out. The squad also has a runner in the Supercross Futures division. Even though Deegan chose to jump to 250SX early, Daxton Bennick, a new recruit, has now captured both SX Futures wins in 2023, first at Anaheim 2 and then again at Arlington. And, as expected with a rider new to supercross, he’s getting better, quickly.
“Yeah, so mainly I changed suspension since the last one,” said Bennick. “We worked on the bike a little bit, and I think that helped a lot with my corners and the whoops. And I got a lot better too—started getting up to speed [with supercross].”
Bike setup and technique help, but don’t forget the power of the nerves under those bright lights.
“The first one I was definitely more nervous—my nerves were pretty hyped up,” says the North Carolina native. “This time I felt a lot more calm, and I actually felt like I was riding slow! I was just hitting my marks every lap, and that’s what got me the win.
“Anaheim [track] was a lot faster, that I could tell. This track seemed slower and I think the dirt got more beat up. I can’t even imagine the 250 class for their last moto.”
Yes, there will be many more stages to development, as the Futures riders thought their track was rough, but the 250 track was even rougher, and then the 450 riders deal with something on an altogether different level.
It helps that Bennick is part of such a big team with so much knowledge and so many resources. Eli Tomac notably took a starting gate pretty far outside, three gates to the outside of the starter’s box. It was an unconventional choice, lining up so far outside, but Tomac used it to nail a good start in the first Triple Crown race. Armed with that knowledge, Bennick did the same.
“Swanny [Gareth Swanepoel, team trainer] told me about it, he said that three over was good, and that’s where Eli was coming out really good from the first two,” says Bennick. “So that’s what I picked and I got the holeshot, so it was good!”
Bennick says he will race all the SX Futures races this season. Deegan actually was on the gate with Bennick back at Anaheim 2, but he finished fifth while Bennick won. Still, Deegan wanted to jump into the professional 250 class, and the team agreed to it for 250SX East Region. Bennick isn’t in a hurry to make that jump. He says after Futures, he’s racing the Monster Energy AMA Amateur National at Loretta’s. He’s still on a bit of amateur-to-pro transition, with a whole bunch to top riders around him during the week at the Star track to gauge his progress.
“I’m just going to work on speed, mainly,” says Bennick. “These guys are a little faster than me at the test track.”
