In the 250SX Class, Hunter Lawrence was on it from the get-go. He qualified fastest for the third time this season, won his heat, and got off to a great start in the main event. But he had a run-in with Nate Thrasher a few turns into the race that left the #29 on the ground and dead last. Lawrence went on to lead all 13 laps and take the main event win, his third of this season and eighth of his 250SX career, rather uncontested. The move on his competitor has been one of the big talking points of the night.

“I didn’t feel contact, but obviously it’s not the best scenario, but you just kind of see a shot and you’ve got to make quick decisions,” Lawrence said in the press conference. “So it was inside, getting roosted, and that’s the option that presented itself. There’s just gonna be hard racing, it goes with the red plate, if you look back at previous years, that’s part of it. Sucks that he went down, not what I wanted to happen.”

This marked two straight Lawrence wins at Daytona International Speedway. It was Hunter Lawrence talking the win at this year's Daytona event, following Jett's win at the 2022 event. The brothers continue to lead their respective 250SX regions.

As if that contact and having to come back from a distant 22nd was not difficult enough for Thrasher (who as we know is riding through a knee injury, although not an excuse it is a factor to note), he got up to tenth. Then a cross rut on a jump takeoff resulted in a hard crash and lots of positions lost again. The one fall put him back to 20th place. Banged up, he hammered on the throttle and managed to make it all the way back up to tenth by the time the checkered flag flew.

Max Anstie did not have a great heat race as he came through in sixth place. But when the gates dropped on the main event, the #63 earned yet another runner-up finish. It was his third podium in the first four races as he continues to run second in the 250SX East Region championship standings.

“The expectations coming in, we didn’t know, and that quickly changed banging out a couple of podiums,” Anstie said on his start to the season. “But I’m still learning. Arlington I was really thrown off, and by the end of the night I got a good setting. The team is doing an amazing job. Everyone is telling me, ‘Don’t change the bike, you’re getting on the podium,’ but we feel we can improve. Again, if I could redo the day tomorrow, I’d start the day with the setting I ended the day with.”

Haiden Deegan rode like he has been so far this season: fast, but pretty steady. He was pretty far back off the start as live timing and scoring had him 13th at the holeshot stripe. A handful of passes early had him running seventh by the end of the first full lap. He kept grinding and last night, that same flashy but consistent ride ended up being a podium result. It was Deegan’s first 250SX podium in just his fourth AMA Supercross event. There has been a lot of hype surrounding the #238 this season and a few races in he has delivered solid results. His 4-4-8-3 in the first four races keeps him in third in the championship.

“When I finished that race, the adrenaline was flowing, it was crazy,” said Deegan afterwards. “I didn’t think I’d be getting on the podium this early, but it’s racing, and we keep progressing. We’ve been putting in the work. This is super exciting, and this is definitely one of my goals, and now that I got a taste of it I want more.”

The 250SX main event podium: Hunter Lawrence (first), Max Anstie (second), then Haiden Deegan (third).

Veterans and former Daytona Supercross 250SX main event winners Jordon Smith and Jeremy Martin rounded out the top five. Smith had to work through a 15th-place start. Martin had a small run-in with Deegan that appeared to be a racing incident.

Behind the two Yamaha vets Honda HRC’s Chance Hymas had arguably his best showing to date. He showed speed from early in the day during qualifying then through his heat, as he battled with Lawrence before finishing third. Then the #832 put in his best main event result with a sixth.

Chris Blose, Coty Schock, Cullin Park, and previously mentioned Thrasher rounded out the top ten. Park had an incident where he ran into Michael Mosiman’s downed GasGas MC 250F, which cost him some time. Park still ended up pulling off a top-ten finish with ninth, tying his career best.

Jeremy Hand put in a 12th-place finish for his best result of this season and his second-best 250SX career finish to date. Florida’s own Jack Chambers made his first main event start of the season and finished 17th.

Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Talon Hawkins had to make the dreaded trip to the LCQ in order to qualify for the main event following an 11th in the first heat of the night. The supercross rookie he hit his marks and made it to the main event. He said after the race while going to the LCQ is less than ideal he took it as an opportunity to get more time on the track and learn more. In the main event he clipped a Tuff Block with his front wheel and damaged his front brake rotor. A quick pit stop to the mechanics’ area fixed the issue but left him without a front break for the rest of the race. He came through 18th.

“Daytona was pretty good,” said Hawkins in a post-race team press release. “I got my best qualifying position so far, so that’s definitely something to be happy about. I ended up in the LCQ after the heat race…I just had a little spill, so I have some corrections to make and some stuff to work on. But I was running P8 in the main and had a little mishap and went down. That caused a little bike problem…my fault. I’ve got to stay off the ground and keep on keeping on. I know what to work on, so we’ll get back to Baker’s Factory and make something happen next weekend.”

Tom Vialle was in second behind Lawrence on the first full lap when he crashed in the jumps after the whoops section. Word from the KTM team was that Vialle was not injured in his crash, although his bike was too mangled to continue.

“First time for me in Daytona was pretty good, I felt great in the practice and qualified sixth,” Vialle said a post-race quote from KTM. “I had a great start, I was first in the Heat on the start and I finished second, felt good. I had another great start in the Main Event and when Hunter Lawrence passed me, I was sitting well in second position, but on lap three I tipped over on a triple – I landed a little bit short and just tipped over. For sure, that was frustrating because I feel like we could have delivered a strong result, but that is how it is and we are going to do a great week with training and be ready for next weekend.”

As mentioned, Mosiman crashed out of a top-ten position and his bike slowed up Park momentarily as well. Mosiman’s mechanic said the #31 is not injured (a little banged up) but his bike was pretty mangled, so he had to pull off.

Caden Braswell had some sort of front wheel issue after he collided with teammate Jace Owen and his night was done after eight laps in the main event. Once the track was clear, him and two track workers pushed his race bike off the track, carrying the front.

After taking the 250SX East Region opening round main event win, Hunter Lawrence has been in the points lead ever since. After four rounds, Lawrence (99 points) leads Anstie (85 points) by 14 points, third-place Deegan (74 points) by 25 points, and fourth-place tie between Smith and Martin (71 points apiece) by 28 points. Thrasher (70 points) sits sixth 29 points back. The 250SX East Region will be back in action again next weekend at the Indianapolis Supercross for the fifth round of the 10-round season.

In the premier class, Eli Tomac is continuing to write himself into the history books of this sport. And last night the trend continued. ET3 claimed his fifth win of the 2023, his seventh Daytona Supercross 450SX main event win, and his 49th career 450SX win—which moved him into sole possession of third place on the all-time premier class AMA Supercross wins list. There is just something about this place that clicks for ET3. His seventh 450SX win at the venue sits most all-time ahead of Ricky Carmichael’s five wins.

“Well the best way to put it is that it feels like home to me,” Tomac said on racing at Daytona International Speedway. “I practice on a pretty loose soil, it’s not that sandy, but it’s somewhat close. That’s the only thing I can point it to. Early in the day, though I was wondering what the heck was going on. I was off over a second in practice and trying to find a general flow. I don’t know, once the lights came on, I was a different dude. I went at this there with Cooper [Webb], back and forth there. It was a gnarly battle, once again down to the wire.”

Cooper Webb came up short twice tonight—barely, coming through second to RJ Hampshire by 0.668 seconds in the second heat and then by 1.791 seconds to Tomac in the main event. You know he will not go down without a fight though. He was holding off Tomac during the beginning stages of the race, and the two even made contact slightly, but eventually Tomac bested his competitor when Webb messed up a rhythm lane near the halfway point (Webb said he hit neutral).

“No doubt, the last few [races] that’s where I struggled,” Webb said on going faster earlier in the races. “Got a good start which was great, and then tried to put some fast laps down. Ironically enough we were doing some different lines, and I was skimming the whoops and he had that line on the inside where he was jumping. I felt like blitzing was a little bit faster, but I left myself open. Some of our lines switched near the finish, in the sand and the switchbacks. It was tough. It’s a gnarly track, but the lines are changing. Then I made that mistake, I somehow hit neutral, and he got by me, but I tucked right in behind him. I was hoping for a mistake. We were going for it and I think we both left it all out there on the track, that’s for sure. Overall, I’m not stoked for second, but I gave it my best.”

Chase Sexton rode home a solid third place. He had a few run-ins with Justin Barcia that cost him a tow to the back of Webb. Sexton messed up the rhythm before the supercross triple in front of the fans on the asphalt and made accidental contact with Barcia. The #51 went around the triple and remounted but Sexton had gotten away. Later, Sexton stalled in the tight chicane before going through the over/under bridge and once he got started again, he hit into Barcia again. This time the #51 went down. Sexton brought home a distant third 12 seconds behind ET3.

“I made that mistake under the tunnel, I just heard him to my right, but I was in front,” Sexton said on his mistakes and bumps with Barcia. “I’ll have to go back and look at it. He came over to me after the race to talk about it. [Laughs] I felt like I had front wheel in front and I had control. But those mistakes were unfortunate, and they allowed him to get close.”

The 450SX main event podium: Eli Tomac (first), Cooper Webb (second), then Chase Sexton (third).

Barcia rode well in the main, his pace early kept him within reach of the lead trio and he even gapped Jason Anderson. Barcia’s 1:14.073 on the fifth lap of the race was the fastest of the night. The run-ins with Sexton cost him a shot at a podium finish and once he crossed the finish line he went straight for Sexton and gave him an earful.

Anderson had a mistake late that forced him to hold off a charging Justin Cooper at the finish line, as just 0.4 seconds separated them. Cooper rode well in what he said is his last 450SX race of the season as he shifts his focus on training for the 250 Class title of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship that begins in May. Cooper said he did his job and gained valuable experience in the five 450SX main events he competed in. He finished 7-7-10-9-6 in the five consecutive events he completed.

Ken Roczen finished seventh and then it was 450SX debutant RJ Hampshire coming through in eighth. Hampshire started his premier class debut race off qualifying well from the get-go in free practice, then held off both Webb and Sexton in the second heat race of the night. He executed in the main and finished inside the top ten. The #24 was smiling ear to ear afterwards, thankful for the Husqvarna factory team for giving him the 450SX shot. He even hinted we could see him at the next round Indianapolis Supercross Saturday on the FC 450 again.

Aaron Plessinger and Christian Craig rounded out the top ten. Grant Harlan put in a season-best 14th on his YZ450F. Josh Cartwright, who had a conference call for his business intelligence analysist day job on Friday, finished a season-best 17th and was happy with his riding. Cade Clason (20th) said he needs to stay off the ground, which will help his results going forward. Chase Marquier (21st) won the 450SX LCQ and made his first main event of the season.