Man it was a good one last night, as Chad Reed says he's struggling with "something" right now and it's keeping everyone close. Perhaps the something is the jinx we put on him at Racer X by calling him the King of California, and then serving it up further when I said in the main "Chad Reed NEVER makes mistakes and throws races away." And then he crashed in the sand. That makes for good radio -- it was a nice piece of business right there.
I saw Chad's team manager Larry Brooks in the hotel today, he said indeed Chad has a few issues with himself right now (I surmise a small injury, perhaps) and LB really wishes he didn't make the races so interesting. The rest of the world hopes Chad never figures it out, because these races have been fun to watch.
What I like best about this series is that after six races, we still don't have a clear cut winner in the other pack. Ferry, Short, Millsaps, Windham and Hill all looked good at various times throughout the night, and they'll likely flip flop again at various times next week. The bad thing is, the injury bug is beginning to hit, with even the normally rubbermaid Mike Alessi out, and Tedesco, and Langston and so on. Those boys would have been right in there.
But the best highlight of all is the J-Law coming of age. Not only is he finally winning, he's still talking crap! I think a lot of people are hoping the kid just goes all out if he wins the title and drops some eff bombs, flips some birds and drops some vodka in his Monster can right there on the podium to just keep th ebad boy image rolling all the way. Lawrence is the anti-Dungey, and even though everyone likes Ryan, it's hard not to love the bad boy.
Got a plane to catch. By by 72 degree weather.
Sunday, February 10
SD
Posted by Jason Weigandt at 1:21 PM
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11 Comments:
Hey Weege,
That SD SX was a pretty good race. Really like the fact that Windham won his heat race.
Looked to me like if Short had gotten a little more aggressive when he came up on Reed in the Main the outcome could have been way different. Short kinda pusse'd out instead of pulling what J-law would have.
Injuries have certainly depleted the field, wonder who will step up from the West coast Lites and ride 450's back East ?
Since J-law has been turning as quick of times on his 250 as the 450's could he just ride a slightly overbored 250 in the 450 class ?
On another subject:
You mentioned Pastrana wanting to take on Knight at the Florida GNCC,
any other pretenders gonna attempt to ride in Florida that you've heard of ?
Regards,
M. Brown
Lawrence really gives them the business.
Jason, i love listening to you guys on Sat. night and reading your blog. It makes my very boring job interesting. My favorite is when you said that Dungey is trying to make it sounds like there's no pressure. I went back to check the video and it's so true "oh yeah, i'm just trying to have fun!!" Yeah right dude, can you say CHOKING! I like Lawrence admitting he's got an arrow on his back.
Yeah the Lites class is a great contrast in character, Lawrence and Dungey could not be more different. And I think the laid-back ways of J-Law are better suited to high pressure than Dungey, who is trying and training soooo hard and has guys like O'Mara and DeCoster on him. Working hard is good, but that kind of hard work creates expectations and that means pressure. I think my sound engineer, Alan, summed it up best when we heard Dungey nervously saying "we're just trying to have fun" in his interview. Alan said "he needs a man friend to pump him up and tell him he's great." I hope Johnny is doing that and not just saying how great HE used to be.
M Brown,
I don't think we'll have the MXers in Florida this year, but Kawi is bringing Huffman, Destry and Dietrich. Kiniry told me he wants to race it bad, and since he's West Lites he would have the time, but he has to get his knee fixed up instead.
I don't know if anyone believes the hype with Travis anymore, sadly.
Weegee,
Kind of off subject here but what is with the silly $1500 holeshot award checks on the podium and on TV??? I have been riding MX for 20 years so I know how the sport has been struggling with cash and sponsors but now in 2008 with sold-out stadiums, shouldn't these check be more like 5 or 10k. I know it's just for the start but still.. Try to go to a SX race with a non-MX person, and try to explain that to them when you are sitting at Anaheim 2 in a sold-out crowd. It makes our sport looks so bad. No mainstream sponsors (Home depot, Texas Instruments, Coca Cola etc...) will take the sport seriously when they see that kind of money getting so much exposure. Think about it, in SD if we all gave a nickel, that check would be double that!!!
The reason why I care so much is because I have been considering starting a media company for SX and MX. I would love to bring big sponsors to the sport through sponsoring SX teams. I would basically offer huge firms like the one mentioned above a chance to reach the 18-24 audience through SX team sponsorships, similar to the NASCAR model. What do you think?
I'll tell you, when i see those Pregressive checks, i'm thinking none of these giant companies will take me (and our sport) seriously. Any thoughts?
Regards
Yves "Max" Pirez
Hype!???
When yer a God you don't need no hype!
Travis will kill it.
After reading what you said about "Chad has a few issues with himself right now", whats your take on what Matthes said in his observations last week from A3 when he said that theres rumors of Reed being out really late on Friday nights? Im surprised people didnt see that and start saying crap about Reed again as they always do.
I'm still not jumping on the J-Law bandwagon. I heard he was taking Dungey high the berms and basically acting like his usual retarded self during practice in SD. Hasn't the AMA warned him about this, like 100 times?
Some of Dungey's falls in recent races were his own fault, but he can't help it if riders keep falling down in front of him.
Max,
Man, I couldn't agree more. Years ago I was standing in the hallway waiting for an elevator after a supercross, and they were showing the holeshot check on TV. Kawi Manager Bruce Stjernstrom was there making fun of the idea of celebrating a $1500 award when you know Kawi just paid a dude WAY more than that to win the race. How big time does that make the sport look? Outside fans have to be thinking "wow, $1500 is a lot to these guys?"
I almost wish they just gave them the award without the $ figure on it. It's embarassing to millionaire athletes.
Abby Naguit,
Yeah I've heard about this Chad going out late on Friday nights, too, and now my question is "Where is he at?" because I want to get in on the party!
Unfortunately I haven't run into Chad despite my attempts to find a watering hole every Friday (I, luckily, don't have to perform athletic feats every Saturday so I can admit this). Often where there's smoke there's fire, but in this sport you never know. I've heard the same rumors about half of the Lites class. Bottom line is no one will ever admit this for sure and they'll lie and deny until the day they die even if they did--which sucks even more if you're actually telling the truth, because no one will believe it.
Personally, as long as Chad is winning the races, who cares? I think it only gets people really mad when you're not showing your true talent. I Reedy was getting paid huge and finishing 10th, then you may have some pissed off fans.
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