2019 DAYTONA SUPERCROSS PREVIEW

This weekend the AMA Supercross series will visit Daytona International Speedway for the 10th round of the 2019 Monster Energy Supercross series. For the 12th consecutive year, the course will be designed by five-time Daytona winner Ricky Carmichael. Three-time AMA 125cc National Motocross Champion Mark Barnett is building the course.  “You’re just never sure how it will turn out in race situations,” Carmichael said, “but I’m excited to see what happens. When I’m scheming up things , you look at what worked in the past, what is challenging but most importantly, what is safe, so there’s a balance. Hey, it’s Daytona Supercross so there are a lot of fun things we can do.”

Here’s what goes into the track:

• 300 – Truckloads of dirt
• 6,600 – Tons of dirt
• 12 – Trucks used to transport the dirt into the Speedway
• 2 – Days to bring all of the dirt into the track
• 40 – Obstacles on the DAYTONA Supercross course
• 621 – Tuff Blox
• 3,100 – Length in feet of the Supercross course
• 900– Man-hours (approximate) to set up the DAYTONA Supercross course

Supercross has been running at Daytona annually since 1971. Gunnar Lindstrom won the inaugural race aboard a Husqvarna motorcycle. Last year, Justin Brayton became the oldest rider to win a Monster Energy AMA Supercross event with his victory in the 450SX class just four days before his 34th birthday. To date, 30 different riders have won at Daytona, with 5-time champion Ricky Carmichael leading all riders. Nine riders (Eli Tomac, Pierre Karsmakers, Darrell Schultz, Jeff Stanton, Mike Kiedrowski, Jeremy McGrath, Ryan Villopoto, Chad Reed and Carmichael) have won the event in back-to-back years, with just three riders (Stanton, Kiedrowski and Carmichael) collecting three consecutive wins. In fact, Stanton and Carmichael both won an unprecedented four-straight from 1989-92 and 2000-03, respectively.

THIS YEAR …

… has been one of the closest points battles in history. As we enter the second half of the season, Cooper Webb finally has a slight cushion. He should; he’s has been the most dominant rider this year, with five wins. Kenny Roczen and Marvin Musquin are 13 and 17 points back , respectively, but neither rider has won.  Here are the 450 class standings:

450 POINTS AFTER NINE ROUNDS
1  Cooper Webb 199 Five wins
2 Ken Roczen 186
3 Marvin Musquin 182
4 Eli Tomac  177 Two wins
5 Blake Baggett 142 One win
6 Dean Wilson 137
7 Chad Reed 124
8 Aaron Plessinger 122
9 Justin Barcia  120 One win
10 Justin Brayton  113

The 250 East riders will be back in action without those pesky western riders getting in the way, as they did last week. Austin Forkner is undefeated among eastern guys, even though he finished behind Adam Cianciarulo (West)  and Dylan Ferrandis (West) in the East/West Shootout at Atlanta last week.

250 EAST POINTS AFTER FOUR ROUNDS

1 Austin Forkner 99 THREE WINS
2 Justin Cooper 81
3 Chase Sexton 79
4 Jordon Smith 70
5 Alex Martin 60
6 Martin Davalos 58
7 Brandon Hartranft 54
8 Kyle Cunningham 51
9 Mitchell Oldenburg 50
10 Kyle Peters 46

COOPER WEBB MANIA

THE TRIALS OF KEN ROCZEN

A LAP OF THE TRACK

NBC Sports will carry the race live starting at 7:30 Eastern time. Here’s how the whole day will lay out: