DENVER â Garrett Marchbanks started riding motorcycles when he was just 5 years old, he began to compete locally as a 6-year-old, and by 8 he was traveling to race in AMA Amateur Nationals. As a 9-year-old, he won his first championship at Loretta Lynnâs Ranch, and between 2010 and 2017 he won a total of eight championships there as a member of Kawasakiâs dominant Team Green, competing in everything from 65cc class to 250 B division. He turned Pro in 2018, and today, at 24 years of age, heâs one of the hottest riders in the SuperMotocross Championship, and a key member of Team Kawasaki, having finished in the top three in the 2025 standings for Pro Motocross in the 250 class. Now, heâs back as a lead rider for Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki and has his sights set on Top 5âs and podium finishes riding 450 class, and heâs our special guest on The Michael Waddell Podcast, presented by Spandau Arms and in partnership with Folds of Honor, Cigars International and Poncho Outdoors. In this easy going podcast, Garrett Marchbanks and Waddell cover a wide variety of topics, including Marchbanksâ career, his motorcycles, riding and racing, the training and discipline necessary to meet the physical and psychological demands of competing at the highest level, the specifics of racing Motocross and Supercross, shooting bows and arrows and, of course, the thrills of racing and the thrills of hunting.
Garrett Marchbanks calls Coalville, Utah home, and he was introduced to hunting by his father about the same time he started riding motorcycles. âI definitely grew up hunting quite a bit. Iâd say from the ages 7-15 I hunted quite a bit with Dad,â said Marchbanks, âbut then once racing took off when I was 15, I havenât done it as much. But whenever I get the chance, I try to do it as much as I can.â
While he hasnât had the opportunity to hunt and fish as much as heâd like in recent years, Marchbanks has spent a lot of time in the great outdoors â but on his dirt bike. Today he splits time between racing outside on dirt Motocross tracks and inside at stadium Supercross tracks. Mastering both very different disciplines takes time. âAt first it was pretty difficult for me,â explained Marchbanks. âFor me, it always seemed like when we do testing, going from Supercross to go run outdoors for a week, once I had to go back to Supercross it would take me a week to get comfortable. Now, when I kinda just swap, I can do two days outdoors, one day on Supercross, and go race the next day. What makes it more difficult is just the bike setup â a completely different chassis setup, suspension, clamps and things like that.â
âIt took me a full year to really get going on Supercross when I first went pro,â Marchbank continued. âAfter that, it came more natural to me. The light bikes are a lot easier to ride Supercross on just because everything is almost wide open. You hit a lot of triples, like when youâre tripling into a turn or hitting a quad youâre just wide open, on the 250. The 450, on the other hand, itâs just so much more power. So youâve got to be super precise. Thatâs something Iâve really worked on this year, being the first time running Supercross on a 450. So, Iâd say for me, itâs not really the triples, for me itâs quading stuff thatâs a little harder just because the other bike was always wide open. With the 450 when you do that, you OJ something and almost go five, and youâre like, âUh, that wasnât it!ââ
The Michael Waddell Podcast is produced by Outdoor Sportsman Group and is available widely on Outdoor Channel YouTube, MyOutdoorTV, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and OutdoorChannel.com, to name a few.
In Motocross, thereâs a lot of talk about being âin the flow,â when muscle memory and instinct take over and a rider and bike work as one. âItâs a lot of timing, a lot of practice and being in the zone,â explained Marchbanks. âFor me, a good example is like Seattle this year: there was a jump I wasnât doing all day in qualifying or the heat race, and it was just a triple onto a table, and it was super steep, and all of a sudden in the main event, two laps in, I had that flow and that feel of the bike, and I was like, âOh, all right, I feel what I need to do on it,â and I just started to doing it. âŚSometimes, Iâve had that in practice, thereâs a big jump I know I should be doing, I wonât do it, and then all of a sudden Iâll start to put laps together and Iâll bust it out. Iâll just do it. So, itâs just how comfortable you are with the chassis, the bike, how youâre feeling⌠For me, once I put a lot of time on something and get really comfortable, thatâs when I start to do all the big stuff.â
Few, if any, sports are as physically demanding as Motocross, and every race is a test of physical and mental toughness. ââŚYou want to stay consistent,â explained Marchbanks. âStay at a steady pace. Youâre not gonna want to go all-out for 20 minutes because then youâre going to blow yourself up, unless youâre just a special breed of a guy who can do that. For me, when youâre racing these 20-minute motoâs on a bike like this that can ride you sometimes, you just gotta learn to be super precise with it, smooth and find a flow. If you can find a flow on these things, it wonât take the energy out of you.â
Watch one highly competitive Motocross race, and youâll see riders putting their bodies and their lives at risk. âIâve had my fair share of hitting the ground this year,â said Marchbanks, âand it still hurts. No matter how good a shape youâre in⌠You could be in great fitness shape and then you go hop on the bike and sometimes it doesnât even translate. I mean, you gotta be in bike shape also. Youâve got to be in good shape in the gym, youâve got to be in good shape on the bike, youâve got to make sure youâre doing all the motos and things like that. Itâs a lot of work to put into it. âŚIâm finally starting to learn what I need to do to be successful and be in great shape. It took me five years to figure it out. So, itâs a work load.â
While Garrett Marchbanks is completely focused on winning motorcycle races right now, he still thinks about the future when he hopes to hunt and fish more. âIâve yet to kill an elk,â he confided. âI really got into it when I was about 17âŚI got real close with it. Weâd get into them. But when youâre hunting public land out there [Utah], itâs like showing up to your local dirt track on a Saturday â there are hundreds of people out there. It gets pretty tough elk hunting on public. So, for me, my goal is to, when I do have the time, to finally go get myself an elk.â
âIâve already killed some pretty good-sized mule deer,â Marchbanks continued. âI get more nerve-racking shooting a deer with my bow than I do racing my dirt bike. âŚItâs wild, because Iâll be calm on the gate and looking at my heart rate on my handlebars, and it will say 130-140, just sitting there, just the adrenaline going; but Iâm calm, like Iâm not really shaking, I know what Iâm going to do â execute. But when it comes to shooting a deer, Iâve watched them come up 30-40 yards and looked at my heart rate and itâs 80-100. Iâm like, âAll right, my heart rate is low,â and Iâm sitting there shaking and trying to take deep breaths, and Iâm like, âWhy am I freaking out right now?ââ
When asked about competing against idols, friends and mentors, Marchbanks explained, âFor me, it would make me super happy to go out there and beat those guys that I grew up watching and, for me, to just put good races together. This year has been a little rough for me, but my goal is to just be up there battling with those guys. Iâd love to be battling with guys like Kenny [Roczen] and Eli [Tomac], guys I havenât quite battled with yet, but I want to be up there and put some good races together,â concluded Marchbanks. We have a strong feeling that Garrett Marchbanks will do just that.
"I was so pumped to visit with Monster Energy Kawasakiâs Garrett Marchbanks,â said Waddell. âI have been a fan of Motocross since I was a teenager and even dreamed that someday Iâd be screaming around the dirt track myself. Cam Hanes introduced me to Garrett last July when he landed his first Pro Motocross Podium at Washougal National, and I was thrilled to learn heâs a hardcore hunter too. I have a feeling that someday weâre going to be sitting around a campfire in hunting camp together, but he has some more races to win â and I have to figure out how to trade him an elk hunt for an MX bike.â
The Michael Waddell Podcast releases new episodes every other week.
Waddellâs story began in the backwoods of Booger Bottom, Georgia, where he grew up surrounded by nature, family, and a love for the outdoors. A self-proclaimed ârowdy redneck,â his passion for hunting and storytelling led him to win a Realtree turkey-calling contest, which launched his career in the outdoor industry. From guiding and filming hunts to creating hit shows like Realtree Road Trips and Bone Collector, Waddell has become a beloved figure in the outdoor world.
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