Swizcorner “Streaking”

It was just a few short weeks ago that Eli Tomac appears to be the same indomitable force he represented in Supercross during the home stretch of the series, save for a few lapses in focus. Blake Baggett looked to be coming on in his own way until a suspect bit of contact between he and Jason Anderson left him with a compromised thumb and long shot at continuing his push toward a title chase. Marvin Musquin suffered a DNF in Moto two at Muddy Creek as well as a brutal pull-off after a crash in the second Moto at Southwick.

At the time of each of these DNF’s, the full level of their catastrophe seemed to be less than obvious. Eli was looking insanely good and Marvin had suffered that MCL injury and was thought to be less than a threat moving forward.

No one saw what ended up happening over the last 6 consecutive moto’s. Marvin Musquin has decided he wanted to go streaking and he has done exactly that. He’s not only won the moto’s, he’s battled all challengers poised to make a move for his number one positions and secured them in every instance. Just as Marvin has been surging, Eli has looked more human than ever. It’s that pesky old “red-plate-syndrome” stigma that never seems to totally get waxed off of Eli’s reputation. It sounds like a ridiculous theory but until he ends a series with it(on a 450), it will continue to be mentioned in these situations.

This brings me to my “HUH?” moment of the 450 series and it’s the second Moto of Southwick when Marvin erratically launched off the left side of the track while running 2nd and failed to remount and finish the Moto. At the time I even caught myself thinking, “how is he not going to at least finish the Moto and score at least some points?”. At the same time, I remember thinking, “ehh whatever, his MCL is jacked and he’s a loooooong shot at best.” That last thought running through my head is a far cry from what should be running through Marvin’s head and I can’t say with any certainty that those reflect Marvin’s thoughts or if it was some other type of instantaneous meltdown but the thing that struck me as soon as Marvin turned this series around and began winning was, The King.

Anyone who has ever listened to a show in The Steve Matthes Show archives, has heard Jeremy McGrath in the highlights outro mention how his biggest regret was not finishing a race in the 95 250 Nationals because it turned out to be the decision which cost him the title in that series. “Every point counts and I could just kick myself to this day for not just riding around in tenth”. Think about it, THIS IS THE KING OF SUPERCROSS and his biggest regret is not finishing 10th which would have resulted in another MX title!!! 10th!! It’s mind blowing but it is so basic. JUST FINISH THE FRIGGIN RACE!

Shit happens all the time in racing that is inexplicable, THAT is why they race every lap of every Moto from the first round of the series to the last, so finish the race. It could very well come down to that zero point result being the difference between first and anything but first and I couldn’t imagine the regret that would come along with that.

But Jeremy McGrath could… and even with all his vast accomplishments, it’s still his one regret.