This weekend the 2021 Monster Energy Supercross Series heads to the most famous race venue in the world. Daytona International Speedway is the place where over the years dreams have been made but also broken. Whether it’s in NASCAR, Superbike, or Supercross, Daytona has produced some of the most unpredictable race results in racing. With so much uncertainty surrounding the race action at Daytona, the one thing that has remained consistent is that you don’t win the Daytona SX by accident. It is the toughest race of the SX Series and to win the main event or even finish well, a rider must dig deep and leave everything on the track.
So what makes the Daytona SX so difficult? Well, the first thing that I would say is just the fact that you’re racing inside the most famous speedway on the planet. From the moment you go through the tunnel and into the Daytona infield you feel like your somewhere special. All of the sport’s greats have raced there and it’s one of the few race venues where you can get caught looking around too much. The second thing is the difficulty of the Daytona track. It’s a track that starts off smooth and pristine and then gets more challenging with each lap. A rider could find a smooth line on one lap, and then come around on the next lap and that line has changed. The track is forever changing through practice, qualifying, and with each lap during the night show. Even in the main events, the track changes drastically from the opening lap to the final lap. Because of this, the riders who find success are the ones who are not just fit but can quickly adapt to the ever-changing track beneath them. With the dark sandy soil as the base and the unpredictable Florida clay that make up the jumps, you never quite feel completely connected with the track at any point during the day.
So with the ever-changing track and soil, obviously this causes the riders to fatigue faster so being successful at Daytona demands the highest level of fitness. It’s no coincidence that Eli Tomac has won four main events in the past six years. Tomac is a beast and he doesn’t mind suffering during a race. He’s also a rider that doesn’t always need to have the perfect flow on a track to keep moving forward, Cooper Webb is the same. On the flip side, a rider like Ken Roczen needs to have a certain amount of smooth flow to feel comfortable. Last year we saw Roczen break out to an early lead in the main event only to succumb to Tomac’s advances as the track got rougher and rougher. As I said, on the Daytona track you can sometimes put a section or even a full lap together perfectly, only to come around the next time and completely screw things up. In the past, this has messed with Roczen’s head and his lap times begin to suffer. However, this year we’re seeing a more relaxed Ken Roczen so it will be interesting to see if can ignore those bad laps and win to win his first-ever Daytona SX main event.
As Canadian riders go. Over the years, the Daytona SX has been good to a few of our riders and when it comes to the Supercross Series, this race has given Canadian pros their best results. In the 1980’s it was Ross Pederson who secured Canada’s best results in the premier class with a sixth-place finish in 1986, and then he backed that up with a ninth the following year. In the then 125SX class, Carl Vaillancourt finished inside the Top 10 in 1987 and again in 1989. JSR finished in 11th in 1995 and Darcy Lange rode solid to finish sixth in 2007 after the class became the 250SX class. Because this race puts such a premium on fitness and mental strength, our above-mentioned Canadian riders, as well as numerous others have always enjoyed the Daytona SX.
With Saturday’s forecast calling for a mixture of rain and sun, who knows right now what the conditions will be like? Like everyone, I hope it’s not muddy as a messy Daytona SX is never fun to either ride or watch. This is an important round of the Series in both classes as the points are tight. If I had to make a prediction here it goes. Now assuming the conditions are dry, my picks are Justin Cooper in the 250SX West class. Cooper will excel on the challenging Daytona track. In the 450SX class, it would be hard to bet against Eli Tomac as he always seems to raise the level of his game at Daytona. Whatever happens, the Daytona SX is always fun to watch as it’s just such a suffer-fest.