Troy Dog
Man, I’m nervous.
Jett Lawrence is the first rider to three wins in the 450 class AND he extended his points lead in Daytona. The script wasn’t supposed to be written this way, right?
No, it wasn’t. In fact it was SUPPOSED to be Eli Tomac taking his record extending eighth career Daytona win. Especially after he went beast mode in Arlington and proclaimed on the podium that he was “Just warming up”.
Yet, it was Jett who has the upper hand on Tomac in all of their matchups this year. Jett is the one who passed Tomac in their Daytona heat and won. Jett is also the one who passed Tomac and the defending SX champion Chase Sexton early in the main event and pulled away to a ten second lead. The Daytona conditions were very rough and every lap was unpredictable. Jett did the quad and Eli didn’t (consistently).
At this point, I’m just hoping that this isn’t the sign of things to come for the remainder of what has been one of the most exciting supercross seasons in history. The rookie may have figured this out and we’re not even in the home stretch yet.
One thing that I’ll never do is count out the veterans, especially two all-timers like Cooper Webb and Tomac. Sexton, isn’t a veteran, but is still very much in this thing as well. All three of these riders are 450 champions that know how to play the long game. That’s not to say that Jett doesn’t, but this is his first time having the chance to learn what 17 rounds is all about.
Tomac’s bike was smoking for most of the main event. Tomac said on the podium that he didn’t notice it and in the press conference he addressed that he couldn’t feel any difference to his bike for how bad it was smoking. I was kind of banking on that being the reason that Jett was able to pull away. I think this week we just chalk it up to Jett doing that massive quad and Eli not being able to match that lap after lap.
These next couple of weekends are going to paint a better picture of the remainder of the season. We’ve got Birmingham, which will be a first time visit for everyone, and the always rough and rutted Indianapolis.
This was a massive win for Jett and I think he proved something to himself in Daytona. He’s thrown away a few wins this season, but he’s starting to figure this game out.
May the best man win.
Main Image: Octopi Media
