“It feels good to feel good,” said Julien Beaumer after collecting fast qualifying honors in Denver. After a strong start to the season that included his first Monster Energy AMA Supercross race win and a run with the 250SX West points lead, the Red Bull KTM rider hit a mid-season funk and hasn’t been on the podium since Anaheim 2, back in January.
The reality is (probably) that a shoulder injury suffered in practice at Arlington, Texas probably slowed him, but young “JuJu” is proving to be a no-nonsense personality that doesn’t make excuses. He has refused to let the shoulder be a talking point, and even at Denver, when he seemed back up to speed, he didn’t say it was because the shoulder is better. He told me it was just on him to start riding better again.
He really stamped that in the press conference, after he grabbed podium real estate, finally, again.
“My riding the last couple of weeks showed pretty much…nothing,” he said. “For me, it took the ass beating in Philly [12th place] for me to look in the mirror and figure something out. So, after Philly I looked at myself in the mirror and went to work.
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“Chip on the shoulder,” he added. “It’s been a rough couple of weeks for me and I feel like what I did during the week wasn’t translating. So, I felt like I needed to come out here and perform tonight and I feel like I did that.”
The shoulder could be a thing, but he’s not using it as an excuse. Also, his fast-qualifying times in Denver might have been helped by that hard, slick soil where the Lake Havasu, Arizona native seems to excel. Nope, he’s not going there.
“Soil is soil,” he said in his interview after taking that top qualifying time.
It only makes sense that JuJu would get better as the tracks return to hard pack, but what he really means is that it’s up to him to learn the softer, rutted stuff and execute on those tracks just the same, no excuses.
“When we went east, I was struggling at first in the ruts and stuff and I think I got frustrated too quickly,” he said. “I got frustrated and I was just kind of beating myself up in a sense. I will focus on that stuff, get better in the ruts for next year.”
| Rider | Time | Interval | Best Lap | Hometown | Bike | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Haiden Deegan | 19 laps | 51.278 | Temecula, CA  | Yamaha YZ250F | |
| 2 |  Julien Beaumer | 12.945 | 51.543 | Lake Havasu City, AZ | KTM 250 SX-F Factory Edition | |
| 3 |  Garrett Marchbanks | 3.680 | 51.618 | Coalville, UT | Kawasaki KX250 | |
| 4 |  Jordon Smith | 4.804 | 51.871 | Belmont, NC | Triumph TF 250-X | |
| 5 |  Cole Davies | 2.809 | 50.378 | Waitoki, New Zealand  | Yamaha YZ250F |
Garrett Marchbanks was also happy with the gains he made recently and was pumped to show it in Denver. Marchbanks told me he already has eleven 35-minute outdoor motocross motos under his belt. When he jumped back onto the supercross track a few days before Denver, he outpaced his previous times at the test track by a full second. He was ready.
“I had a good couple of weeks after Philly and I always knew I could podium,” said the Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki man. “I feel like I was riding good all day. I would have liked to have had a better start, wasn’t the best, I actually didn’t even know I was running third until a lap to go. But it’s not a surprise to me. I’ve been feeling like I should be a top three guy all season. Back-to-back podiums, I’m pretty happy with that.”
Starts prevented both Beaumer and Marchbanks from challenging the Yamahas up ahead, but when Haiden Deegan bumped Cole Davies off the track, they could at least turn their mid-pack starts into second and third place finishes. Experience with a slower bike at altitude will help Beaumer someday down the road, as he was in experimental mode at this race.
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“I was starting in second gear all day,” said Beaumer. “I did it in the heat race, didn’t get a great start then I went down, tucked the front. So, I tried a first gear start on the sight lap for the main. I kind of just winged it, prayed a little bit. My start was better in the main event than in the heat race or the practice starts, so I guess it worked a little bit.”
As for Marchbanks, the switch to a new coach in Broc Tickle has really paid off.
“The beginning of the year I felt good but obviously the results weren’t showing,” says Marchbanks. “Then my practice crash and shoulder injury obviously didn’t help. I finally started to get around 100 percent around Indy, and I switched trainers, started working with Broc Tickle, we really worked on a lot of technique stuff. I didn’t realize I was lacking that much stuff until we started working together. Seattle was a big jump for me, getting on the box, and the last six weeks have been a big jump for me. I want to keep that momentum going into outdoors, too.”
