Racer X Redux: Expect Greatness
Wednesday, January 16, 2013 | 2:45 PM
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The pits outside of Chase Field are tight, and four Honda semis—two Muscle Milk Honda rigs, and the TwoTwo Motorsports and GEICO Honda trucks—were all jammed into a small space. That only intensified the cheers when Justin Barcia completed his walk back to the pits at the end of the night. A gathering of team personel and fans gave Barcia a well-deserved round of applause. But Trey Canard did one better. He met Barcia in the middle of the pits and gave his once-again teammate a big hug.
“I’m so happy for him,” said Canard. “I don’t understand how anyone can say anything negative about Justin. And for the whole team, they’ve have some down years and it’s great to see it all turning around.”
I think Canard was more happy for Barcia than Barcia was for himself. Given Barcia’s "Wild Child" rep, you’d think his first win on the biggest stage would be greeted by tears of joy and then an after-party complete with substance abuse that can’t be discussed in the press. But this reporter wanted to get the scoop, and I saw Barcia’s vice directly with my own two eyes. After the race, he made a cup of coffee! And that’s because he was getting sleepy. You win your first 450SX ever and you have to fight off the urge to take a nap!? What?
Consider it another notch in the evolution of the motocross star. Barcia has gone through the whole program. At a young age, he moved from the North to the Southeast to ride and train everyday at Millsaps Training Facility. Remember, the generation of riders before him, were literally inventing such training facilities (check the last name of last week’s race winner). While the likes of Millsaps and the Alessis took the seriousness of amateur racing to another level, it has been taken another notch higher by today’s kids, who are living and riding with other pro hopefuls every single day. Note Matthes’ column from early today on rookie whiz Joey Savatgy, who seems un-shaken by the real life of professional racing. Hey, they expected nothing less.
The factory Honda setup at Chase Field in Phoenix.
Simon Cudby photo
When you’re surrounded by bikes and training and racing every day, I think that kind of blurs just how amazing that lifestyle really is. Remember, Barcia was in a TV commercial for the CRF150R when Honda launched it. Barcia had his Factory Connection deal signed long before he turned pro. He has been marked for greatness for a long time, and is now just following the logical progression of his destiny. There is nothing surprising about this. But for most of us, motocross was an exception, not a rule. It’s something you snuck in between the stuff you had to do—but for today’s up and coming rider, it’s the only thing you do. And it will go a level higher, because today Adam Cianciarulo is trained by Aldon Baker and literally gets to ride with Ryan Villopoto and Jake Weimer at times. You think he’ll be shocked if he wins races?
Justin Barcia is now just the 56th human being ever to win an AMA Supercross main event. But it seemed so normal!
Doesn’t hurt that Barcia is part of this impressive system Honda has developed, with massive, massive credit going to Rich Zielfelder and everyone at Factory Connection. Remove Canard’s sloppy 20th laps the last two weeks, and Barcia and Canard would have swept the opening 450 rounds, and gotten a 1-2 finish in Phoenix, with Eli Tomac sweeping both 250 races. That is domination!
All three had their FC Honda rides locked in before they turned pro, all three started winning early, and all three are now just continuing that roll. Take it a step beyond with Tomac, who comes from a family that’s actually seen this type of success already. Tomac is dominating the 250 class right now at a level as high as we’ve ever seen. After the races, when you talk to him, yeah, there’s some joy in these wins, but it’s really very procedural. And when he sees Barcia winning his second 450SX race ever with ease, well, that will just make Tomac that much more nonchalant when he does the same thing next year. Because we know it’s going to happen.
Eli Tomac has been a force in 250SX through two rounds.
Simon Cudby photo
As evidenced by Canard’s post-race praise of Barcia, this trio has learned to get along. It wasn’t always easy. A funny thing happened with that FC team, where each new kid came in like a house of fire, and stole some of the hype and attention from the others. Canard won a supercross title in his first shot, but a year later, Barcia was blowing minds in his outdoor debut. Then Canard and Barcia both went into a drought, while Tomac came in and won his first race! Adding to it, Tomac and Barcia were once fierce rivals on the amateur end, but they rode for different brands at the time. Integrating such hyper-competitive riders (and their families) into the same rig hasn’t always been easy, but by last summer, when Barcia and Tomac were dueling on track nearly every week, you never heard a peep of drama from inside that truck. After each race, I’d see them both upstairs in the rider’s lounge, no issues in sight. Then this weekend in Phoenix, I even saw Barcia’s mom hanging around inside the GEICO rig, which was her racing home for several years. They’re Muscle Milk Honda people now, but the Barcias have a lot of friends at their old truck, and zero bridges burned.
You don’t see as much drama from Barcia as you would expect. He’s not the wild, win-or-crash dude who hates his competition and wants to break everyone’s legs Bob Hannah style (and look at that hair!). Barcia bangs bars because it’s fun, not because he has a vendetta to hate and kill everyone on the track. And, he’s really toned the rough riding down in the last year, anyway. Yeah, he lost his lid in that lapped-rider incident with Lance Vincent last year, but that wasn’t a block pass incident. Beyond that, you’ll rarely see Barcia get upset when another rider runs into him.
Hannah and Damon Bradshaw were said to not be intimidated by the competition because they hated them all. Barcia is not intimidated because he just doesn’t care! He is having fun and racing his motorcycle, and he’s been doing that for so long that even winning a 450SX can result in a programmed response: “Hey, it’s 2 a.m. Eastern time. I’m tired.”
Meanwhile, Trey Canard has gotten off to a hot start in 450SX.
Simon Cudby photo
Canard is known mostly as the aw-shucks nice guy of the pits, the kinder, gentler racer who would do anything for anyone. Well, except himself. Behind-the-scenes stories of Trey railing on himself for making a mistake, or not riding better, are rampant. He is his own worst critic. However, his career-threatening crash last year has certainly changed that. Over the weekend I wrote about his new, “Just blessed to be here” outlook, and wondered if it would remain in tact if something went wrong. This weekend, it did, as a simple mistake dropped Canard from second to fifth on the last lap. So I asked him the big question after the race—was he mad at himself, or still happy?
“You know in the past I think I would have been pretty hard on myself for that,” said Trey. “But I’m just happy to be here.”
There you go. For Canard, the road to the top was rockier, and thus, he’ll never take anything for granted. He’ll no longer be angry if he doesn’t win. For the other guys, it’s best to just assume things are going to work out. That seems to take the pressure off, and so far, it’s hard to argue with the results.
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Great article JW. HRC rules the land!
It's all cyclical !!
C'mon man
Good read Jason!!
Insightful, accurate, quick and to the point. In a world where reading is becoming a lost art, your articles are fun to read and make my otherwise drab workday sail by a little faster.
Good for you man!!! You've really raised the bar of moto-journalism.
(Matthes and JT take note - this guy nails it every time!!)
If Tomac isn't locked down long-term by Honda, someone should grab him and pay him a boatload. That kid is going to be something special when he moves up to the 450's.
hopefully tomac stays away from ktm
I'm just not getting a warm fuzzy over this kid. Tomac and Canard I like but man there's something about Barcia that does not cut it for me. Time will tell.
I think Matthes hit on it too, the very point that Weege expanded on here. We are witnessing a changing of the guard, much like that RacerX Cover “Here comes the Cobra Generation” where the very core and DNA these riders started to change after graduating from the Y zingers to the Cobra’s. Oh and all the work, the sacrifice and commitment that everyone outside our world has no clue about.
I could not agree more with the “success expectation” element that these new groups of riders seem to embody. Just look at the mentorship that surrounds them. But success principals are just that – principles, when worked, they work.
Great article JW and I agree with what @SanClementeRider said as well. We’re also seeing and reading the next generation of elevated Motojournalism too… RacerX leads that charge.
@UTBMXCruiser
Thats the trouble with you skater dicks....You were born warm and Fuzzy and have liberal weenies for parents !
FloydZest
Don't drop the soap ! MOFO
Good Job JW! Brought up a great point..pressure
I am amazed sometimes, how these young men are able to perform under so much pressure. Sure, it is must be nice to have a factory contract, receiving free bike and parts, a couple guys to keep the bike running, all the fans, glory and of coarse, a fat pay check, while still just a teenager. Some where in there, some one has great expectations for you to live up to. Suddenly, riding your dirt bike, goes from being the funnest thing on earth, to being your job, one that can carry a lot of weight.
In many instances, the youngster not only feels pressure to win, now he has the added pressure, of being the family bread winner, as well. Mom and Dad hocked the farm to get him there and now it is time to save the farm. Whew, that is a lot to put on a teenager, who has no social skills to speak of, a limited education do to running around the country and whose only skill is riding a dirt bike.
I am surprised that more of them don't crack under the stress or act a fool when handed a bunch of cash, because again, we are asking a lot out of some one who just reached puberty. Putting it all into perspective, this up coming group of young men, as a whole, have performed exemplary, so far, exceeding what was expected of them. When I hear that they are "Just having furn racing their dirt bikes.." I am, again, amazed at how well adjusted they have remained, while being under the microscope.
I hope Honda can afford to keep Tomac to add on the the power house team. How about Team Suzuki?
I know this isn't just about only Canard, but a lot of people forget that his dad died in an accident either right before or after Trey turned pro (BD25, I'm sure you know the details more than I do). If not having all the pressure on him at a young age wasn't enough, add on losing your father. I can't imagine functioning well at all, let alone going out there and riding at the level he did.
hopefully honda learned from canards injuries not to put all their eggs in one basket and does whatever it takes to keep tomac, my guess is he would want to stay their he is already familiar with the bike. after the struggle that dungey is still having one would be crazy to go to KTM, kawasaki is tied up maybe they could drop weimer, and yamaha isnt even worth mentioning, suzuki may have an opening soon depending on stew. The most logical thing to happen is he either gets windhams ride or take over reeds spot but reed seems to have a hard time keeping sponsors around not sure if he could afford him I guess we'll see
MXBob...If I remember correctly Trey received his first contract with Kawasaki at 9, which supplied bikes and training. Roy, his dad, who owned Elk City Kawasaki was working on the practice track near by, when the tractor rolled over him. Trey was only 12 years old and was the one who found his father..It is Trey's strong faith was instilled in him by his dad and it is what's kept him going to this day. People are amazed that Trey has came back from such injures, when to me, he went through his worst day possible years ago,,,,,,
MXBob go to Youtube and enter Revival 41 and watch it ...
I feel that some riders are too talented and hardworking to let the brand of bike they are riding to interfere with their success. Eli could go to KTM someday, maybe, so what? Larocco won't let that happen easily. The Geico squad owes Larocco a huge debt for what he brings as team manager.
I feel that some riders are too talented and hardworking to let the brand of bike they are riding to interfere with their success. Eli could go to KTM someday, maybe, so what? Larocco won't let that happen easily. The Geico squad owes Larocco a huge debt for what he brings as team manager.
All this talant and not enough factory teams to support it all. I doubt Honda's gonna fund 3 top riders. Someone will get the boot and it won't be pretty, well unless it's Canard, then it'll be "awe shucks".
@BD25 I was thinking he was older. They probably get into all that in the movie. I had technical difficulties with my new PC first time I tried watching it. I'll watch it now.
After Team Honda's lack of results, which "the old Honda" never would have stood for, how do they NOT try to keep all three?
Somehow, Reed's team will play a pivotal role in this. When is Canard's contract up? Will E.T. sign with a non-factory team?
I don't believe for a second that Yamaha is on E.T.'s short list and Suzuki is broke, whether bubba is there or gone, which really only leaves KTM and Honda or one of their sub-teams i.e. Reed or GEICO.
MX Bob..As a Kawasaki dealer, I spoke with Roy a few times on the phone about making some dealer trades..I never got to know him socially. I did race against him in the Oklahoma State MX series in 98..I wound up 7th overall and don't remember where Roy ended up, but in checking past results, Trey won the state title in the 6-8 mini mini class. The following year, 99 Trey won 3 state titles 6-8 mini mini, pee wee 7-8, pee wee open..
E.T. Goes to JGR 2014 On a New YZF Big Money$$$
@BD25
I have been in arguments on here with you before, but what you wrote about TC41 tells me you are not just a fool behind a keyboard...no longer will i throw daggers with my keyboard as I have in the past...
tc41 is a great example of persverence and thankfulness...most of us would only have hate in our hearts if that happened to us...
#respect
so did factory honda give reed a bike this year or no? They probably dont have the time to help him set up his bike
halfe316... Thank you for the kind words..Trey is a special young man, he has handled more adversity in his young life, than most of us ever will and he has done so with a grace and strength I applaud.
You may have me confused with bd200, as I don't remember any arguments on with you. I try not to argue with any one, I do like a good debate once and a while..lol...We are all entitled to our opinions, I realize that my opinion can be wrong, so I try and keep and open mind when reading posts. Most posters on here have serious knowledge of moto from years of watching and participating in the sport and I respect what they bring to the forum, I learn a lot on here.
JGR should give blue the boot. ET on a factory Suzuki with RCH or JGR. I like yellow :)
Thanks posters for the info on TC's dad; you guys are better than Wikipedia. I had no idea, although it always seemed that TC was motivated in a special and serious way. I have been impressed beyond words about how he spent some of his "off" time travelling overseas and helping others.
It amazes me how guys are fans of a Brand of motorcycle instead of a certain rider.. I actually have had several brands of bikes over the years and could care les what the color of plastic is.. I cheer for a rider, not his bike.. It is kinda funny, but that is what is cool about this sport.. We do have brand loyalty and rider loyalty..
I'm going to bet this is Windham's last year. He has repeatedly stated in interviews that he doesn't want to hit the ground again. You can't run even close to the front if you aren't willing to chance taking soil samples. I'm a big Windham fan, so no disrespect meant, but I just think he will decide to retire after this year. Tomac could take Windham's spot on the 450.
The Honda Power House Team again? Well it could happen, hopefully the team will pony up the cash to hire Eli this summer. So will K dub make it one more year, only if he is just out there having fun. Yes, I am sure those soil sample thoughts cross his mind alot and its a place I believe he doesn't want to be anymore. So let's see if Kevin holds true to his game plan and hangs out for 2014. I also hope Trey can go the year without any mishaps. As for brand loyalty, long time Honda rider myself, just like them I guess.
Awesome piece Weege!
It does seem like being bred to win takes away a little zest when it happens.
I think K-Dub will try to finish next year too. Didn't he lead a SX last year for a short time before crashing?
When you can be an also ran but still earn $20k a weekend, it's probably hard to get your wife to let you stop racing.
Remember, Keven was the one guy who made RC cry at the east West shootout way back then......yes of course I was there to see the tears.