Slaw
The streak is over!
Entering the second round of the 250SX East Division on Saturday, the powerhouse Monster Energy/Yamaha Star Racing squad had won 7 of the first 7 250SX rounds of Monster Energy Supercross. While some called this (me) that streak ended at the iconic Daytona Supercross when Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Seth Hammaker ran away to his first win of 2026.
Things are tight atop the East Division after two rounds as Hammaker trails Pierce Brown by just two points as the series heads to Indy this weekend.
Hammaker talked about how much winning at Daytona meant to him, his big crash in qualifying and more.
We know that you’ve told the media you love this place. Has it sank in winning in Daytona tonight? Is it as you had pictured it?
Seth Hammaker: Yeah, so far it is. I feel like just a dream come true to win here at Daytona. Obviously, any win is cool, but to do it here is super special. On a tough racetrack like this, it feels good to get it done and early in the season as well.
You kind of made it a little bit harder on yourself with the qualification crash. Did that set you back at all?
Maybe for the heat race a little bit. Because actually when I crashed in qualifying, I wanted to get back up and do a few laps just to shake that one off, but my bike was just too bent up to do so. Then that wait in between qualifying and the night show, it felt extra long tonight. I just wanted to get out there and put that behind me, but it’s always tough to bounce back from that. I think that’s what makes this win so much more special to overcome that, put it behind you, and just focus on what you need to and execute when it matters the most, and I was able to do that tonight in the main event. So, yeah, this one feels just really good.
As with Cole, you came into the season as one of the favorites to dominate this. You were Ricky Carmichael’s pick to win the race. You also didn’t get to show your speed last week because of that early incident. How important was this race to reestablish?
Yeah, it was definitely important to get the ball rolling. Fourth last weekend wasn’t the end of the world, but it’s not ideal. But it’s always nice to get through the first race. Then this week just went back to work and worked on things that I was needing to be better at. I didn’t really ride the best last weekend in the main, but I feel like I showed up here more fired up and ready to get this season going, and got it off onto the right start here at Daytona feels good.
Seth, we know that some racers, when they have so many family and friends at an event where it almost feels like a home race, which you did this weekend, some guys will say it really fuels them. Others will say that it can be kind of a distraction. So how was it for you? How did it lend itself to your racing tonight, if at all?
Yeah, it’s always nice to have the support from the fans and family and friends coming that you don’t get to see very often. It’s tough because you want to spend time with them, but at the same time, you’re here to focus and do your job. Sometimes throughout the day, I like to find time to sit down and talk with them. But come the night show and leading into that, it’s a time to just get your game face on and block out the distractions, I guess. I always enjoy having them here, for sure.
It was just yesterday that Ricky Carmichael said that you were going to win the race. I don’t know if it was a premonition, but here you are winning the race. How important was the start? Because picking a line, there was huge holes right after, and then those ruts were about 30 feet long. How important was that for you to try to get out front early?
Yeah, it was super important. That was one of the main things that I was thinking about heading up to that main event. I knew a good gate pick was going to be crucial, but honestly, there was not really one good gate out there. Everybody had to overcome that, the big hole right in front of the gate. So just tried giving it a little bit extra off the grate to make sure I boosted over that hole a little bit more so I didn’t get as caught up in that. I executed that perfectly and got the shift and charged into that first corner, so tried to stay out of the chaos. But this race, I don’t know, any race it’s nice to get a holeshot, right? But this one to get clear track and to ride your lines is super, super nice.
You had a great start tonight. Obviously, that was an advantage right from the beginning. You didn’t have to battle with anybody and were able to build an interval pretty quickly. Can you do that three times in a row next weekend?
Yeah, I think so. Just need to put yourself in a good position from qualifying to get good gate picks, and Triple Crown’s even that much more important to get holeshots. You have three races that count. I think with execution, when it counts, I can pull a holeshot. Hopefully, I can get three of them next weekend.
Can you walk us through the back part of the track where there was the big double, then you triple, and that inside, that rut got basically to your handlebars? Were you trying to cover your line going to the inside there, or did that just end up being the fastest line?
I think we talked about taking that outside before the main event, but I think that was really only if I was going to be behind somebody just to switch up a line because they were pretty even in speed and time-wise. So I was kind of going into start in the deep part, and then I would hop out of it to go to the outside to miss the rut coming out through that single just to stay out of the deep stuff. But that 3-5-3 after the double, it was really hard to see that face, too. The shadow was like really, really bad there for some reason. Some ruts would send you flat, some ruts would send you high so you’d over-jump it or case it. So it’s tricky track.
Photos: octopi.media
