Arlington was the first round of Monster Energy AMA Supercross for the East Division, and as opening rounds usually go, it held lots of excitement and drama. It was a solid night for the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki crew, all things considered, with Seth Hammaker finishing fourth, and Drew Adams sixth. Hammaker, coming back from shoulder surgery, somehow muscled his way through the first turn and avoided going down. He had the fastest lap of the main event and quickly worked his way into fourth but was unable to do anything from there. Meanwhile Drew Adams also avoided the first turn pile up and worked his way up to fifth position, only to be overtaken by Cole Davies late in the race. Steve Matthes caught up with the pair after the race to hear about their race, off-season injuries, expectations, and more.
Seth Hammaker
Racer X: Seth Hammaker, look, I'm sure you wanted to be on the box, but it's the opener, weird stuff happens. And man, you were right there, but couldn't make it happen.
Seth Hammaker: Yeah, it's kind of frustrating race for me because I felt like, you know, I wasn't worried at first, I was like, “Okay, I'll sit behind these guys for the first half of the race and see where I can pick some spots apart on the track” but honestly, just never really felt comfortable in the main.
And then you lost time, right?
Yeah. Those last couple laps I made some really bad runs through the whoops and kind of was like, “Man, I don't know if I just kind of was settling there.” Honestly, I didn't know what to do. It was kind of frustrating, like I said. But all in all, first race and we're out of here healthy and ready to keep improving. But yeah, fourth and not where I want to be. But hey, it's what we got.
Dude on the West Coast, the whoops have been easy and you guys show up and they throw 11 and they're gnarly. It was really the whole race came down to how you could get through them. Pierce Brown was fantastic. That was it.
Yeah, it really was. Eli [Tomac], for example, I was watching the 450 main, and he was jumping them. He never jumps them. In the first couple laps of our main, I tried skimming and it was really risky to skim. And then I went to the jump line, but I need to work on jumping the whoops for sure.
Okay, so you had a little bit of an abbreviated training camp, right? Because the shoulder and everything. Are you 100 percent ready to go?
Yeah. Honestly, the month I had was perfectly fine. I felt more than ready and everything. You know, I feel like I could have pushed harder as far as fitness, endurance, like, body wise, I felt really good. It was just more of a comfortability thing for me tonight that I didn't really have it. I'm not worried about that. I know that I'm as fast or faster than everybody. It's just putting it together when it when it counts.
So maybe in the future, then you can tell Mitch, “Hey, I'm going to the Mexico [on vacation] because I only need a month.”
[Laughs] Exactly. Like, even if I don't need a surgery or anything, I'm just like, “I'll see you in a couple of months!”
I mean, you know how good you rode last year, how fast you are. You know what I mean?
And that's why when I came back, it only took me like literally two weeks. I was like, “I feel like I can go racing.” Like everything came back quicker than I thought, which was a positive, which was cool.
Does it just feel like a new shoulder or how does it feel?
It feels really good. It still gets like a deep ache sometimes, but that's just, I've had other shoulder surgeries, my shoulders aren't the best. And that's just what it's going to be. But compared to what it felt like last year, it's super stable, feels like it's not going to come out at any moment. So I'm happy that everything worked out that way.
Drew Adams
Racer X: All right, Drew Adams, I'm sure you're not stoked that you got passed late in the race, but other than that, I mean, look, you didn't get a great start and moved up a little bit, so give us your take on it.
Drew Adams: Well, I mean, the guy I got passed by a late in the race is one of the championship favorites [Note: it was Cole Davies], so I would say main event I rode well. I was very disappointed in myself after the heat race. It was kind of like, just a confidence killer, you know? But then I talked with Mitch and them and, you know, they kind of calmed me down because first heat, it's really hard to pass. So, start is everything. And I did not have that. So yeah, I just kind of regrouped myself, lined up on the inside in the main and I had a feeling something not good was going to happen in the first turn. I was just like, “Man, this inside might work good.” And honestly, my jump was horrible. But I made it work and I think I came out like seventh on the start.
People decided to just go straight, I think.
Yeah, yeah, it did me a favor, but that was probably the roughest supercross track I've ever raced in. I don't know if you took a look in the whoops after the main event. I mean that that was like, I think the only whoops I've ever seen closes to that was in Daytona 2024. It was a mud race, to give you an idea. The whoops were just absolutely chewed up. I mean, doing 15 minutes on the track was tough. And you know, I would say the last three minutes of the race, I probably wasn't the strongest. But you know, the more I race that's going to go away because during the middle of the moto, I think I was like the second fastest guy on the track, and I was kind of just riding alone by myself. So, maybe I should have toned it back a little bit. And then I would have had, you know, six percent more towards the end.
One of my questions was you kind of rode a lonely race a little bit, which is hard to get into it. Right?
Yeah, I was just kind of sprinting a little too much when there was still ten minutes on the clock. Which I should do. I should be able to sprint for 15 minutes. But like I said, first race of the season like that's going to get better and better and better.
People think you have more supercross experience than you really do. This was like your fourth or fifth race, right?
This is my fourth supercross, but I did [SX] Futures and stuff, but those are much shorter races and the tracks smoother than that. So, I just want to learn, and I don't want to set any goals. [Knowing] Mitch, he's a winning guy, and he wants me to go win. So, that's my goal towards the end of the season. You know, I want to be a guy that's dangerous when I'm up there.
So, there's nothing like racing. So how was the bike set up? You're testing, your off season?
I thought my bike was really good today. We made a few changes for the whoops because I think that was the toughest part on the track all day. So many guys crashed in those things. But as far as the off-season, you know, I was originally supposed to race West Coast. And around Thanksgiving, I broke my scapula pretty bad. And so I had to take four to five weeks off.
I heard it was a small injury. A scapula is not a small injury.
It was my first time ever crashing in the whoops and it was not a good one. And, yeah, well funny story is it was the same day Jo [Shimoda] crashed. Like Jo left in the ambulance and I went to start a 20 minute moto and I crashed in the next set of whoops.
Wow. Tough day.
Yeah. So, I could have been ready for West Coast but maybe at 75 percent and I didn't want that. I felt great coming into this race, and I didn't expect myself to be up there winning, but sixth, I'll take that. You know, the first round is always gnarly like so many guys crash or get hurt and stuff like that. So, I'm glad to come out with that and stay healthy. And honestly, the main gave me a confidence booster because after the heat race, I was in a low place. I was like, “This sucks. I just want to go home!”
How stoked are you for Hunter [Lawrence]? Man, that's an awesome race. And great to see him get it.
Trust me, that guy deserves it more than anyone on the track. Like the work that we've put in on the off-season, you know, and usually Jett’s right by his side during the off-season. So, I feel like that was maybe a little different for him this year. Whereas, you know, he's always got that training buddy at the compound. And now, you know, we're 250 riders, we're a little bit behind him. That guy's been putting in all the work. And I got a feeling that he's got this championship in the bag. It's a long time to go, but it's cool.
