There were a handful of “takeouts” this weekend at Muddy Creek and I aint talkin’ bout a Chinese Buffet BRO.
There were a handful of “takeouts” this weekend at Muddy Creek and I aint talkin’ bout a Chinese Buffet BRO.
Lead Photo By: James Lissimore
I know Muddy Creek has that rap of being a narrow track without a lot of passing lanes but I gotta tell ya, I didn’t see that this week at all. The Tennessee track appeared to me pretty typical in terms of width and there were honestly plenty of lines to choose from. Insides, outsides, converging and in the case of a line Ken Roczen happened to be pretty happy with, a line which completely interesected on it’s exit with an inside line that Tomac was fond of. The top two current 450MX riders came so damn close to contact that I couldn’t believe they kept sticking to them. I for sure thought Eli would sense the Russian Roulette that line appeared to be engaging him in.
Eli had his best race of the year and an honest shot at moto wins both times out. It looks like he just may be putting the puzzle pieces together at just the right time… well, sure, earlier would have been better but if he gets into a comfort zone during this, his first year aboard green, then I think he’s still on schedule to really shine in year two. You know, the year when his reconstructed shoulders are fully healed, he has proper preparation and bike setup is beyond the darts and a dartboard phase.
Being teammates in motocross has always been a dark spot between a rock and a hard place. You always want to be the top finishing guy on your team but you always want to appear to be genuinely pulling for your teammate to do well. It just keeps team morale high and everyone pushing for the common goal. Unless you’re Justin Barcia, Weston Peick or Phil Nicoletti on the JGR Yamaha team. Justin took out Filthy this weekend and later claimed he didn’t mean to (of course), Weston retweeted a fan claiming that Justin is over paid and just over in general and that Weston should have his million dollar deal and meanwhile, Phil is pulling holeshots, hitting the deck but in the end, the most consistent finisher for the JGR team.
It’s whacky I tell ya.
The most intriguing “takeout” of the weekend in my mind was the contact between Cooper Webb and Adam Cianciarulo. In and of itself, I didn’t see this as a super inflammatory move by Cooper although it looked really bad on the surface but when you watch Adam’s GoPRO footage, in my opinion, it just comes down to Adam hooking out of his line and it just happened to intersect with the path Cooper was already committed to. I think without a doubt Cooper was going to be running it in super close on Adam but what resulted was much worse (for both riders) than what was intended. It feels like we are now pretty far removed from all that Webb/AC fan hype but as you well know, those types of comparisons never truly go away and situations such as this only serve to re-wet the wick on those discussions of years past. Even in the video, judging from the perspective of Adam’s GoPro, you can almost sense his thought process; “holy shit, what was that? Oh, blue bike, number 17… Really, I Mean REALLY COOPER!? I wonder how long you’ve been hoping to set that up…” I know I know, I’m projecting and being dramatic but hey, that’s what I, as an outsider, pulled from that footage.
Cooper was apologetic on the podium and appeared to really feel bad about the intensity of the contact and the aftermath and I gotta say, I believed him. I think Adam hooking out of that rut caught them both off guard and amplified it’s destructive nature. Even still, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to think about Adam without it sparking a synapse with Coopers name on it and vice versa. It’s a sport afterall and rivalries are a natural tendency. Even rivalries that never actually materialized. Perception is reality, my friend.
