Features 9 May 2013

Rewind: Jay Marmont's 2005 Las Vegas SX performance

MotoOnline.com.au takes a look back at Jay Marmont's 2005 Las Vegas Supercross performance in this edition of Rewind.

The 2013 Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM World Championship, wrapped up over the weekend in Las Vegas with Red Bull KTM’s Ken Roczen and GEICO Honda’s Wil Hahn clinching titles in their respective West and East regional championships.

For this edition of MotoOnline.com.au’s Rewind, we caught up with Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jay Marmont to take a look back at his performance at that very same event, the 2005 Davey Coombs Sr. East/West 250SX Shootout inside Sam Boyd Stadium.

Marmont took his Red Bull KTM to the early lead, scoring the Butterfinger holeshot award before a shock malfunction saw him fade back to a seventh place finish after holding a top three spot for much of the race.

“2005 was a pretty good year for me,” said Marmont. “I started off not the best in the championship, but I came on strong as the end – usual style for me. I just edged out Brett Metcalfe in the championship for fifth.

“I went into the shootout feeling fairly comfortable and confident. I remember qualifying pretty easy, and then in the final I had a bet going with Ryan [Marmont] and Troy Carroll. If I won the Butterfinger holeshot I’d put the $1000 on the bar, well that’s the bet they tried making with me [laughs].

“It was pretty funny, I remember sitting on the line thinking that it would be funny if I holeshot this race. And it happened. I came around, it was a split start and I went over the line in first and got the Butterfinger holeshot.

“I felt really good in the race, there was a crash mid-race so they kept having the yellow flag out and I remember it being single file for a majority of the race.”

Having not faced such high temperatures during the Supercross season, Marmont’s shock issue came out of nowhere and took him out of podium contention.

“I was running right behind Grant Langston in third and I was just sitting there pacing off him for the majority of the race,” he added. “In Vegas the track is really hard-pack and it was a pretty hot night, I remember my shock just totally went off and faded out.

“I had never really had that problem in Supercross because it didn’t really get hot over there. So it just faded out and in the whoops it was just kicking me, I was almost going rolling speed through the whoops and I faded back to seventh.

“So that was a bit of bummer, because I feel that it would have been one of my best podium results ever. It was a bummer that I got seventh, but it was definitely a memorable night.”

Jay Marmont put together a solid ride for the Red Bull KTM in 2005.

Jay Marmont spent two years riding for Red Bull KTM in the US, 2005 and 2006.

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