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00:00to get that first win. Last year's winner Ken Rockson is fourth, Justin Cooper fifth in that
00:04wildcard spot, he's looked great all day, is Dylan Ferrandez.
00:14Talking of winners, is Mr. Seven time. And in recent years, we got to experience that special
00:21moment where he tied Ricky with five wins, then surpassed Ricky and then added another one to it.
00:28Didn't get to race here last year. So this is the opportunity to go to eight. It's going to be
00:36a
00:36special night. We'll see a lot of racing to happen between then and now. And unfortunately, the list
00:43of absentees continues to grow. Tonight, no Chase Sexton, no Jason Anderson. And it's yet another
00:50week, a second race weekend in a row. No Jorge Prado. Justin Barsha, by the way, was on property
00:56today. So great to see him back, but not yet back racing. And hopefully we'll see both Chase
01:03Sexton and Jason Anderson back next weekend in Indy. So fingers crossed. And of course,
01:07RJ Hampshire with that foot injury. So wishing all those guys on the sidelines a speedy recovery,
01:13and hopefully we'll see him back soon.
01:16How about the guy who can ride good at this race, racetrack is our last year's winner,
01:20Ken Roxton. Been solid all year long. I think this track, as it goes on, he's going to favor
01:26this guy. But coming back in, he's got to have a lot of confidence. Maybe he can get another
01:29one. Well, and you're exactly right, Chase, but he needs a bounce back. He had a rough...
01:39Here's an interesting story for you. Mike 676 is Robert Fitch out of Denver, Colorado. The 45-year-old
01:49racing here at the World Center of Racing. Pretty exciting night because his 15-year-old son
01:55is in SMX next. Yeah, looking good, too. That's... That's incredible. Think about that.
02:05Father-son combo on the same night. Here under the lights at Daytona. 4.50. Heat 1. Let's go!
02:13Good start. Eli Tomac on the inside. Somebody's down. Oh, look like a star bike, baby. Hopefully that's
02:22not the case. No, it was not. An incredible start by Eli Tomac. And able to break hard enough to
02:31still
02:31keep the lead and not fade to the outside. But again, no surprise. This guy is just absolutely
02:37lighting it up aboard that Red Bull KTM. But I like... Hey, don't sleep on Cooper either, man. He's been
02:43right there all season long. And these two veterans right here know what is on the line. And I'm sure
02:50all
02:50these guys want to win. Eli wants to get his eighth one, but there's probably no one that's more
02:55motivated than that number one Cooper.
03:04We have to get his first one, but also to do it in Eli's house. So far, Eli's starting to
03:09get away.
03:10Good to see the Cowboy Aaron Plessinger. And the rookie Jordan Smith. Yeah.
03:14This is Jordan's second race back. He had a full-on shoulder reconstruction in the offseason.
03:24Good run through the woods. Jordan's always been fast through the woods. But JT, give us something
03:29to hear about on Plessinger. Well, AP is certainly trying to repeat what he did last year because he
03:36had a really tough start to 25. Guess what? 2026 hasn't been much kinder. But he came in here and
03:42got a
03:42podium as he makes a move on Jordan Smith there. This is a track he's ridden well at. He qualified
03:47well earlier today. And I think the AP has a podium on his mind headed towards the main event.
03:51Look at the momentum of Ken Rockson, last year's winner here at Daytona.
03:57I want to go back to what I was talking about, Ken Rockson, before this race started. I think he
04:02needs
04:02a bounce-back race. Remember, we go back to Seattle. He had a collision with Hunter Lawrence,
04:07and he lost a lot of championship points there. Then last weekend, he hung on for a hard-fought fourth.
04:14But, man, he needs to, he at least needs to be on that podium to insert himself back into the
04:21championship.
04:21No, I agree with you. Oh!
04:23Oh, oh!
04:24Yeah, we saw in the background Dylan went down, and then we had another guy run into him. Dylan was
04:29trying to get his bike.
04:30He probably couldn't see it. Logan Leetzel on the 208, went into the back of Dylan Ferrandes.
04:38Yeah, tough break. But, yeah, I agree with you, Ricky. I think the history, and just for Ken, the builder,
04:42believe in himself that he has a chance to win this championship would be a huge night for him, points
04:47-wise and mentally.
04:49Meanwhile, back up front, Eli Tomac continues to lead Cooper Webb. And Eli had a small crash himself today at
05:00the,
05:00just finishing off the, whoops, James, you and I were watching it. His foot came off the pegs, and it's
05:05his teammate.
05:06Aaron Plessinger has problems in the sand.
05:08Oh, one of many. This sand section is really difficult, and now they worked on it. It's really soft.
05:14So, bummer for Aaron. I'm sure he just, probably a little wide, and just got stuck there.
05:18Well, and it's really hard coming out of a corner, going into that deep sand, because they basically have no
05:25speed.
05:25And that's just what happens. The back end lights up. He starts spinning.
05:29Then the weight transfers. He buries the front end and goes over.
05:33Very difficult right there, especially the sand hasn't dug down to the hard pack of this harder base.
05:40So, got to get some momentum coming out of that corner, get on top of the sand, and drive through.
05:45Yeah, Lee, as you were talking about, Eli, he had to tip over in the, in the whoops.
05:49And he was able to rebound. I mean, he, pretty fast, almost a second, almost a second faster than third
05:56place.
05:56But the problem was, was Hunter Lawrence is a half a second faster than him.
05:59But Eli just really threw those whoops. He's here to play tonight.
06:02Probably really motivated to try to stop this bleeding, I would say, with Hunter Lawrence and his confidence.
06:07Tell us more about Tomac, Will.
06:09Well, I'm going back to the very beginning of this heat race there and that incredible start.
06:14Because Eli Tomac started the entire season with strong starts.
06:18They've kind of faded away the last few rounds.
06:20They've been a bit sort of like hit and miss, if you like.
06:22But this was clearly a good one.
06:24And for a reason, he actually went to the GOFAR, the training facility.
06:30Oh, I'm sorry, the training facility there and did starts on Thursday.
06:35So he was in Florida, got there Wednesday, did starts on Thursday, which is fairly unusual.
06:40He's not usually there leading into the races.
06:42And they said, what we wanted out of it was consistency.
06:46So it was just starts, starts, starts.
06:47And they wanted to make sure that Eli, himself, they were prepared to help him with some of the mapping
06:51on the bike,
06:51was comfortable with making sure that he could do it repeatedly.
06:55Because they said, that's fine, you can do 20 starts on the start day and get five of them right.
06:58But we need to make sure every single one is right.
07:01So whatever he figured out, guys, on that Thursday, Thursday just kind of obviously helped.
07:05But here, we need now to see if he gets the consistency going in order to hit that for the
07:09main event.
07:11Yeah, I think it was at the Baker factory, I believe, doing some starts there.
07:15And a lot of the KTM riders ride and train.
07:19But, man, go back to that start.
07:20When you watch that replay, you guys at home can rewind.
07:23We don't have the luxury of that right here.
07:25But I don't believe Eli shifts to third gear.
07:28So he's able to just focus on his drive and his body position and drive forward.
07:33And by not shifting, that gave him the advantage.
07:38Dylan Ferrandes has been able to work his way up into the top nine in a transfer position ahead of
07:44Mitchell Harrison.
07:45He works his way through the whoops.
07:46Have a look at the Ducati rider here.
07:49Yeah, Dylan's been riding really good.
07:50He actually had some great lap times in practice.
07:53And I do feel like as this track breaks down, Dylan's going to be even better and better.
07:57But nice to see him back up, not injured, and makes his way to a transfer position.
08:02You talk about how well his lap times were in qualifying practice.
08:06And then the Rocky Mountain ATV MC Fantasy Picks wasn't showing him any love.
08:13Disrespecting his skills here at Daytona.
08:16See that rear fender.
08:17Yeah.
08:18He's messed up.
08:20I bumped into Paolo Cipati yesterday, who's the head of the Ducati off-road program.
08:24And he just said, look, we're bummed about Justin Barsha being away from the track, but we wish him a
08:30speedy recovery.
08:30He said, given this is our first season here at Monster NG AMA Supercross, we're delighted with what Dylan Ferrandes
08:37is doing and how the bike's performing so far.
08:39I mean, you've got to think of who they're racing against and just how long these race teams have been
08:44established and how long they've been in the business.
08:47I mean, yes, Ducati has been in the motorcycle business for a long time, but not at the SMX level.
08:53Man, Kenny's putting in some good laps.
08:55He was the fastest guy on the track last lap, James.
08:57Yeah, Kenny's looking good.
08:59I think maybe Eli Tomac getting away.
09:01Now Cooper doesn't have that rabbit to chase, so it's easy to kind of start looking back behind you.
09:06But that being said, Kenny is riding really good.
09:09Looking at the bottom, looks like Aaron was able to get back up.
09:13He's in the transfer position.
09:14We've got George Smith behind him.
09:16He's logging these laps, Ricky.
09:17Yeah.
09:19Well in position to make it to the main.
09:22Hate to see AP go down like that.
09:24Like JT was telling us, wants to get up there and run up front.
09:28And this style of track, I think, really he vibes with.
09:32Be able to ride a little loose, use those long legs as some leverage, ride to the back of the
09:37bike,
09:37and keep that front end light, especially the sand sections.
09:40That's what you want to do.
09:41The bike's 12, bottom box there ahead of Plessinger.
09:43Shane McElrath aboard the Quad Lock Honda.
09:45So good to see Shane nicely positioned in the top four.
09:49Plessinger's fifth.
09:50Jordan Smith and Ferrandez, Cole Thompson, and Freddie Norrin in a transfer position at the moment.
09:55Mitchell Harrison being pushed outside.
09:58I like the way that split lane is working out.
10:00But on the top of our screen, we saw how close Ken is as he closes up.
10:04Cooper was able to get away.
10:05So kind of back to my point, maybe he was kind of relaxing a little bit.
10:10Eli was a little farther away.
10:11But we still got a good battle for here, this top five.
10:14See if Aaron can get a run through the Wolves.
10:16Oh, great entry speed for Aaron.
10:18Gaines on the bike length or so on McElrath.
10:20McElrath going to guard there, go to the inside.
10:26Inside primarily faster right now.
10:29But again, it is going to get super rough in the main events.
10:32Those guys are going to have to pull an audible, probably go to the outside.
10:35And this is one of those racetracks.
10:38I thought he was going to make the move.
10:39Yeah, it looked like he was going to make the move, didn't it?
10:41Next team coming up, you'll see McElrath's teammate Joey Savacci.
10:44And Joey was really speedy in qualifying.
10:48We'll tell you more about that in just a moment.
10:50As these two battle it out for a top four in this heat.
10:53Oh, that's twice here.
10:54As Eli dominates this heat race over Cooper Webb and Ken Rockson.
10:59But yeah, Aaron's been trying to get around.
11:01He comes up short on that triple.
11:02Let's see.
11:03McElrath's going to have to make a decision, inside or out.
11:06You got options, you got options.
11:09Look at how tight it is here.
11:10Great move.
11:11Aaron Plessing and the crowd love that.
11:13Saw that one coming.
11:15Nice job.
11:16That was a good pass.
11:17And that's a good confidence boost for AP
11:19to come back from that little tip over
11:20and finish off the heat like that going into the main event.
11:24Top four result for the Red Bull KTM rider.
11:27And his teammate wins.
11:29Think about the career numbers.
11:30This guy's racking up.
11:3156 main event wins.
11:32That was his 52nd heat win.
11:35The story just keeps getting better and better.
11:38But Eli Tomac, we'll hear from ET3 when we come back.
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