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00:01Ready for the 250 East Division main event here at Daytona International Speedway.
00:08Fastest qualifier, Drew Adams, the Heat winners. That man there, Pierce Brown and Drew Adams.
00:15And look at that, final preparations before the gate drops. Both the West Division and the first
00:22round of the East Division. This year, 250 competition has been dominated by the Blue
00:27Crew. All Yamaha victories. Interestingly enough, Yamaha hasn't won in 250 competition
00:33here in Daytona in 10 years. All the way back to 2016. And Jeremy Martin, ready for 250 East
00:43here in Daytona. Main event, let's go! Inside, Seth Hamaker by 10. Hamaker with the whole shot.
00:51He slips right up the inside as the other guys fade out. And Joe Shimoda, second position
00:58right there behind Hamaker. This is going to be a battle. We talked about earlier those runs coming
01:04out of the gate. And Joe actually had this whole shot, I believe, but he hit one of those. Front
01:09end popped up. He had to pull in the clutch. Allowed Seth to get out front. This is what
01:12he needed, Ricky. We know he has the speed. Need that clean air right now. Oh, is that...
01:17Yeah, Pierce Brown trying to make a move on Adams early.
01:24Not wanting these guys in front to get too far out and gain that track position.
01:30It can be tough to make up time, especially here early. Yamaha may have dominated competition so
01:36far this year, but it's Kawasaki and Honda out in front before you pick up the first Yamaha.
01:41Seth Hamaker crash in qualifying and crashed in his heat as he fends off Joe Shimoda, the SMX 250 world
01:50champion.
01:51That line was great by Joe Shimoda. He actually gained position on Seth Hamaker by going to the inside and
02:00jumping through there. Whoa! Joe Shimoda almost tagged the rear wheel of Hamaker.
02:04And just what we talked about in the heat race, how aggressive Joe looks coming off this injury.
02:08Just getting better and better. Joe probably understands. He wants to get out front.
02:12Hopefully avoid what happened last week. And I think if he does, he has the pace to start clear out,
02:17but it's going to be tough. Yeah, he looks like a completely different rider than last week and on
02:22a gnarlier track. But I actually... Oh, look at this. That's Davies trying to get by Cody Shock.
02:29Now he's going to be on the inside here. He'll have the preferred line or the advantage. I like how
02:35Shock goes to the outside as it gets bottled up in there. Yes. Traffic jam of teammates up ahead.
02:40One, two, three. Cody Shock's going to break up that line of teammates as he forces his way ahead of
02:46Davies. Tucks in behind. Championship leader Pierce Brown. Highest place. Monster Energy star Yamaha
02:53rider is Nate Thrasher in fourth. That's what I talked about being patient. He slammed in that corner
02:58and lost that momentum. Otherwise, he might have had to pass. And yeah, he knows he has to get out,
03:03get around him because those leaders are starting to pull away as we see Drew Adamum got around Nate
03:08Thrasher for third place. It's hard not to take that bait when you see out of your peripheral
03:13the guy going a little bit faster than you or trying to make a pass.
03:20Oh, this guy's teammates battling for it.
03:25Seth Hamaka aboard his Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki top box leads the way. He was a championship
03:31contender last year. Finished just three points shy of Tom Bial to win the 250 East Division. But he won
03:39a
03:39couple of times. It was a great season for him. After multiple setbacks in his career,
03:45last year was a phenomenal year for Hamaka. This is Drew Adams, the youngster working on the SMX World
03:52Champion. Talking about confidence, he was able to get around Nate Thrasher and close in on Joe. So
03:59that heat race, just the confidence that he's getting, you've seen it on this racetrack. Joe makes that
04:04mistake. Holds up Drew a little bit and you can see his teammate out front pulling away.
04:09Looks like a lot of the riders, if they're kind of by their by themselves, they go to the inside
04:15first on the split lane. But if they're behind someone, they automatically go to the outside there
04:22on the first right-hander. So keep your eye there later on in this race. Looking at the 18-year
04:29-old
04:29New Zealander Cole Davies. Currently runs fifth. Chasing after his teammate. He's got a teammate
04:35behind as well. Good run by both those guys. I thought Cole might make up some time, but
04:42wasn't able to. Pierce got through his wolf just as grew. Yeah, he did. Great run for the both of
04:47them. And I was with you. I thought for sure Cole was going to make up some ground on his
04:51teammate,
04:52but he wasn't able. Pierce is still hitting on... Only one, actually, I've seen in both classes,
04:56still tripling into that sand section. He didn't get it as clean. Slowed him down, but
05:03he can get that right. We saw what he did in that heat race.
05:08Davies was frustrated last week after going down on the opening lap. But his comeback,
05:12as he's coming back on his teammate here, Pierce Brown, his comeback from the back of the field
05:17to a top five result last weekend in Arlington. That was something else as he passes the points leader.
05:22I'm guessing he revved up his bike right there to try to scare Pierce Brown
05:26out of the line. Perfect execution. Way to look ahead and predict that that inside
05:32was going to slow down and keep that momentum around the outside.
05:36Really heads up. I mean, that could have been even costly. He almost ran into Pierce,
05:40but like you said, that heads up Roddy he predicted and nice pass.
05:45Coming in on Drew Adams right in front of him. Yeah, he's not that far away, is he?
05:48There's Adams, top of your screen. Watch the run he gets through the whoops. So, I mean,
05:51Cole Davies for his stature. I mean, he is absolutely incredible through the whoops. He almost had,
05:58I'd say six tenth to seven tenth time gap on the whoops last week in Houston. That's an eternity in
06:04a regular Supercross race. See if he hits this triple. Oh, Drew Adams got hung up there a little bit.
06:13Here comes Pierce Brown on the inside. And Cole is definitely keeping his eyes up because
06:20he almost landed on Drew. If he would have jumped out, he would have landed on him. We saw Pierce
06:24get behind him, but still didn't lose too much time. Yeah, it'd be interesting. Remember,
06:28Cole made a pass on his teammate right here in this section coming up. Let's see if he does the
06:32same
06:32thing. He's going to try to do it. Using this outside to his advantage.
06:37Let's see that inside. Oh, made up time. There you go. I'm assuming he's probably going to go to
06:43opposite. See if he can make Drew nervous, maybe rush that corner. Oh, Cole messed it up. So he lost
06:49some time, but you'll see that gap close in. And he was able to show Drew Adams the front wheel.
06:55And so now that's in Adam's head. He'll know that Davies is close enough. And then now Dave,
07:01if you're Davies right here, James, you've been in this position a million times. He knows he's faster
07:05than these guys. So the urgency is there for sure. And you want to have it, but at the same
07:11time,
07:11you can kind of let the pass come to him when he has that kind of speed advantage.
07:15Yeah. And the way Cole is, and if I'm in this position, as long as
07:19Seth isn't pulling away from me, I'm okay with that. But he does that number 10 gets away.
07:24I'm gonna have to start making these passes, JT. Yeah, they're definitely trying to get forward
07:29here, but you know, it's another Drew Adams comedy. He's talking about this is his favorite
07:32racetrack. You see Cole Davis, like a huge mistake there. But you know, Drew Adams so good. Pierce Brown,
07:37taller guy, AP. Do you think that there's a distinct advantage here at Daytona to having
07:43a taller height? Do you think they can get more leverage? Is that why these guys talk about Daytona
07:48being their favorite track, do you think? That's, I mean, listen, that's a, that's a really good
07:54question. And I'd love to ask him that. I think that the long legs and a track like this JT
07:59can
08:00work for you, but against you also in, in, in some of these ruts, I've always been told that,
08:05listen, it ain't no secret. I'm, I'm a short man. So it, you know, ruts normally are better,
08:11especially in turn situations. So I think it's twofold. I really do. I love this place. Now it's short.
08:19So there you go. Worked out pretty well, didn't it? 722. We're at the halfway point on the clock
08:28in this second round of 250 East for 2026. You're looking at Cole Davies there. Quick reminder
08:34to stock up on Monster Energy drinks at 711. Really good form there through the whoops and
08:41it. Still a lot of racing left here, Will, with half the race left to go. Yeah, Ricky and James,
08:49we're just kind of wondering what you see in Cole Davies now compared to what we saw in qualifying
08:53earlier, because talking to him after those qualifying rounds, he was definitely not happy.
08:57He describes himself, he describes himself, excuse me, as, as overriding the bike. He did say he's not
09:02too worried about qualifying and he's a racer and that's main event time for him. But what do you see
09:07in him now? What did you see in him this morning? And we're talking about a kid with, you know,
09:11comparatively little experience in this pro class. He hit a spot on. That's what I thought. I thought
09:16maybe he was trying a little too hard. And with this racetrack, as this slows down, I think it's
09:22going to help Cole because he's a very technical rider. So as the day goes on, he'll get better.
09:26But he was just overriding the racetrack. To me, it seems like when he gets close, sometimes he gets a
09:30little excited. Obviously he wants to make that pass. Then he makes a mistake and loses that time. But
09:35clearly has the speed as he goes up the inside. Look at this. Side by side with Drew Adams,
09:39Cole Davies moves into third. That was a really nice pass. Goes to the opposite lane and he really
09:47executes that last corner, that left-hander coming out on the inside perfectly. He's kind of messed
09:54that corner up the last two laps, but man, did he get it right at the right time. Whoa, misses
09:59the inside.
10:00He's got a shot at Joe Shimoda now. Oh yeah, 100%. Watch this.
10:04He's got a shot at this wind. Yeah. Yeah. The way he's going, I mean, he was two seconds faster
10:09and drew and just what Will was talking about. He can just be smooth. He has the pace. And as
10:15you see
10:15these guys going, JT, I think he, he still can get this thing done. He's got a lot of pace
10:20right now.
10:20And it's, it's the whoops guys. Like he's riding the track really well. You can see how much smoother he
10:25is
10:25now. And he's kind of letting the race unfold where he was overriding earlier, as you mentioned.
10:29But the whoops last weekend, he had a clear advantage. The whoops again here this weekend,
10:34as the whoops are starting to deteriorate, he has such an edge on these guys. And I'm telling you
10:39right now, if Joe Shimoda does not pick up the pace, that is where he is going to continue making
10:43up time.
10:43Well, JT, I don't think you have time in scoring down there, but Cole Davies ran a 119-0 to
10:50Seth Hamaker's
10:52121-0, a sec, two seconds faster. That is huge. Look at that. Bottom left graphic showing you times.
11:01And this guy's flying. This is his first pro race here. Cole Davies raced here in SMX Next,
11:07where Drew Adams got the better of him a couple of years ago. But he is the man on the
11:12move. Watch him
11:13here. Beautiful. Yeah, very good. And he's making time up, clearly, in the whoops. But
11:20I actually think where he's making more time up is through the sand section in these corners. When
11:25he's really patient, he doesn't make too many mistakes. He makes one arc and he's able to get
11:29it. Same thing with the sand. If he gets it right, make sure he gets in there. He's able to
11:33carry that
11:34momentum. That's where he's making it up. Making a little bit of time here and there. It looks good.
11:38Just to go back to Will's point about qualifying and Cole Davies. James, we were watching at the
11:43end and he made his feelings known. He ripped his goggles off his helmet. You could see the look
11:47on his face. He was so mad at the end of qualifying where I think he was something like sixth.
11:53And just
11:54not satisfied with his performance. Well, he's got just under four minutes plus the lap to work on
11:59Shimoda. And he's got Joe right within his sights. And then Seth Hammock is only another two and a half
12:04seconds up the track. Getting in the lap first. Man, that was close. Did you see Joe almost lose
12:10it? It looked like going into that right hander. He initiated the turn and it pushed that front end
12:15push just a tad. That hard base on there with that sand on top. Good job saving him. But got
12:21to give
12:21a shout out to Seth. He picked up the pace. He ran a 120. So he was the fastest guy
12:26on that racetrack
12:27there. So he saw the number 37 Davies coming. You know, Ricky, this race could be won a loss in
12:33the
12:33next half a lap. Except that he can keep going. I go back to also, I mean, compared to when
12:39we were
12:40racing, James, it's like these younger guys are so good at maintaining like a two to three second
12:46lead. It's always hard to tell if they're giving it their all. Whereas you and I, when we were racing,
12:51we wanted to have a, you know, a 20 second lead at the end. So yeah, but Seth doing a
12:55great job,
12:56wicked it up there when he did and got that gap back to two and a half, three seconds.
13:01And there's some lappers going on also. Yeah, Seth didn't get through that sand section and
13:06look at that gap. He closed down quite a bit. Just to remind you what happened to this man who
13:12leads
13:12the race and is just two and a half minutes plus a lap away from a victory, which would be
13:17his best
13:17ever result here at Daytona. This is what happened to Hamaker earlier today. It wasn't pretty.
13:23for the guy who almost won this title last year. Check this out.
13:27Uh, yeah. When you get right there, that is, that is so scary when you go sideways like that,
13:32but glad to see that he was okay. And remember, he has shoulder surgery in the off season.
13:38Not sure why, but his teammate Drew Adams just pulled off the track and has left this race.
13:44That's a shame for the teenager who was running so well. He was in the top three at one point
13:48in time.
13:50Tell us more about Seth, Will.
13:53I was talking to Ricky Lee before racing got started today and we were kind of reflecting
13:57on Seth's performance last weekend. Sort of Ricky's opinion and not to put words in your mouth,
14:03Ricky, that they just wasn't quite what we were expecting out of him. He missed the podium there
14:06with the four. Well, I asked him about that today and he said, honestly, I just, I took what the
14:12track
14:12gave me that night. We know how bad the conditions were last weekend in Arlington and
14:17something's happened on track guys. Oh, Joe Shimoda's down well.
14:22Oh man, look at it. You can almost see his line right here. Not sure what happened. He was
14:29probably feeling the pressure from Davies. Davies was all over him. A lot of times,
14:34if you don't get that momentum here, let's see what happens. Joe gets there, probably buries that front
14:39in, kind of hit that pothole right there and then yeah, there is it. There you go. It looked like
14:43he
14:43tried to turn out early a little bit and get a straighter shot down that straightaway and just,
14:48yep, buries the front. And at the moment that has cost him a podium spot because Pierce Brown,
14:54not only Cole Davies, but Pierce Brown went by as well. Oh, brutal for Joe. I mean, consider what we,
15:01this guy's only been on a bike a couple of weeks. I'm sure he's not going to be happy, but
15:06both these
15:07weekends are wins for Joe. It's just how good he's been around. He's had a chance. I mean,
15:11yeah, you're talking about a guy that wasn't even sure he was going to race last weekend.
15:15And the reason why folks is after he won the 250 SMX world championship, he went back home to Japan
15:21to a hero's welcome. It was an amazing period in his life. He returned to the US and had a
15:28practice
15:28crash, had a training crash and broke his neck. Had successful surgery, but it was a long rehab
15:34period as you can imagine. And this is still part of the comeback story. Last week, finished second
15:39in awkward, somewhat controversial circumstances with that confusion with the red flashing light.
15:46And Pierce Brown jumped past him and went on to the win and infuriated Honda, the team,
15:51the executives, Lars Lindstrom, the team manager and the rider especially. Now, unfortunately here,
15:59dropping it in the sand at the end of this 250 East Main Event. Yeah, you heard Lee right. This
16:05guy broke
16:06his neck and he's out here doing his job. So still a battle right here. Cody Shock, Nate Thrasher.
16:18Looks like maybe Daxton Bennett. Yeah, Bennett's in front of him. Right there. Rod fifth position.
16:27A rod by this guy. Yeah. And one of the toughest racetracks. He can hold on. This would be a
16:32great
16:32victory. But we highlighted that crash. He is one of the toughest guys out here. And it's not as
16:37surprising that on one of the toughest racetracks of the year, you see Seth Handmaker out here.
16:42Well, go back to like what Will said. I mean, I love what she had to say. And you know,
16:48Seth just taking what the track gave him. But this is like the kind of ride that I was kind
16:52of
16:52expecting from him just to be up contending for the win. And we never really saw much like this.
16:58Look at that. This is huge. The cheers on for the 23 year old from Bainbridge, Pennsylvania.
17:06Fourth career victory on the line. And he'll be the first Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki
17:12rider to win here in five years since Cameron McAdoo won back in 21. This is huge.
17:18I just think about ever since last year, he invested in himself, made the change. He's been a completely
17:25different rider. You think I've closely almost won the championship. Think about how any race victory
17:30is special. But as the two of you know all too well, to win at the World Center of Racing,
17:37under the lights, here in Daytona, this is a special time. Seth Handmaker wins Daytona.
17:46And Kawasaki breaks the Yamaha stranglehold on this year's 250 competition.
17:53Mitch Payton, well done. So happy for that guy, Mitch. You ain't joking.
18:11That's a fan experience. I was about to say that. You think when they purchased them tickets,
18:15they were going to get this. That's why you need to come to Supercross. That's what you get here.
18:18Awesome. Congrats, Seth.
18:22That's so special. First one in the season. First one at Daytona.
18:30Is that a .02? And Lee, you asked, I mean, what makes Daytona so special?
18:34It's that right there and what you're able to do and how you can celebrate here.
18:39I'm not good at that.
18:40I'm not good at that.
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