Down at the speedway, some kind of Elvis thing...we were back at Daytona for the SX, round eight of seventeen, and it was a different Daytona from usual in that it had way fewer jumps. It was more of a "racier" track than usual, with more "rider vs track" to just nail the rhythms down. I had heard there were 11-14 fewer jumps this year. This was a pretty basic Daytona where none of the obstacles were tough for the guys outside of going 3-2 after the finish. The whoops were tough but were then knocked down for the night show, and, yeah man, a different Daytona.
Was it better? I don't know; it was different. I know that in this day and age, people need to either be obsessed with something or hate on it forever, but to me, it was fine. Whatever.
Well, he did it again. Eli Tomac strapped on that paddle tire and got an eighth Daytona win. He was heavily favored to do it (he already has the SX venue record), and, yeah man, he passed all his main competitors to take the win. He was great in the sand; he was letting the big dog eat. Afterwards, I was talking to Ian Harrison, KTM manager, and he couldn't stop smiling. It was like he won the Powerball or something. He told me they were looking at the throttle opening data on ET's bike and shaking their heads. He also told me that Tomac uses the same clutch all day long, which I would imagine would shock the Kawasaki and Yamaha guys.
We had John Tomac on the PulpMX Show (Eli doesn't answer my texts, ICYWW), and he mentioned that Eli really feels like he's connected to the ground with this bike and that, yeah, he does look small on it. He confirmed my thoughts that it seemed like Eli can throw this KTM around. John mentioned the gamble they took with getting on a steel frame after all those years on aluminum, but it's working. Four wins for ET and one point behind Hunter Lawrence speaks to that. Daytona wins and Eli Tomac go together like peanut butter and jelly.
About the only blemish was his trophy incident. Yeah, we all saw that, right? Look, I'm pretty sure it got on ESPN, so if you want to talk about the sport breaking out into the mainstream, well, thank you, Eli Tomac! At least after he cooled down, he was a good sport about it on social media. YIKES for the Monday morning meeting with Frank Kelleher (president of Daytona) and the trophy people, though.
Impressive that Hunter Lawrence put his best two laps together in his last two laps and was only 1.3 seconds back of ET at the finish. Like, it's Eli Tomac at Daytona, right? But if you're Lawrence, you let ET pass you to win, so maybe that's something to be bummed about. Anyway, Lawrence wasn't as good in the sand, IMO, as Eli, but everywhere else, he looked great.
Ken Roczen told me after the race that he's learning to appreciate these podiums these days. He won this race last year and, like last week, he led early on. Great bit of defense for the #94 out there until he succumbed to the two leaders. Still, he kept defending SX champ Cooper Webb behind him, and like he said, got on the box.
Cooper Webb's really good at Daytona. He's never won, but he's almost always on the box here. So, with that in mind, his last two races have to have him a bit bummed, right? Third and fourth place finishes and losing points to the leaders isn't what he's there for. As he told me on Friday press, anything other than a win isn't that great for him. He did close on Roczen late in the race, but for the most part, the top three guys gapped him, and he rode a lonely fourth.
So, with ET3 being down on Hunter and 19 points up on Cooper Webb and Ken Roczen, and a race win being 25 points, are we starting to see a breakaway here with the two riders? Traditionally, that's how these things happen. As the season marches on, one or two riders emerge as title threats, and we go on with a battle. I'd say we are not there yet, but we can certainly see it coming down the highway. Indy this weekend is huge for Webb and Roczen to stay in this thing; if #3 and #96 go 1-2 in some order for the third straight week, everyone else is gonna have some issues.
In the 250s, it was Seth Hammaker leading wire-to-wire to win his first of the year and atone for his so-so fourth last week. Sethro took a big digger in qualifying right on his shoulder. As he told us on the PulpMX Show, it was his other shoulder from the recently repaired one that he landed on, but he did land on a shoulder that was repaired at some point! He said he wanted to continue, but his bike was too banged up, so he was forced to ride off.
Sethro looked good out there and really rode pretty chill for a Daytona winner. With the track being the way it was, if you could nail the sand, then you were golden, and as Hammaker told us, he was really making sure he was getting on the downside of the big sand hump to get the drive he needed to stay straight. He said he didn't want to go for the big jump there like some others. Smooth and steady wins the race, Seth...
Cole Davies had to work his way up from the back like last week, although not as far. Some people were telling me that Daytona would be his weak point because he doesn't ride outdoors that well. I mean, sure, but the kid got on the box at Budds Creek (yeah, it was technically a moto win on paper but not really because of penalties to guys ahead of him), so anyone who can do that tells me motocross isn't really that weak, you know? Anyway, Davies is creative, he's fast, and he was using Daytona a little like his personal playground in getting up to second. I'm calling it now: Davies wins Indy TC this weekend!
Pierce Brown got third; he rode well, and I would say that Brown, not Davies, was more impressive at Daytona for what his expectations were. He keeps the red plate for another week with his podium.
Jo Shimoda was, by his and his team's own admission, getting a little tired at Daytona when he fell in the sand with just two laps to go. Hey, he's just back from a serious injury, and I thought last week was pretty great all in all. If Jo can get on the box this weekend, then build a bit more on the off week, we might have a new title favorite coming out of the break and into Birmingham.
Some other news and notes:
-Shout out to Evan Ferry for completing the main event! The Phoenix Honda rider, son of the '99 Summercross winner, has had a rough go of it since being a highly touted amateur rider. Injuries, heart issues, and other stuff have really stopped him from reaching his ceiling. Well, he finished his first main event of his career (he had made one other two years ago but crashed out) after a first-turn crash bent his bike up. He told me that he did want to pull in but also wanted to finish the damn thing. As most of you would know, I worked for his dad for a long time as a mechanic and was there when Evan was born. Now I had to go interview him because of the main event finish. Yes, I'm old.
-In the department of sneaky good to start the 250SX East season: Devin Simonson. Two top-tens, beating some good riders. His fitness seems to be better than ever also.
-Nate Thrasher needs to get better. Not sure what's going on with Nate; he went backwards in the main at Daytona, and that was after a so-so comeback from a fall at round one. Weird to see Nate this way, but with Thrasher, he could win all three mains this weekend in Indy!
-Joey Savatgy continues to impress with an eighth to fifth ride in the main event. The guys at Honda HRC Progressive gave him a factory transmission with longer first and second gears, and that's helped on the starts for sure. Savatgy's season has been impressive so far as he regularly beats factory riders. In talking to some HRC guys, it was not because Jett was hurt that they gave him the gears (get it?) but that the 2027 CRF450R is all-new, and so the older parts are free to be given away to worthy individuals.
-Dylan Ferrandis showed a lot more speed this weekend in qualifying sixth quickest. He was on the board a few times as well. I was texting with him, and he mentioned that he got a new part for the bike this week, and it was a lot better for him. Unfortunately, he crashed in the heat, sprained his thumb, and had to pull off in the main as it was too painful. Bummer for him; he was much better this weekend!
-Drew Adams can't get much of a break. Well, or he did get a break, I guess. Droopy qualified P1 on the day and was going to get a fourth in the main when he went down and broke his thumb! He can't seem to get his SX career going, that's for sure. But, as his team owner likes to say, "We can work with speed."
-I interviewed Garrett Marchbanks after the main after his career-best 450SX finish of seventh, expecting a happy G. And he was kind of, but also, he sort of ripped into the track and the track crew as well! It wasn't what I was expecting, that's for sure. Still, good for G and Kawasaki as they needed it. I'm sure you all heard the Chase Sexton news, and if you hadn't, it's not going well. Anyway, you can listen to Garrett HERE.
Thanks for reading; we're onto Indy and the TC! Email me at matthes@racerxonline.com to chat about this or anything else.
