Sunday, March 30

Ruts Up

To be honest, once it became clear that this track would get rutted and technical, it was Chad Reed's race to lose. And yes, Daytona and Minneapolis (and even Atlanta) where his to lose, too, and he did lose them, but it would have taken something really crazy to stop him this time. Reed is just an amazing supercross rider and when you really put the field to the test of skill, you're just not going to stop him (unless you're James Stewart). So with a real technical test, it was over, and even if Reed didn't get the holeshot, he would have won anyway because he's the only dude on earth that can ride 20 laps on a mega tough, mega rutted track like this and not make a ton of mistakes and crash.

We'll see how this all plays out. Dallas could still present some wrinkles, with a super hard pack surface when it's dry and/or the constant threat of mud. For now though, Reed has to be feeling like he's right back where he belongs.

Saturday, March 29

Toronto

Everyone was puzzled looking at the race track today. Tim Ferry designed the track, and the layout is fine, but something funny happened on the way to building the course. The dirt up here is frozen, and then when it came into the heated building, it started thawing, which threatened to turn the whole course into soup. A whole bunch of sand was dumped in to try to utilize less of the thawing dirt, but it's still going to be wet.

"It will be like a mud race just without the mud," said Travis Preston during the track walk.

"I think we're actually opening up natural springs once we get down into the surface. There's water underneath," said Kevin Windham.

This will lead to an unpredictable track that's slick and wet and soft and rutted in some areas, and then sand in other spots. Everyone is concerned with the ruts, knowing that jump rhythms that look good earlier in the day may not be around by the time the main events begin. It should be tough, it should be technical and it should separate the riders. Reed even told us it reminds him of Indianapolis, where he laid out the track but the whole race really came down to the rutted soil instead of what direction the track went. We'll see if this plays into Reed's hands like it did in Indy.

Reed did go home to Australia during the weekend off, he said he spent his first Easter in Australia in eight years. He didn't do much riding either, because at this point he's been riding for so long that a week off won't make a big difference anyway. Maybe he won't be so sharp. Maybe it won't matter. Honestly I think at this point Chad is just trying to control the championship and winning every race isn't so important.

Which leads us to Ferry. He's back riding after three races off with internal injuries. He looks good, in fact, he notched the fastest lap time of anyone during the second practice session. I can't remember the last time Timmy was the fastest in practice. In fact, this may be the first! Timmy told us he's got some hope now that Hill and Millsaps have gotten their first wins. Could he really come off the couch and do it?

I wouldn't count Reedy out.

Friday, March 28

Exchange Rate

I first traveled to Canada in December of 2004 for my big tryout to become host of the Supercross Live! webcast. I headed to Vancouver and realized my cell phone no longer worked and neither did the American dollar (although we've heard it barely works anywhere these days....rimshot!). I still have about $20 canadian at my house that I swear I will remember to bring up to Canada one of these days. But we're about to leave for Toronto and I've forgotten again.

Should be interesting this weekend since the riders have had time off. I was really, really hoping that by now we'd have Tedesco and Langston and Alessi back in the mix, but I guess they've all switching to "wait until outdoors" mode which is really too bad. Tim Ferry is coming back, though, since he actually designed this track. You know, last year Timmy mentioned that he may have been worn down by the time the end of the nationals came around. He needed to step up in the last few rounds once the title was on the line, but he realized he was the only rider of the four battling for the AMA/Toyota Motocross Championship that had raced every supercross that season. Maybe he was a little burnt out by then. Timmy earned a month off of supercross this year with his injury. Maybe this will help. I've already heard he is pinning it on his outdoor track at home.

And I'm sure the weekend off was what Chad Reed needed. I don't know how he was able to carry his luggage home with two broken hands, but he did make it back to Australia and now back to the U.S. I think he's just trying to hang on for this title now since all chances of win records are out the window. Maybe that will open the door for some others.

I've also heard no Ryan Dungey this weekend. Suzuki wants him back on a 250F getting ready for J-Law in Seattle and the upcoming AMA/Toyota Motocross Lites battle. With the way Trey Canard has handled things in the East against Ryan Villopoto, a lot of riders have to be thinking the Lites outdoor crown is back up for grabs.

And speaking of Lites, the Toronto Lites race should be awesome! I expect such big names as
Jean-Luc Paqvette, J Marc Broussainault, Christopher Laliberte to be up there. Actually, I stole those names from the GNCC C class. I have no clue who is racing Lites this weekend. Maybe eh Mitche Cooke eh? I can only hope we get the two craziest announcers in the history of announcing, Cost and Trav from the Canadian Nationals on TV, to help. Back in '04 we had them up in the booth and I thought they were going to pop!


Thursday, March 27

Another PR

Got this press release on The Crusty Demons Night of World Records presented by Rockstar Energy Drink. Enjoy this line: the event will feature a full Crusty Demons freestyle motocross show with star riders including world number one Nate Adams and X Games gold medalist Adam Jones as well as freaks and the gorgeous Crusty Babes.

Is it possible to be both gorgeous and Crusty?

Wednesday, March 26

Constituents

El Blogandto and the fiance went back to New Jersey for a few days for Easter. I also wanted to check if those three-way offers were still open in the state. Alas, I guess such offers are only available to high ranking government officials. Like former NJ Governor Jom McGreevy, who admitted to a few "political parties with an independent candidate."

New Jersey has been living in the shadow of New York for centuries, but I think the state clearly beat its rival this time. Yes, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer did get caught with a hooker, but that just shows what a desperate man he is. New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey didn't have to pay a dime for his acts of adultry. And even better, now word is out that he was able to nail the elusive three-way while in office! Of course, McGreevey's affair and the three-way involved other men, but hey, these are two very progressive states and this just shows McGreevey was really willing to reach across the aisle (literally?) and come to terms with all groups. New York's guy just resorted to old fashioned payoffs to get his work done.

I only wonder what traps this sets up for the people that take the place of guys like McGreevey and Spitzer. Current New Jersey Governor John Corzine crashed his car big time while speeding to the Don Imus/Rutgers Women's Basketball team meeting (you can't make this stuff up). New York's new Governor is, well, he won't be seeing any other women in the future (sorry). He luckily just came right out and admitted both he and his wife have cheated on each other in the past. Rumor has it that Jose Canseco is already writing a book about this--I think he shot NY Governor Paterson's wife with HGH.

Yeah, I love going back there for a few days. You just have to be really careful when someone asks for a campaign contribution.

Thursday, March 20

Bradshaw Theory

I didn't become a really big Damon Bradshaw fan until after he started winning. Bradshaw came up through the ranks so quickly that getting pumped when he won was kind of pointless. I mean, we all knew he was going to dominate....until he stopped dominating. I don't know if anyone is sure what happened between 1992 and 1993, but it would be akin to James Stewart just going out there last year in supercross and suddenly "not having it." It seems impossible, but that was the case with Bradshaw in 1993. Soon, Jeremy McGrath had Bradshaw's momentum and mojo and the rest, as they say, is history.

At that point I started rooting for Bradshaw big time. I felt like the predestined champion of the future had fallen off the tracks and and things just weren't going to be right until he got back on them. I hoped he would find his old mojo again, but he retired instead. And it turns out McGrath winning was the greatest boon the sport would ever have, and things didn't really suffer too much without Bradshaw around. Shows what I know.

A few years later Bradshaw came back and I was ready for all the McGrath praisers to finally learn their lesson. Bradshaw was the greatest! Turns out I was wrong again. Bradshaw never got back to his old level. For whatever reason, that crazy speed just wasn't there anymore.

So I'm gonna' coin Bradshaw theory for two riders I've watched recently.

First is Ryan Villopoto. No, he hasn't dropped off to the point of possible retirement like Damon (Bradshaw was eventually crashing out of supercross races and finishing 16th at times in '93). But watching Trey Canard handle everything for the first few rounds of East action reminds me of Damon. He's just not the same guy right now. Going by past results, he shouldn't just be contending for this championship, he should be destroying it. Yes, Villo has a bad wrist. There's a reason for what's happened. But there was some sort of reason for what happened to Damon, too. Unfortunately that was way before the internet blew up so no one was talking back then.

Anyway, Canard is very much the McGrath to RV. In the early stages of 1993, McGrath wasn't neccessarily faster than Bradshaw, but he was putting his races together better. Getting better starts, riding more consistently. Bradshaw found his groove a few times and won a few races, but he never really got the rookie McGrath in his sights. We'll see if RV can do better.

On the GNCC side, my buddy Jason Raines trains harder and wants it more than anyone out there. But he was cursed with injuries and basically missed the entire '05 and '06 seasons with broken legs, and most of '07. He returned late last year just like Bradshaw did in 1995, but he struggled in the GNCCs. A full off-season to get going was what he needed, but man, after the first two races this year he still didn't look like the same guy he used to be.

My biggest hope here is that this whole Bradshaw theory is totally overblown and it won't actually apply to these guys. I've been wrong before and I've been wrong again, and when it comes to RV, I think we might all be eating our words if we doubt him too much (just like those that jumped off the RC bandwagon from time to time). This is a complicated game and it's hard to predict the future. I hope it's rosier for these guys than it was for DB's racing career.

Wednesday, March 19

I have seen the future

And it is this: Yamaha putting a helmet cam on their rider and then putting the videos up on their website. Click here.

On the PR theme

Wow, the previous post here drew more comments than any one yet, so we're going to keep on the PR theme (and make sure you read all the comments from the previous post). Today I got this press release from a rider out of the Amateur Nationals down in Texas. I only read it because at first I thought O.J. Simpson's old roommate had started racing. But it turns out we have a new phenomenon on our hands.

KAELIN LOOKS TO CONTINUE MOMENTUM AFTER LAKE WHITNEYS TOP TEN FINISH

Petrolia, Ontario (March 18, 2008) – Upon concluding very successful qualifying races during the Lake Whitney Spring Classic in Whitney, Texas, last weekend, Canadian, Dylan Kaelin rode his Privateer Honda to an impressive tenth place finish in the second moto of the Motocross B Modified Class.

Kaelin finished the weekend placing 12th overall in the Motocross B Modified class, 18th overall in the Motocross B Stock class, 25th overall in the Motocross Lites B Stock class, and 29th overall in the Four Stroke Open (A&B) Class.

Lake Whitney was a learning experience”, explained Kaelin of, Grand Bend, Ontario. “I know I have the speed to be a top ten rider in the B class. Unfortunately the track was really one lined and if you did not have an inside gate pick you had a long moto ahead of yourself. I am really looking forward to racing at Oakhill this week. My goal is to continue to improve on my results. This week I want to focus on my starts and qualify well to give myself better gate choices for the main events.”

A press release about a rider who scored tenth in one B class moto? Is this newsworthy? It reminds me of the dad who came up to me at the Racer X booth at Broome-Tioga a few years back. He was wondering why the magazine kept ignoring his son, who finished top five in the B class in his local AMA District. WOW!!!!!! I danced and danced around telling him "Uh, that's not really that exceptional" and instead told him Racer X usually only covers pros. But then he hit me with a little stat carefully engineered to blow my mind. "Oh, you don't think top five in the local B class is worthy of a Racer X feature? Well let me add this little tidbit: the kid is just 17!!!!!!!!!"

The dad seemed to think he had Doogie Houser on his hands.

Monday, March 17

I'm sure he said this

This is from this week's Chad Reed press release that comes from Fluid PR, his PR agency. Do you really think Reed said these words?

"This is a disappointing outcome after I was setting myself up to take the lead," said Reed.

"I had to sit out the final practice and haven't felt well all weekend, so to be in the position to potentially win this race was very positive."

"I felt as though I had enough to hang on and win this so seventh is little reward."

"It also hurts in terms of the championship, though I am lucky in a sense that Windham didn't take maximum points."


It's a shame that you can tell quotes are fake because a rider is actually speaking properly. Check out line two above. No racer would say, "haven't felt well." They would say, "haven't felt good" even though it's not correct.

On Saturday night I started mentioning the next major error in racer speak. Riders have dropped the word "enough" from their cliche podium speeches. They all say, "Yeah I can't thank my team for all the hard work they put in." Can't thank them????? How about Can't Thank Them Enough???

Sunday, March 16

Like Anyone Predicted This

Five winners now in Supercross, thanks to another un Reedlike moment from Chad Reed. Crashing while going for the lead? He doesn't do that!

And Reed might have been under the weather today but he was pulling his standard tricks and looking good to engineer a win. He got a horrible start but snaked to the inside and came out in about 5th--just like he did in Daytona when he got a bad jump there. Then he had just a few good lines he was making work for him, like an awesome outside line around a corner everyone that was killing everyone on the inside. Once he passed Windham and a bunch of others, and was going after Josh Hill who he had beaten plenty of times this year, I totally and truly believed Chad was going to pull this off after all.

But then he crashed in the whoops. Where did that come from?

And then Josh Hill and Ryan Dungey just straight up beat Kevin Windham. How about that?

And now Josh Hill has won a supercross race in just his second year as a pro. This has turned into one wild year. And somewhere at home guys like Tim Ferry, Ivan Tedesco and Grant Langston are sitting at home thinking "I could have won one, too!!!" It's been that kind of year.

Saturday, March 15

Minny

Strange things happening here in Minneapolis. Trey Canard crashed early in the second practice/qualifying session and limped off the track, hurting either his knee or his ankle. He's supposed to be okay as far as racing tonight, but he still missed the rest of qualifying, which doesn't bode well. In the first session, he and his teammate Josh Grant were battling and they collided and Canard fell. I was pretty shocked to see them battling hard and then even more shocked to see them come together in a corner like that. What's up with that?

Then Chad Reed just straight up no-shows for the second practice for 450s. My man Jim Holley told me Chad was sick and apparently that was the problem. I have a sneaking suspicion he will be plenty good for the main tonight. Chad's a gamer.

Windham looks good though, and even Minnesota's own Heath Voss was fairly strong out there. And now Preston just turned in the fourth fastest lap of anyone, although riding in a different session than the seeded guys. Wait, now Dungey just stepped up and went third fastest.

Okay, I think this is one of those "lap times mean nothing" nights. The track is way fast and not tricky at all so everyone should be able to go good here. I think we'll have some good racing and maybe some aggressive moves since passing is going to be tough--no one has a different rhythm down through any sections to make a difference. A block pass or two could be the difference maker tonight.

And it's not raining here inside. That's nice.

Wednesday, March 12

Recovery

Okay. Feeling better now. Don't drink one on an empty stomach, this is not just a can of Red Bull.

Just Drank a Fuzion

You know that energy drink that Chad Reed pumps on the podium? It's actually a small bottle and it supposedly gives you six hours of energy. I just drank half of one... )#@&*!#(^@!&*%^#$%%@#!&@#!^%$^@%@#6234354!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Tuesday, March 11

The Latest Technology

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC0sR5_NTFo

(There was a MAJOR error in my previous post, which was easily even worse than this clip. Sorry about that.).

Monday, March 10

last leg

The final part of this trip is here. Last night after the gncc I hitched a ride in the scott rig to get to atl airport, and we made sure to keep japanese racer takeshi koikeda in the rear view. Tk raced the gnccs as a guest of the am pro yamaha team, and he lives with jim holley in california during the winter. Jim made me promise to show tk the way to the airport. I owed tk that much, since he carted me around when I was in japan a few months ago. Its pretty cool how this sport makes for a small world.
Anyway now I have one last job on this trip. I have to fly to chicago to do arenacross tv. Hmmm think there will be a delay?

Friday, March 7

are you serious

Chad reeds bike blew up on the last lap while he had a giant lead. I can't even believe this. That's the hardest rain I have ever seen during a race. It was a monsoon. I'm glad we had enough going on to where I got to do something, I waa worried my first gig here would have ended up with me not getting to do anything.

Ok I am heading to gncc in georgia with the scott goggle guys. That's my fourth race in a week. Daytona week rules!

are you serious

Chad reeds bike blew up on the last lap while he had a giant lead. I can't even believe this. That's the hardest rain I have ever seen during a race
Ok I am heading to gncc in georgia with the scott goggle guys. That's my fourth race in a week. Daytona week rules!

are you serious

Chad reeds bike blew up on the last lap while he had a giant lead. I can't even believe this. That's the hardest rain I have ever seen during a race
Ok I am heading to gncc in georgia with the scott goggle guys. That's my fourth race in a week. Daytona week rules!

daytona

On tuesday I got a phone call from a woman named julie from daytona.one of her announcers would be unable to work the event due to medical troubles. She needed an announcer and I guess someone heard our webcast on xm and suggested me.next thing I know I'm one of three announcers here at daytona. Oddly I've never even been to the speedway so when I went to get my credential and saw the place I was blown away. You can't imagine how big this track is. Its ridiculous.
So I'm all pumped and can't believe my luck. I am announcing as part of the live cre at daytona tonight.
But just when I thought i couldn't get any luckier, this announcement comes out today that the daytona folks have won the bid for ama pro racing properties. So this is probably a good day to have as your first day on the job at daytona.

Spotted in a Reed Press Release

....that I got today, “I feel like I can step the pace up another notch and keep the YZ450F at the front at what is my home race in this competition.”

Who actually talks like this? Do you really think he said this?

Wednesday, March 5

fitness

Yesterdays gncc was old school. It was just an old fashioned battle of who trained harder and who could dig deepest. Three hours on sand is bad, and its made even worse when the parts that aren't whooped out are covered in these giant palmettos that feel like riding on conrete blocks. I didn't realize how bad it would be until david knight rolled into the finish with a giant lead. I figured he was cruising to the finish. But the guy was exhausted. Just spent. He told me the problem was that if you went too slow the track was actually harder, so he had to keep pushing. Then I knew the rest of the guys would be in trouble. Sure enough jimmy

fitness

Yesterdays gncc was old school. It was just an old fashioned battle of who trained harder and who could dig deepest. Three hours on sand is bad, and its made even worse when the parts that aren't whooped out are covered in these giant palmettos that feel like riding on conrete blocks. I didn't realize how bad it would be until David Knight rolled into the finish with a giant lead. I figured he was cruising to the finish. But the guy was exhausted. Just spent. He told me the problem was that if you went too slow the track was actually harder, so he had to keep pushing. Then I knew the rest of the guys would be in trouble. Sure enough a huge battle came barreling into the finish next, with Jimmy Jarrett, Garrett Edmisten and Barry Hawk waging war through the final turns. They finished in that order, but Jarrett and Edmisten were totally spent on the podium. Edmisten, in fact, could barely even get up after basically collapsing off of his machine at the finish. Everyone was whooped.

I felt bad for the guys, but it was cool in a way to see a race that really came down to guys just laying it all out there. Whoever was strongest, fittest and dug deepest did best. That's old school.

Monday, March 3

GNCC

Super-pumped at the GNCC right now on Monday night. Strolling through the pits and looking at all the new teams, bikes and numbers, and thinking of all the guys who are looking strong and sharp and ready, you just can't help but get fired up. It's just like Anaheim 1, really, where you forget just how many contenders there are until you see them all together at once.

That includes Travis, of course, and he was happy-go-lucky as usual. But Travis, and everyone, was in for a shocker today when they hit the practice track. The track has more tree roots and palmettos (basically giant dead tree branches that are really like riding over roots). It will be a much more technical track than the typical Florida sand race--Travis said he did more Supermans out here today than he did riding freestyle.

I could go on and on with who looks good, Knight, Kanney, Raines, Thad DuVall, then you have the Suzuki boys here too. I can’t wait.

I was so pumped that I decided to go riding myself. My summer manfriend Tim brought two bikes, and he was dumb enough to let me ride one even though I was surely going to crash. It took about 3 minutes on the sand to be completely exhausted. Does this even make sense? How can you get THAT tired THAT quickly?

Well, I figured something out. Just a minor adjustment, changing my stance and griping the tank more with my knees, and suddenly I was riding with my legs instead of my arms and there was a huge difference. I got some good riding in, and then Tim and I hooked up and did some battle for a lap. He stalled and I passed him, then I stalled and he passed me back (the entire track was basically lined in tree roots and it was tough). Just as we were approaching the final woods section before heading out to the open stuff, I washed the front end on a root and went down. The roots smashed the pipe so bad that it ripped right out of the cylinder. I then cruised back to the pits on the loudest bike in the facility. But the bashed up bike wasn’t mine! Yes!

Sunday, March 2

fla usa

This post is really just a test to see if I can update the blog from a blackberry

Saturday, March 1

Indy

So Chad Reed gets to build his own supercross track this week, and as expected he equips it with the Reed favorites: 180 degree corners seperating rhythm sections. I've heard Chad lamenting the loss of back-to-back rhythm lanes since they started going away back in 2005. I think the theory is that riders are thinking about one lane while they're racing through another, and that leads to crashes.

But if you're Chad Reed those sections are easy, and you'd just as soon make the whole darned track a technical rhythm section. Maybe throw in some gnarly whoops. So Chad did his best to build this track to his liking--Windham and Stewart said they built their tracks to be fun but not neccesarily favor them. Reed, well, hey, can you blame the guy for taking advantage?

But here's the irony. The most difficult rhythm section here is after the start. And would you believe that Kevin Windham was the first to dial it in cleanly, tripling in and out and then tripling the jump out of the next corner. Next to do it was Davi Millsaps. It took Reed awhile to get it down. He seemed to be unhappy with his suspension, too. So Windham ended up fastest in the first practice session.

A few minutes later Ryan Dungey was out there in unseeded practice, and he actually put in the fourth fastest time of anyone, just behind Windham, Reed and Millsaps. I was impressed that Dungey actually put in a lap a tiny bit faster than Josh Hill, his fellow pro sophomore who has already been riding a 450.

But then it all changed in the second session, when Hill went out and put in the fastest time of anyone! Yup, even a tenth quicker than Reed. I think Windham was looking around more than working on going all out for his lap, and Millsaps spent some time working on his machine in the mechanic's area as well. The bottom line is that this track didn't separate the riders once everyone figured out the tricky combinations. I think now it will come down to the ruts. It already looks bad out there and some of the more technical combinations may not be doable every lap. This could lead to mistakes, and I think that will be the deciding factor as opposed to all-out speed.

Dungey crashed out of the second session when he cased a triple bad. He's shaken up but otherwise okay.

In Lites, RV2 looked much more like his old self, just aggressive and attacking everything. But Josh Grant had a faster time in the first session and Trey Canard beat everyone (!) in the second one. Very impressive.


I really pumped (super, even) on how the series is going right now, except for this ridiculous string on injuries. But at the front, the wins are really in doubt. Make sure to tune in www.supercrossonline.com for our webcast.