Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/956070
VOL. 55 ISSUE 11 MARCH 20, 2018 P147 tri-oval, the magic of Daytona becomes even more recogniz- able. We just witnessed Justin Brayton taking down the Daytona Supercross to score his first- ever supercross win, but as it turns out, that's not really what's unusual about it. The unusual thing about Brayton's win is that he's a supercross-specialist, and the Daytona Supercross has always been a much more outdoor-motocross-style track than the tracks on which today's supercross specialists usually thrive. There have been a lot of first-time and only-time winners at the Daytona Supercross in the past, but they're usually moto- cross-specialists. The most notable first-time winner at Daytona was Ricky Carmichael. After struggling through his rookie 250cc (today's 450cc) series in 1999, he finally pulled down his first supercross win at Daytona in 2000. It was his only win of 2000, but he ended up win- ning the Daytona Supercross four times in a row from 2000 to 2003. He sat out 2004 with a knee injury (Chad Reed won that year), and then in yet another remarkable supercross, Reed and Carmichael had one of the greatest battles in the history of supercross in 2005, both in their last seasons of racing two-strokes. Reed actually won that battle after Carmichael got over his head and crashed in the final laps trying to keep up. Carmichael won his final Day- tona Supercross in 2006 and holds the current record with five total wins. Motocross champ Mike Kied- rowski won his first supercross at Daytona in 1993, then ended up winning it the next two years, as well. Kiedrowski only had five 250cc (today's 450cc) super- cross wins in his entire career, and three of them came at Day- tona from 1993 to 1995. He was the "MX Kied" rather than the "SX Kied" for a reason. Travis Pastrana's first 125cc SX win came at Daytona in 2000. That same year he won the 125cc National MX Champi- onship, as well as the Motocross of Nations. Another Suzuki fac- tory racer, Todd Dehoop, won his first 125cc SX at Daytona in 1988 as well. Honda's Jeff Stanton had only won one supercross prior to win- ning Daytona for the first time in 1989, and it was in the previous race in Atlanta. The Gatorback MX National was held on the weekend between the Atlanta and Daytona Supercrosses, and it was at that event that 250cc SX points leader (and Stanton's teammate) Ricky Johnson suf- fered the wrist injury that eventu- ally ended his career. Stanton went on to win four Daytona Su- percrosses in a row from 1989 to 1992, which is a consecutive record matched only by Carmi- chael's run from 2000 to 2003. And then there are the guys who won their only supercross at Daytona: Local Florida racer Monte McCoy won his only supercross in the 500cc class at Daytona in 1976. You probably haven't heard of him, but he's in good company. San Jose, California-native Rick Ryan won the event in the mud in 1987, and he's still the only true privateer ever to win a 250cc (today's 450cc) super- cross. Rex Staten's only 250cc SX win came at Daytona in 1980. And then there's the Big Two: Roger DeCoster won his only supercross, in the 500cc class in 1974 at Daytona, and that same day Pierre Karsmakers also won his only supercross, but in the 250cc class. But if you look through this list, the only supercross-special- ist to have won their first su- percross at Daytona was Justin Brayton just last week. Add to that the fact that he has been racing supercross for a decade now, and the win also gave him the record for being the oldest racer ever to win a supercross (at one week short of 34 years of age), and perhaps you can understand how remarkable his performance truly was. I can't wait to see what hap- pens next year at Daytona. CN