The motocross season is almost upon us and I, for one, am excited. It’s funny because I feel the same way now that I did when I was wrenching. I’m excited for supercross near the end of the motocross season but about half-way through the indoor circuit, I’m ready for the green grass, crazy fans and tests of one’s manhood that you can only find in the (ready now?) 2009 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championships.
The motocross season is almost upon us and I, for one, am excited. It’s funny because I feel the same way now that I did when I was wrenching. I’m excited for supercross near the end of the motocross season but about half-way through the indoor circuit, I’m ready for the green grass, crazy fans and tests of one’s manhood that you can only find in the (ready now?) 2009 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championships.
There is nothing more grueling for the riders and teams than the outdoor season, it’s a lot of work and one day I will write a column about what I did during the day of a national. I actually took a notepad with me (perhaps sensing that I would one day retire from wrenching and entertain the masses with stories about Summercross and Tim Ferry) and documented what I did that day. I’ll do that column, I promise. I just have to find the notepad first, it might be under my MMI top tech award that I received one supercross. Or maybe that number one plate that Yamaha gave me for just being on Chad Reed’s team in 2005. I dunno, but I’ll find it one day!
I think this particular year has the potential to be one of those massively cool years where you really don’t know what will happen in either class. The last time we got close to this was in 2007 when Stewie hurt his knee late in the second moto at Washougal and threw Ferry, Andrew Short, Mike Alessi and Grant Langston into contention for the 450 title. You remember, when Ferry had the points lead late in the year and was riding stupendous and then when he had a chance to win, started crashing in the first turn and getting bad starts? Ok, I’m going to go and punch myself in the groin over and over now.
Let me count the reasons why I’m thinking this year’s mx season could be the best ever
1-I don’t know who is going to win the 450 class.
Unlike in years past where you could pretty much just award RC the plate and tell him to stay home and eat Jimmy Dean sausages, I have no clue who is going to win. Last summer you could see early on that James was not going to relinquish the lead very easily (or at all actually) and even though he told hacks like me that he didn’t care, he cared very much about going 24 and oh. He was a step above everyone and almost led every lap of every moto, an unbelievable accomplishment (as was RC’s summer of ’06 where he led every lap but 13).
This year one would think that Mike Alessi has a leg up on everyone but I’m not so sure about that. He’ll certainly be in the mix with his afugginmazing ability to grab the start but I was one of the minority last summer in saying that he wasn’t clearly the second best rider. The competition just knew they couldn’t beat James and were mentally beat before the gate dropped, everybody but Mikey that is. He believed in his heart that he could beat James.
Nothing gets the competition going like hope. Hope is the stripper telling you her real name during “Pour Some Sugar on me.” Don’t believe me about that? Ask Ferry sometime about his last few races of ’07. He maintains to this day that his speed stayed the same, it was the hope from James going out that raised everyone’s game. HE was already trying his hardest.
Remember also, Alessi couldn’t stay healthy last summer-maybe he was pushing too hard and above his comfort zone? When you have something to lose (like the title) maybe you back it down just a bit to race another day, know what I mean? He’s got Ryan Villopoto to deal with, a kid that just won two supercrosses and there is no one that believes he’s better inside the stadiums. He’s going to be bouncing that Kawasaki off the limiter around the outside, trying to make something happen. Another thing to remember is that these two are not exactly “Turner and Hooch”; the dislike is real and should make for some interesting times. I have a hunch that the Alessi’s are in need of a trainer and just might call one Mr Randy Lawrence to see if he knows much about this training stuff.
What about the other dudes? Andrew Short is Mr. Consistent and wouldn’t it be nice to see him win an overall? I think he does it this year, for sure one race. Maybe even the whole burrito. Ferry will be still coming back around Glen Helen but don’t count him out later on, he’ll just get stronger as the season goes on and you know, sometimes a little break recharges the old dudes. Think about your Grandpaps that used to nap in the EZ chair when you were over with the family. Don’t you remember how sharp and with it he was when he woke up? He’d get a triple-word score in Scrabble even. That’s the same way Ferry will feel, those whippersnappers don’t know what’s coming! This class is wide open. What about Lawrence, will he show? Will he come in and go 2-3 and then disappear for a while? He’s the ultimate wild card, in fact he’s such a wild card that if you look in the dictionary under “wild card”, it’s probably got a picture of him and is on page 338.
I haven’t even talked about Davi Millsaps, Ivan Tedesco, Josh Hill, Broc Hepler, Michael Byrne, Josh Grant, Dan Reardon, Cody Cooper, Josh Summey, Nick Wey…oh my!
2- I don’t know who is going to win the 250 class.
This class is as wide open as the one girl in school that we all knew. We got Ryan Dungey who might be considered the favorite by a sliver. Just a sliver, the Minnesota Musketeer went out last year and slayed the mighty RV. But y’see, even though he racked up three wins last season only one of them would be what would be considered in the mean streets as “straight up”. And ironically enough, it was at Ryan’s hometrack in Washington. The other victories saw RV crash and end up way back and out of it. Yeah, yeah I know-they drop the gate at the same time for everybody and crashing and DNF’ing with a shifter is a danger that can happen to anyone. My point is that Dungey was not in Villopoto’s league last year and therefore shouldn’t be looked at to run away with this thing.
What about Brett Metcalfe? I’ve been trumpeting this guy to do something for a while now and he’s right there on the verge. He got hurt once again but will be 100% by the time Glen Helen comes around, he’ll be tough and ready to go. Or maybe former World Title holder Christophe Pourcel of the mighty Pro Circuit team? The guy probably won’t even break a sweat out there he rides so in control, he reminds me of one of those chocolate silk pies at Marie Callendars. So easy to like, so smooth and great tasting. Scratch the great tasting thing, I got out of hand there.
Actually, if you didn’t go to a race and just checked the results afterwards and saw this, would you be surprised?
1-Christophe Pourcel————Monster/Pro Circuit Kawasaki
2-Jake Weimer——————–Monster/Pro Circuit Kawasaki
3-Tyla Rattry———————–Monster/Pro Circuit Kawasaki
4-Austin Stroupe——————Monster/Pro Circuit Kawasaki
The whole team is gnarly and will be ready to battle all summer with the bikes to beat under them as well. What about this Barcia kid? I have some people that I respect tell me that the kid is fly-ing right now. There’s nothing as exciting as your first time right? We’ve all seen these LL kids jump right up and run the pace, if Ping tells me the kid is the real deal-I believe him. Tommy Searle on the KTM? Actually anyone on the Muscle Milk KTM team because those bikes are plain fast as we’ve seen Brayton, Davalos and Sipes make those pumpkins sing.
Dungey’s my pick but that is a very, very tenuous position in my life. I wake up every morning and think someone else is going to win it, I’ve talked myself in and out of Dungey so many times that I’m starting to go crazy and am going to tear up my press tent photo of him that he signed for me then try to piece it back together like a puzzle, the whole time sobbing like a little girl who’s seen Miley Cyrus at the local porn palace.
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| Dungey-Cord is the favorite in the 250’s…is he really though? |
3-Jason Weigandt will be proven wrong.
The Weege regaled me with his theories the other day that everybody always says that the class is wide open but soon enough, one or two riders rise above the rest and everybody is fighting for the final spot on the box. He points to the RC, RV and JS years but mostly he points to the imaginary years in his mind. What about 1986 where Micky Dymond won only three nationals and took the title? What about 1999 when Albee only won three nationals and took home the title? 1998, Henry five wins, 2005, Tedesco two wins or 2003 when Langston didn’t win a race and won the title (ok, bad example as Stewie ran off with every race that he showed up for).
The point is that I really believe Weege will be wrong this year, I don’t see RV, Alessi or Dungey running away with anything. Just to have him come up to me at Steel City and look me in the eye and say “You were right, I was wrong and I want you to know that you’re the god of motocross knowledge” will be a special moment.
4-The rivalries will be incredible.
There’s nothing in sports like two people or teams that take a normal competition and make it a little…personal. Think about the Yankees/Red Sox battles or maybe the Canadians/Bruins (right now about twelve Americans even understand what I just wrote). These teams take it personal and some of our riders will be also. I’ve already covered the RV/Alessi clash of the (little) titans, what about Searle and Rattray? Think that Searle doesn’t want revenge American style on the guy that beat him for the World Motocross title? Think Tommy Gun won’t burn a little more crumpets running hills while thinking of the South African? Rattray got the best of him last year, let’s see how they both adapt to the tracks over here. Then we have Weimer and Metcalfe. I don’t think they really have any problem with each other but they were essentially traded for one another in the off season. They switched teams and dudes like me will be watching to see who got the better of the deal, right now PC is winning that one but the nationals might be a whole other story. What about Jason Lawrence and his apparent anger management problem? He could have 39 guys mad at him at any time.
I was on a team with three fast guys (I was also on a team that had five riders and no one managed to score a point at a national but I digress) and trust me when I say you do not want to be “that guy”. The guy that is bringing up the rear of your team is the guy that every other rider whispers to their mechanics “Hey, it could be worse, I could be THAT GUY”. This makes the competition on Geico Honda, Pro Circuit, Red Bull Honda and others especially interesting.
5- James Stewart and Chad Reed could show up once in a while.
I don’t think either guy will be doing the whole series (I was trying to convince Reed to do it a month ago but trust me, he had some real good reasons) but they might show up once in a while and try to inflict some damage. Can James just jump in after taking some time off and whup up on everybody? I know one way to get Reed to do the nationals. Tell him he can’t win. He’s one stubborn Aussie, I know that. So here it is…Hey Chad, if you show up you’re going to get worked. Not only will you not win, you won’t even be the best guy on your team. There, you’re all welcome. James is in a different boat, his team is supercross only but I believe him when he says he wants to do some nationals. I know he wants to go to some GP’s and maybe that will happen, James can go around the world and show everyone how he bends gravity.
The wildcard of these two guys being out there and maybe racing once in a while is just mind numbing. What could happen, what we might see and maybe, just maybe we’ll get supercross part deux.
What I feel about the nationals this summer is similar to how I felt when I was the first guy in line to see Jaws 4. Just sweating out the details of what I’m about to see and trying to somehow process all the absolute cool-ness of the whole ordeal. Jaws 4 didn’t turn out very good as I didn’t need to wait in line because there were only about eight of us to see Ellen Brody “stab” the shark with her boat but I’m absolutely sure we’re going to see the real good, 1975 Jaws this summer all over again. I think we’re going to need a bigger starting gate.
