250 Words: Las Vegas
Tuesday, May 10, 2011 | 3:15 PM
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PrintWas lap seven of the Lites West main event from Las Vegas not the craziest lap of racing you will ever see? With a championship hanging in the balance, and one more race win on the line, a ridiculous seven riders were in the action at the same moment.
Tomac, Hansen, and Cunningham were just three of the seven riders battling for the lead.
Photo: Simon Cudby
Up front, Cole Seely led the race until he cased a jump and went over the bars allowing Ken Roczen to slip back into the lead. Behind that, Eli Tomac was trying to push through a train created by Josh Hansen, who had slowed his pace, allowing his teammate Tickle to tighten up on Tomac. This created an incredible scenario, with Tomac passing Hansen, but then opening the door to allow Kyle Cunningham through, before Hansen retaliated, and Tickle got into the mix, even Tyla Rattray was up there showing everyone a wheel. That’s seven riders who got to be a factor in the outcome of the race and championship.
Unfortunately, none of them were there to help Tomac, which is understandable in the case of Hansen and Rattray, who are teammates with Tickle, but less so with Seely and Cunningham. We’ll never know for sure what went down for Tomac—was Seely holding him up to help his friend Tickle, or just riding his own race and fighting for position? Seely says no, Tomac fans will say yes, but either way, Tickle was able to ride through the mess of riders while under pressure to get into second and lock down the title. And that’s what counts.
Tomac and Seely would battle for position all night.
Photo: Simon Cudby
What it really comes down to is this: when the season began with a Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki sweep at Anaheim, there were talks of a weak field out west. But as the series went on, a new crop of riders found their rhythm and stepped up, including Tomac, Seely, Cunningham, and the Vegas race winner, Roczen. What started out looking like a shallow field turned into one of the deepest packs we’ve ever seen heading into a final round, and the spoilers were fast enough to battle the title contenders and play a major factor in the championship. With this much talent coming through the ranks, expect more great races like the one we saw in Las Vegas.
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Great Race!! I don't think Cunningham and Seely were screwing with Tomac..its the ast race of the year and everyone wants to be on the team managers radar for the upcoming SX season...IMO
Carmicheal seems to think they should have slowed upo and let the championship leaders battle for position...IDK he is the goat and all but this isn't NASCAR...
Sipes was on Fire in the E/W shootout...now move up to the 450 for petes sake!! Hansen you too!!! or go feel up some unsuspecting skirt (or whatever you do in your spare time)(that's what I'd do!! JK!?)
flame on people.
Those guys were all ripping, one of the best races of the decade.
Either way, I think Seely might have dug his grave with Honda. But he might get hired by Pro Circut for next year.
your right..there wasnt a east coast main or a shootout????? lame article...only talk about pro circuit.?????.racer x....YOU SUCK and why dont you tell bret hair piece michaels that his award was almost as lame as his music...kinda like when davey tryed to give the des nations money to tim ferry and RC' s parents years ago until all the fans freaked out..CHAD REED.give the money to some one who deserves it..what adversity did he overcome???? gayness at its finest
In a pefect world, Seely would've endeared himself to his benefactors. As is, he burned a bridge. Interperet this however you may.
Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Seely already sign on with Troy Lee for the rest of his lites career (the next two years, I believe)? Unless they drop him for his ride in Vegas (which I'm neutral on, by the way), I doubt you'll see him on a PC Kawie or anywhere else for that matter. I just thought I remembered either reading an interview or seeing a video in which him signing with TLD came up.
If you think cunningham and seely were not trying to screw up tomac then your an idiot.
I watched Cunningham at all the Australian SX rounds. His riding style is on the edge of dirty. Alot of banging with the rider in front.
I watched Cunningham at all the Australian SX rounds. His riding style is on the edge of dirty. Alot of banging with the rider in front.
I am suprised Hanny didn't take out Tickle or brake check. I was waiting for it to happen....With all the MTV- The Hills Reality nonsense drama that was going on off the track....Hanny - You didnt know the mains were qualifiers, yet a guy like me sitting in the stands was explaining the set up to other fans all night long??? The info was printed on the frickin race schedule.... I was rootin' for Hanny the beginning of the year...then he changed and turned into a dumbass again.....
@joker - HILARIOUS!!! I am not a big Reed fan, but I think Reed even seemed a little uncomfortable accepting that award....Reed "chose" his situation.....sure there were some doubters, but c'mon, he is Chad Reed for christ sake.....Its not like he went from race to race with no money and hauled his bikes on a trailer behind a station wagon.....he created a team at the last minute...but he had pleanty of help....now if he did it ALL himself...maybe...but RV or even Stewart overcome more adversity...RV almost called it quits do to injury and came back and won....Chad almost retired...left people hanging while he figured things out...and then he did his own thing...I respect that...but not the same as what RV was faced with.....Brett Micahels needs to take that hair piece off...your not fooling anyone man.....what a KOOK!!!
Tickle was a machine all year, as in Vegas.
I was at the race and I didnt see Cole or Cunningham do anything but race. Sure, they didnt just move over,as they wanted to win.....Make the guys earn it...there was no dominant rider in the West this year, so it was the last race to podium or win for these guys....remember seeley was up front with Roczen until he bailed.....I had pleanty of races with my buddies where we may have kept the other from winning or vice versa,,,,,i dont think it was dirty...they just raced like it was round 2
How about that pic of Barcia in the tag ad, air stoppie?
Hansen, tried, and was more than most of us that good even dream of the opportunity. In the days of spoiled brats and under talented riders, there are few that can ride past their big mouths.
I am re-posting this from another topic.
I watched all 9 rounds of the West Lites and I used box scores to uncover some true fan stats. What parity this year , alot Respect for these guys... Glad to see some real racing where no one holeshots and waxes the field every weekend.. hope this continues in the future and we have nail bitters every Final round.
West. All of this in 9 Races
8 riders on podium
4 different Winners
5 riders lead laps
9 riders over 100 pts
First KTM to win Lites main since ???
3 brands to win Mains (Kawi, Honda, KTM)
5 brands to make podium (Kawi, Honda, KTM, Suz, and Yamaha)
All Riders back to LItes except Hanson and Morais? WOW!
West avg Finish
Tickle 2.6
Tomac 3.77
Hansen 5.1
Seely 6.0
Can't wait till Outdoors when E/W line up together !!
no words from troy lee? he's a great friend of mitch payton no?
Did Blake Wharton not race in Vegas?
Seely didn't have to "slow up" to let Tomac by he just had to get out of the way. I have to agree with the guy above that said you're an idiot if you didn't think Seely and Cunningham were messing with Tomac. Carmichael saw it plain as day and was surprised as well.
Sarah, Wharton is done for the year. He went for surgery on his shoulder. And yes, Seely is already signed for the next 2 years with TLD.
Dang, that sucks! I was hoping he'd do Vegas first. I hope he gets to do some outdoor!
All dirt knows is :
1) Tomac look surrounded
2) Tickle didnt seem to have a chance in the early going
3) Tomac looked the fastest but couldnt get clear
4) At the end of the day Ticlke passed Tomac straight up
5) TGO will settle this
Dirt
Tickle's insane leap on the next to last lap won him the title. Tomac wasn't expecting it and had, unfortunately, no answer.
bd200.. Hum... Seely has a contract for the coming 1-2 yrs at Troy Lee's team. And Seely has good ties with Wardy.. Seems when a kid, he used to play with Wardy's kids. I think, Seely will be around for yrs to come. Seems ok, a bit reserved... And I agree, it was a bit of a question mark how he and CUnningham rode... Anyway, Tomac will have his shot next year.
Regarding Hansen: A tiger doesn’t change his stripes. To anyone who thought differently, I'll quote Mr. Know-it-All. "You really should have known." Even though he didn't get the title, Tomac comes out smelling like a rose in the yes of the fans and factories. The rest look like Tickle's dog's poop. Honda didn't bring Cole up through the ranks - the investment is with Tomac and I'm sure he'll be riding Big Red someday. His father certainly understands the value of long-term sponsor relations.
I realize that TLD and Geico are totally different teams, both on Hondas. But as I watched Seely, it looked like he was trying harder to keep Tomac behind him than he has tried all year to keep anyone else behind him.
We will probably never really know what happened. On one hand a race is a race and all of these guys want to do their best, especially to finish out the season. On the other, there is a certain standard that has been seen in our sport in the past, and that is often for the non-contenders (unless they are teammates of a contender) to let the contenders go at it man to man. But it's not a rule or a written standard, more of a gladiator code I guess.
But Seely shouldn't expect any favors from Tomac next year.
I was at the race in vegas, and also dropped back a re-watched it last nite. Honestly, I couldn't see any dirty riding from Seely or Cunningham. They were both out of title contention, true, but they were also in the hunt for a win which equals bonus money, leading to a possible future better ride. Cunningham also was fastest all day and had yet to win. I can't blame them for going all out for the win. Doesn't seem right to me that guys should just pull over and let the two title chasers by, when all season long they have had to race the rest of the field to get in a position for the championship. Hanson on the other hand is just a dirty rider, however, he was also still in title contention technically.
RC made a minor comment about it, then dropped it for the rest of the race. It certainly wasn't the resounding comments some are making it out to be. It would be one thing if Seely and Kyle were not racing Tomac's speed, and were blocking him as obvious as Hanson, but they were running the pace and Tomac couldn't reel them in to make the pass earlier. Kyle was doing some sections on the 250 that none of the other guys were even thinking about, pretty impressive. I'm not beating the Kawi drum, because I would have liked to see Tomac get the crown, but it was a great race, everyone was going for it, which is what we like to see. I don't see why either should just pull over and sacrifice a potential win just to let the title contenders by, doesn't make sense.
I think Tomac is a good kid, but no way should Seely have pulled over for him or even have gone easy. This isn't a team sport, even if riders are riding on the same brand or pitting out of the same tent. Seely's team also runs Pro Circuit products, so there would've been sponsor conflict if he held up Tickle as well.
It wasn't Seely i have a beef with.... Cunningham is an idiot, and always has been.... If you don't think he deliberately didnt hang Tomac up, then you're absolutely clueless... Of course he did. Seely did nothing wrong... he races forward & is no clown. Hansen perpetuated all of it as usual & is overdue for a beatdown... If he and Sipes aren't on 450's next year, everyone should boycott watching the "lites" It is a total joke & how the AMA is passing this off & getting away w/ allowing this is comical... When will we see a Windham interview that gets into just how loopy Stewart really is, & what his real opinion is ? Sure seems like everyone is dancing around the issue that Stewart is extremely dangerous to himself and any of the other 5 fast guys... I hate Reed ( and is manipulatively phony BS every time he opens his mouth) but at least he has the sack to DIRECTLY call Stewart out on his incredible nutty and borderline unstable ways... Kills me to say this, but Reed probably wins this shit if Stewart isnt such an idiot.
the 35 & 36 will get what's coming to 'em, and it's gonna be funny to watch those idiots eat their own poop. Just like the 100 did, a couple of times.
Hey Mark S:
Great comments but I disagree with you somewhat. I have been watching this kid (Seely) since he became pro. The first thing is Seely has never been easy to pass, even when he was out of shape at the beginning of last year’s outdoors he was tough to pass. The other thing is he has been stuffed so many times by Hansen (Utah SX) when he and Tomac had the hole shot, Pourcel (Unadilla) Seely was in third at the time, and yes even Tomac I think at thunder Valley national, Tomac just center punched him because he passed him and he could not get back by Seely. Through all this Seely he has not been retaliatory in any way and is a very clean rider. I think if Seely could do Vegas over he might do it differently now – but can’t change that now. As far as the gladiator code goes – try telling a 20 year old in the biggest race of the year with the most exposure of the year doing battle about that. Consider this – the lites class is supposed to be for the rookies, rookies need to be handled properly otherwise they make judgment calls from their experience level.
I feel that Honda/Eric Kehoe and Geico (I think Larocco) should have approached TLD and said “hey we know there might be a possibility that Cole will be up front with Eli, and if this happens give him a little slac or even help him for the brand sake”. You know if Cole was waved off he would have been gone. My general feeling is that the feeing in the MX world does not give this guy the respect he is due and just said – no problem Tomac has no competition and he will smoke em all. I too feel bad for Eli – he is a good kid with a good family with an amazing future and really should have taken it. But Eli also had the same chance that Tickle had to win but did not hit it hard enough when he could have while in the heat of it all. Tickle made some huge moves with a lot of risk involved that Tomac didn’t try and tickle pulled it off. Tomac was in the middle of three or four other contenders that played it clean with him. With all due respect to Eli, Cole and all the rest involved in this blown out situation – Jonney T and Eli thank your handlers for not having enough foresight to cover all the bases before a bunch of kids get a bad rap from a very difficult situation. Its amazing to me with all this experience behind the bench for Honda that this went this way!
Cannot wait for the outdoors
What did everyone think about Blake Baggett winning the lites in Vegas? He'll be a major contender next year for sure! or even in outdoor. I think Hunter Hewitt could be too. He is steadily getting better. And I hope Wharton and Canard recover quickly!
Amazing that only West coast riders are mentioned here when an East coast rider kicked all their butts by 6 seconds. The East coast was the most stacked and it showed in Vegas!
I know what you mean, Lynn. Baggett won in Vegas and he's not even mentioned!