Catch All of the Action

Last night I visited Racer X advertising guy Jason Berry at his house to watch some big soccer match. He's English so he's allowed to care. I watched a game with him last week and it of course ended 0-0 (or nill-nill) so in the rematch last night, Manchester United beat Barcelona 1-0 in a comparatively high-scoring affair. Anyway, I'm almost embarrassed to admit that it was kind of fun to watch. Just about every player had a hair style that could be made fun of (Man U was known as "the feux hawks." Barcelona started as "55 year old rocker hair" and was later narrowed down simply to "Robert Plant.")

Anyway 1-O seems boring but it was pretty tense in the final minutes when Barcelona was trying to score to stay alive, and couldn't. I thought it was good. Then a few hours later I was watching SportsCenter and they actually showed highlights. Apparently this match was a big deal. So what did they show? The one made goal, and two other misses. I then realized one of the main problems with soccer. You're not going to make it look cool in a highlight package against dunks, homeruns and touchdowns. People watching on SportsCenter probably thought "well those are just some of the highlights." Nope. Those were ALL the highlights. One made goal and two misses. That's all that happened in the entire game.

So I once again realize why soccer will never become popular here. And when I say never, I mean never, ever, just in case something else Beckham-like happens and people start predicting it will be big again. IT WON'T.

Paparazzi at its all-time worst

You're not going to get the next two minutes of your life back. But if you click on this link about David "THE MAN WHO WILL LAUNCH SOCCER IN THE US!!!!" Beckham you will see the biggest waste of a report in this history of reporting.

WHY EVEN BOTHER MAKING THIS REPORT???? WHY DO PEOPLE CARE???????????

SP

Super Pumped On:
In a normal year, we have two champions of the East and West setting up for a showdown in Las Vegas. This year we have four main characters heading into the event, with Canard and Villopoto from the East and Dungey and Lawrence in the West. Think about taking all of these personalities and controversies and shaking them up in the same cannister. We now have unfinished business between rivals on BOTH coasts colliding with each other at the same time. Did you hear RV on the webcast say he was looking for revenge on Canard? Did you hear him say he hopes Lawrence crashes in the main so Dungey would win the title? RV has now become a hunter for real! The boys are DEAD if he gets his way.

Not Super Pumped On:
This whole "waiting for the nationals to begin" BS. Mike Alessi should be racing supercross right now. He is healed up, he is racing and riding in California, and he is paid to race supercross and motocross. I don't think DV is giving Rockstar and Makita and Suzuki the results they expected, and he's definitely not giving them the results to make up for Byrne and Alessi going out. Hey, what if Mike takes a tumble in the Talladega turn and twists his ankle real bad? What if he's out of contention for the outdoor title already? Should you put all of your eggs in that basket?
Same with Ivan Tedesco, who told us as early as San Diego that he was out until the nationals. There's no doubt iin my mind that IT could be on a bike and racing SX right now. I say do it. The field is depleted so these guys have a free pass at some results. Do you think IT and MA see Short getting podiums and say, "Well, there's no way I could compete with that guy so I might as well sit out."?

I know Tedesco feels like he came back too early last year and blew his confidence by riding hurt early in the year.

But now we have these last to second charges, and Lites guys moving up and kicking butt, but half of the talent in the 450 ranks is out. I don't think it's much to ask for the guys who could race to actually race.

Just watched the races on TV

Man has this been a great season for supercross. First I watched Seattle, and Ralph and Emig really delivered when it was needed. I was waiting for them to miss all the excitement of that Seattle race, but they got it all and it was even better to listen to them than to our show. We were pumped and trying to keep somewhat under control and on top of the action. Ralph and Jeff were just pumping it and it was good.

The NBA playoffs are on TV right now and they pump the living crap out of how hard the players want it, what drama the games create, how teams are going to go to war for the next month. That supercross was the rare equivalent. Reed and Windham dug deep and played huge in the clutch. Under any other circumstances, Andrew Short would have won that race. But in the last five laps, the two championship guys went big and won.

Throw in the bad boy winning the West title over the golden boy, and this new "RV vs. Canard" fued, with Villo stirring it up on our show, and you've got as much drama and as many characters as you can handle. After watching the St. Louis Lites show and the Seattle race, I'm pleased to say the TV people delivered and got all of that drama on the show. I was, as usual, ready to throw the set out the window, but it was all there.

After the race on Saturday, Chad Reed was out by his rig in his gear signing autographs and just generally hanging out a good hour after the race. Still in his gear! The guy was beyond pumped, and I think in many ways he felt like he had just won the championship with that clutch ride.

Meanwhile, the YoT boys were arranging a championship party, and I'm sure Kevin Windham was getting his 9.5. hours of sleep that Jeff Spencer prescribes. We have all the tools right now, and I hope new fans are seeing it on TV like I am.

Seattle

Yes, Seattle is still cool. But I never could get on the internet, and I spent most of the day trying to do it and failing, which means lots of wasted time. The result? No blog updates, no videos in the pits, and I DIDN'T GET TO MAKE MY MOTOXDREAM.COM PICKS!!

Looks like I will be handing my office fantasy SX crown over to Billy Ursic this year unless I can get commish Tim Boryk to embark the "one race drop" rule.

Anyway, what a friggin' race last night. Totally makes up for all of the frustrations of the day. I only hope the TV crew gets it altogether for the post-season wrap-up show that will air on CBS Sunday after the Vegas finale. That race last night was movie-script level deep digging from Windham and Reed, both reaching way back and finding something extra, and doing something they shouldn't have been able to do. K-Dub got a tuff block cover caught in his wheel, and we all know you're toast when that happens. Somehow, someway, he figured out how to get that cover out without losing that much time. Then he dug down and found some extra speed and endurance, and charged all the way back in sight of the leaders.

For awhile it looked like Andrew Short would notch his first win, but ultimately, he was just a mere mortal riding against two riders, Reed and Windham, that need to put in super-human performances to win a championship. Reed, too, was nowhere for most of the race, but from lap 14 on he absolutely pinned it and made up huge ground in a short amount of time.

In the end, both Windham and Reed felt like winners, and now some of the heat between them has cooled. Reed is now pissed at Short, who did everything save from breaking Reed's leg in a corner to try to stop him from getting second-place points. They both talked some junk after the race, too.

And in the Lites, Jason Lawrence did what he had to do, taking second and igniting probably the biggest victory party the Lites class has ever produced. Ryan Dungey, though, is notably more calm and relaxed and happy now than he was in Houston, even though he lost the title tonight. I think, in the long run, this championship loss will actually make him better.

And hey, we had Ryan Villopoto on the show and he talked trash on Trey Canard and J-Law. See you in Vegas, boys, or even better, see you outdoors!

death and taxes

Today I had to come to Chicago for an arenacross tv taping. I was a little nervous. Obviously when you fly out of O'Hare airport you know your flight will be delayed.It is simply impossible for a plane to stay on schedule here, so I made sure to take the 5 pm flight to Seattle, because taking the last one at 8 pm would be a disaster.

So how is this 5 pm flight working out? The plane was late getting in, we were late boarding, and by then there was too much traffic on the runway to get out, so we have been sitting here on the tarmac for two hours waiting for the runway to clear. Two hours. No joke, they are now going to start the in flight movie...while we are on the ground!!!
What other system works this poorly?

200 percent

Practice Makes Imperfect

Okay, two notable themes from riders who raced in the ESPN Moto-X World Championships:

This from a Broc Hepler interview on Racer X:

But another good thing was the ESPN crew was great and let us practice for four hours on Wednesday, and then Saturday and even Sunday morning; we pretty much practiced a total of five hours on the track, so it was easy to get dialed in.

Then this from Justin Brayton's interview on Racer X:

That was cool, ESPN definitely knows how to treat their athletes. We got a ton of time on the track; we had two full practice days on the track before the race.

Okay boys, so which do you want? Lots and lots of practice, or no practice, or less practice. Because every week riders are complaining and asking for less practice, to the point where Supercross finally just stopped having Friday practice altogether a few years back. And I'll bet you good money that Saturday practice at the Nationals will be gone before long.

Then this event comes in and provides a lot of practice, and now the riders are pumped!

More from St. Louis

As a result of high gas prices....

Easy-Going Red Head

No, not Trey Canard. A local Pennsylvania paper covered Broc Hepler's win at the Moto-X World Championships, and included this line: On the racing circuit, Hepler is known for his easy-going demeanor and bright red hair.

Enough!

My dad listens to every SX Live! broadcast and he pointed something out to me via email on Saturday night. After the Lites LCQ, Matt Boni won the Asterisk Mobil Medic Card and then said on the podium: "can't thank Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior."As dad said, this is taking lack of thanks to the highest possible level!

Indeed, the forgetting of "enough" in the "can't thank my team enough" interviews is getting out of hand. Today Andy Bowyer completed an interview with ATV motocross legend Doug Gust, and Doug of course said "I can't thank my team" in his interview. I proof read it for Andy and explained to him that Doug made the classic mistake of forgetting to say "enough" and Andy didn't even realize what I was talking about. It's just automatic at this point.

As you know, I'm very passionate about getting better interviews since that's basically all I do in life. Last week I had to call my sister who was in the hospital after knee surgery, and I nearly slipped and asked her is she would be back for the nationals! It's automatic for me at this point.

So I'm really into this. And enough is enough.

Tipping Point

I’m gonna’ say it right here since I’m not sure if anyone else in the sport has said it this year. I’m going behind enemy lines and bringing out major intelligence here. Ready? Go mark 2008 down as the tipping point from hard training to hard partying. This sport is cyclical. We had a “super-training era” in the 1980’s where guys like O’Mara, Ward, Bailey, Glover etc. would run full sprint on a SoCal Wednesday afternoon in July while wearing black sweatshirts and then measure who puked the hardest. That eventually yielded to the good old days of the 90’s, when MC, Fro and the gang tested a lot of parts in Lake Havasu. Then Carmichael came along and started this whole “training” thing again as if he was the first racer to ever actually train. The Carmichael training era had two effects that are lasting beyond RC actually racing. A) Every racer has to have a trainer now. B) Every racer must say “work hard” at least once in their interviews. Those two factors have masked the truth, and that is that hard work isn’t quite as hard as it used to be. Okay stop right there. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Don’t go anywhere. I’d like to explain that this isn’t a problem. This is not a bad thing. The only real problem is that we’ve all gotten so conditioned to think that the hardest working guy wins that we can’t possibly see what good could come of this changeover. That’s why I can’t tell any stories or give up any names, because I’m not going to become the NARC of SX. But I can tell you that some really, really good racers are no longer afraid to have a good time. And you know what? They’re getting good results! I’m not talking about L’il Hanny here, I’m talking about guys who are having career years, banner years. It’s cool and it’s okay, and I think most fans would have even more respect if they knew these guys were real guys who do real guy things. Does anyone hate Ron Lechien? Does anyone hate Jeff Emig? In fact, there’s one guy out there now who could probably grow from hall-of-famer to legend if anyone was allowed to publicly discuss his deal, which is going wide-open during the night life, making big money and winning all at the same time. But I’m actually scared to even post this right now for fear of becoming the NARC. The world just isn’t ready for this, even though it really is.

And if you hate it, we’ve got Golden Boy Dungey and 200% Canard in the wings, and down in Florida there’s a kid named Adam Cianciarulo who can work on his multiplication homework by totaling up all the pushups he does. Of course, any of these kids could get caught in the same game some of the current crop riders are in. But that’s not a bad thing.

STL 2

(Note: I am still trying to find ways to actually like this Blackberry thing I bought last month. To convince myself I didn't waste my money, I used it to post here this morning. Turns out it didn't work. So now I present the post I meant to post here about 15 hours ago. Yeah Matthes, it's a life-changing device.)

Something wicked did come this way, as Trey Canard simply refused to lose against Ryan Villopoto, and now he's a Supercross Champion. What's most impressive about his wild ride tonight is that it looked like all of the momentum had swung to Villopoto, and Canard basically needed to turn the totation of the earth back in another direction. I did some research and watched Discovery Channel this week, and it turns out that's hard to do. Things definitely were going Villopoto's way. RV notched three straight wins and Trey missed the podium each time, and everyone kept marching out the "Townley came from worst to first last year" talk, and then Villopoto went faster than Canard in St. Louis practice and in the heat race, and then he even caught and passed Canard in the main. At that point, it was suppsed to be over.

Canard didn't accept that. He ran the ragged edge for a lap and managed to keep up with RV. It was checkers or wreckers for Canard, I saw at least three massive mistakes that could have put him on the ground. It was the type of run you only see in those rare one-race championships, like Loretta Lynn's. Canard was out of control, pushing the envelope and pushing his luck, but he had enough speed to get to the inside of Villopoto as they headed up the face of the finish-line jump, and that was all he needed.

After the duo collided and RV ended up off the track, it comes down to a judgement call. Was Canard dirty? Was it wrong? Hey, a championship was on the line. Anything goes.

STL

As my buddy Andy Bowyer always reminds us, St. Louis always brings the drama in Supercross. Check out Andy's Rev Up here for his take Last year we had the wild Stewart/Reed take out exchange, the year before the absolute impossible happened when Ricky Carmichael crashed out of his heat race, crashed in the first turn of the main, and broke his bike all in one night (RC, basically, never did any of those three things, but in STL '06, he did all of them at one time).

Yes, there's usually something crazy in St. Louis, but Chad Reed is doing his best right now to prevent that from being the case. He looked really good in the first practice, in fact, he looked pretty much normal, and at one time he held the fastest lap time of the whole group!
Later, Kevin Windham stepped up and put in a time a half second faster that Reed's best. Then the AMA removed Chad's fastest lap because he stopped on the track, which is now no longer allowed. This bumped Chad to third in that first session. But it wasn't really about having the fast time for Chad. It was about proving he could ride, which he did.

So if you're expecting Chad to struggle to 12th again, don't count on it. Unless something wicked this way comes....

Torco Racing Fuels Honda has imported Dan Reardon to the 450 class tonight. Next week, Josh Grant will race the 450 in Seattle. Both are saying it's so they can get experience on the bigger bike. Realistically, I think the boys are here to get between Windham and Reed. If Chad had another bad round like he did last weekend, and he was struggling, a guy like Reardon getting into the top 10 could push Chad back. But the way Chad looks now, it may be a pointless endeavor as far as changing points. Reardon is running lap times about the same as Keith and Kevin Johnson right now, so I'm not sure he'll be a threat to get in front of Reed. I'm pumped to see what Grant can do next week, though.

In Lites, RV is way, way faster than everyone else. Straight up. He's almost two seconds a lap faster than everyone else. The kid is firing on all cylinders now, so Canard will have to pray for a miracle. You never know around here though....

A New Percentage!

Talked to downed GNCC Racer Barry Hawk today. Barry went flying into a tree in South Carolina on Sunday and broke four ribs, collapsed his lung and broke his shoulder blade (the collapsed lung managed to top Chad Reed--some stiff competition there). Anyway, I asked Barry when he will race again and he said he will race the next GNCC at Loretta Lynn's. He says he will be at least 10% by then. 10!!!!

Right now he's still in the single digits. I don't believe I've ever heard this before.

A Good Story

Click Here to read a cool story on a regular guy who loves racing dirt bikes. This is how we would all like the sport to be represented in the local news.

April 15

All of these speeches and plans for a new America that each of the candidates promises for November sound awesome. But today, when I have to go down to the post office and mail out a whole bunch of money to the government, it's easy to start feeling really selfish. I mean, I could buy a really gnarly plasma/flatscreen/HD TV with an iPod, surround sound, satellite, internet, huge speakers and woofers and all of this crap and maybe even a radical/trick new cell phone with the money I'm about to drop. It would be sweet. And also, uh, yeah, boost the economy, yeah. That's it.

Detroit 2

Normally I post something here Saturday night. But normally I don't turn 30 on Saturday night. It all turned into a blur at the Greektown Casino, and when I woke up this morning, I had a bad headache and memories of a crazy night of racing in Detroit. It made me question everything I remembered from the race. It seems unbelievable that Chad Reed would crash in practice, get a ride to the hospital in an ambulance, then return to walk, not ride, onto the track in opening ceremonies and do his interview while still having his emergency room bracelet on. Only Stone Cold Steve Austin has bounced back from an Ambulance ride to perform again so well later that night.

By race time, rumors and speculation had reached a fever pitch, and the wrestling analogy started to fit. Everything was in play--provisional starts in the main, out for the season, or even planting fake injury reports to psyche out his competition. We heard Reed had a broken shoulder blade. But then we heard that could have just been a fake story just to throw people off. Hey, it's not out of the question to try that--Reed's dealing with Kevin Windham and Jeff Spencer here, and he knows how their mind works. After the race, Windham said he was struggling to stay calm through the emotional roller coaster he was riding all day....

So even when Reed came out for opening ceremonies after all, no one was sure what he really had (although by looking at his eyes on the big screen, it was clear that, at least, he had some good pain killers). The heat race and LCQ went terribly, but could that have possibly been part of the plan, too? I think I was buying a little too much into the WWF hype and rumors surrounding the building. On the 200 percent Trey Canard scale, 100 percent of me expected Reed to whip his San Manuel Yamaha coat off like James Brown, hop on a bike and start nailing triples. The other 100 percent of me expected Windham to hit him in the ribs with a steel folding chair. The whole scenario was bizzare and totally unprecedented.

Before we even knew what was really going to happen, Trey Canard dropped the Ice Trey moniker as soon as he tried to pass Ryan Villopoto on the first lap of the main. He went for it in the whoops and very, very nearly crashed. Canard wisely slowed down and saved it, and then I think the following scenario ran though his mind "I don't have to beat Ryan here to win this championship."

And just like that, Canard was finally thinking about the championship. And the the pressure came.

Once Canard couldn't shake Nico Izzi, it was obvious that he wasn't the same guy who said "what championship?" in Minneapolis. He was making huge mistakes, and finally he crashed. If ever you wanted an example of "don't slow down because you'll start riding different" this was it. Now Villopoto just needs to win once more in St. Louis and he'll complete the worst to first comeback just like Townley did last year.

Then the 450s rolled up. In the end, everything was much more real than any rumors could be. Honestly, if Chad could have raced hard he would have done it in the heat race, because he was screwed with a bad gate pick for the main. Reed was hurt, he was probably numbed up pretty good, and beyond that he had guts and determination and most importantly, the classic unwavering Reed confidence. In his post race interview with us, Reed explained that he knew he would be in the back of the pack, but he knew what that competition is like, he knew they weren't as strong as him, and indeed while Reed didn't go very fast, the riders around him got tired and crashed and handed him one spot after another. On the last lap, Nick Wey and Paul Carpenter crashed, and Reed slithered from 14th to 12th. Crazy.

Reed isn't just tough physically. He's tough mentally. After the race he told us he had wanted to get a good start. I don't think ANYONE else in that situation would have wanted to get a good start. Dive into the first turn at the front of the supercross pack right into a ridiculously rutted set of whoops when you have no idea if you can even ride a bike at speed at all? You're liable to get run right over and end the season right there. Reed has no fear.

Lucky for him he crashed in the first turn instead, so he was able to safely pick his way around downed riders and get his 12th. Windham, meanwhile, could only get third, as he just didn't have anything for Ferry or Millsaps. Depending on how this season turns out, K-Dub can look to his thirds at Minneapolis and Detroit as the major gaffes to his title drive.

Then we had more controversy after the main when Windham had words with Reed. Reed ran him wide in a turn when he was about to get lapped. More mind games? More psyche jobs? Just reality? The line right now is fuzzier than my mind last night.

Detroit

Hey you might have heard that Chad Reed got injured in practice?

The track here in Pontiac is very technical. There are two rhythm lanes that are very tough, and riders were still experimenting with jump combinations into the second practice session, where as usually they have it all figured out by, well, the very first lap of the first practice. One such technical section claimed Reed. I'm not sure if anyone here saw his crash, because everyone has been asking all afternoon "Did you see the crash?" All I saw was a rider down, and then I scanned around and realized Reed wasn't out on the track any longer. I couldn't tell who it was because the rider was on the side of the track and stuffed up against some tuff blox, but when I saw Larry Brooks running to the scene, and Nathan Ramsey was still on the track, I knew the impossible had happened. Reed was down.

From our binoculars up here, we couldn't tell what was hurt, as Reed was holding his arm to his side. So what was hurt? His arm or his side? It appears it may be the side, because later Hollywood Holley saw Chad coughing hard as they loaded him into an ambulance. The Asterisk guys wanted him to get some other observations beyond what they can do at the track. They did not rule out Chad returning to race tonight. He's one tough SOB (that's a statement from me, not the Asterisk guys).

Reed wasn't here for the second practice session. By then the riders were ready to try some crazy jump combinations, and they're so tough that I really don't think you'll see them used in the main. First Windham started tripling through both lanes, then I saw Andrew Short doing it, and Millsaps, but Josh Hill's name kept coming up at the top of the board. He, obviously, had the sections down, too. Then Windham went to the top of the board, so Hill went out and went even faster. Hill seemed to jump the rhythm lane before the finish line just a little cleaner than everyone else, and he also jumped it from the right side, which gives him a better line in to the following left hand corner (Millsaps, for example, starts on the left and has to drift to the right through the section in order to get the corner right).

Could Hill steal points from Windham on a night when Windham has a huge opportunity to make up points?

By the way, Reed only has to ride one lap in his heat race to have an automatic entry in the main with a provisional. And once in the main, he gets one guaranteed point. Although I really don't think it will go that way, I think Reed will either race or not. He's not going to do a lap in the heat and main and just take his points.

In Lites, RV was fastest in the second session, and Grant fastest in the first, but Canard is right there. I think he can get a podium here with his eyes closed (he nearly got a podium last week after starting in last), and that's all he needs to do to get this title.

Either way, this most unpredictable season has just gotten unpredictable again. Who would have predicted that?

By the way, they're bringing one of those "Ball of Death" contraptions out onto the track right now. The one with the big steel ball that the riders can go upside down on when they get enough speed. This particular "Ball is Death" is actually called the "Sphere of Fear" and it's 90 freaking years old. 90! Makes me feel young today.

I also noted that the stalls in the men's room here at Ford Field have locks on the doors that say "Hiney Hiders." This place is awesome.

What's good

Yup, I had a good time at NASCAR. I've always said I can see the appeal of the sport, even though I'm not a fan. But now that I've been to two races, I may just be a fan before long.

At times you can watch all of these cars going around in a circle, and even though they're going fast it doesn't look that fast. It can look downright boring. But NASCAR, like baseball, isn't slow and boring, it's high speed chess, actually. There's a lot going on out there if you pay attention. Cars are getting tight and getting loose, and teams are using all sorts of strategy. It can actually be fun to watch even though they don't do jumps or even turn right. And now things are beginning to join up, with a TON of NASCAR guys coming to the Supercross on Saturday. Juan Pablo Montoya was hanging with his family in the Nursery (yes, Live Nation designates a room at each race for families), Joe Gibbs had all of his boys up in a suite, Jimmie Johnson and of course Clint Bowyer came, and there were a bunch of other drivers and crew guys around, I just don't recognize them! Anyway, it was quite a compliment to our sport that the NASCAR community wanted to come and watch the races.

Now I'm going to go sell out and go for the huge money and become Mr. NASCAR and maybe I'll just come to one supercross a year and hang out in a suite like Mr. Cool Guy. Don't expect me to say high back to you.

NASCAR

Well, sorry moto people but I had a great time at the Dickies 500 (yup) at Texas Motor Speedway yesterday. That's NASCAR, folks. Or maybe you're already a fan and you think it's okay for me to think it was okay. Motocross-related driver Carl Edwards won (he shares a trainer with Tim Ferry, actually, and he digs moto big time). And major thanks out to Michael Holigan and Merge Racing for hooking us up with the ridiculously sweet suite to watch the race in.

More on this later. Just wanted Mom and Dad to know I made it back okay (yes I use the blog to communicate with them).

Dallas 2

TOMORROW WE'RE GOING TO NASCAR!!!

Anyway, tonight was supercross. Chad Reed won thanks again to his slight edge in speed, big advantage in knowing how to win races, and a little dose of determination. Reedy has winning figured out, he never tries to pull away by a few feet in each turn, but he tries to pull away by inches, and it never rattles him if someone is hanging close. He knows they will eventually make more mistakes than him, and he will win. He just understands how to manage 20 laps, which comes from the experience of winning 30 plus races throughout his career. At no point was Chad ahead by more than four seconds. At no point did it seem like his lead was in danger.

The battle for second was unbelievable. The track was hard to pass on because there's so little traction that no one could go to the inside and knife under anyone. The track had five 180 degree turns. There were no block passes.

The second place battle was classic supercross. Hill was there and just digging deep, riding a wide bike and trying to recover from each mistake he made in time to cover his lines and prevent anyone from passing. It was like playing help defense in the NBA, he would slip and give someone the step, but he would close off the spot before Millsaps could get past. At one point they touched in mid air, and Millsaps actually left a tire track on Hill's back. And neither crashed.

Kevin Windham was hanging it out hard in fourth. K-Dub doesn't usually make hige mistakes and live on the edge, but he was doing it tonight and he managed to keep riding like that the whole race without tightening up. It led to great racing.

And yes I must have jacked Trey Canard because almost everything that could have gone wrong for him went wrong. The kid really does keep his cool out there even in the worst of times.

By the way, now I have to go share a bed with Andy Bowyer who told me his feet smell like garlic and onions combined with milk left in a cooler that sat in the cab of a truck all day in the summer. We roll high end.

Dallas

The hole in the roof works. The track here in Dallas was soaked this morning due to rain on Thursday night. And of course when the Dirt Wurx crew took the plastic covering off of the track, some of the water from the tarp splashed right back on to the track. Yes, David Vuillemin would not be happy about that tarp removal technique (unfortunately, DV is out for the night anyway after a crash at the Suzuki track this week).

Anyway, the track was wet and sticky at 11:15 when the track walk began. By 5 p.m., when practice was finished, they actually had to bring the water truck out because it was dusty out here. And ironically, right now as the water truck is about to come out, they're playing the same videos on the big screen they have been showing since January: how to set up a bike to race in mud. They shot this stuff in San Francisco.

Anyway, this track will be hard and dry. I thought that would lend itself to Kevin Windham's style since he's so smooth and has great throttle control, and he always used to rail here in this stadium. But Chad Reed completely stomped everyone in the practice sessions, putting in times nearly a second faster than everyone else on both his first and second fastest lap times. He's got it dialed. Uh oh for the rest of the pack.

You know who else looks strong? If you did you wouldn't be reading this so I'll tell you. Andrew Short is going good. Andrew does live in Texas now, so maybe that means something. Honestly, I thought he would suffer a bit with the new practice format they're using today. The riders ride a lap or two, and then the red flag it, send everyone back behind the starting gate, and then start the timed practice. I asked Kevin Windham about it and he said he had no idea why the format changed, and I said it was probably for safety so guys don't go out and charge on their first lap around the track. He rightfully said that hardly anyone has ever gotten hurt on the first lap of practice. So who knows.

Anyway, I thought this new format would hurt Shorty, because he always, always pins it on his very first lap in order to get a good time on the board. Some guys work their way into it, but you always see 29 among the fastest laps as soon as the session begins. But, he actually looks better than ever with this new format. I don't know if that means anything, but I do know Shorty likes hard pack better than ruts.

In Lites, Ryan Villopoto has it totally dialed on lap times. But Trey Canard is a cool customer. I was stranded at the hotel this morning because Steve Cox was all West Coast timed and said he couldn't get me to the stadium by 10 a.m. So I was stuck without a ride. I saw Trey in the lobby and asked if he had room, and his mom quickly picked up for him and said they will make room. So we cruised over in the Canard van, with Greg, his massive trainer, at the wheel. Trey even gave up the last seat in the van for me, and he sat on his helmet. I told him he didn't have to do that, but then I figured hey he's all in shape and stuff so he could handle it. Plus, the kid doesn't seem to get upset over anything. He really looks like he's having fun and feeling zero pressure. So I figured he could sit on his helmet during the drive.

But way, if Canard does poorly tonight, we know why.

April 2

Yes well the Blogandtites have spoken, and apparently they're disappointed that I didn't come up with something good for April Fool's day yesterday. So to make it up to you, I'm going to mount my best Mike LaRocco come-from-behind attempt and come up with some good stuff.

- The JGRMX team thought Josh Hansen was actually going to work out.

- Ryan Villopoto is on the ropes in the Lites East Class at the hands of a rookie.

- James Stewart isn't going to win the AMA Supercross Title

- The Butler Brother's MX team swept the podium at a supercross

- Travis Preston is riding Stewart's bike

- Kevin Windham is riding harder and stronger and better than ever

- Josh Hill won a supercross. On a 450.

- Chad Reed has been inconsistent

- Nathan Ramsey is having a much better season than he had last year

- Travis Pastrana completed a three hour GNCC without getting hurt

There you go. A belated bunch of April Fool's jokes. There's no way any of that stuff could actually happen for real.

Jersey's Finest

Jersey legend Mickey Kessler back in '81 at Englishtown!

Canada Heights

Toronto is cool because we can actually road trip it from Morgantown--it's about the same distance as Detroit, making it about the closest Supercross race to home. Unfortunately, our road trip skills have faded a bit lately, with Olympic beer-drinker Dave Brozik working in Florida for the winter, Mike "Fubar" Farber only working 2 out of every 3 races, and photog Matt Ware getting all chicked up, as we say, and not attending as many races. Even DC hasn't run as may events, since he has baby #2 now and was probably spending some time on this whole NPG/AMA/DMG deal. And I'm engaged, which should cut back on the road partying skills. But hey, fame is fleeting in the love business. One day you're the guy getting married and the next time you're the guy getting caught cheating at the U.S. Open (it didn't stay in Vegas).

So this year's rotation included me, "Bad" Billy Ursic and Andy Bowyer. DC let us use the company Toyota Tundra (biiig brakes. ummm, beefy). Problem was, the truck is owned by Toyota and has California plates, which aroused some suspicion when we drove across the boarder on Friday. The goal is to NEVER let the Canadians know you're at a race for work, because rumor has it they will tax you on the income, or even worse, try to produce paperwork to find out why they didn't have a Canadian do the job. In may case, I guess I was taking announcing work away from Brian and Trav from the insane Canadian Nat's shows on Speed. I feared the interrigation. "Mr. Weigandt, can you prove to us that you're able to scream "holesheeeeaaaaaaatttt" better then a Canadian?"

In fact, last year Ware and I drove in, and when they saw Matt had like 10 g's in camera equipment, and three boxes of motocross magazines and posters, but wasn't going to Canada for business, they got suspicious. We actually had to get out of the car and stay in a room while they checked the car without us watching!

I was determined to play it cooler this time. Even though we had a company vehicle that Toyota owns, we were NOT coming in on business. I reached back into my archives, summoning the acting skills that powered me to the lead in my high school musical (a good ten years before there was "High School Musical").

"Who owns this vehicle, sir?"

"Actually Toyota does. Here's the registration."

"So this is a company vehicle? How did you get it?"

"Through work."

"What do you do?"

"We work for a magazine."

"A magazine? How do you have a truck then?"

"We traded it for advertising."

"And what's the name of that magazine?"

At that point I needed the acting skills to kick in. No way in hell did we work for a motorcycle mag. I quickly started thinking of a magazine title. I thought that Toyota may advertise in an outdoor magazine. All I needed to do was think of a fake title for an outdoor mag. What's out there? Outdoor Life? Field and Stream?

"Sir, the magazine is, Outdoor...Stream."

OUTDOOR STREAM!!! I said we worked for a magazine called Outdoor Stream!!!

He believed it and let us go.






"The magazine