Cool, I got to go first. Pourcel is kinda puzzeling. But he is in control. His 2nd motos have been off the last few weeks, but as long as he gets overalls that are on the podium, he will get the title. But he cant do this during the Des Nations. Dungey is waxing the rest of the field right now. He is in a class by himself. It pays to listen to smart people, and do the right things, and he is proof. And ANDY, no love for the WMX? or do they not race Washougal, now I'm not sure. But they have had some excellent races this season too. I am glad I got to watch the women at Red Bud.

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Your predictions are always spot on!

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at this point, I do not believe a start is going to help Alessi. He is shell of what he was a year ago! (b-4 the injury). Any word on what was wrong with Reeds Neck? KW gets a podium this weekend!!!!!

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his predictions are not always right on, Last week he also said Reed would be in it at Pala.. NOT. Have not heard anything on Reed either.

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I don't know if it's "likely" Canard will win 3 or 4 more overalls. Possible? Yes, as far stranger things have happened.

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Bowyer! I'm shocked you don't know this! Chuck Sun did whiskey throttle a 500 and landed in the catchers mit corner- Somewhat Doug Henry-esque. It used to be an epic part of the track, now it's a lame sweeper found at any local track. It was removed 5 years ago I believe.

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the whole retro thing is a killer concept..but once again there will likely only be like 3 people on the gate with some sort of retro look....opinion #2 alessi is not making any come back at all for the rest of this year. the 350 (or should i say 415) just aint cuttin the chedder. when he got his 1 moto (and only) he was soooo pumped about how he could run a 3rd moto blah blah blah im so in shape im not even sweating. well no **** uve won at a track youve been racing for years. even if mike did holeshot he wouldnt stay there long...pala might be his only hope, its flat and that will help that little big bike out

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My favorite moments (besides Button's win) were RC and KW battling it out on 125's, Emig holding it WFO through the S-turn to pass Henry (I think), and Pastrana winning the 125 race there and during the last lap he wheelied all the way up horsepower hill, pulled a heelclicker, then wheelied all the way through the whoops to the checkers.

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Best moment: Lance Smail holeshot the 250 1st moto about 6 years ago. Crowd went insane!!!

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Mxbri117" What did he pull that holeshot on a ktm or was it a Husaberg. Were does every one think KW will finish this week lets hope top 3! DUNGEY RULES!!!!!!!!!!

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My favorite moments: Pastrana wheeling the whoops in pratice and few times in the motos before he realized its faster to blitz em, K-Dub taking RC to church, and sneaking in thirty packs of beer at the bottom of our ice-chest every year. Suckers!

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The Chuck Sun Jump was bull-dozed a few years ago- it's gone. MXJunky's favorite Washougal memory is when local hero Jason McCormick beat RC in the One-Twenty-Fizzle class. That was epic.

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I feel the only reason Allesi did well at the beginning of the season was because he sat out Supercross and was preparing for that one great day. Everybody else just came off a grueling 17 race Supercross season and had to switch gears to MX. My main question is this--If the 350 is the problem then why are so many 250 riders turning faster lap times than Allesi? Because he just isn't that great. Next year won't be any better for him either. I also remember seeing a picture of the start of the GP that Allesi raced and 4 KTM's clearly holeshot everyone else. I just don't buy the idea that the 350 is the problem. Some still "believe the hype"--I don't.

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Alessi did well bcoz it was a hard pack track thats it. All the other tracks are soft sand or deep soft soil and thats where the horsepower difference comes in. Pourcel got the lites class in a choke hold. Once the guys catch up he will start going 1-1 again.The guy just doesnt feel like pushing it 2nd moto.

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Jdubya, laptimes are what they are. But......if the fastest 5 250 guys were in the 450 class on a 250, they (a)wouldn't get a start and they'd (b)have to try and pass 450s to make those lap times fast. The passing a 450 on something underpowered is the trick, not impossible but not easy. Even if a better rider, the 450 will make it hard in most conditions. This is starting to sound like an Alessi defense, it isn't. Can't stand him and thought his two wins last year were a product of circumstance. But it can't be argued that racing something slower has to hinder results. Before we go to the Cairoli explanation again, maybe he is just that much better than the rest of the field over there. Maybe on a 450 he'd be working on a perfect season....well, except that one Townley win at GH. That start at GH by the way, why can't Alessi repeat that at any Nationals? This bears repeating, 13-16 in holeshots in 2008-2009 on a 450. 1-14 in 2010 on a 350.

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If Alessi is back on a 450 next year, watch how many holeshots he gets.....and then enjoy watching him fade back outside the top 5. I forgot to add, I don't think Alessi is that great either.....but the 350 isn't helping matters for him. He's the first person I've seen this year refuse to comment on his speed trap performance over at TWMX.

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Im not defending him either, but it is also true that i dont dislike the guy. So, i am still uncertain as to what combination of things is making the difference this year. I do think it is some combination though, not just a single thing. As others have said before, in 2008 nobody besides Stewart had anything for Mike Alessi, and he was the only one to give even the slightest challenge to JS. How much of that was the bike ( both 450 AND a Suzuki) and how much was the team (being under the guidance of Roger DeCoster)?? No, Dungey wasnt out there that year, but nobody else was close to Alessi!! I truly think he could be really good, it just seems that he cant get it done with his talent alone, he needs the right combination of things (people, bike, etc) around him. It is not just the bike this year, but i think the bike is having some effect on his results......some, i say!!

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BKR---While I agree with everything you said I still think he should be putting down faster lap times than all of the 250 riders especially if he is chasing the 450's. A faster pace should lead to faster lap times than the 250's. In the second moto at Millville 5 250 riders had faster lap times than Allesi and they raced after the 450's--a rougher track, and had to deal with rain half of the moto. My point is that the bike isn't the main reason he is floundering. I personally don't think it has anything to do with his results. What would a 450 do for him? My guess is a few holeshots and one more position but definatly not a contender for the championship. Short has been the man for holeshots so a 450 may not help Allesi anyway.

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Chuck Sun yeaaaaa, I can't believe those Fers plowed it!!

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my greatest memory is that of the 1980... i was 4. the dirt truckers were going crazy in the field the night before, i dropped my elephant ear on race day, i cried, poeple laughed. Bradshaw passing Hughes in the S curves at the bottom of the ski jump...i dont think the #114 let off at all... that made the hill erupt! does a girl getting tipped door down in a ****ter con't she was cover in do do and it was late... are you still alive?

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The only thing wrong with reed's neck is it' s connected to him.

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Andy, who’s the quote (He who makes a beast of himself, gets rid of the pain of being a man) from?

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Everyone who is saying that horsepower is Alessi's problem and that the lap times don't mean anything are wrong in my opinion. If you consistently run faster laps than someone you will be ahead of them at the finish unless you crash and they don't. I ran a 125 against 450's in the over 30 class for 5 years, and everyone who was slower than me got passed. Passing a 450 is no harder than passing anything else if the guy rides slower than you, you just have to pick the part of the track where you have the advantage. Villipoto '07 at the MXoN had no problem with the 450's and Carmichael was in the field that day. At the end of the race it's the guy who had the lowest average lap time who won, not the guy with the most horsepower.

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Also doesn't anyone remember that MX is 80% rider and 20% bike?

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Last thing on this topic.... The first time I ever saw RC race he was on an 80 racing against the 250 expert class, and he "waxed" them as Alessi would say. Pretty sure Ricky was riding with a severe horsepower handicap that day.

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Not to (EVER) stick up for Alessi, but we're not talking about the "over 30 class" or RC (at any age) competing with mere mortals at a local race track. At the National level, it DOES make a difference whether you get a start AND when you try to pass people that have more acceleration than you. I feel like I say this almost every time I post ... voice your opinions, but try to stay somewhere in the vicinity of reality.

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How many titles has Alessi won so far in his pro career? ZERO..How many will be win in his pro career? ZERO...Everybody else has picked up the pace from last year to this year and he is running the same pace which is why he is barely breaking the top ten. And dont blame it on the bike, the top lites riders are turning faster lap times on 250cc bikes.

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Look for BT-101 again this weekend he will be on fire. Can't wait to see Stewie back in the circuit (if he ever comes back) This Shougal race will be awesome!!

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The 350 is not the problem, Alessi's diminished drive to win is. But he is a good rider though.

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in no way was I trying to discredit r/c when I used the term 'smoked', and in fact, in his incredible career, this is the only time I would use it, unless of course he was the one doing the smoking. Stewart beat him outdoors, but I wouldn't say he smoked him. Kevin windham was the fastest man on the planet for those 2 weeks, and he beat r/c straight up. I don't remember what the gap was, but they were not banging bars ,and trading the lead, and ricky didn't fall and hand it to him, and ricky didn't get a bad start and not have enough time to catch up or anything like that. K-dub BEAT him 4 motos in a row, outdoors. No one else has ever done that, even stewart. Lets put this in perspective... windham convincingly beat the winningest racer in the history of all motorsports, while he was in the longest winning streak of his career, not once, but four times in a row. Even r/c admitted on the podium that kevin was the better man that day, and he would work hard to beat him next week. And kevin said " this is no time to be getting Cy, ricky is a great champion and it is an honor to stand above him on tha podium". They both have tremendous respect for one another, 2 of the classiest mx'er s of all time. That is why I used the term 'smoked', to express the magnitude of windhams accomplishment, which is even more impressive nowadays, because back then, ricky wasn't even called the GOAT yet!

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"ELF846"...I think it was great that KW beat up on Carmichael those to races back in 2003??? People have mentioned the fact that KW was on a 4-stroke and RC was still on a 2-stroke. I wonder if that helped level the playing field?

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Back when Stewart was on a 125 he was flying down the drop off and through the s turns. There is a small right hand jump turn just after the s turns and he would swing wide and hi-5 the fans who were leaning over the fence while he was in the air. He did that almost every lap of the first practice session. It was awesome to see a racer having so much fun with the fans while he was working. Back then they combined the top 20 125's with the top 20 250's in practice. Stewart would always be in the top 3 in lap times on his 125 vs all the 250's and 450's. A few races that season he had the fastest lap times of the day in either class.

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NikolaTesla, I do see your point. And again, I don't think Alessi's ONLY problem is the bike. But as Sef said, the over 30 class you rode is not the US Nationals. Nor is your example of RC whipping whoever it was he whipped on an 80 a good example to point to. It was RC, who was probably a year or two away from his first championship when you saw that. Yes rider is a lot and bike not so much, percentages are very unscientific and random for this purpose. Remember the King MC when he switched to Suzuki? He came close but he was not the same guy on that bike as he had been. How about the difference when RJ got off his Yamaha on to a Honda? You have never come up on someone you were clearly faster than and then had them hold you up because they had more power in all your racing 450s vs. a 125? We can point to Poto at 2007 MXoN and O'Mara in 1986 MXdN, but those are called anomalies. The reason we remember them is because they are such an unbelievable HISTORIC feat. The reason they are historic and an unblievable feat is because they did it on underpowered bikes. By the way, a 250f is allowed to be quite a bit lighter (212 lbs) than a 450f (220 lbs)....a 350f has to go by the same weight rules. Power to weight ratio. Also a 125 is allowed to be 194 lbs and a 250 2str can be 212 lbs.

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.....and don't forget the 450 is actually more forgiving. How is that you say? On a 250f you have to wring it out all the time and maintain momentum. If you screw up, or bobble you lose that momentum and it is costly. On a 450 momentum is not that critical as a bobble can be made up for with a twist of the throttle. In the 250 class a missed shift could see 3 guys on the rev limiter go past. I was just reading an interview with one of the guys that moved up this year and that is exactly what he was saying. I think that's why we are seeing a lot of the guys (Metcalf, Canard, Dungey, Cunningham, Sipes) suddenly doing better on the 450. So Alessi has to be more mistake free than any other 450 rider and that is if he is just as fast as them. He isn't to begin with, either as fast as some OR mistake free, so we see the results he gets this year. Now if Alessi was faster than anyone all things being equal, he might be able to make up for the power difference........but he isn't and he can't.

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yes lewis, that is true about the 2-stroke vs 4-stroke thing. But half the other riders were on 4-strokes too, and they didn't beat ricky, only kevin did. And, after that is when r/c switched to the four-stroke, probably because of k-dub. Back then, it was still questionable whether 2 or 4 strokes were better, as the 4 stroke wasn't as developed as it is now. And ricky did come back and beat kevin for the rest of the races, so was the 4 stroke really an advantage for kevin? Maybe the hilly tracks were in his favor. What do you think of this idea? Since the 4 strokes of today are so far advanced that the top pros cant even use all the power, and the 2 strokes haven't continued in thier development, maybe the 4 strokes are now competitive with equal displacemant 2 strokes and we will see them on the track again in the same class. 250 2 strokes against 250f's, open class 2 strokes against 450f's. wouldnt that be awesome? anyone who has ever rode a 500cc 2 stroke knows what I'm talking about. Bring back the pre-mix!!!!!!!

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Washougal memories ??? ... The first National, when Barnett decimated the 125 class. In those days, they were only able to water 1/2 of the track. Before the 2nd set of motos, the dust on your body was acting as a layer of sun-screen. By the end of the day everyone looked Jamaican. ... NOTHING like the sound of Mike Brown's Pro Circuit 125 going up Horse-power Hill at 14,000 rpm.

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BKR where would RD finish if Suzuki put him on a 350??

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Suzuki has a 350? ......Just kidding. He would do much better than Mike has been doing, but it's hard to say until you see what kind of starts he could get on this imaginary Suzuki 350. I don't think he would be getting 1-1's. I think he would have won a few motos this year, maybe 3 or 4. He would have gotten some bad starts though and had trouble moving up. When bad starts happen, the chance of bad things happening goes way up. He might be leading the series still, but it would be a very close battle, not a runaway like it is. Then again, maybe he is so in synch with his 450 that any change would be disastrous. Like what happened at Hangtown. He is a much better rider than Alessi so his results would show that. The point is a 350 would not come anywhere near improving his results....and that's what the 350 was supposed to do for riders. It was supposed to be a better weapon.

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Ok forget about RC on an 80. How about anyone of the pros who were still riding 2 strokes against 4 strokes and finishing ahead of them, before the 2 stroke died ( I wont even mention Stewart). The point is it's not all about horsepower. Motocross is won in the corners. Just because I was riding a 125 in the over 30 class doesn't mean I'm some bum. I was riding the 125 for fun and for the challenge, and I was getting top 3 in the over 30 AMs. Its just local stuff but any of you who are really racers know how tough that is.

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Nobody's belittling your class or choice of bikes, NikolaTesla. We're just saying that it's not the same as racing against National competition. As for the two strokes that were beating four strokes, a) four strokes weren't what they are now, and b) the guys on the two strokes were probably just clearly faster. "Motocross is won in the corners"? That's obviously PART of it, but what about acceleration out of the corner and to the next? THAT'S where a less-powerful machine will run into problems. Here's what I think, regarding Alessi. He would probably be doing better on a good 450, but I doubt he'd be winning.

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Ok, not that anyone is still reading this, but I wasn't worried about being belittled, just pointing out that I have a little experience racing and after 35 years I know a little about the sport. Actually it is the same as racing against National competition. We all play by the same rules when it comes to physics. No matter who you are a 450 has more power than a smaller bike, and the smaller bike should have an advantage in handling. You can use the handling advantage even on the start ( on account of the fact that there is always a corner at the end ). While the 450 might be making up time accelerating out of corners and up hills, the smaller bike can make it up by carrying speed thru the corner and not needing to accelerate as much. Obviously horsepower is an advantage, but it's just one of many that you could have. Someone said lap times don't matter, but they are everything after the first corner, a guy who is running faster laps will catch you and pass you somewhere, doesn't matter who's riding what. Allesi running slower lap times than guys on 250s means something, he's going slow, can't blame the bike for that. Also, I didn't coin the phrase " Motocross is won in the corners", it's been around, ask any pro or motocross school instructor.

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Ok, you twisted what I said about lap times. Of course lap times matter. When you start comparing different classes running their own races it gets convoluted though. Because Canard (or whoever) is doing a 2:09 in his race does not mean he would do a 2:09 if he was in with the 450s. He most likely will get a worse start which will have him at the whim of people going slower, banging bars, possibly crashing him out. We see time and time again a bad start absolutley demolishes lap times. We've seen Josh Grant get fastest lap in moto1 and then not even crack the top 10 (fastest laps) in moto 2 after getting a bad start (Colorado round). That is partly what is happening to Alessi. He wouldn't be winning any title on a 450, my only contention is that the 350 is not helping in the least. As for 2-strokes vs 4 strokes. Everyone including privateers moved to 4-strokes once they were getting beat by them. Do you not remember Stewart saying out loud that he was at a disadvantage on the 250 vs. RC's 450? Why didn't the handling and lighter weight make a difference for him?

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Maybe Alessi did well on the 350 when he actually believed he had an advantage with it......and then, he got some bad starts etc....and now he believes in his head that he has a disadvantage ....confidence is everything you know....just a thought....not saying it's a correct thought

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grifter, I think that is a good point and valid. Definitely that has to factor in somwhere as once he realized his starts sucked it probably had a negative effect. The problem is his starts sucked when he was confident to begin with.

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