2020 Daytona Supercross 250 Class Race Report

Garrett Marchbanks had an outstanding night at the Daytona Supercross, which hosted the fourth round of the Eastern Regional 250SX Class Championship. The Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki rider began the evening by claiming his first heat race win and followed that up with the first holeshot of his professional career in the main event. The 18-year-old then went on to lead all 14 laps of the feature race to take his first career main event victory.

“Today was unbelievable!” Marchbanks exclaimed. “I don’t even know what happened to me in that heat race, but I wanted that win, so I kept charging. I took advantage of the good starts; I even got my first holeshot of my professional career and really just used that confidence from the heat race to set the tone in the main event. We’ve been working so hard and I can’t thank the team enough for everything they do to help me get up here on the podium. This win is for them.”

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Chase Sexton extended his point lead with his runner-up finish at the iconic Daytona venue. The Geico Honda rider put on a late-race charge to try to challenge Marchbanks for the lead, but was unable to close in enough to make a pass attempt.

“Daytona is done and over with!” Sexton said. “I didn’t really feel like myself on the bike all day, but I did feel better for the night show. Second place on the night, which is good for how I felt. Back to work this week!”

Geico Honda’s Jeremy Martin rounded the first corner in seventh place aboard his CRF250R. The Minnesota native went to work and made a number of calculated passes to work his way up to third by the race’s end.

RJ Hampshire charged his way into third place on the opening lap and held the position until the closing laps of the race before he was passed by Martin for the final podium spot. The Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing rider sits fourth in the championship standings—just one point up on Marchbanks.

“Obviously I would have liked to finish on the podium, but all in all, I’m pretty happy with how tonight went,” Hampshire said. “While I was running third, I dabbed my leg in a corner and it gave me a stinger on my knee, which kind of caused me to mess up the rhythm a couple of laps and [Jeremy] Martin was able to get around me. With the track being as high-speed as it was, I made the decision to be smart and take fourth so I could move on to Indy and get better results.”

Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha’s Shane McElrath began his evening by winning his heat race by 10.8 seconds over runner-up finisher Jordon Smith. In the main event, the two riders came together in the sand section, which left both of them on the ground. McElrath remounted his YZ250F and worked his way up to fifth by the time the checkered flag flew.

“I felt great all day and had a great night going!” McElrath said. “I got together with another rider early on and we both ended up going down. I was pushing hard to come back and catch the lead group and then I ended up going down again. I’m happy with my riding, just sometimes things don’t go your way. We will be back!”

Smith, on the other hand, was unable to rejoin the race after the collision with McElrath, and he was taken off the track by the Alpinestars Mobile Medical team.

“I was feeling good and riding aggressive all day,” Smith said. “We showed some progress last weekend and I was even more confident after my heat race. I’m frustrated because I actually got off to a great start to the main, but I made a costly mistake and wasn’t able to continue as I twisted my knee and couldn’t get back out there. I hope to get checked out and back out on the track soon after further evaluation.”