HoATL

And here we are live from the Georgia Dome press box (at least, live as I'm typing it, and by the way I am always typing live, which means that previous sentence means absolutely nothing). Okay now that I've wasted a bunch of time, here's the word from Atlanta:

Villopoto is racing but he doesn't look like the same RV51 we've come to know--and not just because he's now officially RV2. To me, the fastest guys look like the Torco Honda tandemn of Grant and Canard, Canard is especially impressive since this is his first supercross. Ben Coisey looks cool, almost a little old-school Cobra in his riding style, but his times aren't the equal of the others. The other impressive Lites rider is Branden Jesseman, who was third fastest in both sessions and actually looked fast doing it. Even in his hey day, I don't remember people watching Jesseman in practice and saying "dude he looks goooood."

On 450s, Chad Reed is a bad dude when we come back east. But so are all of the other "East based" 450 pilots, which includes Ferry, Millsaps and Windham. Still, I think Chad looks stronger this week than he did last time. The track, designed by James Stewart, was so darned simple that Dirt Wurx had to add some obstacles to make sure they didn't have 30-second lap times. So, out of the bag of tricks came stuff from A2's retro night--two "stop jumps" and two sand sections. That's really throwing off everyone's momentum and rhythm, and I think Reed extends his advantage over the field when the going gets really tough like that.

Okay, gotta go...be sure to listen to the webcast tonight on www.supercrossonline.com