Our good friend, Eric Johnson sat down with Garrett Marchbanks and talked about his move to the 450 machine and what he expects from the 2026 AMA season. Third in the 2025 AMA Pro Motocross Championship as well as fifth in the 2025 Monster Energy 250SX West Championship, Garrett Marchbanks has amassed 28 starts as a 450cc racer during his young professional career.

As a member of the Muc-Off/FXR/Club MX Yamaha outfit from 2021 through 2024, the Coalville, Utah competitor gleaned significant experience and knowledge upon the 450cc race bike and all of that will now certainly come into play as Marchbanks is the new member of the Monster Energy Kawasaki racing organization. Finishing in the top seven in 10 of the 28 450cc races he has completed in previously, Marchbanks will line up on the Monster Energy Kawasaki KX450 full-time starting next year.

New to the Kawasaki KX450, the motorcycle has been a clean sheet of for the 24-year-old.

“Yeah, it’s cool,” said Marchbanks. “I’m riding a whole new bike. It’s obviously the same bike, but a different team and it’s been great so far. I love it.”

With word first breaking that Marchbanks had scored the Kawasaki ride in mid-October, the announcement sparked interest amongst the global SuperMotocross fan base.

“Obviously there was a lot of rumours from the start of outdoors to the end of it,” explained Marchbanks of how it all came together. “The rumours kind of died out after SMX, but I’d say two and a half weeks after SMX, I got the call for the Kawasaki deal. I thought about it for a couple days, but I was definitely pumped with the offer afterwards and I decided to do it. I’m definitely pumped with it. I wouldn’t say it was something that caught me off-guard, but it was something that I didn’t really think they were going to offer me.

“I didn’t know the offer was going to take me immediately into supercross, but when they finally called me and asked me for the deal, which was kind of what they told me. They told me I’d jump right into supercross for 2026 and then go into outdoors. It was definitely something that I had to think about because of how good of a season I had on the Lites bike, but after we talked about it and I talked to some more people, it was definitely the right move for me to make.”

Marchbanks reflected on his 450cc supercross experience from the 2022 and 2023 racing seasons.

“The first year I raced 450 was definitely tough," he said. "There was a learning curve for me. The second year around when I raced the 450, it was a lot better. We had a better bike and a better program at the time. I definitely had some great races. I got a moto podium on the 450 and also had some other top five finishes. I definitely liked it. I definitely enjoyed the 450, especially when I went and raced SMX on it. I had some good rides on it. I always knew that I was a pretty solid 450 rider on a privateer bike. I knew that if I ever had a chance at a factory 450, that I would definitely be better. I’m looking forward to it and I’m super-excited to be on this bike and this team.”

Marchbanks is enthusiastic about the change, informing fans and media the world over that the opportunity is a “dream come true” for him.

“Ever since I was a kid, the dream was always to be a factory rider on the Lites bike and then some day move up to the 450 and be on a factory team," he said. "Obviously since I was 10 years old, I was a Team Green rider, and I always wanted to move up. For a time, I switched over to the Yamahas, but to come back and be on a Pro Circuit bike again was a dream itself. Then to turn around and get an offer to ride for the Factory Kawasaki 450 team was a dream come true. To get the offer for my second year back with the team is definitely awesome and I’m definitely blessed for it.

“There is definitely some pressure, but for me it’s just putting the work in and putting a lot of time both on and off the bike. I just want to stay consistent with it. I mean, things happen in a long series like that, and for me it is just being a consistent top 10 guy and build every race and put myself in good positions up to the midway point and towards the end of the supercross season. I want to slowly just keep building with it. That’s all you can really do your first year in the 450 class. You need to just keep learning – especially my first year in the supercross series.

“For me, the first couple of weeks, I’ll just be learning the timing on supercross. I’ll be learning the chassis and how it feels in the whoops and learning the gearing. It’s just little stuff like that. It’s obviously a different style of riding.It’s just little things for me. I feel like already on week number two I’m starting to click with it and get better every day, and it has been super good. Obviously, I’ve raced the 450 guys in the past, and it seems lie they aren’t as aggressive as the guys in the Lites class, so they have a little bit more respect for each other. I also think it’ll be better racing for me in that class.”

Marchbanks has struggled with his race starts throughout his professional career, and it’s a variable both he and the Monster Energy Kawasaki racing team have been working at dialling-in for the drop of the gate in 2026.

“We’ve already started on it," he said. "Every day we have been doing a bunch of starts and getting stuff dialled in. This week we worked on quite a few things on starts and figured some things out, and it is definitely helping. Every time that I’ve hopped on the 450, my starts have improved and gotten better than the Lites bike. I think it will definitely be a lot better with my starts on the 450 than they are on the Lites bike.”

And of his goals upon entering the 450cc fray with Monster Energy Kawasaki come the 2026 championship season?

“I think for me it is just to be top 10,” he said. “It’s a new class and a new level of speed and guys to race against. Obviously, there is a lot of great guys in that class. I want to be around that top 10 area and slowly just want to be building every weekend. For me, I’d like to be top 10 by the midway point of the year and towards the end of it I want to start creeping into the top five and just put myself in good positions and get some good starts and hopefully battle for podium finishes and top fives towards the end of it.”

Bring on Angel Stadium, a sold-out crowd of 45,000 fans and the curtain raising round of the 2026 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship.

“It’s awesome,” said Marchbanks of what’s ahead of him come the month of January. “I am definitely pumped for it. I didn’t quite see it coming, but at the same time, I also kind of did. I’m just super excited for it. The team has been great. Everything has been amazing so far. It has been awesome. For me, I’ve never really had too much of an issue with this change. I think for me just being a bigger guy on the Lites bike, certain supercross obstacles were pretty difficult for me.

"Now, having a lot more power underneath me is going to help me quite a bit. I always feel like I was kind of a technical guy on certain tracks. I think for me, I ride the 450 a lot better. I’m a lot more technical on it than the Lites bike. I think this will be a lot better and easier on me than the Lites bike in the past. I know those 450 guys are fast. I’ve raced them quite a bit – especially in the outdoors. I’ve always battled with those guys and put myself in good positions before.

"Supercross will definitely be a new challenge for me. The first couple of rounds are going to be a little difficult, but once I get in the groove with things and start figuring it out, I think it will come to me a little easier. I think it will be fun and a good learning curve for me. And I’ll be teamed with Chase Sexton. I actually haven’t met him yet, but I’ll be meeting him here soon in the next couple weeks, so I’m pretty excited and looking forward to that. I’ll get to ride with him and learn some things off of him. I’m pretty excited for that.”