“Millville was good for me,” said Daxton Bennick after last weekend’s race, where he took seventh overall. “I struggled pretty badly in practice, and mentally, I was doubting myself a little bit. But I put that all behind me, went out and rode my best. I got a good start in Moto 1 and hung in there for fifth, which I was happy with. And then in the second moto, I had a big bobble on Lap 1, which cost me a lot of time, and then didn’t really find my flow until around halfway. Finishing with 5-10 results on the day, I can’t be too mad at it – it’s a big improvement and if we can keep building from here, I’ll be happy.”
Those results had been a long time coming for Bennick, who started the year with a solid seventh in the first moto of the season at Pala, then crashed out while running fourth in the second moto. More crashes at Hangtown led him to miss High Point and RedBud, and from there the comeback has been tough. Plus, Dax was feeling the pressure of the “supercross only” label since he’s compiled a few podiums indoors, but hasn’t been able to show much in motocross.
Millville was a cross roads, and he was just 17th fastest in practice. Sophie Phelps went over to talk to Bennick after practice to check on his progress…his best day was coming soon, and in this interview you’ll see the process for how he got himself back into the mix.
Racer X: Today in qualifying your 17th we’re here at Millville. How did you feel, first and foremost?
Daxton Bennick: Not the greatest. Just kind of been battling some awkward feelings a bit on the bike. I feel like we were getting closer. It’s been a tough, tough go getting back getting my feet back under me from the crash at Pala. But we’re here, and yeah, I think we’ll just put that behind us and go into the into moto one. Just ready to get a good start.
Can you tell us a little bit about that crash at Pala and how that’s affected you?
Yeah, I crashed second moto running fourth and just really haven’t been able to get my feet back under me. I came into round one feeling really good. Obviously I feel like I’m maybe thought of as a supercross-only kind of guy for right now, which I get it. But I do ride outdoors very well and I just want to go prove that. And yeah, we worked hard pre-season and I came into round one really good. So just if I could get back to that point, I would be really happy with that in and off the season.
I was told that you’re feeling frustrated. You would say that this is probably leading to a lot of that frustration that you’re feeling.
Yeah. For sure. Obviously the crash, and then I tried to race the next weekend and had that big get off in the first turn at Hangtown. So it’s been a couple of those kind of stacking on top of each other, just some some crashes, which isn’t really like me. I’m normally on two wheels, so I feel like I’ve been on the ground more and yeah, we just want to want to stay up.