I’ve been told that they really don’t pump oxygen into the ventilation units in Vegas, but this year I decided completed a baseline study to determine if that’s true.

My flight was supposed to get in Wednesday night at 8 p.m. but “high winds” led to a postponement, so I landed at midnight. I got to my room at 1 a.m., which is 4 a.m. eastern time. I should have been exhausted, but I was wide awake. Mind you, I fancy myself as something of an expert sleeper. You name the place, and I’ve slept there. Planes? Cars? Concerts? Races? Floors? Chairs? I can sleep anytime, any place, anywhere. I’ll put my falling asleep abilities up against anyone in the under-70 class, and I can attack in a number of ways. I can go to bed early. I can wake up late, but I can also wake up early without even setting an alarm. My skills are off the charts.

But I met my match in Vegas. I purposely did not sleep on the flight (very difficult for me but luckily I had to get through Joe Torre’s “The Yankee Years” book to prepare myself for the baseball playoffs, and that kept me from dozing.) I didn’t nap, I didn’t cheat. I was going to sleep as soon as I got to the room. But…I…could….not….fall…asleep. Vegas!

I was sharing the room with SX PR man Denny Hartwig. Denny had to wake up at 3:30 a.m. to set up a 5 a.m. press shoot with a local TV morning show. I was afraid of waking him up, but instead we ended up chatting for another hour. It was now 2 a.m., but Denny woke up 90 minutes later 100 percent ready to roll. I slept maybe 4 hours and even headed down to the track early. And I felt good all weekend, even tried to take a nap on Friday while watching the Yanks game but couldn’t fall asleep, again.

To further my study, I stayed away from the wild hijinks of the typical Vegas weekend, choosing to basically have some beers in the MGM circle bar and bench race with Matthes and his Canadian friends. I also met a cool couple from Montana named Joel and Jennifer, and I typed their names into my phone so I would actually remember them here. That was about it, bench racing and staying up late. My wife wasn’t on this trip with me so I made sure not to do anything crazier than that. I could understand staying up late during some crazy Vegas party, but just hanging out with Matthes for hours? Must be the oxygen.

This all paid off on Saturday night. I simply stayed up the whole time and headed to the airport at 4 a.m. with Denny. I got to put the sleep skills to work, finally, on the plane ride home, as the person next to me must have thought I was dead.

I probably slept a total of 10 hours during my four nights in Vegas and I felt fine. There’s your base line study.

But apparently, again, it’s not true. I found this link to help debunk the myth—apparently pumping in oxygen would create a fire hazard.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080422075254AAHrw8R

By the way, while looking for the answer to that question, I found this hilarious exchange:

Q: 4 Single girls going to Vegas...What to do?

A: WELL TAKE YOUR PILLS bring pepper spray and a knife and just enjoy yourself

When I got home, my buddy Chris immediately IMed me with “Dude, did Stewart’s bike look sick in person?”

Yes, it looked sick. Healthy sick,. Most notable is the giant hole in the side of the bike that helps cool the rear shock. I actually had to ask James’ mechanic Oscar “where is the cover for this?” There isn’t a cover—the airbox is no longer packed around the shock, so there’s room to just leave the side of the bike wide open. Could make a good hold for freestyle guys.

I was also asked if the bike sounded different with the “Tornado” exhaust, but I couldn’t tell. I had headphones on all weekend so I could listen to the sweet sound of myself.

It’s really hard to judge speed on a track this small, but James obviously was way faster then everyone else all weekend, so the bike must be working. Oh wait, James has pretty much ALWAYS been way faster than everyone else all weekend. On paper, the 2010 YZ450F is miles ahead of everything else, running the cylinder in reverse, putting the airbox in the front and the gas tank in the center makes so much sense. But Cannondale did the same thing and look how that worked out (Dirt Rider Magazine Bike of the Year in 1998. Followed by going out of business once people actually rode it). BMW has also tried to reinvent the wheel with their G450X enduro bike (which also has the air box in the front and the tank in the center) and the reviews have been, ahem, critical.

I guess at this level it comes down to more subtle things. Everyone can see a radical chassis and engine design, but it comes down to subtle effects on handling, suspension and power delivery. We’ll see how it turns out—everyone thought the aluminum framed 1997 Honda CR250 was going to dominate, but after a few months, bad news started to seep out, and I remember still seeing a lot of steel-framed 1996s at the local tracks that year. There are still fans of the 2008 CRF450R, too. Just sayin’.

Anyway Stewart had everyone covered, but from watching closely, I’d say they have some more work to do on that bike until he’s 100 percent comfortable. Once he is, though, he might totally dominate. Oh wait, James already does totally dominate.

Really impressed with Ryan Villopoto’s willingness to try. RV wasn’t even supposed to race this weekend, but he went for it. He bent his shift lever on Friday. But on Saturday, he gave it all he had. Selected the very inside starting gate. Ripped a mean practice start on the hot lap before the main. Got a good start, passed Dan Reardon and took off. Sprinted as fast and as hard as he could. James caught him and Ryan was already tired, but he even tried to pass James back and banged into him in a corner. That’s the kind of thing that impresses me about RV: he has zero intimidation. Is he as fast as Stewart? No. Was he going to win the race? No. But he tried as hard as he could. He didn’t hand it over or give it away. He tried. I really doubt any other riders, outside of Reedy, actually go to the starting line thinking “I’m going to try to beat Stewart tonight.”

Remember the last time we raced in Vegas? This is what I wrote then: “But then Ryan Villopoto started going nuts. His Seattle win looked pretty controlled, but this was 250-vintage RV.  Mondo aggression, throttle like an on-off switch, head locked down—RV looked like a radio-controlled car again. And going after Stewart with zero intimidation with so much on the line? Balls, that kid has.”

I like it.

Chad Reed was actually at the track on Friday afternoon, then he left to fly to Australia Friday night. Look for him to make his Kawasaki debut next weekend Down Under. Anyway, we dialed him up for an interview on the Webcast, where he made it official that he is racing for the factory Monster/Kawi team in 2009. No separate team, he is RV’s teammate straight up. And he will be racing the nationals next year. He knows he’ll be squaring off against RV for that one, and I already can’t wait to see that.

It’s James Stewart versus lady luck tonight, as the fans packing into the MGM Grand Garden Arena are hoping for a race, and perhaps only the craziness of Vegas will be able to provide it. As always, Stewart is the man to beat here, but you could tell he was struggling with the suspension settings on his new Yamaha, the redesigned frame seemed to work well for him in the rutted corners, his bike was settling into the ruts nicely, but on some of the high-speed chop you can sense he was unsure of the front end, and perhaps it was the way the bike delivers its power with the EFI, or the rear suspension setting, but as he tracked through the higher-speed corners….

Okay I’m kidding. The new bike looks cool and I have no idea how it handles. James looks fast on it and he won easily yesterday. He’s the fastest guy today in practice—even after he skipped the “free practice” session, he still threw down the fastest laps in the first  timed session.

I know Villopoto wants to give him a run, but I don’t see anyone giving James a run straight up. But what we do have in the cards (pun intended) is lady luck in Vegas, the against all odds (pun intended) longshot (pun intended) wild scenarious that seem to happen here.

James looked to have it dialed in 2006, but RC stuck with him on Saturday night, then Stewart stalled, and Ricky crashed trying to get around him. Chad Reed had everyone covered here easily on Friday in ’07 but all hell broke loose in the first turn on Saturday. Last year Stewart had an easy time of it on Friday but had to battle Reed on Saturday. Will he really just have an easy time of it all weekend long? History says know, but James’ riding says yes.

Ezra Lusk has improved dramatically in one day. He told me he had arm pump all day yesterday, when he finished 20th in qualifying and didn’t make the main event. He was definitely getting faster as the night went on, but time race out. He’s back looking like a totally different rider today, taking fifth overall in practice today. That’s 20th yesterday and fifth today—what a difference! Imagine Yogi making the podium tonight?

Ryan Villopoto bent his shift level last night, he’s not hurt or anything. Josh Hansen is here, he has a new deal with Pro Circuit and Monster, and he should be riding a 450 for them in supercross and the X Games next year. Before you go all “why does he keep getting chances” crazy, let it be known that Monster just wanted Mitch to put another bike out there, this wasn’t just Mitch handing out a ride for no reason.

Chad Reed confirmed to us on our Webcast yesterday that he is going to be on the full-on factory Kawasaki team next year, not his own satellite effort. He and RV are teammates straight up…and he likes where he stacks up on lap times looking at RV here, Stewart here, and himself at the test track.

We have one-on-one racing here for the first time ever, and Michael Byrne rang in the new event in style when his rear brake went out in the very first race, and he went over a berm and over the bars. Then he crashed half a lap later after hitting some mud. Crashed hard again today in practice. Remember, he’s on the mend from a big crash last weekend at the of Nations. Man.

The head to head racing is only cool if two guys are very close on speed, yesterday Villo and Millsaps lined up together and it was fun to watch. Millsaps looks good and into it here, his neck injury from the Nationals is all healed. That dude needs to bounce back after a tough 2009.

Dan Reardon rode really well yesterday, and he finished third. I don’t think he got to put his best foot forward during his two years in the U.S. and I hope he gets another shot next year. The way he was coming around on the 450 outdoors, had he not have gotten hurt, he could have gotten one of those Tommy Hahn or Goerke wins at the end of the year.

Georke is still riding the works 2009 YZ450F, but now pitting with his ’10 team, Motoconcepts Yamaha. Today the crew rolled a 2010 YZ250F out with 801 for Jeff Alessi, but he’s not riding it, it’s just his SX bike for next year. Jeff hadn’t even seen the bike until today.

The Lites bike experiment seems to be over at this event, most riders are on 450s. It’s all about getting the start here.

Speaking of starting, our Supercross Live! Webcast is about to get underway so go to www.ussx.com and tune in Jim and myself. Let’s see if luck is on James’ side or not.

(Note: I have this rich Uncle who lives in England. He's a very biased pro-European motocross fan. From time to time he sends me stuff to post on this site. It usually gets people very mad. I suggest you just laugh at it. Here goes.)

Well E’llo! Lord Alfred Weigandt here awakening from a glorious slumber. Many have asked where my realistic visions on sport have been hiding. Well, after watching King/God Stefan Everts systematically dismantle American motocross at Matterly Basin in 2006, I took it as a sign that my work was done. The world now truly understood the blatant superiority of European talent in comparison to their Yank counterparts, who are more interested in freestyle jumping, cross ups and clickers than being true sporting champions.

I basically fainted after Everts made his glorious pass and haven’t woken up until now.
No worries, I knew fellow patriots Beckham and Searle would do my bidding anyway. Becks has launched the popularity of soccer so soundly in the States that teams from Europe are just begging to bring him back. I’m sure thy fear that his European influence will make the U.S. the main world outpost for soccer, just like real men like DeCoster and Robert launched motocross in the States fortnights ago. Spain, though, will have to wait. Becks will first eclipse Michael Jordan in popularity by the end of 2010 and then he can return to the Continent with American hearts tucked into his deep pockets. Don’t worry, folks, you have satellite TV now, so you will still be able to watch him. Hearts will only bend, not break. Bend it like Beckham, as we say. Haha!

We can combine Becks’ success with the one-two British Formula 1 punch of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, who by next weekend will have delivered back-to-back world driving championships for mighty GB. We have now truly brought world sport to a new level, and as such, even Richard Carmichael II has chosen to abandon motocross and take up car racing. No doubt, Lewis’ spectacular rookie F1 season in 2007 gave Carmichael that idea.

So now let me focus on my favourite topic of sport, motocross. The Searlinator come second in last year’s MX2 World Championship chase only to “The Accomplished Colonist” Tyla Rattray, and they set up a double-edged attack on American scrambles for 2009. Searle ended up sixth and Rattray was ninth in the final points, an amazing run for their first year in the U.S. Keep in mind these two world-class sportsmen had never raced on the American tracks before. I can’t imagine another rider coming over from the GPs and doing any better in his very first season racing over here.

Searle and Rattray will surely dominate American racing next year (even stadiumcross). So set, in fact, is Searle’s path to dominance that the all-mighty King Kurt Nicoll has left his post at KTM, content knowing that Searle has orange dominance locked in for the next decade. Now it’s on to the last bastion of American existence, freestyle. King Kurt is now running the show for Travis Pastrana and his band of merry imbicles in the nac-nac circus. The takeover has begun!

But taking down the Yanks at their own game begins next season. This year at the Trophy des Nations, a trap has been set across the Atlantic, and three over-confident American lads are walking right into it. This is the moment I have been waiting 23 years for, and I’ve already booked a return flights to Italy and Australia so I can visit the Peter Chamberlin trophy again in a few months (that is, if it doesn’t just return to its rightful place here in GB. Go Searle! Go Simpson! Go Billy Mac!)

An Italian Trophy of Nations (what I like to call it) brings up bad memories for we Brits. The tragic events of Maggioria, Italy, in 1986, rank up there with bombing raids during the Great Wars. It was on that day that grown men wept, women cried, and children, soaking in their parents tears, asked, “would this be the right time for me to enjoy my first pint?” And it was. At the Trophy des Nations of 1986, the Septic Tanks (Yanks) won every moto, punctuated by Johnny O’Hannah, on a 1-2-5, passing King/God David Thorpe in a sorry second moto. This was a sad set of circumstances for Thorpey, who had lost the brakes on his monster CR500 and chose to merely hanging back and score solid, consistent points for his team. Back then, the 1-2-5s and the 500 bikes were scored separately, and hence Thorpy, ever the wise, knew he didn’t need to mess with that annoying nat on the buzzing bike. O’Hannah, as with any other cocky American of that era (and any other), risked his team’s success and instead focused on individual glory. Proud Englishmen like King Kurt Nicoll would never stoop to such levels! Consistency is why King Kurt is known as one of the greatest vice champions of all time!

Anyway, there are many reasons why Thorpe struggled that day, some stories which will never go told since David the Golliath doesn’t make excuses. I’ve heard he lost his brakes. Or he was tired from carrying an entire family out of a burning building a few days earlier. And remember, he was actually helping the Americans by developing future Hondas with his works bike, whereas the inferior Americans had to ride production bikes that year.

Surely Ricky Johnson, who won the 1987 and 1988 500 Championships in America, can thank Thorpey for taking one for his company and developing the future production 500 in September of 1986! Just imagine how strong Thorpe could have tuned in a Triumph of BSA. Oh I’m bloody soiling myself thinking of that scenario…it would have been a triumph indeed.

Anyway, Great Britain took its revenge on the Yanks at Roggenberg in 1994 and the rest is history. Just like the USA’s win streak, which ended then and will end again this weekend.

Yes, motorsport can be a cruel mistress, bringing the rush of victory and conquest, but also the crushing heartbreak and cold revenge of a woman scorned. Indeed in this case, England is the woman (a very tough, strong, manly type woman, however) and the fury will be unleashed on the Americans.

Of course, they are not aware of the trap that has been set for them in Italy. Any smart American racer wouldn’t go near this event, but smart American racer is an oxymoron, and as such they found three willing to try. From what I hear, Mr. O’Hannah himself has been linked to both Tedesco and Dungey as a physio trainer. No surprise.

I give credit to a few American riders, namely Bubba Stewart, who wisely decided to not in this year’s event. Bubba saw the motocross writing on the wall and it said, “Searle is coming.” You believe it’s a coincidence that he bowed out of natural-terrain racing at the very same moment Tommy boy arrived?

In 2008 Bubba again expected victory, coming in overconfident after winning every single moto in the States. He of course wasn’t used to the speed of his European challengers, and after Sebastien Pourcel applied lap after lap of relentless pressure, James crashed. Broken in spirit by a Frenchman! Incredible. Bubba hasn’t raced a motocross race since.

So I applaud James for making the right move and bowing out. Same for little Villo, who wanted no part in taking on his arch rival “Super” Tony Carolli in Italy. Caroli delivered a championship in his first season on a 450 this year. I look at the results and see Villopoto finished 24th in his first 450 season in the U.S. Run, run away, Ryan.

That leaves Dungey, Tedesco and some MX2 guy I have not heard of. Cockiness runs in the American blood, and Dungey will race motocross on a 450 for the first time here. He will taste O’Hannah’s medicine when Searlinator runs him down on the 250F! Tedesco was flat whipped at the conclusion of his last moto at the ‘of Nations back in 2006, exhausted from trying to run the GP pace. And the other guy, what’s his name, Wimmer? I predict he will be not a Wimmer but a loser when it’s all over. Oh how I make myself laugh sometimes!

Meanwhile, the hot-blooded Italians have a veritable super-team, led by Super Tony, backed by last year’s MX1 Champion David Phillapearts, and featuring David Guarneri in MX2. Like the moments before a well-cooked Italian meal, this team is hungry. Don’t expect any seconds, either.

The Italians made the right decision to join the Brits in the second Great War, and now they will win another battle this weekend. If they falter, we have the always-strong Belgian team, with Clement “American Podium” DeSalle leading the way. If anyone is hungry, it’s the MX Panda!

As for the Brits, we have recently added Shaun Simpson to the team. With Searle heading to dominate the U.S., Simpson was set to dominate MX2 this year, proving that you can, indeed win wars while fighting on two fronts. Injuries forced Simpsy out of the chase, though, and a Frenchman named Marvin Musquin snuck through. French fans beware, though. Their last major star-to-be was named Christophe Pourcel. He won the MX2 Championship in 2006, was beaten down by Super Tony in 2007, and then disappeared from the rankings altogether after that. I honestly have no idea what Christophe is up to nowadays but I note he’s not on the entry list for Team France this weekend. Surrender probably has something to do with it.

The rest of our team includes Searlinator, of course, and the venerable Scottsman, Billy MacKenzie. Yes, Billy Mac is racing for Team GREAT BRITAIN. Get it? Scottsman Jeff Ward was a traitor for winning eight Trophy des Nations for the U.S. team, and now Canada will make the same grievous error by putting Scottish-born Dean Wilson on their team. Line up Wilson with Simpson and Searle and you’ve got the strongest young trio in the motocross world. That’s Great Britain!

(At least Canada still respects the Queen so I’ll give Wilson a free pass for the weekend).

Last but not least (and certainly not last, either) comes me Australian mates, Reedy, Byrnie and Metty. Take a look at the Aussie flag and you will see the Union Jack proudly embedded in it. The Aussies simply take what they like: our flag, and America’s 450 motocross championship! With Reed and Byrne aided by DeCoster, chances are that the Land Down Under will finish up top!

Allow me to make a prediction for this weekend’s race:

1. Great Britain
2. Italy
3. Australia

Truthfully, I haven’t been myself lately, and by lately I mean the last 23 years. Our proud British Empire has been rocked and ravaged before, and we have always proven to return to form even stronger, and I have a feeling in me bones that this year, we will rise again!

A lot of fans are buying stock in Team Australia for this year’s Motocross of Nations. Oz has had talented teams for awhile now, but for some reason things never seem to go their way at the big race. I’m just a pundit and a wag, so I not sure why, but I can guess. Maybe teams that don’t race on the continent week in and week out are at a disadvantage unless they have some major experience at the helm (in contrast, the U.S. has DeCoster running the show, and 25+ years of victories to draw from). But Reed and Byrne race for DeCoster, too, so I bet they will be treated well, and Reed should be a lot better outdoors than he was last year. But then, would RD help those guys just to help them beat his own team? And how can a Belgian guy end up running Team USA into battle against Belgium anyway?

Anyway, the Reed/Byrne/Metty team looks strong on paper, but the pressure in this race is extreme, and we’ll see if these guys can go out and get it. Reed is proven in the clutch, but we’ve never seen Byrne or Metcalfe really have to carry a load before.

Meanwhile, I do recall an international race where the Aussies actually did come out on top, and two thirds of the team was actually the same as it is now (Reed and Byrne). The race? The now-nearly-forgotten World Cup of Motocross in 2002, which was probably the most fun race I’ve ever been to. The event rose from the ashes of the ’02 MXoN, which was supposedly supposed to take place in California at a brand-new Competition Park facility. That brand-new Comp Park never really got built, and then the Soboba Indian tribe that owns the land locked the gates. Blame it on the Indians if you want, but it sure didn’t seem like the place was going to be ready, anyway, and I’m not sure if anyone who bought tickets ever got their money back.

They certainly didn’t get reimbursed for their travel. I had already bid for a plane ticket to California on Priceline (no refunds) so even after the MXoN got cancelled, I was going to California. Same for my British co worker, Jason Berry. We were both newbie employees back then, so we weren’t getting any expenses taken care of, but this was just a fun trip as pure fans. Plus, even though the MXoN was off, an “international race” was planned at Glen Helen, so the riders and teams that did make it to the U.S. could race, and the fans would have something to watch.

When we landed in Cali, we headed straight for Comp Park first. The race had been cancelled a week in advance, but it sure didn’t look like they were a week away from completing construction. Behind the locked gates we saw a field with a few jumps and some small sheds. Not a world class facility in my mind.

Then the visitors showed up. First, a mom and son from England. Then a husband and wife from Japan. And a couple from Tahiti, believe it or not. None of them knew the of Nations were cancelled. They were driving down a dirt road in a rental car with purchased tickets to the race in hand, expecting to see all the grandeur of American motocross. Instead they saw a locked gate, a few jumps, a some sheds.

JB and I tried to explain why the race was off. The Brit lad immediately launched into a swear-laden tirade, and his mom seemed okay with that. The Japanese couple, well, we couldn’t explain anything to them. The Tahiti folks simply took off. We eventually established communication with the Japanese (t-a-l-k-i-n-g s-l-o-w-l-y) and explained that Glen Helen would be hosting an international race on Sunday. We wrote a note and hung it on the locked gate, and our new friends even wrote the same message in Japanese. By the way, there wasn’t a single sign anywhere saying the MXoN was cancelled. In the two hours we hung out at Comp Park on Friday, we saw 20 dazed and confused world travelers. Can’t imagine what Sunday would have been like!

As for the World Cup race at Glen Helen, the event went from nothing to something in one week, thanks to the internet. Things happened fast thanks to simple and effective posts like “James Dobb is here from England, if he can find two teammates he will race for Team Great Britain.”

Major credit to the guys that made it happen, and I’m not really sure who, but I think Rick Doughty of Vintage Iron, mega-collector Gregg Primm, and Glen Helen’s Bud Feldkamp were the main dudes. And DC always tells me that this race was the birthplace of Wonder Wharthog Racing. Lots of internet power at work here.

Glen Helen was the perfect place to race, because every foreign rider in the U.S. lived within driving distance of the track. It might not have been every nation’s Dream Team, but teams they were. While driving into the front gate, for instance, we saw Eric Sorby cruising in with his KX125 in the back of a pickup. That was one third of Team France right there. Seb Tortelli had just signed with Suzuki, he drove up the road to race, too. (Seb would later crash out hard. A recurring theme for him, sadly).

As for Team USA, there weren’t many options. Once the real race was cancelled, two of the original team members, Ricky Carmichael and Mike LaRocco, chose to stay home. Then the virtual floodgates opened on Ricky. Back in ’02, the guy basically couldn’t do anything right, and the message boards exploded with vitrol for the man who wasn’t known as the GOAT yet. RC took quite a beating by the public for not racing the World Cup. LaRocco, meanwhile, no one said anything about him.

Tim Ferry, also an original Team USA member, decided to race. The other Team USA riders were basically guys who lived close to Glen Helen: Suzuki replacement rider Sean Hanblin and privateer hero Kyle Lewis.

Ferry was then anointed captain America, and he was expected to dominate the event. He was even armed with a new weapon, as Yamaha’s first-generation YZ400F/YZ426F bike had spawned the all-new YZ450F for 2003. This would be Ferry’s first race on it, but he had been Yamaha’s main man on the previous machine for a few years. Plus, he finished second to RC in the 250 nationals that year. His only weakness, one would think, was his Canadian-based mechanic. What was his name again? That guy was probably torn between Red Dog and team Maple Leaf.

Chad Reed, who had raced a YZ250F for Yamaha of Troy that year, was also going to race the 450. Reedy had said all year that he wanted to race in the big bike class, but this would be his maiden 450 voyage in the U.S. (even when he raced the 250 class in Europe the year before, it was on a KX250). I didn’t expect him to challenge Ferry until I watched practice. I couldn’t believe how fast and aggressive Reed looked on that new bike, attacking corners as if they were the villain in an action movie and they had killed his family. He would find a line, put the bike in it and then within .0000003 seconds, dump the clutch and unleash 450cc of fury like no man I had seen before. The berms were begging for mercy. Ask anyone who raced one: those 2003 YZ450Fs were absolute fire-breathers. This was a potent combination.

Isn’t it funny how much faster someone looks when they’re the fastest guy at the track that day? Watching Reed in practice at Glen Helen, I was sure that no one on the planet could possibly go faster. And remember, RC had completed the first perfect season in the history of the sport. Later, RC would prove himself faster than Reed outdoors, too. But without RC there to guage, it sure looked like Reed was the man. Kind of like watching Mike Brown and Ryan Hughes duke it out for the 125 win at High Point the next year. Everyone was saying, “I don’t think it’s possible to ride a 125cc motocross bike faster than those two rode it.”

Two weeks later James Stewart returned from injury at Budds Creek and absolutely dominated the event. Brown and Hughes weren’t even close on speed.

The World Cup race turned out awesome. I kind of saw it as a flea market for motocross. You didn’t know what you were going to find until you showed up. What countries would have team? Who was on them? What were they riding? You had no clue what you would find, and after watching a steady diet of Carmichael/Stewart domination all summer, it was a nice change. Their was an electric atmosphere at Glen Helen, and it was good.

The fans really liked it, too. There was so much internet furor and power churning up from the event that when I got home and wrote a column about the race, saying it was cool to see something different, I got ruined. Different wasn’t enough. The rabid fans wanted me to say it was the greatest thing that ever happened. Sorry, guys, it was. There.

In the race, all three riders on each team rode all three motos. Ferry looked to have Reed covered in the first moto, but then he started making mistakes and Reed got him. Then Ernesto Fonseca (riding a 250 outdoors for the first time) beat Reed in moto two (so much for Reed being the fastest man on earth that day). Ferry crashed out, and Hamblin and Grant Langston got into a take-out fest that spilled over into the third moto. Seems pretty funny now, since they’re buds. Ferry struggled in moto three from the affects of the crash in moto two. And according to Ferry’s Canadian mechanic, a Canadian (Blair Morgan) took Timmy out in moto three. Mixed emotions there in the Yamaha pits.

Reed won moto three, Byrne, I believe on a Honda CR250, finished fourth, and combined with consistent rides from Craig Anderson, Australia had won the event. Team USA finished second and Canada finished third, which means the top three teams were all north-American based. At a race put together at the last minute, the home-field advantage really helps.

The typical European powers were non-factors because they weren’t even there. Belgium didn’t have a team, England had their Team Manager Rob Herring hop on a bike just to have a third guy, and the French were done in by Tortelli’s big crash (Not sure if the World Cup counts in the official record book, but I swear Tortelli holds the career record for first turn crashes). Heck, Mike Metzger even raced the event as part of Team New Zealand, if that makes any sense at all. Anyway, it was all a little wacky, but that made it fun. And Australia did win…something.

A month later, a rescheduled MXoN took place in Spain, and Alessio Chiodi, Alex Puzar and Andrea Bartolini won the event for Italy. 

So, can Team Australia get it done this year? In a crazy, randomn, barely connected to MXoN history kind of way, I guess you could say they have gotten it done before.