If you read our Daytona history Lists last week, you might recall that this was the 53^rd version of the oldest race on the schedule. And if you’ve read anything Steve Matthes has written about it the past few years, you know that Daytona is not everyone’s cup of tea (or cup of Monster Energy, if you will). Getting around the massive Daytona International Speedway can be a real chore, especially when they are continually (and seemingly without any real purpose) locking gates and then re-opening them and then opening them.… It’s no exaggeration that on Friday evening, after a cool little reception Daytona International Speedwar threw for the SX/MX industry and attendees, I was leading a half-dozen cars around in a maddening effort to simply get out of the infield and across the way to my hotel—and Jason Weigandt was in the car behind me as we were continually turned around by security personnel guarding locked gates. And when it happened again on Saturday night after the race, I gave up and just walked to my hotel. The next morning, at the crack of dawn, I walked back, only to find the same gates padlocked.

But beyond that strangely aggressive security strategy, I do think the rest of the event has shown marked improvement over the years. The track is the track—Ricky is severely limited in what he can design because of all the water pipes and electronic and television cables underneath the trioval area—but everything else is much better than it was when we started the RCSX right after the GOAT retired from racing. The folks at DIS, led by new president Frank Kelleher and operations boss Andrew Gertis, have really opened their arms to the SX, both pro and amateur, and the event has become both the kickoff and anchor to Bike Week. And with the Wild Boar GNCC taking place just an hour away, the dirt bike contingent of what makes up Bike Week continues to grow.

Of course now it’s time for the stretch run of Monster Energy AMA Supercross, with the second half of the series picking up at Lucas Oil Stadium this weekend. Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Tomac earned himself a little more breathing room with back-to-back wins at Oakland and Daytona, though I think both Webb and Team Honda’s Chase Sexton have yet to really have their own big momentum swings. In the 250SX East Region, Hunter Lawrence is having a seemingly identical season to his brother Jett out west. Hunter’s got 99 points and three of the four wins; Jett’s got 101 points and three of the four wins out there. And now the Lawrence brothers are the only two brothers to have won the Daytona 250SX—and they did it in back-to-back years to boot.

It's Hunter’s turn again this weekend, and he’s not the only one who seems to be improving with each race. Thirteen years after he entered his first AMA Supercross, the journeyman Max Anstie is having an excellent season on the FirePower Honda. After getting his first career 250SX podium in the opener, Max now has three trophies in four rounds. If everything goes right, he very well could become the first British pilot since Dean Wilson to win an AMA Supercross. And right behind him is Haiden Deegan, who earned his first podium on Saturday night (Weege and Matthes will have more on that below). The Indy SX will begin at 7 p.m. ET live on Peacock, with Race Day Live kicking off at 1:30 p.m. ET tomorrow.

And speaking of Deegan, he was among the high-school students who put their caps and gowns on to be a part of a special ceremony in the Daytona Winner’s Circle, through Andrea Leib’s On Track School. So was top young Husqvarna prospect Casey Cochran, who, like Deegan, is an honors student. And among others in this year’s class (though not all of them were at Daytona) were Daxton Bennick, Enzo Tennerman, Carson Mainquist, Brighton Richards, Owen Covell, Grayson Fair, Avery Long, Nico Long, Brandon Olson, and more. Also there was also a top prospect from a generation earlier, Ricky Carmichael. Yes, the 15-time champ decided to return to school, having dropped out in the summer of 1996 after finishing the 11^th grade in public school, then starting his professional racing journey. Jeff Emig (who graduated with On Track in 2019) called out Ricky in a YouTube video, daring him to go back to school. Ricky then committed to do it in a webinar with Leib, with the goal of walking the stage at Daytona ’23. Ricky returned to the classroom last year, with the ultimate goal of graduating after all these years, and he did just that at Daytona!

It was very good to see Ricky, Haiden, Casey, and all of the other On Track School students out of their racing gear and enjoying a very important non-racing podium together. The ultimate graduation ceremony for all of these kids will take place at the Loretta Lynn’s AMA Amateur National Motocross Championships in August. If you want to know more about this K-12 Distance Learning Program, check out www.ontrackschool.com.

With Daytona in the rearview mirror, the amateur season is in full drive now, as the caravan of many families and support teams made the drive from Daytona on Monday night or Tuesday morning straight to Freestone Raceway in Wortham, Texas, where the James Stewart Spring Championship is taking place. Here's a link to live results: https://resultsmx.com/sc/liveresults.asp. And from there it's the Spring-A-Ding-Ding event at Underground MX in Kemp, Texas—a much shorter drive than Daytona to Freestone. We will post a link to those results when they begin going live next week on escoremx.com.

And they are still racing down there at Daytona as Bike Week morphs from "dirt bike week" to its ultimate conclusion and the genesis for Bike Week in the first place, on the pavement with the Daytona 200 Moto America road race. Last night American Flat Track held the first night of a doubleheader on the dirt track just outside of Gate 40, and Dallas Daniels won a dramatic race on his Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT. The event was called the Daytona Short Track I presented by Daytona Dodge, and it marked the opening round the 2023 Progressive American Flat Track season. Brandon Robinson (Mission Roof Systems Indian FTR750) finished second and Briar Bauman (Parts Plus/Jacob Companies KTM 890 Duke) rounded out the podium. 

And the GNCCers are still down south, too, as they go back-to-back with this weekend’s The General in Washington, Georgia, which will stream live on RacerTV.com beginning at 1 p.m. ET. There’s even the Red Bull Day in the Dirt Down South, which is bound to be a blast—keep an eye on everyone’s social media as Bike Week grinds on and on.…

Oh and the FIM Motocross World Championship (MXGP) kicks off this weekend in Argentina. Check out all the action live on MXGP-TV.com (Saturday is qualifying moto and Sunday are the points-paying motos).

Daytona! (Jason Weigandt)

I first joined the Daytona Supercross announcing team in 2008, the year of the epic mudder and Chad Reed’s bike blowing up while he led on the last lap. The years after that, though … the racing turned, well, meh. Lots of years where co-announcers Kevin Kelly and Rob Buydos and I really had to fake it, screaming and yelling to keep the fans engaged while boring racing commenced. I figured this was a byproduct of the track, which (as Matthes loves to point out) is often compromised due to the infield limitations, and also gets so rough and tough that riders are left surviving instead of battling. Something, though, has changed the last few years. The racing has been fantastic and nail-biting. Of course we can thank Eli Tomac for most of that, because Eli’s specialty has never been sprint laps but rather late-race charges. This makes his annual Beast Mode run for the wins fun to watch, even including the one Daytona he didn’t win, in 2018, when he was trying to chase down Justin Brayton (you knew I would bring that up).

The last few years have been exciting, too. Ken Roczen threw everything he had at Tomac in 2020 as they battled for the points lead. Roczen tipped over late, handing the lead to ET, but they raced to the checkers with just 0.7 seconds between them at the end. Cooper Webb has put up valiant efforts the last three years now, leading in ’23 and ’22, but Tomac just proved too darned strong. These have not been procedural affairs. We all know how crafty Webb can be late in the race, so even matched against Tomac’s strength, even the last lap was a must-watch.

Plus, and I’ve mentioned this several times, the fans are on fire lately. Tomac elevated to next-level living-legend status with these people, riding the wave veterans usually get, like Kevin Windham or Chad Reed in their 30-something days, while also winning tons of races and leading the series. It’s amazing to see it in person. Then Haiden Deegan brings a whole new spirit to the races, with fans cheering every pass. Combine that with Daytona putting fans on the fence line next to the finish, and the close racing, and Daytona being the only supercross that lets the fans go to the podium, and you’ve got an amazing atmosphere. It’s been electric the last few years, that’s for sure, and so much of that hinges on Tomac. Congrats to Eli for winning this thing a ridiculous seven times. I’d say the podium celebration on Saturday was second-best only to the RedBud MXoN last year. It was that good.

I was back at the Speedway for the Ricky Carmichael Amateur Supercross on Sunday and Monday, taking my son racing in the 50cc and Mini-E divisions—you can hear about these exploits either on our Fly Racing Racer X Podcast review show or on my own YouTube channel. Here’s what I learned in a nutshell: this sport is so difficult to do, and yet when it’s over there’s nothing you want to do more. After a long, stressful, expensive two days, I’m already counting down to next year. My son even cried when we pulled out of Daytona! It was that good.

Good luck to everyone who stayed in Florida for Red Bull’s Day in the Dirt Down South in Dade City, which I attended last year and absolutely loved. I hope my schedule works out better in ’23—I’d like to get my son to finally race both Daytona and DITDDS in the same week. But the deeper you go, the harder it gets. For example, we won’t even have a Racerhead contribution from our man Kris Keefer this week, because he said he’s in “amateur moto dad hell” chasing the dream with his son Aiden at Freestone in Texas. But I know when they’re done, they will wish they had those days back.

And check out our guys Mitch Kendra and Dustin Williamson, who both raced on Tuesday in the modern Open C class of the vintage Daytona Supercross!

Deegan’s No Rookie (Weigandt)

Just a quick note on Haiden Deegan’s first podium. We dove deep into Haiden’s rookie stats on our SMX Insider Show this week, and stat man Clinton Fowler pointed out something incredible: Haiden has the least variance between his best laps and his worst laps of anyone in 250SX East. Yes, his lap times are the most consistent of all! Usually rookies have a few fast laps and then some disasters, but Deegan has been the opposite, avoiding big crashes and never fading. He hasn’t even gotten good starts, either, which makes consistency even harder to achieve. I know Deegan’s popularity is based partially on the YouTube hype machine created by his family, but make no mistake, his success really comes from his own heart and desire. In the press conference last Saturday, I asked him if he got into racing because his parents pushed him, or because he wanted it himself, and he was sure to say it's the former. This is his dream, and in fact his mom didn't even want him racing dirt bikes at all! But he’s a racer, he wants it bad, and he never gives up. It’s pretty shocking to see him third in points in a series he didn’t even expect to race this year (Haiden was expected to do Supercross Futures not 250SX). For sure, the sky is the limit with this kid!

ATTRITION (Matthes)

We're getting to that point here, folks. It's round nine of SX this weekend and Colt Nichols, Dylan Ferrandis, and Michael Mosiman are out with injury to go along with Malcolm Stewart and Marvin Musquin. Supercross is hard. It's very hard, and the mistakes add up as the series rolls on week after week. Adam Cianciarulo is back this weekend, but with Justin Cooper taking time off to start 250 MX riding, we're missing four factory guys from the start of the year—five if you count Cooper. With an eye on the upcoming Pro Motocross series that's starting in May, you have to think that some of the riders who are out (eyeing Ferrandis) might just elect to skip the rest of the series if their injuries keep them out any longer. Then again, there are now season-long combined point standings for the SMX rankings, so we'll see if the guys play it any differently this year.

UH OH (Matthes)

We had Haiden Deegan on the PulpMX Show on Monday night, and he's a pretty well-spoken kid, pretty funny, and you can understand that since he grew up with a camera on him so much, right? When you interview people for a living like I do, and for so long, you can see the humans who like it and get it and the ones who don't. I'm not here to say that Haiden "liked" it, but he gets it and he's polished. As Weege says, he's also a racer and the real deal, so be ready for a lot of Haiden Deegan that’s going to get crammed up your cram hole from media and sponsors. 

The reason for the “uh oh” above is because we had a caller ask Haiden if he's going to ghost ride his bike like his dad did when he wins his first SX (that win for dad Brian would be his only one of his career), and Haiden seemed to indicate that yes, he would be doing that. I mean, that would be epic, right? Maybe we can get DC's perspective who was there on the floor that night?

DC’s Perspective: It seemed incredibly spontaneous when Brian did his ghost ride at his ’97 L.A. Coliseum win, and it instantly became an iconic moment. Brian’s interview was also hilarious and spontaneous, and he was nowhere near as polished as Haiden is now. I am almost certain we will see Haiden do a similar stunt if he wins one of these soon, and I’m sure he will get a fine from the AMA, but I can’t imagine how many of his sponsors would be more than willing to pony up whatever the fine is! Rumor has it that after the AMA fined Brian $500 (I think) back in 1997, then-SX promoter Charlie Mancuso paid it for him! Maybe someone should ask Brian for his take on that.…

You can watch the whole show here or go to my IG (@Pulpmx) to see the specific clip of Haiden talking about that.

Pro Perspective (Jason Thomas)

Daytona has come and gone, and some would say the series has officially started. Indy is on deck, and with it a three-week swing before a weekend off.

I always liked to break up the season into segments, to compartmentalize the effort. Three in a row to focus on, then a breather before the final stretch into Utah. I felt it helped narrow the focus a bit instead of this gargantuan schedule that was hard to wrap one’s head around.

For Indy and Detroit, the dynamic will be similar. They are domed venues and should have soft, tacky dirt. The whoops will break down, as will the rhythm sections. Riders will need to balance a bit of aggression with an emphasis on maintaining lap times on a deteriorating track. You don’t have to be the fastest rider on lap one or lap five, but if you’re fastest on lap 15 and 20, that will win out.

Seattle will be a bit different and weather dependent, but these two rounds offer enough symmetry to lock into an approach. Find a pace that’s sustainable and look for lines that will develop late. Those are sure-fire ways to succeed when the track is at its worst.

Cooper Webb has been a master of this in recent years, but Tomac has been incredible in the past, too. The one caveat was Tampa, where the sketchy conditions put him in an uncomfortable spot. With outdoor tracks like Seattle, East Rutherford, Nashville, Atlanta, Denver, and Salt Lake City left to run, could we get more inclement weather? Could that be a big championship factor? Time will tell.

My Top Ten Supercrossers of All Time (Matthes)

DC's note: With Eli Tomac moving up to third on the all-time wins list, right between James Stewart (50) and Ricky Carmichael (48) but still well behind Jeremy McGrath (72), Matthes did an interesting Top Ten ranking of the best supercrossers of all time, in his opinion, and posted it in Observations. In case you missed it, we're excerpting that list from the column here.

Here are stats on some notables:

Jeremy McGrath | 7 titles | 72 wins | 42% win percentage

James Stewart | 2 titles | 50 wins | 41% win percentage

Eli Tomac | 2 titles | 49 wins | 32% win percentage

Ricky Carmichael | 5 titles | 48 wins | 42% win percentage

Chad Reed | 2 titles | 44 wins | 18% win percentage

Ryan Villopoto, | 4 titles | 41 wins | 45% win percentage

Ryan Dungey | 4 titles | 34 wins | 25% percent win percentage

Rick Johnson | 2 titles | 28 wins | 28% percent win percentage

Bob Hannah | 3 titles | 27 wins | 32% percent win percentage

Jean-Michel Bayle | 1 title | 16 wins | 28% percent win percentage

Okay, well for me, there’s no doubting McGrath is the best supercross racer of all time. Even if you want to adjust for depth of competition and all that, his win percentage before he retired for a year and came back was OVER 50 percent. Do I think MC and his competitors were in as good of shape as Villopoto and RC? No, I do not. It was a looser era for the guys back then, but you race in the era you race in. That’s the way it was in the 90s. MC has the titles, the wins, and all that. If anyone says McGrath isn’t the best SXer ever, you need to slap them in their face.

The second slot for me would be Stewart. No, he doesn’t have the titles, but he’s got the wins, and I was there, bro—I saw the things James did. He innovated, elevated, and amazed for most of his SX career. Leaving Kawasaki over an energy-drink deal was not the best move for him, and the backward-motor Yamaha he had to ride for a few years wasn’t great. Also, don’t forget, James and Carmichael raced every World SX race in 2006 and Stewart beat him for that title.

Third would be RC. Never a flashy SX guy, he got it done his usual way, with hard work and elite fitness. Carmichael got beat in 1999 and 2000 and then, yeah, never lost again. He’s got the all-time SX podium percentage record as well.

Fourth for me would be Villopoto. He was a bit like RC, in that he wasn’t massively flashy, but look at those records! He hung it up early, also, when he had more wins in him, and maybe more titles. He’s got those titles and that win percentage going for him.

Fifth would be Tomac. He’s going to end up second all-time in SX wins, and he’s looking good for this title right now. He left another couple titles on the table when he was the fastest guy week-to-week but he just had those weirdo rides that cost him points.

Sixth is Chad Reed, who had the unfortunate luck of going up against the number two and three all-time in Stew and RC. On his day, though, he could beat either of them. He took advantage of RC Stew’s injuries to cruise to two titles, and that’s not easy either. His low win percent doesn’t come into play for me because he hung on for a long time and kept racing, and that drags the win numbers down. Plus, Chad’s trademark wasn’t wins so much as brutal consistency. In his prime years he literally could not finish off the podium no matter what happened during the weekend. You have to keep that in perspective when ranking him.

Seventh is Ryan Dungey, who’s got the titles up there but not all the wins he needs. The thing is, to me, he got beat by Villopoto four years in a row, and then he was definitely not the fastest guy in his last two title years, but used his smarts and skills to get it done. [Ed. note: Scoreboard. – AH]

Rick Johnson is next, and I remember being at the race where he passed Hannah in all-time SX wins. It seemed like the sky was the limit for him, but that was it: he lost the next week when he fell late while leading and then broke his wrist. He never won another SX again. Also, the ’87 title was probably his if he didn’t knock himself out at round one and then break some fingers later on.

Bob Hannah was, by all accounts, the fastest rider in ’83, and maybe ’84, on factory Honda, but he kept getting hurt. He was, of course, the guy in the late ’70s, and there was no end in sight for his winning until he broke his lower leg water-skiing.

Knocking on the door are Webb (2 titles, 21 wins) Jeff Ward (2 titles, 20 wins), and Jean-Michel Bayle. They’re all legends, for sure. JMB, especially, doesn’t get mentioned enough because he retired really early, so the numbers aren’t impressive. Ask anyone who raced him how good he was, though. And yes, it’s amazing Damon Bradshaw NEVER won a 450SX title.

Okay, those are my rankings. 

MXGP-TV Trivia (DC)

With the 2023 FIM Motocross World Championship starting this weekend in Argentina, Racer X Online is once again partnering with MXGP-TV for the season, which means we have a few MXGP Video Passes to give away. You can watch all the action from the 2023 season, as well as Team USA try to defend its title in the ’23 Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations from Ernée, France, in October. If you were to purchase the package, it's a $130 value! We are asking one MXGP-related Trivia Question here each week, making sure the winners are true students of motocross here and abroad. The first person to correctly answer in the comments below will get the MXGP Season Pass.

Last week’s question was a hard one: There is just one rider who managed to win both the first 125/250 moto he entered and the first 250/450 moto he entered in AMA Pro Motocross. Who is he?

PHOTO Jean-Michel Bayle at the '89 Unadilla 500 National. (photo by Thomas Veety)

After many good guesses, ranging from Pierre Karsmakers to James Stewart to Eli Tomac. we finally got a winner later in the week when "racertrackrichie" correctly guessed Jean-Michel Bayle. JMB won the first moto (and overall) of the ’89 250 National at Gatorback, as well and the first 125 National moto at Gatorback in 1990. In between he finished second in his first 500 National moto at Steel City '89—but that hint would have made it much easier. Congrats to racetrackrichie on the win here. Please send me your email address so we can get you the code for free MXGP-TV coverage all year long!

Now for this week's question, which has two parts: In the history of the FIM Motocross World Championship, which goes back to 1957, which manufacturer has won the most world titles in a row, and in which class? Post your answers in the comments below, and the first correct answer gets the one-year MXGP-TV subscription.

The Flying Dutchman (DC)

Before there was a Jeffrey Herlings (or even his father, Peter Herlings), before Marc De Reuver, Pedro Tragter, John Van den Berk, Davey Strijbos, Kees Van Der Ven, or even Gerrit Wolsink, Pierre Karsmakers was the original “Flying Dutchman” of motocross from the Netherlands. It is no overstatement to say that Karsmakers was one of the most influential motocross racers of all time. He moved from the Netherlands to the U.S. in 1973, blazing the trail that would lead many other top international riders here in the decades to follow. He also helped shaped Yamaha's motocross program, and then Honda's, while mentoring both the staff and his teammates. He won the ’73 AMA 500cc National Championship and then became the first AMA Supercross Championship one year later. He won Yamaha their first 500 National, and then he won Honda their first 500cc Grand Prix when he topped the Canadian round at St. Gabriel. He is an AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famer, and now he’s the focus of a new documentary called Lifecycle, being produced by Monique Fuchs and her team at Vyoupoint Films. Here's a link to the teaser (in Dutch for now):

https://www.pierrekarsmakers.com/teaser/

We've been helping support the making of the film with photos from the Dick Miller Archives, as well as our own stuff, as Pierre was the winner of my parents' first AMA Pro Motocross race, the 1974 Appalachia Lake 250 National, which was shot by the great Jim “Greek” Gianatsis and featured in Racer X magazine a few years back. Monique and her team are going to be releasing the film in English, so keep an eye out for Lifecycle: The Story of the Flying Dutchman of Motocross. 

Hey, Watch It!

Check out Kellen Brauer’s Race Examination from Daytona:

DIRT SHARK | Daytona Supercross 2023

Jeffrey Herlings Comeback Season Starts NOW 

GNCC Between the Arrows from the Wild Boar in Florida:

Head-Scratching Headline/s of the Week 

"Woman calls for 'Sugar Daddy, Mommy Appreciation Day' at zoning board meeting"—Local 21 News

"Tiger Woods' Ex-Girlfriend Is Alleging He Tricked Her Into Thinking They Were Going On Vacation Before Finding Out She Had Been Dumped And Kicked Out Of The House"—Barstool Sports

“CITY OF GLENDALE WILL CHANGE NAME FOR TAYLOR SWIFT... To Kick Off Tour”—TMZ.com

“WWE Wants Sports Betting on Scripted Matches”—Front Office Sports

Random Notes

Also, be sure to keep an out for Jorge Prado sporting the new Scott Fury Limited Edition JP61 goggles. Check them out here: https://www.scott-sports.com/us/en/product/scott-fury-jp61-goggle?article=4142271087340”