Daytona (SX)

All the Greats have won Daytona at least once but at the World Center of Racing, Eli Tomac tops them all with 7 wins in an 8 year span. In 11 total 450SX Daytona starts, Tomac’s worst finish was 4th (2013). His avg. finish is 1.5!

Unlike the blowout wins of the Ricky Carmichael era, Tomac had just one double digit margin (2017). Four were under four seconds, one just .7, indicating different race management styles.

Rick Ryan becomes the first ever true privateer to win a Supercross main event. An all-time mudder, team managers were reported as wanting to see this one get called off.

After a 3 hour delay (and scratched LCQs), starting gates fell and Ryan, riding with a tweaked left knee, won the main with a 12-second lead over Jeff Stanton. Title hopefuls Jeff Ward, Ricky Johnson and Ron Lechien all suffered misfortune on the first lap.

Ricky Carmichael is one of three riders to win four in a row at Daytona (Jeff Stanton/Eli Tomac) and each one of his five wins here was complete domination.

His first premier class win came at Daytona 2000, which he won by 22 seconds. Carmichael is the only rider to win Daytona on three different brands and the only rider with Daytona wins in the afternoon and evening after it switched to a night race in 2004.

Kevin Windham won what might have been the wettest dirt bike race held on land. The water on the start straight was so deep that riders threw off ski-boat-like wakes headed to the first corner.

Shortened to 12 laps, the main event became a test of who could keep his motorcycle running. Windham and Chad Reed swapped the lead early but Reed had a one minute lead on Windham when his Yamaha quit with just three turns to go.

In 1996, Jeremy McGrath won his first (of 3) at the Daytona Supercross. Also on this sunny March afternoon, McGrath became the first rider in SX history to win 7 SX races in a row. “I was pretty nervous before the race. I wanted to win this one bad and I had to go out and get it.”

Daytona 1996 had no previous winners on the line. Mike Kiedrowski (1993-1995) didn’t race in 1996 and Jeff Stanton (1989-1992) was retired. McGrath beat Damon Bradshaw and left with a 51 point lead.

James Stewart’s two Daytona wins (2007, 2012) were spectacular but his ability to find combinations on the track that other riders wouldn’t have dreamed of trying are remembered more.

In 2011 he figured out how to leap over a wall designed to slow riders and in 2012 he turned a similar obstacle into a sky shot. Stewart also suffered heartbreak here in violent crashes while leading (2006, 2011). A first turn crash in 2009 left him so stunned he tried to take off on Josh Hill’s bike.

If a personality fit with a track, Daytona and Jeff Stanton were bread and jam. So it’s no surprise that Stanton hit the podium 6 times in his 7 starts here, and won 4 consecutive main events (1989-1992).

In 1992, Stanton battled Damon Bradshaw for 13 laps before making a final pass and pulling away, preventing Bradshaw from winning a 6th race in row that season. And, remember, Stanton won the title by just three points that season.

The final round of the Winter-AMA Series, the first dirt bike race at Daytona International was a bit of a ‘loose program’. Practice started over an hour late, heats were cut down and the AMA needed to get the whole thing over with because they still had a 250cc road race to run that same day.

Gunnar Lindstrom won the 250 winner, Bryan Kenney won Open. Gary Bailey designed the course (and finished 3rd overall in 250cc).