Bench Racing Ammo: Rookie Success
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 | 5:00 PM
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Last week, author Aaron Hansel covered the AMA’s pointing out rule in Monster Energy Lites Supercross, a rule that will force Broc Tickle into the Supercross Class for 2012 instead of defending his Lites Western Region Championship.
And it’s now that we realize something: Tickle is on a short list of riders graduating to the 450 class this year. Ryan Morais also pointed out of the Lites division and will race a 450 this year for Valli/Star Racing, and Nico Izzi will also race a 450 in supercross for the first time for Valli/Star as well. But Morais and Izzi never won Lites SX races (each came close). Tickle has just two career Lites SX wins to pair up with his title from last year. So these three do not enter the season with the high expectations of recent grads like Trey Canard or Ryan Dungey.
In 2010 Ryan Dungey joined Jeremy McGrath as the only two rookies to win a Supercross title in their first year.
Photo: Simon Cudby
Also, Josh Hansen is moving to the 450s after a few more title shots in the Lites division, but Hanny is far from a 450 rookie—he raced the big class already a few years ago in what turned out to be a washout of a season with JGR. He eventually went back down to the Lites class. You only get to be a rookie once, right?
The last few seasons have witnessed tremendous success by first-year full-time 450 riders. Last year, for example, East and West Champions Christophe Pourcel and Jake Weimer moved up (Pourcel wanted to ride a 450 but couldn’t find a deal he liked. But he could not and did not return to the Lites class). And Trey Canard moved up as well, and promptly delivered three race wins. He’s not alone. For this week's Bench Racing Ammo, we look at recent rookie classes.
(Note: We consider a rookie season the season in which the rider officially declares he's racing a 450 full-time. Yes, Ryan Dungey rode a few 450 races in 2008, but he was clearly a Lites rider at the time, as he contested the West Region Championship).
2011: Trey Canard (3 wins), Jake Weimer, Austin Stroupe
2010: Ryan Dungey (6 wins and championship), Justin Brayton, Jason Lawrence
2009: Ryan Villopoto (2 wins), Josh Grant (1 win), Broc Hepler, Kyle Chisholm
2008: Josh Hill (1 win), Mike Alessi, Josh Hansen
2007: Davi Millsaps
In ’07, Millsaps missed the first part of a year after breaking his femur during testing, so he was unable to find victory lane. But in the last four seasons, first-year riders have been able to break through. The likes of Canard, Dungey and Villopoto leave some big shoes for Tickle to fill in 2012.
Will Tickle be able to follow in the footsteps of Dungey, Canard, Hill and Villopoto, and win a SX main event in his rookie year?
Photo: Simon Cudby
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Since you could not post a comment on who had the best chance of winning a supercross race in the 450 class, I'm going to say it here. I honestly don't think any of the riders on that list will be able to beat RV,Dungey,Reed,Stewart, or Canard on the same night. The only way it will happen is if two or three of these guys are injured and even then I don't see it happening. If it wasn't one of these 5 then my next choice would be Windham and he wasn't even on your list.
It's interesting that the list ends at 2007, because before this, RC was still racing, and NO rookie had a chance to win then, with the exception of Stewart in 2005. Heck, even most of the veteran riders couldn't win then. Its no slight against them, it just shows how good the top 3 were then.
Dungey won 6 races his rookie year, not 5. Phoenix, A2, Atlanta, Dallas, St. Louis, and Vegas.
Cool article... wish you would hvave gone back further than 2007. Id like to see it go all the way back to 93 when the King took his firt title!!!
Back J-law
jojo +1. Windham gets my vote. Nothing against the guys on the list, that's still a lot of talent!
@JJO741 Reed won Vegas. (just)
In 1997 Kevin Windham was racing full time in the 125 West Region Supercross Series (he won the title) and during the East Coast swing he raced and won the Charolette SX. Would that be considered a rookie win?
I forgot to mention that the Charolette race Windham won was on a 250.
Jake Weimer of course (injury in 2011 SX), at 100% he can win some main events imho
jake weimer shoudl be a top 10 guy consistently. i dont see anyone on the list that could win even if 3 of the top guys were hurt. if they all got hurt short or windam would.
@JJO741- they put 6 on there for Dungey... read it again
@groundy056- Reed won 2011 vegas.. not 2010 vegas
but yet ryan sipes is still in the lites class,how does that work??,,7 yrs this next season,,can someone explain that one??
@mikeo, easy, he hasn't won a championship, or scored enough points in 3 consecutive seasons. The system has its flaws like all systems do.
@tc88 My bad, Don't know why I was thinking of this year.
i dont know if Tickle is going to be contending for wins at all this season. This class is so stacked this year. RV2, CR22, RD5, JS7 are pretty much the heavy hitters. when Trey Canard comes back he will mix it up also. i mean come on , guys like Kevin Windham, josh grant, and andrew short rarely win so your going to throw tickle in the arguement?
before A1 2011 people here bashing me because i predict 1. Villo, 2.Reed, 3. Dungey, 4. Windham, & 5. Bubba, for the sx championship and 1. Villo, 2. Dungey, 3. Reed for the outdoor championship, i was right but K-Dub , know I PREDICT that Weimer (without injury) will win at least one main event in 2012 and maybe more. GO JAKE!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOBr0oBTBkg
yeah weimer should definately get a win next year in SX.
I just dont see Weimer getting a win, much less a podium finish as geting a podium is going to be tough.
Without injury, it will be RV, Stewart, Reed, Dungey consistently up front with Canard up there when he gets back...... so everyone else is pretty much going be be racing for a 3rd place finish at best..... hope I am wrong as more guys on the podium the better but this year is going to be super competitive just to make the top 10.
MXR and darren29, you guys are both high on crack. Do you honestly think Weimer can beat the top 5 of RV,Dungey,Reed,Stewart, and Canard? You two are out of your flippin' mind. It took Dungey until Toronto to win a main event last year so I don't see Weimer getting a win. No Way!
jojox, you probably said the same shit about Canard before his first win, and you really think that at healthy Weimer is not at the level of the RedDuck in sx? really?
I never said anything about Canard before his first win. I knew he would do well because in 2010 Geico Honda let him race for the Factory Honda Team and he had several podiums, so I knew he would do well when he finally moved up full time to the 450. And no I really don't think Weimer is at the level of the RedDuck. Even when Canard returns from injury,he will imediatly do better than Weimer. The only thing Weimer has going for him is his hot chick and that's not a bad thing if you've ever seen her.