Eight months after his last race, Garrett Marchbanks found his way to the podium at the opening round of the 250SX West series at Orlando 2, as the series heads to Daytona where he won last year.

Entering the 2021 Monster Energy Supercross season on all new equipment after parting ways with the Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki team, Marchbanks lined up for the opening round of the season aboard a ClubMX Yamaha.

His debut ride with the team went well as he took the track Saturday night at Camping World Stadium, finding his way to the podium following a 10th place start.

“I’m really happy to start the 2021 season on the podium,” Marchbanks said. “It has been eight long months since I was last behind the starting gate, so I couldn’t be more proud of the effort and work that we’ve been able to achieve since I joined Club MX.”

While he’s fairing well with the new team, Marchbanks admits that his departure from Pro Circuit following his season-ending knee injury has been added motivation leading up to the start of the season.

“For me to go through everything I did with the knee injury and then not getting signed, for sure it adds fuel to the fire. I’ve been hungry for it ever since I got out of the hospital.”

The series now heads to Daytona, the venue where Marchbanks secured his first and only supercross victory just a year ago.

“Just to get the podium this weekend I’m pretty pumped with that. So getting the momentum already going into Daytona, I’m pretty excited. I know when we go back to Club we’re going to be riding some pretty similar stuff to Daytona so that’ll be pretty good.”