The 2012 Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship series, went to Daytona Beach, Florida for round number ten of the Supercross Class Championship and round number four of the Eastern Regional Lites series. Daytona is always the toughest, most physically demanding race of the year, but this year was even tougher due to Daytona Beach getting blasted by Mother Nature. All day Saturday, the rain pounded the Ricky Carmichael designed circuit, leaving the riders to negotiate a rutted out, water soaked mess.
In the Supercross Class, it was the Joe Gibbs Yamaha’s of James Stewart and Davi Millsaps on the top two steps of the box, while in the Lites race, the fans were treated to a great race with GEICO Powersports/Honda’s Justin Barcia and Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Blake Baggett taking the top two spots. Check out the lap time comparison graphs below to see how the top five got it done at the 2012 Daytona Mudercross.
On the left of each graph, you will notice the lap times and the numbers on the bottom signifying each lap. Below that, we have the top five riders in the order they finished and each lap time from the Main Event after their name. Also, note that each rider’s fastest lap is shaded in blue.
Click on graphs to enlarge and view as slideshow.
As you can see by the graph, the lap time battle, and the race for the win, was all about Justin Barcia and Blake Baggett, with the main story being Baggett’s big mistake and subsequent 99-second lap on lap six. Both Barcia and Baggett were on another level in Daytona with their fast laps being 4-5 seconds faster than anyone else’s, but it was Barcia’s ability to keep it on two wheels that won him the 2012 Daytona Supercross. Baggett finished second, but his lap time of 1:27.345 was the fastest lap of the night from both classes.
In the Supercross Class, it was never really in doubt who the man was in Daytona. James Stewart looked on a mission, and once around his teammate Davi Millsaps in the Main Event, he easily ran away with his second win of the year. You can see by the graph just when his disappearing act began; it was lap three when he made the pass and ran his fastest lap. For the next seven laps, James put an average of 2.5 seconds a lap on the field and, by lap ten, was seventeen seconds ahead. While Millsaps finished the Main Event in second, it was the third and fourth place riders–GEICO Powersports/Honda’s Kevin Windham and Red Bull/KTM’s Marvin Musquin–with the second and third fastest times. In fact, K’dub was just 3/100’s of a second off of JS7’s fast lap. It would have been nice to see what might have happened if K’dub was not stuck behind Millsaps eating roost for ten laps.
In the past few weeks, the Lites versus Supercross comparison graphs have been lopsided towards the Supercross Class, but with the Lites riders going out on the sloppy circuit first, that all flip flopped. If we go by average lap for the first ten laps, Justin Barcia and Blake Baggett would finish twenty five seconds in front of James Stewart. looking at the graph definitely shows how much worse the track had to have been after the Lites riders tore it up for twelve laps.
