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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

30 Second Man

It's not easy teaching a Monster girl how to use a 30 second board. I snapped this picture of Live Nation's Cliff Nobles demonstrating the proper technique.


There ya' go!

Rain 100000 percent guaranteed (Part 2)

Focus. Block it out. Compartmentalize. Concentrate. I want you to remove all thoughts from today from your mind and think exclusively about Anaheim 1, and the weekend of Saturday, January 5, 2008. On that weekend, not one, not two but THREE storms were supposed to collide over Southern California, and the weather forecast called for a 100% chance of rain. 100!!!!

Well, as I like to say, weather must work on the same 110% scale racers do, because it didn't rain on Saturday until 11:26 pm, and by then it was too late. Yes, the track was soft and rutted and crappy. But the race was not even close to a full-on mudder, the types that makes bikes stop running. Apparent this weekend's forecast is something like 90% chance of rain. Only 90? Ha!

I told you I would start keeping a running list of "races we thought would be mudders for sure but weren't." In fact, for now on I'm calling them RWTWBMFSBW. Anaheim 1 now fits the category. Will San Francisco?

Let's say San Fran and its mere 90% chance of rain actually ends up being a mudder. A real bad mudder, like the 2006 race there. Let's start dreaming a bit. Stewart is out. Carmichael is retired. We are one bad race away from this being the wildest and most wide-open championship since, well, since last summer's AMA/Toyota Motocross Championship. Let's say Reedy has trouble in the mud and finishes 15th. If Kevin Windham wins, he will leave with the points lead.

The mud isn't a guarantee, but if it does rain, I can guarantee you the following:

Industry pundits will start using their rudimentary knowledge of geography to figure out who can ride well in mud. It's a simple formula: think of what state a rider is from, think if it ever rains there, and assign mud skills depending. In this formula, everyone from the East or Northwest "grew up riding in the mud" and anyone from California, New Mexico, or apparently Colorado did not "grow up riding in the mud." Europe used to be a key, too, but now that the French don't win races any longer it's a non-factor.

Teams/mechanics/riders will run all sorts of "it is what it is" and "you just have to be careful" lines. Most importantly, Reed will be 100000 sure to remind everyone that he likes the mud and doesn't suck in it despite previous results.

So that leads to this ridiculous hypothetical: Years ago, the Orlando Magic looked like a lock on becoming the NBA's "Team of the Future." They were still battling Michael Jordan and the Bulls, but it was only a matter of time before Shaq and Penny Hardaway took over the game. Then Shaq signed with the Lakers. The Magic were left with just one star, and I recall one sports writer saying, "They're just one torn ACL away from the lottery." Lo and behold, Penny came down with a bum knee and the Magic indeed dropped into obscurity. It only took two pieces for that castle to crumble. One of the supercross pieces is out.

IF Reed had trouble this weekend, or maybe , just imagine if Reed had some major Stewart-like problems, how do you think this championship would shake down?

Let me know.

Daily Kneeds

The Chargers lost to the Patriots yesterday, and the team's star running back LaDainian Thomlinson, widely considered the best player in the NFL, couldn't play. He tweaked his knee last weekend and after giving it a go at the start of Sunday's game, he realized he wouldn't be effective.
In addition, Chargers' Quarterback Phillip Rivers had a knee injury, but he was able to play. After the game Chargers coach Norv Turner handled the press conference, and a reporter asked "If Rivers was able to play with a knee injury, why wasn't LaDainian?"

The coach reacted harshly. "That's a stupid question. Next."

It was a dumb question. Just because one dude has a knee injury and can play, doesn't mean the other guy can, too. A) Not all knee injuries are the same. B) Rivers is a Quarterback who throws the football, LT is a running back who runs. The knee is a little more critical to Thomlinson than Rivers.

I hear the similarities in those criticizing James Stewart right now. He's not tough enough. He needs to suck it up. Etc. Honestly, how could anyone realistically make that judgement? Do any of us know the extent of the injury? For all I know, he could have nothing more than an ingrown hair on his leg and maybe even that's too painful for him to ride with. But the whole damned thing could be blown out, too. I do know the guy is bummed because he wanted to ride, and now he's not riding. But to just guess that the injury wasn't that bad and he just isn't sucking it up is really unfair. As it is, we'll never know for sure, but if James wasn't a competitor he wouldn't be in this sport and wouldn't be as good as he is, so I'm guessing that when he can't go, it's because he really can't go.

The Missing Man Formation

Your heart just has to go out for James Stewart. Retro night, 80’s night, whatever you want to call it marked a celebration for supercross, a first-time ever realization that the sport, on a grand scale, has produced enough memories, heroes, drama and stories to build an event around the past. And as much as we super-core fans understand the history of supercross, you have to think really hard to remember just how small the sport was way back when, just how insignificant it was to mainstream America, just how much more popular it is now. Oh yeah, the old-schoolers can point to the “golden era” and wax on about multiple winners and deep competition in the 1980’s, or millions of bike sales every year in the 1970s. But supercross in the current era can point out 50,000 fans per race, next day coverage on network television and consistent reminders in the mainstream press—like USA Today, or ESPN the Magazine—that supercross is very close to reaching the nation’s collective conscience.

So it’s a real shame that on a night when everyone who was anyone along the road to success for supercross, namely 37 past legends and champions in this sport, gathered for one supercross race, one of the best, perhaps the fastest, most talented, most popular and mainstream of them all, couldn’t be out there. Oh yeah, RJ and Bailey were there, so were Wardy and Glover and O’Mara and Stanton and Lechien, and even the OGs, like Brad Lackey, Marty Smith and Marty Tripes. RC and MC were there and even did some riding. Missing? Well, the exceptions to every SX rule, Jean-Michel Bayle and Damon Bradshaw. That’s about it. As far as riding talent goes, Anaheim 2, retro night, was a who’s who for this sport.

Except for that one missing person, the one who bridges the gap between supercross’ past and present, and supercross’ future. The one who broke down barriers (you know what I mean), introduced the next generation of skills and may possibly boost this sport to bigger heights than all that came before him. Hey folks, the rider is James Stewart. He was supposed to be racing and winning here. He was supposed to tame this ’86 replica track and carry the torch for the new school. He was supposed to show respect to the stars of the past, and get respect from them in return—you could almost hear all of those legends ready to praise James for his amazing skills on the bike, and hold him up as the example of how far supercross has come.

But now James has a bad knee. The injury didn’t happen due to the retro track, it happened on December 20^th when James crashed on his practice track. He tried to tough it out, but after a month of basically not riding and training, the knee only got worse and not better. One great improvement, though: James and the Monster Kawasaki team held a press conference in the factory semi, and James looked every media member right in the eye and told the truth about his injury. It’s a whole lot better than the mystery injury that followed Washougal.

But the knee isn’t going to get better, and James ended the PC with “The next time you’ll see me is probably Glen Helen in May.” And that was it for him on the evening. Yes, Chas Reed was there, as was RJ and Bailey, Wardy and Glover and O’Mara and Stanton and Lechien, and even Brad Lackey, Marty Smith and Marty Tripes. RC and MC, too. But during those opening ceremonies, James Stewart wasn’t there. He was handing over another championship on this night. Is he injured? Yes. Is he hurt? More than you could possibly imagine.

The Reasons (Now with updated reader comments)

The best part of the early season is that the riders are all slowly building confidence, which means the racing is still pretty wide open. By week 10, everyone might know where they fit in. For now, it's awesome. Here's what I saw from a few guys in Phoenix that the results won't show you:

Ryan Dungey: Well done for Dungey to get second and extend his points lead, but he had a golden opportunity to stomp on everyone and ruin their confidence, and he couldn't do it. It bodes well for the racing out West, because if Dungey had checked out with the lead on lap two, we could have been in for a snoozer of a series. He may still be the best championship pick out there, but it may take a fight to do it.

Jason Lawrence: Dude, I am going waaaaayyy out on a limb saying this, but I don't think he had the fitness he needed down the stretch to win the race. J-Law was fast all day, and he fought hard to climb into contention. When Hepler fell, Lawrence was right behind him in fifth, and you could tell Hep was a little rattled after the crash. I fully expected #338 to motor by and then start pressuring the leaders, but he just never made it happen. Of course, for all I know he had lost his brakes or had arm pump or something and he's super strong and now Jason and Ryno are gonna' kick my ass for saying this....

Austin Stroupe: Dude, the kid is fast and he looks so much like Villopoto with his short stature and #51 that it's almost scary....for the competition at least! (laughs please). Anyway, he's a little too aggressive right now and that cost him, but the West is so wide open that I could see him figuring this out and winning a race before the season is over.

Broc Hepler: At risk of more Ryno ass kicking, I nominate Hepler as the modern day Ryno. That dude has thrown away more wins from small washouts and tipovers than anyone. Even Josh Grant has figured out how to exorcise those demons. I think Broc had finally worn Dungey down and was ready to win that race...now he's already 19 points down.

Nic Wey: I think NYK just had a bad night in Phoenix and we haven't heard the last of him. He had horrible starts and crashes at the worst times. As it stands now, positions 3-10 in the Supercross Class are pretty closely stacked, and if Wey can get in those battles early and get his confidence back, he can get back on the podium again. But if he has a few more bad ones, uh oh, people are going to start blaming that no-link.

Davi Millsaps: I can see the "Millsaps Sucks" headlines coming to a message board near you. But let me tell you, in his heat race he shadowed Langston and Ferry the whole time, and then uncorked an awesome jump combo in a rhythm section. He passed Ferry and then nearly got Langston on the last lap. I've always said Davi rides like a guy who doesn't know his own strength--occasionally he just busts out crazy jumps and combos and it looks like an accident. Davi's potential is off the scale, he's like the guy on the basketball team who can run and jump right out of the gym but just needs to round out his game. I think it's make or break time for that right now, but unfortunately he got screwed when Alessi clipped a tough block and Davi and Ferry hit it and went off the track. If Davi gets a good start, he can run with almost anyone and that will build that confidence.

Andrew Short: I know Tedesco was the one everyone was talking about at Red Bull Honda, but Shorty handled him in both the heat race and the main, and for a few laps he was closing on Windham and the podium. He needed this ride, and I think Short's about to become a player.

David Vuillemin: DV is nursing a thumb injury right now and he's not riding as well as he could. He has not given up yet.

That's my take--I think this is the best time of the year because no one is sure where they stand yet. Let's get interactive again. In three weeks time, will Dungey be dominant or will we still have a battle? By the halfway point of the season, will we still have positions 3-10 up for grabs in the Supercross Class, or is someone about to start owning that podium real estate? Give me your thoughts.

Who's Bad? (Now including new comments!)

Okay, now it's time to put this blog on auto pilot. This year's Anaheim 1 had an exceptionally deep field of talent. There may not have been 12 guys who were considered Stewart or Reed speed, but there were A LOT of good names and good rides battling in that 450 group. Best of all, we didn't have any major injury stories this off-season, and everyone escaped A1 healthy. )I will knock on wood and type with one hand here right now)

Anyway, who do you think has the most to gain based on their A1 performance. Who will get much better? Who has shown us what they really have?

Here are the candidates, all of whom did not make the podium:

Vuillemin
Alessi
Short
Millsaps
Tedesco
Ramsey
Hill
Langston
L'il Hanny
Summey
Wey

Who has the most upside from this group? Josh "faster than Langston at the test track" Hill finished 16th. Tedesco crashed a ton and finished 15th. Can Langston get much better than battling Ferry and finishing 4th?

Get back to me on this.

- blogandt

Reed's what we need

I'll repeat these two oft-used quotes again:

"The sport needs good racing and close competition to keep growing."

"The sport grew thanks to the dominance of Jeremy McGrath, and then Ricky Carmichael."

So then, is it competition or superstar dominance that makes the supercross dial turn? Right now the sport is positioned for either. Thankfully for everyone involved, Chad Reed brought it at Anaheim, silencing the doubters for probably the 732nd time in his career. Just when you count Reed out, he usually goes out and delivers with a solid ride.

Here's a partial list:

Stewart pulls over and lets Reed pass him at Unadilla in 2002, then passes him back and wins. David Bailey says on TV, "after a move like that, Reed may never beat him again for the rest of his life." Reed wins the very next moto in the series straight-up against Stewart at Millville.

In 2002 Reed talks some trash about not wanting to race the 125 class, he wants to race 250s and go after Ricky Carmichael. No one believes he can do it,when he gets his shot in 2003, but he wins a World SX round in Europe, then wins A1. Carmichael gets a bad start there, though, but Reed is steadfast saying he is working on beating Carmichael heads-up. No one believes he can do that, but he indeed does to the tune of six-straight wins to end the season.

In '05 Carmichael hangs a bunch of wins on Reed early in the season and has all the momentum, Reed fights back to pass RC on the last lap and win San Diego. Then James Stewart re-enters the series, and in the first-ever Stewart/Carmichael showdown on a dry track, in Orlando, Reed wins. He also wins Daytona, the race Carmichael is supposed to own. After RC wraps the championship, the three superstars head to the "gloves are off" shootout in Vegas. Carmichael is expected to uncork it now that he doesn't need to worry about points. Reed wins.

In '06 Reed is struggling bad and losing ground to Carmichael and Stewart. Just when it looks like it's over, he wins big in St. Louis, and when he needs it again he wins in Dallas. He wins just twice all year, but each win comes at the most opportune moment. Last year in Toronto Reed is thought to be struggling since he has just had shoulder surgery in the off-season and has a new team to work with, and he ends up winning the race.

At Budds Creek, twice, Reed comes in with doubt everywhere and expectations on "getting smoked." He promptly takes third overall in the National in June and second in the first moto at the des Nations in September. Then he's supposed to be all fat and out of shape and over it, but he is the fastest rider at the US Open and Bercy, and now he has won A1.

What am I saying here? If the game of racing is mental, Chad has something in his arsenal no one else has, an unwavering belief in his abilities. Maybe it rubs people the wrong way at times, but the guy has won plenty of races that other riders of equal ability wouldn't, simply because he believes he can win every time he rolls to the line.

And if Reed doesn't win some more this year, well, James Stewart's dominance may just take the sport to another level, just like McGrath and Carmichael did before.

Still no rain

And we wait and wait, but still no rain today. It rained hard last night but the track was covered, and Live Nation spent the morning pumping water off of the tarps. During a meeting this morning there was a hope of a weather window between 3 pm and 2 am with no rain, so they're going to pull the tarps up at 3:30, have a track walk and then some practice. If that weather window doesn't close, we'll have another notch on the "races that should have been mudders that weren't." Perhaps I'm jinxing Southern California now, and if so, hey, you had no idea this blog was powerful enough to change the weather, did you?

You know what I like about this year's racing? We all know James Stewart and Chad Reed should be the fastest guys, but I'm looking forward to the bug mash up of guys behind that. I'd maybe, maybe put Langston as a third favorite, but can you really guess who will be better this year between him, Ferry, Tedesco, the forgotten talent Davi Millsaps, Andrew Short, Nick Wey, Vuillemin...then you technically have two rookies this year in Josh Hill and Mike Alessi. Where will all these guys all fit in? We may need to remove all fixation on focusing on who wins only, and instead look a little further back. Of course, this summer we learned that guys battle a lot harder when they're racing for first instead of third....

And then we have Lites, starring Ryan Dungey, Jason Lawrence, Broc Hepler, Brett Metcalfe, Jake Weimer, Austin Stroupe.... this title is up for the taking now that Villo2 is out, which should make it really fun to watch. Careers can change depending on how tonight shapes up--for real a bad race in a short series can cost someone like say, Hepler, his best every chance at landing a professional title.

But bad races should be easy to avoid tonight, because the tarp is coming up and it's still not raining!

Tarps coming off

It's Here

I don't even have time to run through all the stuff we've done since getting out here to California. After a great Red Bull Honda intro party on Wednesday night, we held the SX press conference on Thursday. Then yesterday we headed to Pro Circuit to shoot our SX preview show on Racer X Films, and stopped by Troy Lee Designs for a tour. I then whipped up Racerhead real quick before heading to Tom White's house (the founder of White Bros.) for a tour of his amazing motorcycle collection. It's right up there with Primm. Through it all though, there has been scant amounts of bench racing going on. I think everyone is scared to think too hard about all of this, because anyone rational will realize Stewart has a huge edge until someone proves otherwise.

Unless it rains, and then anything can happen. It finally opened up last night, but it's not raining right now. Moreover, the track is covered in plastic so at the moment it's all good. If it's not raining tonight, I will begin a running tab of "races we thought would be muddy that weren't," because this has happened plenty of times before.

What? Supercross begins in 48 hours????

I spent a solid two weeks vacationing, proposing and basically forgetting about the whole darned sport. But now that I've been in California for two days, I realized what the problem was: no one is talking about the sport right now. This has to be the least hyped, least buzzed A1 ever--this is ridiculous, but I suppose the idea of someone challenging James Stewart for the title this year is ridiculous, too. So now we have what we have.

But I'm starting to feel some pumpitude coming on. We had some real fun last night at the Honda Red Bull intro and today's PC was pretty good. I'll report on it all soon, but for now we're off to the annual Racer X go-kart night at Pole Position.

But the blog is once again the place to be!

TGIF

My blog is now official since I'm sure every other one ever made has once made a post on a Friday titled TGIF.


Hey the rest of the Man Friend story is coming but here are a few other topics to feast on:

As evidenced by the Racer X interview with Josh Hansen, Mr. Over It is now focused down in North Carolina. Not to worry though because Jason Lawrence and the rest of the hard core SoCal club have a new recruit --Josh Hill. Check out the Transworld site for a hilarious interview with Hill and his neighbor Lawrence. The boys are throwing it down and it's fun. I bet Keith McCarty at Yamaha is just thrilled to hear about the J Hill J Law connection.

By the way, seeing these two team up reminds me of when the Philadelphia Eagles signed Terrell Owens, and he said he and Donovan McNab had already started working on their touchdown celebration dances. My favorite sports writer, Bill Simmons from ESPN.com, wrote "Name me one Super Bowl championship team that started the season talking about touchdown dances."

Evil Knieval is dead at 69. When we heard the news at the office today, everyone reacted the same way "That's it?" Do you see what kind of legacy this guy has left? It's like the fact that he has passed without doing it in a fiery wreck is a disapointment. "That's it." That's how everyone reacted. The guy lived such a spectacular life that everyone is disapointed that he died so anti-climacticly, I guess.

Here's some more "motocross is everyone in the world" info. Here's a story on the races in Uganda

and also a story on Sean "Hawaii Five-0" Lipanovich racing in Guam.

Have a good weekend folks. On Saturday night, WVU is playing against their arch, arch rival Pitt in a battle for a birth in the NCAA National Title game. I'm buying a few extra fire extinguishers.