Who rebounds bigger in Toronto, RV or Stewy?
Who rebounds bigger in Toronto, RV or Stewy?
Photos by: James Lissimore
Swizzle- This is a tough one. On one hand you have a winless in the last 7 races, James Stewart, who is so used to winning that he has to be just bewildered at this point. On the flip-side you have Ryan Villopoto who was mad enough in Jacksonville to essentially pick a fight with Matt Boni who could very well outweigh RV by 50lbs and easily has 5.5″ on him in height.
This is where I win Matthes’ heart over by bringing in a hockey parallel. RV is the Ray Ferraro of moto right now, not due to size or talent but simply nickname. It suits RV perfectly as he is without question the “little ball of hate”. He hates losing, hates that Dungey mopped up the big bikes in 2010, hates that people talk about him being “gifted” races and lastly, hates the absurd chain of events in Jacksonville that lead to him opening the door of confidence, momentum and motivation for both Chad Reed and Ryan Dungey.
Couple RV’s hate with a James who is certain to be feeling some effects from his crash in Jacksonville and short of a fifth of Cortisone prior to the main event in Toronto and I see RV having a better finish than Stewy for sure.
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You back talkin’ me Grandpa!? |
Matthes- Oh Swizzle, not only do I school you each and every week in this column but now I have to correct you in all things hockey. Ray Ferraro, while a good player, was not nicknamed “the little ball of hate”, that honor went to Pat Verbeek. Go ahead and look it up on the Google, it’s all right there. Ok so now that you’re wrong about that, I think you’re also wrong about who’s going to figure this thing out sooner, RV or Stewie. James is third all time in sx wins, his back is up against the wall, he’s desperate to make up some points and he’ll rebound this weekend in Toronto.
Although I said the same thing about this past weekend. Yikes.
Swizzle- Wow, you’re right about one thing, I was wrong about Ferraro, although he was a little spitfire too(Sorry Verbeek, man, even a Redwing for sometime-FAIL).
Man you must be feeling super empathetic this week, like so much that your actually feeling the effects from Stewy’s crash, you’re mental BRO! Stewarts back has been against the wall since Atlanta and all he has done since then is dial up the Crazy Balls and end up either on the ground, pulling off incredible saves or on the backboard(not his fault but them’s the facts). James is still the guy mostly likely to demoralize the field but its that exact tendency that has found him where he is, winless in 7 races and searching for consistency. You know that old racing adage, “go slow to go fast”? Well James needs to go slower to re-establish a foundation of consistent finishes before this hole gets any deeper. James could very well go much slower and still win with the craziness we’ve seen go on in the 450 class this year.
Whatever the case, I don’t see anyone trumping RV’s hate and rebound-ability in Toronto, of course, there’s that unpredictability factor I’ve already wore out this season; and we still have a handful of rounds to go.
Lets not forget also the dirt in Toronto, its much more “pacific-northwesty” than “southeasty”. I know they’re supposed to have new dirt this year but I heard the same thing last year when I saw them pull out a 3’x2′ piece of concrete AFTER practice!
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Matthes sees this guy taking a stand in Toronto. |
Matthes- They’ve fixed the soft marshmallow dirt from years past (remember when Tim Ferry designed the Toronto track a few years ago and it turned to soup? That was awesome) so the track should be a traditional style harder packed track this weekend. I like RV, he’s a good dude but even he, in his heart of hearts, would have to acknowledge that he received a little bit of a gift in Atlanta and then in Daytona, he was the second fastest guy but yet, somehow he still won.
So knowing all this, as quickly as things can turn your way, they can go the other way as well so I’m predicting RV’s going to just ride this thing out and grab what he can up there in the great country known as Canada and this will allow James to motor off with the victory.
Oh and Mookie will make the podium also.
Swizzle- Man, you must be all systems go looking forward to visiting the motherland because your argument in this debate is all about history and foolish theories. I’m going to end my decimation of you here though because it will be just like this 2011 SX season when all my logic is thrown out the window at the drop of the gate and the unexpected happens once again.
