Amidst an eventful opening five rounds of Monster Energy Supercross competition, the recently rebranded Quad Lock Honda team has made steady upward progression on the results sheet, with both 450SX racers Joey Savatgy and Shane McElrath posting season-best results in Tampa last weekend. But still, the team is looking for more.

One glance at the premier class entry list for round one of the championship in Anaheim would yield a relatively universal conclusion – the field is incredibly deep, which is almost an understatement. With 12 former 250SX class champions and five previous 450SX class champions in the main, securing a top 10 result was no easy task.

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Combine this with Savatgy’s return to Supercross after missing the entire 2024 season, and McElrath adjusting to Honda machinery after riding for the HEP-operated Twisted Tea Suzuki effort last year – followed by a short stint on Kawasakis in the SMX Finals series – and it’s reasonable to think both riders may need time to reach their full potential.

Given the depth of field, what would be a realistic target for both riders and the team? To put it in perspective, there were 12 factory riders in the season-opening main event at A1, with McElrath finishing in P13, while Savatgy posted a more challenging 21st place.

Fast forward to Tampa, and both 450SX riders captured top 10 results in the main, with Savatgy in seventh place and McElrath in ninth, marking season-best results for the duo.

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Despite that progress, the Quad Lock Honda team has higher ambitions in mind, with team principal Martin Davalos seeing the team as ‘nowhere near’ where they’d like to be.

“We aren’t where we would like to be – nowhere near it – but this weekend was a step in the right direction,” explained Davalos following Tampa. “We’ve been chasing a set-up that gives both riders the confidence to push, and I think we have finally found a direction that works.”

For Savatgy, the thoughts were echoed, with the 31-year-old originally from Georgia noting that a poor start cost him a shot to finish even further up the field.

“My start killed what could have been a much better result,” reflected Savatgy. “That’s my focus this week – I need to get out of the gate better. The bike is in a much better place and I know we can fine-tune it even more. A seventh is good, but I know we can be fighting further up front.”

There are two sides to the coin here – one being whether seventh place is a commendable result for a returning Savatgy and a building team, or whether the opportunity wasn’t maximized for what could have been a better result in the first eastern regional round of season 2025.

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If Savatgy had gotten a better start, could it have been a top-five ride? If the team had a more consistent, comfortable setting, could the riders charge for a longer duration of the main event? The possibility is there to say yes, however, again, these season-best results no doubt reflect substantial rides for both riders under the circumstances.

The Quad Lock Honda organization, operating inside the Yarrive Konsky and Martin Davalos ecosphere, functions under an ethos of burning desire and passion to be front-runners. This is evident with the heavy investment of time and resources allocated toward the Konsky-led factory Honda Racing program that he predominately heads in Australia while Davalos focuses on their international exploits.

Whilst this is the case, and success is typically measured under the conditions that the utmost potential was maximized, there’s an element of ‘stopping to smell the roses’ in such a circumstance, as reiterated above, because dual top 10 finishes in a highly-competitive 450SX class is a commendable effort from all involved.

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Add in Carson Mumford’s 10th-place score in the 250SX East opener, in what was his Supercross debut with Quad Lock Honda after overcoming injury toward the end of last year, and the rewards were evident as the transporter rolled out of Raymond James Stadium following the final checkered flag.

Each team has their own respective ‘modus operandi’ by which they hitch their racing identity, and through analysis of results mixed with commentary on such, you can begin to unearth the philosophy of what a race team stands for.

In Quad Lock Honda’s case, the maximum potential appears as the goal, with anything that falls short worthy of a discussion of what went wrong, what the possibilities were, and how best they can be delivered upon in the future.