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00:00it's incredible think about that father-son combo on the same night here
00:04under the lights at Daytona 450 heat one let's go
00:10good start Eli Tomac on the inside somebody's down
00:16look like a star bike baby hopefully that's not the case not it was not an
00:22incredible start by Eli Tomac and able to break hard enough to still keep the
00:29lead and not fade to the outside but again no surprise this guy is just
00:34absolutely lighting it up aboard that Red Bull KTM but I like hey don't sleep
00:38on Cooper either man he's been right there all season long and these two
00:43veterans right here know what is on the line and I'm sure all these guys want to
00:48win Eli wants to get his eighth one but there's probably no one that's more
00:52motivated than that number one Cooper Webb to get his first one but also to do it
00:56in Eli's house so far Eli's starting to get away good to see the Cowboy Aaron
01:01Plessinger and the rookie Jordan Smith yeah this is Jordan's second race back he
01:07had a full-on shoulder reconstruction in the offseason good run through the
01:15woods Jordan's always been fast through the woods but JT give us something to
01:19uh hereabouts on Plessinger well AP is certainly trying to repeat what he did
01:24last year because he had a really tough start to 25 guess what 2026 hasn't been
01:29much kinder but he came in here and got a podium as he makes a move on Jordan
01:33Smith there this is a track he's written well at he qualified well earlier today and
01:38I think the AP has a podium on his mind headed towards the main event look at the
01:41momentum of Ken Rocks and last year's winner here at Daytona I want to go back to
01:47what I was talking about Ken Rockson before this race started I think he
01:52needs a bounce-back race remember we go back to Seattle he had a collision with
01:56Hunter Lawrence and he lost a lot of championship points there then last
02:00weekend he hung on first hard-fought fourth but man he needs to he at least
02:06needs to be on that podium to insert himself back into the championship I agree
02:11with you oh oh yeah we saw in the background Dylan went down and then we
02:18had another guy run into him Dylan was trying to get his bike he probably
02:20couldn't see that's Logan leads along the 208 went into the back of Dylan
02:26Frandes yeah tough break but yeah I agree with you Ricky I think the history and
02:31just for Ken the builder believe in himself that he has a chance to win this
02:35championship would be a huge night for him points wise and mentally meanwhile back up
02:40front Eli Tomac continues to lead Cooper when and Eli had a small crash himself
02:49today at the just finishing off the whoops James you and I were watching it his foot
02:54came off the pegs it is his teammate Aaron Plessinger has problems in the sand one of
02:59many this sand section is really difficult and now they worked on it it's really soft so
03:04a bummer for Aaron I'm sure he just probably a little wide and just got stuck there well
03:08well and it's really hard coming out of a corner going into that deep sand because
03:13they basically have no speed and that's just what happens the back end lights up he
03:18starts spinning then the weight transfers he buries the front end and goes over very
03:23difficult right there especially the sand yeah Lee as you were talking about Eli he
03:28had a tip over in the whoops and he was able to rebound I mean he pretty fast
03:34almost a second almost a second faster than third place but the problem was was Hunter Lawrence is
03:39the half a second faster than him but Eli just really threw those whoops he's here to play tonight
03:43probably really motivated to try to stop this bleeding I would say with Hunter Lawrence and
03:47his confidence tell us more about Tomac will well I'm going back to the very beginning of this heat
03:53race there and that incredible start because Eli Tomac started the entire season with strong starts
03:59they've kind of faded away the last few rounds they've been a bit sort of like hit and miss if
04:03you like but this was a clearly a good one and for a reason he actually went to the goat
04:09farm the
04:09training facility um oh sorry sorry the training facility there and did starts on Thursday so he was in
04:17Florida got there Wednesday did starts on Thursday which is fairly unusual he's not usually there leading
04:22into the races and they said what we wanted out of it was consistency so it was just start start
04:28starts and they wanted to make sure that he like himself and were prepared to help him with some of
04:32the mapping on the bike was comfortable with making sure that he could do it repeatedly because they
04:36said that's fine you can do 20 starts on the start day get five of them right but we need
04:40to make
04:40sure every single one is right so whatever he figured out guys on that Thursday the Thursday just
04:45kind of obviously helped him here we need now to see if he gets the consistency going in order to
04:50hit
04:50that for the main event yeah I think it was at the Baker factory I believe doing some starts there
04:56and
04:56a lot of the KTM riders ride and train but man go back to that start when you watch that
05:02replay you
05:03guys at home can rewind we don't have the luxury of that right here but I don't believe Eli shifts
05:08to
05:09third gear so he's able to just focus on his drive and his body position and drive forward and by
05:15not shifting that gave him the advantage Dylan Ferrandes has been able to work his way up into
05:23the top nine and a transfer position ahead of Mitchell Harrison he works his way through the
05:27whoops have a look at the Ducati rider here yeah Dylan's been riding really good we're actually had
05:32some great laptops in practice and I do feel like as this track breaks down Dylan's gonna be even better
05:38and better but nice to see him back up not injured and makes his way a transfer position you talk
05:44about
05:44how well his lap times were in qualifying practice and then the Rocky Mountain ATV MC fantasy picks
05:52wasn't showing him any love disrespecting his skills here at Daytona see that rear fender yeah is messed up
06:01I bumped into Paolo Cipati yesterday who's the head of the Ducati off-road program and he just said look
06:07we're bummed about Justin Varsha being away from the track but we wish him a speedy recovery he said
06:12given this is our first season here at Monster NG AMA Supercross we're delighted with what Dylan
06:18Ferrandes is doing and how the bike's performing so far I mean you got to think of who they're racing
06:22against and just how long these race teams have been established and how long they've been in the
06:27business I mean yes Ducati has been in the motorcycle business for a long time but not at the SMX
06:33level
06:34and he's putting in some good laps he was the fastest guy on the track last lap yeah Kenny's
06:39looking good I think maybe Eli Tomac getting away now Cooper doesn't have that rabbit to chase so it's
06:45easy to kind of start looking back behind you but that being said Kenny is riding really good
06:50looking at the bottom looks like Aaron was able to get back up he's in the transfer position we got
06:55George Smith behind him he's logging these laps Ricky yeah well with position to make it to the
07:02main hate to see AP go down like that like JT was telling us wants to get up there run
07:09up front and
07:09this style of track I think really he vibes with able to ride a little loose use those long legs
07:16as
07:16some leverage right in the back of the bike keep that front end light especially the sand sections
07:21that's what you want to do the bike 12 bottom box they're ahead of Plessinger Shane
07:25Mackler at the board the quad lock Honda so good to see Shane nicely positioned in the top four
07:30blessing his fifth Jordan Smith and Ferrandez Cole Thompson and Freddie Norrin in a transfer position at
07:36the moment Mitchell Harris being pushed outside like the way that split lane is working out but
07:41on the top of our screen we saw how close Ken is as he closes up Cooper was able to
07:46get away so
07:47kind of back to my point maybe he was kind of relaxing a little bit Eli was a little farther
07:52away but
07:52still got a good battle for here it's top five see if Aaron get a run through the whoops great
07:57entry
07:58speed for Aaron games on the bike length or so on Macklerath Macklerath gonna guard there go to the
08:04inside inside primarily faster right now but again it is going to get super up in the main events and
08:13those guys gonna have to pull an audible probably go to the outside and this is one of those racetracks
08:19I thought he's gonna make the move yeah it looked like he was gonna make the move didn't that next
08:23team coming up you'll see Macklerath's teammate Joey Savace and Joey was really speedy in qualifying
08:29we'll tell you more about that in just a moment as these two battle it out for a top four
08:33in this heat
08:34oh that's twice here as Eli dominates this heat race over Cooper Webb and Ken Rockson but
08:40yeah Aaron's been trying to get around he comes up short on that triple let's see
08:44Matt Ross gonna have to make a decision inside or out you got options you got options look outside
08:50it is here great move Aaron blessing in the crowd love that saw that one coming nice job and that's
08:58a
08:58good confidence boost for AP to come back from that little tip over and finish off the heat like that
09:03going into the main event top four result for the Red Bull KTM rider and his teammate wins think about
09:10the
09:10career numbers this guy's racking up 56 main event wins that was his 52nd heat win the story just
09:17keeps getting better and better but Eli Tomac will
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