While the Monster Energy Kawasaki race team has seen some scrutiny in the past sixteen months, Garrett Marchbanks has certainly been flying the green colors – particularly in this summer’s motocross series. The 24-year-old has worked his way into a solid top five in the 450 motocross championships, with a fourth overall being his best finish. Garrett’s strong results are often hampered by poor starts, but his fitness gets him through. It may be difficult to topple the podium trio of the Lawrence brothers and Haiden Deegan; Garrett is putting in the effort.

BY JIM KIMBALL

GARRETT, YOU HAVE BEEN CRUSHING IT IN THE 450 CLASS IN RECENT ROUNDS. SUPERCROSS MAY HAVE STARTED OUT ROUGH, BUT MOTOCROSS HAS BEEN GREAT! It has been a little bit of an up-and-down year, and I feel like the start of the year was a low point. Now, we have climbed back up the mountain, so it has been good. I got my confidence back midway through Supercross and started believing in myself and the bike. It was a big learning curve. Outdoors have been super solid, and I have really been enjoying it. We have made some good changes over the past couple of rounds that have helped me finish better, and it has been solid so far.

Garrett went 5-5 for fifth overall at the Southwick National last weekend.

I WANT TO TALK ABOUT YOU, BUT THERE HAS BEEN A LOT OF ATTENTION SURROUNDING THE MONSTER ENERGY KAWASAKI PITS. WITH EVERYTHING GOING ON, HAVE YOU BEEN DISTRACTED? You know, things happen, and we all go through them. It has just been some growing pains. The team and I have been great. We have been working really hard together and doing the right things. I feel like we have gotten this bike working really well, and that is why the results have continued to improve every weekend. It has been going really well so far.

HAVE YOU MADE ANY CHANGES AS FAR AS WHERE YOU LIVE AND WHO YOU TRAIN WITH? I stay on the West Coast in California full-time. I still work with Brock Tickle on the bike and for half of my off-the-bike training. We cycle together quite a bit, but I also work with Alex Martin for training off the bike. Things have remained the same for the past two years, and it has been great so far in 2026.

Garrett currently sits fifth in points and has been the top-finishing Kawasaki week in and week out.

ARE YOU SIGNED WITH A TEAM FOR NEXT YEAR, OR CAN YOU SAY ANYTHING? Things are looking good for me to remain with Monster Energy Kawasaki, but I am not officially allowed to say anything yet. We will just say that we are in talks, and things are looking pretty good so far.

LET’S FINISH WITH THIS. KAWASAKI HAS AN ALL-NEW 450 COMING OUT NEXT YEAR. HAVE YOU RIDDEN OR SEEN THE BIKE IN PERSON? No, we have not seen the new bike yet, but it will be interesting to see what the new 450 is like when it comes out. I’m excited to try the new Kawasaki 327 two-stroke!