Daytona Beach Supercross
Daytona Beach, Florida - March 7, 2020
Monday, March 2nd – I spent most of the day at El Chupacabra ranch doing track maintenance. Daytona is an outdoorish/ hybrid Supercross track so it’s best to ride the motocross track to get used to hitting bumps and riding in the sand with a Supercross setup (suspension, gearing, etc.) The track was rain rutted and a bit overgrown but a few hours of work really brought it back to life. I used the D3 dozer and tracked all the clay hills, corners, jumps, and straightaways. It’s a real joy running the equipment and doing track maintenance. Moving and sculpting dirt is just plain fun and pure awesomeness when we get to ride it. Furthermore, it’s a good feeling helping operations at The Ranch.
Tuesday, March 3rd – Whoooweee, outdoors! Stretching out, opening up the throttle, hitting bumps at high speed, carry momentum was a breath of fresh air! Supercross is ultimately my favorite discipline but after spending months making super intense precise movements, it’s nice to get back to the grassroots of building speed and flowing.
Wednesday, March 4th - Bike work consumed the day. This week, in particular, we are prepping two bikes. I’m striving to have Friday as stress-free and low-key as possible so it leaves me two days to prep two bikes. The race bike needs to be prepped for Saturday, and the practice bike needs to be prepped for a professional video shoot Monday. Sunday, we are doing our gender reveal so I don’t want to have too much bike work to do then.
Thursday, March 5th – Getting prepared for the weekend’s race at Daytona International Speedway by finishing bike work, washing the rig and van, loading up, laundry, and dishes are tasks to be completed. It always takes longer than I think for all these things. Brooke has been gone all week. She flew back to Maine from Atlanta early Sunday morning for a work meeting this week and will be arriving in Tampa around 6:30 pm tonight. With her is brother Alex aka Zanderman, and mother Diane who will be staying with us for a few days. I loaded everything up, hooked up the van, and drove down to pick them up. I found a Walmart about five miles away that they were able to uber over and meet me so I didn’t have to unhook the van from the rig. I called the airport to see if I would fit in the arriving terminal and that was a big no. The height limit is 11’ and we are 12’9”. We would’ve pulled into Daytona without a roof! I had a little mishap while entering the parking lot and had to drive over a curb. Luckily nothing was damaged but it’s these types of little scenarios that traumatize Mya. Ironically the Walmart is right down the road from Raymond James Stadium as we were able to see it while walking to Chipotle for dinner. We took the two-and-a-half-hour drive to Daytona and parked in the staging area.
Friday, March 6th – One of the coolest experiences is driving the rig into the speedway and across the actual speedway racetrack. Indeed, it is “The World Center of Racing” as it sends chills up and down my body upon entering. You (or at least I) can feel the rich history of racing here. On task to knock out ride away after parking is the ticketing. For Daytona, we are allowed to purchase as many guests pass as we wish too since it’s bleacher-style seating and not a designated seat like in the stadiums. We always have a large crowd and this year we purchased 24 tickets. It doesn’t sound like much but it’s small groups and organizing who has to pay etc. is a job but we are happy to be able to do it and have family and friends come. After that, we set up our garage. I can’t say enough about how cool of an experience it is at Daytona. It’s filled with little wows like having our team name on top of the pit garage. That’s always a cool moment seeing it and looking up to the speedway in the background. It’s an easy setup with just tables, an EZ UP, and bike out on display. We ate well, did a live video, and went to bed early.
Race Day – The day we prepare and wait for all week. Today Brooke is shooting for a commercial so we have two cameras following us around all day which was cool.
Qualifying practice – The track is much more motocross than supercross this year. Although the technical jumps and rhythms aren’t there, it doesn’t make it less challenging. Rather than bigger, steeper, and slower obstacles like Supercross, it was more mellow and one side didn’t have much except for rollers with square edges in the pockets. It was tough in a different way. Having a Supercross setup on this type of track wasn’t ideal but you needed the stiffness and hold up for a few of the obstacles that were there so who knows what the right thing was to do. I ran my Supercross setting just softened up and actually became more comfortable as the day and night progressed but that’s typical for me.
The night show – Got off to a good start and had a solid ride for 13th in my heat. I was making passes and felt strong throughout. It’s always a different game when the gate drops as opposed to qualifying practice. In the LCQ I knew I could get it done with a good start. I was a little nervous having Martin Davalos on the right side of me (my outside). If he had gotten a much better jump than me he would come over and shut me down which would bury me in the pack. I focused hard on executing my best start. The gate dropped and I did just that getting around the first two turns in third. I battled for the transfer position all race and came just short of the main event. I made a mistake in the deep rut coming out of the tight left-hand corner into the rhythm and lost my drive going through the sand. Unfortunately, there were no more passing opportunities but we were in the fight. It burns inside but at the end of the day, I need to be a little better. It’s on me and that’s what I love about this sport. If I wasn’t going to make it in, this is how I would want it to be so we look at the positives and focus our energy on getting better moving forward.
Sunday – We are having a BOY!!! We have a champion in the making, haaa jk.
Thanks for tuning in!
-Ronnie
Follow Ronnie and the team on social to keep current, and subscribe to their new YouTube channel to see the vlog videos (and other short films) first!
The following photos were taken by Rob Koy of @robkoyphoto.
Check out our Daytona Supercross vlog video below!
(For the best quality watch in 1080 HD - click on the gear icon to change the quality setting)
Check out the video below to see how the guys from the Dunlop Motorcycle Tires change and prep the tires. They're the best for a reason!
(For the best quality watch in 1080 HD - click on the gear icon to change the quality setting)
Ronnie Stewart Racing Powered by Yuasa Battery is proud to have support from the following amazing companies.
Yuasa Battery Inc., ISC Racers Tape, FXR Racing, Decal Works, Hellbound Racing, Food for Life Baking Company, Liberty Elevator Corp., 50 Yardline Sports Bar, Engine Ice, Factory Connection, Dunlop Motorcycle Tires, Bill's Pipes, Sunstar Sprockets, Acerbis, Spectro Oil, Hinson Clutch Components, 6D Helmets, Worldwide Bearings, Asterisk Braces, MotoStuff, Motion Pro, Wossner, Boyesen, Works Connection, DT1 Filters, Thundercross Associates.
Yuasa Battery, Inc. has been manufacturing powersports batteries in the US since 1979. Yuasa Battery Inc. is the leading manufacturer and distributor of batteries for motorcycles, ATVs (all-terrain vehicles), UTVs (side-by-side), snowmobiles, personal watercraft, and scooters.
The Chronicles are a series of events brought to you with the raw, imperfect, but utterly true behind-the-scenes work and lifestyle of the Ronnie Stewart Racing crew, and what it takes to go racing at the professional level as a privateer team. We hope you will continue to join us on this journey and we thank you all for your unconditional support!
#rstewcrew proud!