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00:00Something that went down earlier today with this man here, Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki rider Seth Hamaker.
00:06A little uncharacteristic. What did you make of it, fellas?
00:09Yeah, high-speed section coming in here. You can see the bike starts swapping and a hard hit.
00:14We've seen him take some hits over the years. I'm sure it was good to see him get up.
00:18Ricky, that's the fastest part of Ricky.
00:19Wow, look at the impact that the bike took as well as himself.
00:23And I just hope it wasn't on that shoulder that he is coming back from.
00:27And the thing that really, really strikes me, it was a hard impact and stop, sudden stop.
00:34This guy right here, man, I mean, very similar to Pierce Brown.
00:39I mean, you think about the injuries, a gnarly neck injury.
00:42Could have been way worse to come back to what he did and how he did.
00:46Pretty impressive, man.
00:47Really impressive. You can tell in his riding, he's a lot more comfortable.
00:50But one challenge here at Daytona, these runs right here.
00:53That's why it's really important for these guys to get a good finish in this heat race
00:57so they can pick their own line because he's only going to get deeper, Lee.
01:01Other than humor, right, you don't see a lot of emotion out of Joe Shimoda.
01:05But he was frustrated last week after that confusion with the light and the whole thing
01:10and then being overtaken by Pierce Brown.
01:12And he was quite outspoken for Joe. He was quite outspoken.
01:16Well, I mean, for good reason, too.
01:17I mean, think about it. I mean, he had a pretty healthy lead.
01:20Yeah.
01:21And it was at a pivotal moment of the race.
01:23You have these breaking points, like maybe one more lap,
01:25and he could have probably ridden it off to the checkered flag.
01:28So maybe there was some frustration from that point of view.
01:34How about the teenager, Drew Adams?
01:36Yeah.
01:36There he is right there.
01:37He was the fastest qualifier today.
01:39So let's see if he can convert that into a heat win
01:42and put himself in a really good position
01:44going into the second 250 East Division main of the season.
01:52Ready to go.
01:54Heat 2, 250 East here in Daytona.
01:58Who gets the jump? Shimoda pretty good.
02:03Oh, looks like Dax Bennett on the Husk of Honor out here.
02:09Great start.
02:09Finishing on the podium last weekend.
02:12Going to have it.
02:15Look at this.
02:17On the inside, Drew Adams.
02:19Great work.
02:20Yeah, good to see that.
02:22And for him, being your fastest qualifier,
02:24this is exactly how you want to start tonight.
02:27This kid has had some speed.
02:28He got injured last year, so we haven't seen him that much.
02:30But Drew Adams is here to play.
02:33I love it.
02:33And he's coming up for that next program, okay?
02:36And this is a kid that came up with Cole Davies.
02:40He's seen the success that Cole Davies has had.
02:42And that probably doesn't sit well.
02:44And he's probably thinking, man, I could be that guy as well.
02:47And he has absolutely ride the wheels off this thing
02:50here in qualifying practice.
02:52And right now in this heat, you can see that determination
02:55that he had early to get into that lead.
02:57Here comes Joe Shimoda, third bike in shot.
03:00Honda HRC Pilot tries to switch back to the low side on Daxton Benick.
03:03Now through the warps.
03:04Look at Joe go.
03:05That's still a good run by Joe.
03:07That was a grown man pass right there.
03:09I didn't think he had to run in there because Daxton made a mistake.
03:13But Joe was still able to get back.
03:14And now Seth Hamaker is in that third position.
03:17He is too, James.
03:18So we're going to keep eye on him.
03:19But I'm just noticing something from Joe.
03:21And I don't know if you see it.
03:23I'd like to know if you do, James.
03:25But Joe looks like he has way more intensity and charge in him than he had last week.
03:32I 100% agree.
03:33Even though they wasn't fastest in practice between him and Pierce Brown,
03:37you could tell coming back from those injuries,
03:39how they look last weekend to this weekend,
03:41it was definitely a huge difference.
03:43So Joe is here.
03:45He said every time that I'm back on the bike, it's getting easier.
03:49I will.
03:49He said I have to build my cardio back.
03:51That's probably the toughest part about it.
03:53But each and every time I get back on the bike, it's better and better.
03:58And Lee, it's not just him physically that's getting better and better too.
04:02It's a setup with a bike.
04:03Because what we have to remember is he only had five or six days
04:06on that Supercross setup there before he went racing.
04:09And that meant a lack of testing.
04:11Normally, you would have had an entire off-season.
04:13And we also have to remember that last year,
04:15that bike was a new bike to them.
04:17So they don't have that data at the beginning of the Supercross season 2025
04:20to look back on because so much development has happened since then.
04:24So talking to the crew, they said,
04:26we're looking more at SMX setup as far as the playoffs go
04:29when we have his base.
04:31And actually, they said that kind of helps
04:33because we're talking about a track that has those high speeds in it.
04:36So they were expecting to perhaps hit the mark here
04:38with the bike this weekend.
04:39It looks like they have.
04:40Yeah, Joe's looking really good.
04:42He said, get that split lane.
04:44Whoa, look at this!
04:44It's a mistake.
04:46Here we go.
04:47It's going to be a game of chicken at high speed.
04:49Let's see if Drew starts closing them off,
04:50which he does a good job.
04:52Keeping Joe.
04:53He moved over on him a little bit from the right-hand side.
04:57Shimoda took a shot on the inside.
04:58Man, I'm telling you right now, Joe is a completely different rider.
05:04Just the attitude on his bike and the aggression that he has.
05:08He looks like he's riding the motorcycle,
05:10whereas last week, understandably, he was a little more chill.
05:14Not as much body English and just kind of putting in subtle laps.
05:18Man, he's here with authority tonight.
05:20But you can see how much time he lost.
05:22He made a mistake.
05:23Now he has to regroup and go after Drew.
05:26And that's the hard part about Daytona because, I mean,
05:28that's just a normal corner.
05:29But things catch you out.
05:30When they do, you lose a lot of time.
05:33JT, we've spoken to the Honda cam.
05:36And as you well know,
05:37they were pretty fired up after last week's confusion.
05:40Yeah, they were.
05:41And you really can't blame them.
05:42They just, you know,
05:43they feel like they've cut the short end of the stick a few times on this deal.
05:47Go back to the Jeff Lawrence penalty over the years.
05:50Go back to Ironman, St. Louis.
05:51It just feels like, and a lot of it's just circumstantial,
05:54they have really not caught a break with the penalties
05:57and the red cross flags.
05:58Jet hits the gate.
05:59And then Joe Shimoda trying to do the right thing
06:02and loses out because of it.
06:04So, yes, you can understand the frustration.
06:06I think in the end, cooler heads will prevail.
06:08It has been a really tough go for the boys in red.
06:11As Hanukkah's got some momentum now on the inside of Joe Shimoda.
06:15Check this out.
06:16It's going to be a Kawasaki 1-2.
06:19Oh, great work from Shimoda.
06:20Switches back side-by-side through the air.
06:23Awesome drone shots.
06:24Oh, what a pass right there.
06:26Joe kind of slams into that face, hit the brakes too hard.
06:29Lost all his momentum.
06:30Came up just a tad short.
06:32And on these 250s, that's all it takes.
06:34And Seth was able to get around him to see if he can make his way towards his teammate.
06:38And you talk about that pass, James.
06:40As simple as a section as that wall jump seems, you can actually make up a lot of time.
06:45And that was a perfect display of how you do that by Seth Hamaker.
06:49You know, you talk about these riders and how you've got to put the pass behind you.
06:53That's the same section that Seth went down.
06:55Now he makes that pass on Joe Shimoda.
06:57So it shows you how you kind of forget the pass and keep moving forward.
07:00And that's what he's doing, Will.
07:01James, I was just thinking about that.
07:03Watching, obviously, the footage of the crash there leading into this heat race when we were watching it.
07:08I did get to ask Seth earlier how he was feeling.
07:11And he said physically he's fine because we were obviously worried about that shoulder.
07:14Like you said, that previous injury.
07:16He said, no, physically I'm fine.
07:17The bike was just kind of bent up.
07:18The bars were bent.
07:19So he was unable to continue in that qualifying session.
07:21Oh, and that's great to hear.
07:22There's Mitch Payton there on the bottom of your screen.
07:26Owner, that Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki team.
07:30Household name.
07:31A ton of success.
07:33Respected by all.
07:35Man, great to see Seth.
07:36He's another guy.
07:37You heard me talking about how well Joe Shimoda is riding.
07:40I feel like same for Seth Hamaker.
07:44I mean, he just got a little more pep in his step than what I saw last week.
07:47And I'm just, from that impact that he took earlier today, it's great to see how well he's rebounded from
07:54that.
07:54Yeah, Seth is one of the toughest riders out here.
07:57And I heard a little story that we didn't ask how Seth was doing.
08:00We had to go ask the ground, are you okay?
08:03Because we knew Seth is tough.
08:04And when he hits the ground, it's good.
08:06But he's starting to close in on his teammate Drew Adams.
08:08And for both of these guys, I think it would be a good heat race, huge confidence booster, especially for
08:13Seth.
08:14Going down, he knows he's okay.
08:15And then obviously with Drew, if he can hold this thing off, get his first ever heat race win.
08:20And it's an impressive start for Drew Adams.
08:23And the reason that I say that, he is a, you know, he's a bigger kid, you know, from a
08:30tall stature.
08:31He's a little bit heavier.
08:32And that makes it difficult and harder to get good starts because there's obviously a heavier float on the machine.
08:39So he got a great start.
08:41He's able to do that.
08:42I truly believe that he can ride up.
08:44Whoa, whoa, whoa.
08:46Oh, he goes off track.
08:47He almost lost it.
08:48He almost went off the back of that thing.
08:50And here comes his teammate Seth Hamaker.
08:52Yeah, the bike didn't like you talking about.
08:54It might be down a horsepower.
08:55He might loop it out.
08:56A little wake-up call right there.
08:58But still, he's pretty good.
08:59If he can get through this next section, he should be able to hold off.
09:03Oh, it's going to be fun to see this split lane here.
09:06I like how Seth went to the outside of that rut.
09:10Did you pick that up?
09:10The reason he's doing that is because you can actually carry more speed.
09:14Don't get bogged down in that deep rut.
09:16How do you like the way the track's racing?
09:18How do you like the way that your concept in the reality is working?
09:21Yeah, so far, so good, man.
09:23Love to see it.
09:24Multiple lines.
09:25Great first heat win.
09:27And Hamaker's gone down in the background.
09:29Shimoda goes by.
09:30You heard the roar of the crowd.
09:32That was why.
09:32They were surprised that Hamaker dropped it.
09:34That's his second crash of the day.
09:37His younger teammate, the 17-year-old Drew Adams,
09:40gets his first ever heat win.
09:42I'm assuming he'd probably try running in there a little bit quicker,
09:46getting the sense of maybe he can get by his teammate.
09:49Just slide his own out.
09:50Oh, yeah, he does.
09:52It's almost like the inside of the rut.
09:54James kind of grabbed his side knobbies of his tire and pulled him down.
10:00Look at that.
10:01Yeah.
10:02It's been lots of firsts.
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