It’s been an up and down Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship season for first-year Monster Energy Kawasaki racer Garrett Marchbanks. Despite 28 previous starts in the 450SX classification with the Muc-Off/FXR/ClubMX Yamaha team, Marchbanks did not make the show at Anaheim 1 and then was absent from the San Diego round due to a harsh mid-week practice crash.

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Marchbanks was well outside the top 10 at Anaheim 2, Houston, Glendale, Seattle and Arlington before scoring a seventh-place finish at Daytona. Fourteenth at Indianapolis and 10th at Birmingham, Marchbanks will next go to the starting gate with the Kawasaki KX450SR this Saturday evening at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan.

“I just finished riding a little bit ago and just got home about an hour ago and just finished up a bike ride,” said Marchbanks from Canyon Lake, California on Thursday. “it’s been a pretty interesting season, I’d say. I’ve had quite a few ups and downs, but it seems like we’re starting to get a little bit of consistency in now. The bike is starting to feel really good. Last week, I had never been to Birmingham. Same with Detroit. I’m pretty excited to go there and see what the track is like. Things are starting to turn in a good direction and I’m starting to feel really good.”

On the plus side, Marchbanks has scored top 10 finishes at Daytona, and at last Saturday’s round in Birmingham, Alabama.

“I’m super-pumped with the top 10s,” said Marchbanks. “Sadly, I wish we had a couple more. Just due to some crashes we missed out. I’m feeling really good. I was super-pumped with last weekend. It seems like we’re taking the steps in the right direction. Now just to finish the supercross season off, I just want to be consistently in the top 10.”

Marchbanks is pleased to now have some positive momentum behind him.

“With the start of the season I had, I felt like it was a little bit of bad luck," he said. "I didn’t expect it to start off like that. Anaheim 1 was rough, for sure, and then there was the practice crash where I got knocked out. Definitely the first quarter of the season was a rough start for me.

"I’ve never raced the class when it’s this stacked. When I raced the outdoors, the field was kind of thinned out a little bit. This year I just feel like supercross was always new to me on the 450. I never raced supercross on a 450, besides at Daytona four years ago. I think it was just learning the bike and trying to get things dialled in. Also, it was just getting the hang of the pace of these guys. They’re all really quick this year. There was a little bit of a struggle and a learning curve the first six rounds, but after that I feel like now I’m starting to get the hang of it pretty well.

"It’s so competitive. They’ll run it on you a little bit, but they’re all pretty dang clean with it. They’re not too aggressive. With the pace of the 450 class, not a lot of guys fall off of the pace. Everyone is pretty solid and in good shape. When I raced the Lites class, I knew I could pick away at some guys towards the end of the race when they’d start getting tired. In the 450 class, it’s pretty tough to do that. For me, it is just learning the pace and not using too much energy in the beginning of the races and just staying consistent the whole way through.

"It’s definitely tough. Everyone is on it. Everyone is really dang fast, so starts this year are definitely very important. The starts are something that I have been struggling with a little bit. If I didn’t have to waste so much energy in the first half of the race, it would definitely help me out.”

A relative newcomer to the 450SX division, Marchbanks has embraced the learning process.

“I feel like we’re always learning every weekend,” he said. “Some of the tracks I haven’t been to. I’m just getting a feel for the tracks and what the bike is going to do. It has definitely been learning. Especially with the team. Being with a new group of guys, we’ve been learning on what I like and what I don’t like on the chassis at each round. Yeah, it has been a big learning curve, but it seems like now we’re starting to get the hang off it. As a team, we’re learning what I like and don’t like on the bike on the weekend. It’s all helping out a lot.

“And the team is awesome,” continued Marchbanks. ‘There are a lot of great guys, and everyone is super supportive. I’ve just had a lot of fun with it and with all the guys there. It seems like we are constantly testing and trying new things day in and day out, and I feel like that’s been super helpful, especially with Broc Tickle testing all the time and finding new things to make the bike better. It has been great. We’ve been testing quite a bit, and it is nice to know that everyone has been trying.”

And with team rider Chase Sexton out of action due to injury, Marchbanks has been holding it all down for the Monster Energy Kawasaki race team.

“I’ve been holding it down a little bit,” he said. “The last three rounds I have been solo. Yeah, it’s been good so far. It’s nice to have everyone there and everyone believe in me. It’s been really fun so far.”

With seven rounds still remaining in the 2026 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship, Garrett Marchbanks has marks he wants to hit before it’s all over with.

“For me, it’s just to be consistently in the top 10 and to improve on the starts a little bit,” he said. “That would go a long way. Yeah, just to be up in the top 10 and hopefully put myself in a good position. In these next few rounds that we got, I’d like to be in the top five, hopefully. It has been a lot of fun so far. I’m really enjoying all the races. I feel like it has been going pretty well the last month.”

All things considered, there has been lots of cause for optimism for Marchbanks, who has talked about the Monster Energy Kawasaki being the realization of a dream.

“For this to all come around and be in place for me, it is definitely a dream come true," he said. "To put all the effort in and to finally get a factory 450 ride with these guys, I’m super-pumped with it. It’s been great. I’ve been really enjoying it. I love putting in the long days with the team and all the testing we’ve been doing. That’s definitely one thing that has been new here. It’s just the amount of testing we do to develop the bike and get it better.”