Not much more to say than this: Stewart and Villopoto are doing what everyone is afraid of. They're establishing dominance early. Could this be 2004? When Stewart destroyed the 125s every week and Carmichael did the same in the 250s, basically making the whole season into a big ad for 2005? So many elements are similar, from the rider in the main class (Carmichael then, Stewart now) possibly switching teams, to the rider in the smaller class (Stewart then, Villopoto now) matching the lap times of his future rival despite using a smaller bike. The racing for the win was boring today, I'll be honest. But 2004 was even worse, because Carmichael won every moto and Stewart won 23 out of 24 of his. The sport survived, and we will this year, too.
And I know, it's early in the season, but right now this is starting to seem like destiny.
Monday, June 2
24 motos of advertising
Posted by Jason Weigandt at 2:54 AM
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21 Comments:
It's a bad sign when the announcers talk about boredom by the second round. Maybe you guys can pretend it's all so exciting, so us guys listening in can feel the same way?
Weege, i have an off-topic question: what is it with all of the riders switching trainers mid-season? Are rider-trainer relationships based on a wink and a nod that they either will or won't be working with each other come the next week? It all just seems odd to me that someone like josh hill would break ties with ryno right before the outdoors, or dungey all of the sudden saying goodbye to o'mara after he was so obviously on his game by the end (and beginning) of the supercross season. There are many more examples than just these two, but can you shed some more light on this?
thanks for the webcasts and the blog!
Weege, I have an on topic question... do you think we should bring back the "Streaker" at the events... give you announcers something to stir the activity pot with? Let's start with a guy running with a Australian flag... and then the US guys will want to "one up" them...:-)
The water cooler talk around here is the same topic with a boring summer of runaways, but damn…..we all longed for a healthy Stewart last year in outdoors and in SX and he is finally back. That is always a good thing.
I thoroughly enjoyed last year’s 450 title battle, but maybe because James has only been back for two races, I will take the walk-away motos to watch him ride. He sells tickets and it’s cool to see him back at that level. He has paid his dues and it’s time for the heir apparent to shine.
As far as RV goes, I see a lot more potential for some battles in the Lites class. It will just take a Townley-like guy to swap some motos with him and the talent is definitely there. Whether or not anyone has the balls to hang it out all year is yet to be determined.
A boring summer…I hope not.
I have a question: what's the reason behind the popuarity of KTM in the World Championship as opposed to its little popularity in the Nationals? If you look at the classification of the best 40 Lites Class riders at Hangtown and at the best 31 MX2 Class riders at Mallory Park, you will notice that at Hangtown only 5 out the 40 classified riders (12.5%)rode KTM; in the World Championship, 9 out of the 30 classified riders (30%) rode KTM. And 50% of the top 10 riders in the UK GP rides KTM as opposed to 10% in Hangtown. Is it merely a matter of the budget spent on the race team being bigger in the World Championship or is it something else?
I hope next weekend's show includes that Lee (or whatever the Aussie's name is) commentator and Emig. Fro always does a good job, and it's refreshing to hear someone with a background in the sport to complement his insight.
When RC got all the motos in 2004 it was something special for sure. I was, and still am, in amazement that it could be done. Think about all that goes into it. The bike never breaking, which would have been heck on Gosselaar, him not getting hurt enough he couldn't ride. Which if I recall almost happened when he and Windham came together on a practice session. I still have the picture of his leg all swollen and purple someone on my computer. I know from a racing stand point it stinks to always have the same person win, but for someone to beat all the odds and win everything... that is something special to behold. If Stewart and Villopoto can do it, then great for them. Now with that aside though, I sure would like to see some other winners too!! I just think it is important to realize how hard it is to win them all, and why nobody had done that before RC in 2004.
Drew,
I think you have posed a great question there. I had been wondering about they deal with the trainers too. I was surprised to hear that Ryno and Hill had split. I was surprised to hear that Lawrence and Ryno had split too. For some reason, I don't know why, I just didn't expect that. I should have known to expect the unexpected from Lawrence, but I didn't for some reason. Of course Townley and Baker split a while back when he and Stewart started working together. So yeah there has been a lot of trainer shake up. I guess if you think about how many people start a gym membership and then quit or switch something about it isn't that odd, but these guys are not usually so "willy nilly" so to speak. Great question.
Yamalink> His name is Lee Diffey and he used to commentate our V8 Supercars series here in Australia.Good to here he landed a sweet gig.
anonymous,
Yeah, Leigh Diffey! I actually watched the recorded race again yesterday, and one factor was knowing the commentating wasn't going to make me throw my bowl of cocoa puffs at the screen. He wasn't quite as colorful as a commentators on the GP mx races. They come up with some awesome sayings I can't even begin to mimic so I presume they told him to tone it down for the US audience.
The announcer guy got on my nerves. I like Fro but the other Guy is DULL! This season is going to be bad enough without having to listen to this guy all year. How about Jim Holley, or David Bailey or even the Weig. I think Rick Johnson would be good too. The show reminds me of the FIM motorcross shows on the Outdoor channel and I hated those things
All,
Just in case we don't have much to talk about in the battle for the lead, we have two options ready to roll for the summer of 2008:
A) Play dumb and throw out options that make it seem like someone will beat James and Ryan. For example, this weekend in Texas we can say "James has never raced here before so maybe he'll get beat."
B) We're gonna throw in some more jokes and prepared material to get us through the moments when not too much is going on. And this isn't just during the motos, it's during the pre-race show and during intermission. Should be fun, so please go and waste a beautiful Sunday afternoon listening to our webcast.
Noooo, not Holley, Bailey or Johnson. Okay, maybe Bailey. But if I have to listen to another mid-80's flashback-slash-comparison, I'll either slit my wrists or start watching the Westminster Dog Show.
Get Hannah to commentate! Just one race, and that would set the bar for all!!!
I hear Ricky is making a comeback!
Travis too.
;)
I am actually glad Motocross is back to being won by the fastest guy - not the one who isn't hurt or rides "supercross only"
IndianDuneser
Holley and Ralph should get together, and go anounce riding lawnmower races. Holley could spit and scream and Ralph could still be clueless! If Holley could calm down and not act like he just pounded a sixer of Monster he might be OK. Bailey is my choice, he is well spoken and super knowledgable He explains important, but, not obvious circiumstances throughout the race like no other.
all I know is that Liegh is one step below nails on a chalk board. He is just real annoying. Maybe it is that he has the "commentator Voice" instead of just normal talking like we get from Fro. Maybe they could throw in some guest announcers and let them talk some to break up annoying sound of Leigh's voice. How about some of the riders that are out hurt. They might have something interesting to say.
I liked the announcer, I thought he was knowledgeable and enthusiastic.
Either that or bring back DB and DC. And I think Fro is sounding smoother every time. Announcing is hard and I would imagine it's even harder when you used to have a stutter like Emig did earlier in life.
I thought Doug Henry did awesome for the ESPN MX deal. He and Fro would be AWESOME!
for the record Weege is pretty darn good too, Emig and Weege would also work!
Emig's cool, but his announcing sucks. He doesn't give us any insight into what riders are thinking or feeling or how they're attacking particular sections. He states the obvious way too much and talks about everything under the sun except the adrenaline pumping racing he's supposed to be stoked on.
And what's more, he speaks as if we're all a bunch of 1st graders who've never heard of MX!
I feel insulted listening to such brain dead announcing.
That said, I absolutly love that Aussie guy!
and Bailey,
and DC,
and Holley
and pretty much everybody except Ralph.
Langston did a great job in the booth during one of this year's SX races. He's not doing anything as far as he can see (pun intended). Why not stick him in the booth for the summer?
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