Swizcorner: The Hitchcock Energy Cup

Judging from the number of bizarre occurrences during Saturday night’s Monster Energy Cup, you could hardly blame Feld and at least two of the elite 450 racers for wanting to take a night off the next time a full-moon bears all.

Photos by: Simon Cudby

From the very onset of the show, the peculiarities began. As soon as the television screen filled with the horizontally split screen, thoughts began re-running last years single failed start as the racing attempted to take flight. Last years instance was so laughed upon, industry-wide, including inside the press box, that when you thought back to it, it was more of a tongue in cheek “what if one of the gates didn’t drop again, har har”. Mere seconds later it was reality and once again, the laughter was wide-spread. Off the track anyway. There’s not a single racer on either gate who found this miss-step the slightest bit humorous. I think the difference in “ticked-offed-ness” between the racers and the powers at Feld was fractional.

What could be worse than a failed start? Of course, two failed starts! At this point the paying customers, with their butts in the seats let out a chorus of boo’s! I was pretty surprised by this. I can see maniacal laughter, hi-fiving and beer-can smashing on foreheads but, booing?  There’s no question, two failed starts to debut Supercross on the Fox Sports 2 Network is not exactly the greatest portrait of seamless hi intensity race-action we are accustomed to but hey, it’s year-three…– actually no; two failed starts just can’t happen! There’s no excuse that makes it ok. I would be surprised if next year, there isn’t one-person put in charge of, and held accountable for, solely making sure every start goes without a hitch. That includes conceptualizing and engineering a truly foolproof mechanism because clearly the last two years has not been such a solution. I’m talking 1,000 out of 1,000 tests, the proverbial 110% success rate.

We should have known, at this point, shit was going to end up going weird all night long. And it did. That’s not to say that the night was without excitement or a shit show, quite the contrary; but things were indeed going sideways in many different facets throughout the evening. And what an awesomely unpredictable night of “off-season” racing it made for.

With the Monster Energy Cup being a one-off event and having some liberties we don’t see in the series (just yet anyway), and many of them being real assets to race action, this 3 ten-lap main event format accentuates a negative side-effect we’ve heard grumblings about for years. With the main-events being so short and full-on sprint races for the duration, the battle for the lead is bound to be the bulk of the aired television content. The intensity is so high and the race so short that, short of one elite guy getting a start and the rest of the top guys pulling up the rear, it makes sense for the battle for the win to be eating up the aired race coverage. This would be a major detriment to bringing the 3 ten-lap mains into the Supercross series for the bulk of the racers and teams who make up the starting gates. The saving grace to this issue could already be somewhat thwarted though since the semi-races are making their reemergence in the 2014 Supercross series. Some may bitch that the TV time garnered in these semi’s will pale in comparison to these 3 ten-lap mains but I think it will still be better than no semi-races and a 20 lap race that is typically over by the 13th lap anyhow. Add to that, the unpredictability of three gate drops, and some of those battling in the semi’s have a real shot at making a second mark on the nights action when points are on the line.

Dungey looked super solid in race-one… well other than that whole Joker Lane bypass deal.

Was I the only person surprised to see Dungey not only keep RV honest in the first race but actually pushing him? It’s no secret at this point that RV has Dungey’s number on a dirt bike. RV just has the capacity and willingness to push himself into the red-zone and live there. Dungey? Not-so-much. Now I’m not saying Dungey was creeping into the red-zone but he was riding at his technical and sprint peak which kept RV honest; not creeping into the danger-zone but at his comfortable capacity. It serves up a great plot looking toward A1 with these guys running so close.

How many people had their mind blown when RV took the hard-right into the Joker Lane and Dungey just motored by like he did the previous nine-laps? My hand is raised with you. It’s never happened before. Not even back in the pack, so how could it happen with the leaders who are still battling in the last 1/4 lap of the race?! The intensity of the battle is the exact thing that caused this mental hiccup. It’s understandable, even more-so due to this race being an animal all it’s own. Dungey’s reaction when Villopoto informed him of his error was all-time classic! There is no faking, subduing or masking the reaction in that situation. It was a mixture of comedy and heartbreak to watch, depending on who you are. The mass majority of people found it humorous as did Ralph, RC and Fro in the booth who could not help but fall all over themselves with laughter. I gotta admit, we all were laughing with them. 

There are plenty of people who will point at both Dungey and RV’s failure to take the Joker Lane as the glaring example of why it has no place in Supercross. I say that is a great example of why it is such a great addition to the racing. You say the Joker Lane is a gimmick that removes race-craft? It’s just a new twist put in the mix that everyone has to consider and implement into their strategy. Think of the advancements made in jumping or anything else in our sport. It changes, improvements are made and it evolves and progresses. Then one day, boom, instead of airing out jumps, going faster and scrubbing elevation on jumps becomes the prerequisite for being elite. The Joker Lane is weird right now. It’s alien. The racers are feeling it out and seeing if it is a peace-loving organism or if it wants to probe their brain and “take them to it’s leader”. I imagine some day the riders will bitch about the Joker Lane just like they do about the purse, crappy whoop sections, 90º turns and the incompetence of the AMA. Status quo.

If indeed Feld does implement it into a race or two during the Supercross season, everyone is obligated to do it. If they don’t it’s on them and their mental game. We saw Dungey’s reaction to his error, unfortunately RV went down hard before we were given any sense of his cognition of his error but ultimately they just need to adapt their race-craft so that it takes the Joker Lane into account. If it does turn out to be the Devil that so many fans are convinced it is, throw it out with the bowl berms into the graveyard of Supercross past. 

The Stewart and Villopoto battle in race-two was unbelievably intense.

How about that second race between Villopoto and Stewart from gate drop to, well, Joker Lane! It was all out, balls to the wall, red-zone racing from the two guys in the sport who can turn the throttle the furthest with the least consideration for caution. It was aggressive, though CLEAN, racing that was one of the best examples in Supercross’ history of how to race hard, with contact but in a sportsmanlike manner. 10-laps rule! The lead was swapped about 5 times and the only thing more mind blowing than the race intensity was the moment James veered right into the Joker Lane and Ryan Villopoto made the exact same mistake he had informed Dungey of less than an hour earlier!! 

The argument could absolutely be made that RV’s crash was related to a mental-error upon the realization that he had missed the Joker Lane. God knows at the level of intensity Villopoto and Stewart were pushing it to, there was absolutely no room for mental fragmentation. There’s also the chance that unlike all of us at home and just about everyone else in the stadium and racing the track, Villopoto wasn’t certain it was the last lap. The prior lap, Ryan was trailing James over the finish after just having slid out slightly on the big sweeper. It’s entirely possible that Ryan was so focused on regrouping and reeling in James that the white flag never occurred to him. Silly? Yes but if you watch RV as he bypasses the Joker Lane on the last lap, he has a slight hitch, like he is almost going to go for it but makes the decision not to. There’s absolutely not reason for Villopoto to not commit to the Joker Lane unless he was thinking he had another lap to hit it. Whatever the case, Villopoto went down hard and although he got on the Asterisk Mule under his own power, he’s going to, at least, be damn sore for a good week.

James looked the most comfortable at speed we’ve seen in him throughout the night in years.

The third race wasn’t much of a nail biter mostly due to the fact that only James Stewart was nailing the downside of the triple to table. In a class where the racers are separated by a second and there’s only one racer doing an obstacle that separates them by a second per lap; it;s kind of a foregone conclusion. James was on it and his scores of 8-1-1 were good enough to take the win and that badass Monster Cup trophy. Oh, and a hundred-grand too. 

Amateur Superstars

There was some great racing from the amateur guys who will likely be making the move to pro racing following the 2014 season as well. Guys like Jace Owen, Jordan Smith, Zach Commans and Thomas Convintgon, among others. I had high hopes for Florida’s RJ Hampshire in this race. He’s been under Red Dog’s tutelage for a while now and when we were at Timmy’s earlier this year, I was floored watching RJ on a bike. Keep in mind, I’ve gone to RV’s and Chad’s the last few years and RJ didn’t strike me as “just another fast kid”. The kid can ride more naturally than most people walk or breath. He’s humble, from humble beginnings, his head’s on straight and now we know, he can perform when the pressure is on. The biggest stage he or any of his competitors at the MEC have been on and he pulled the biggest holeshot of the night and lead wire to wire. Jordan Smith put in a great ride from a 3rd place start to reel in RJ on the last straight away but put a little too much into his throttle wrist and got off in spectacular fashion. A scary crash which moved him from a near-win to 10th place in the first race.

The second race saw a lot of action and the overall was up for grabs between RJ, Jace Owen and Zach Commans. Early on and all the way into the beginning of the last lap it was Jace Owen in position for the overall. He left the inside open in the same right hander where Villopoto and Stewart made moves on each other in the second Cup-Class race, and RJ ran it in with authority. Not scared. Now, Jace Owen is fast, there’s no question about that. The fact that he has very little support is pretty ridiculous. He’s a little crashy but that can be worked out; he has the speed to be worth the effort by a team. RJ put it in there like it was the last lap of the biggest race he’s been in– oh yeah, it was!

All in all the third running of the Monster Cup was awesome. Two failed starts to begin the night, “The Ryan’s” shock everyone by missing the Joker Lane, the Supermini’s make a “track built for 4-strokes” look like no big deal, Stewart and Villopoto battle for an amazing 10 laps and both of the Amateur Allstar races saw some exciting racing, crashes and aggression. I can hardly wait for the 2014 Cup race.