Cole Davies Follows in Former Coach Ben Townley’s Footsteps: “I Definitely Wouldn't Be Where I Am Without Him”

From his first race in the U.S. in August 2023 to winning his seventh AMA Supercross race, Cole Davies has come a long way. With the help of Ben Townley, Daniel Blair, and Wil Hahn, the quiet, unknown name out of New Zealand has quickly etched his name into the history books as a 250SX main event winner in Monster Energy AMA Supercross. In doing so, Davies became just the second New Zealand native to score an AMA Supercross win in the U.S., following in the footsteps of his former coach, Ben Townley.

“Yeah, it's definitely been a long road to get here,” Davies said after the race. “But the people I'd like to thank, just everyone back home: my family, my friends, my mom and dad, my sisters, Ben Townley. I definitely wouldn't be where I am without him. He took me under his wing to get me to the States and get me racing and from there, Wil [Hahn] kind of took charge. Can’t thank Wil enough, I wouldn't be here without him, you know, it takes lot of people to get where I am today and just a lot of hard work to get here.”

Davies was set to race as an amateur this year, but the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing team decided he was ready to make his pro debut in supercross. This is not often the case, as riders usually test the waters in the AMA Pro Motocross Championship then come into their first full season. But for Davies, this was not the case.

And from his first pro race at Anaheim in January, the #100 has in fact looked ready to race in the pro ranks. In Seattle, he was 11th in qualifying but made some changes after his heat race win, besting Garrett Marchbanks, his teammate Haiden Deegan, and the rest of the field. He got the start in the main event and the changes paid off. For someone in just their seventh pro start—and seventh supercross main event—Davies was cool, calm, and collected during basically the entire main event at Lumen Field. The track was not a mudder like some expected it could be after a week filled with rain but the track was far from easy. Still, Davies navigated it to bring home the win.

“Yeah, I mean, I spoke to Swanny [Gareth Swanepoel] before the race, I'm like, “Skim the whoops?’ He's like, ‘Yeah, I think so,’” Davies said. “So, you know, going for look lap, I just looked and make sure they're actually skimmable, I guess. [Laughs] So, I just looked if they're skimmable and I was just like, yeah, I'm gonna skim these things every lap. I don't think it compared to what they were at Indy. I feel like they were a lot gnarlier at Indy, but for the most part, I skimmed them every lap, but like the last lap. I don't want to get too hairy on the last lap. [Laughs]”