Blogandt: No Problems in Houston

That’s Racing in Houston:

At a supercross in 2007, James Stewart was struggling with the forks on his Kawasaki, and he was late getting out for the second practice session. Something was off with his settings, and James wasn’t happy with the bike. The rest of the boys were out setting fast laps in James’ absence, and then all of a sudden the #7 rolled through the tunnel, jumped out on the track, put in the fastest lap of anyone and then went back to the pits. It was an amazing show of confidence. I was wondering what James was doing back in the pits. Maybe he was just busy watching TV back in the truck, and then looked at his watch and said “Oh wait, hold on guys! I gotta go out and get the fastest lap time of anyone in the world real quick. Be right back!”

James didn’t need a few laps to know he could go faster than everyone else. He knew it before he even came down that tunnel.

James didn’t have that same swagger in the opening rounds of this year’s supercross tour, but he had it back at Houston. The L&M team made big changes to James’ bike during the week—my broadcast partner Jim Holley told me that Team Manager Larry Brooks convinced James to try his concept on setup, utilizing the strengths of the Yamaha instead of trying to make it ride like a Kawasaki. Larry has been around the YZ450F for a long time in supercross now, so he knows what the bike needs to do (my guess? Yamahas have never been known as quick turners, and James’ setup of super stiff forks and a softer shock doesn’t help the front end bite. Jim told me they convinced James to get the back end up a little higher). It must have worked, because it was like James already knew he would have the speed before they even got on the track.

He did have an unfair advantage, though. Stewart was powered into the stadium by the greatest intro in the history of the sport. Or any sport. Ever. Of course I’m biased. During Saturday morning’s production meeting, they told us that James was coming out to Bon Jovi’s Wanted Dead of Alive. I’m from New Jersey. I was pumped. But when the man who makes the intro videos for the big screen, Wes Nobles, showed me the thing, I started shaking and smiling and laughing. I must have been laughing hard because I could hear myself clearly, and I had headphones on (you know how it’s impossible to generate regular volume when you have headphones on. It’s like trying to act sober when you’re really drunk). Wes actually made James’ intro video look just like the real deal 1987 Wanted video, from moments on the Stewart motorhome (tour bus), to clips of the steel horse he rides (a Yamaha), to grainy black and white footage of James getting fired up in a dressing room—just like Jon Bon Jovi himself once did. They even had Raddo dressed up like Ritchie Sambora in a big black hat. Amazing! It’s a good thing the video happened to be airing when we were on a commercial break for Supercross Live!, because I would not have been able to resist singing along right on the air. There’s your $39.99 worth of entertainment.

Oh, you’re saying you weren’t in Houston and you didn’t get to see James’ intro? For some reason these opening ceremonies vids don’t show up on YouTube, on the Bar 2 Bar DVDs or on TV. The only way to see it is to show up live—Wes says he hopes to show that intro again in Atlanta. You better be there.

Speaking of Atlanta, my dirty south rival Kevin Kelly (DMXS Radio host) and I finally had a chance for the ultimate showdown. Houston marked the inevitable climax of years of trash talking, mind games, male posturing and ego stroking. I’ve been friends with Kevin for a long time, and I even had him in my wedding party. But there’s always been this heat bubbling under the surface, this unsorted, unsettled friction that needed to be taken care of. We needed to race each other. On dirt bikes.

The real reason we needed to battle is because we both totally suck, and we knew we were each one of the few people who could actually make for a close fight. We’ve tried making this happen before, but it has never come together. As luck would have it this time, though, Toyota was putting together their Annual Ride Day at Three Palms MX on Friday. Big thanks to Rick Humphries, Scotty Lalonde, Gina and the rest of the Toyota crew. The track was perfect, the weather was perfect, and the showdown was perfect. I even had killer new gear from Rob Salcedo at Shift MX. Rob said he would even put a butt patch on my gear, so, just so everyone was sure I had one, I got the words “My ass in under here” printed on my pants. Once on the track, Kevin and I proceeded to blow corners, case jumps and miss shifts all over the track in an epic showdown of arm pump, fear and lack of skill. Racer X Motocross Show producer Wes Williams was there to shoot the action (it was easy because we handled all the slo-motion footage automatically. Who won? I’m not sure. Who lost? Everyone else on the track did, because we spent most of the time brake-checking and kicking each other, cutting inside in turns and getting in everyone’s way. At least, when someone got stuck behind me, they knew my ass was under that patch.

How about the real racers in Houston? Besides Stewart, here are some of my other, oops, observations.

If you ever bring up the idea of banning works suspension to tighten up the racing, teams will argue that works stuff helps keep their riders safe. The Lites East opener in Houston helps argue that point. The Houston track was especially tough for a 250F. The step-on-step-on-step-on section of table tops looked like torture to the 250F guys who were casing each jump, and then casing the following triple and even the jumps in the next rhythm section. But you had to try going on-on-on over those tables, because I timed the section during practice and found out it was a half second slower in you jumped over each jump instead of skimming the tops.

Combine that technical track with nervous young racers dealing with opening-round jitters (or even worse, first supercross race ever jitters), and you’ve got a recipe for all kinds of mistakes. It was ugly to watch at times, yet I never saw one of those big case jobs result in an injury. Hooray for good, stiff suspension (for proof, watch the Lites TV coverage. When the Lites bikes come riding down that dragon back after the whoops, they have all the suppleness of a lo-rider on Unique Whips).

At Anaheim 1, Division 7 Star Racing’s Brock Tickle went down with a broken jaw, and the team asked their Eastern Region rider, Matt Lemoine, if he wanted to switch to the west. He elected to stay on the East. Why? Lemoine was born in Louisiana and grew up in Texas, so he wants to race in Houston and New Orleans. Obviously, Matt was pumped with that decision because Matt rode like a man possessed all day. Take an aggressive rider like Matt, mix in the tough track, the opening round nerves, the home state crowd and some training from Ryan Hughes, and you’ve got the recipe for something out of the Nitro Circus. With a ton of speed, some mistakes and crashes, Matt ended up 18th in the main. It’s a shame because I think Matt was the fastest Lites rider of all in Houston. After the rave, he told me he will be better in Atlanta.

Did Nico Izzi get tired or just pump up? You have to give the guys a mulligan on fading at round one, because nerves can sap anyone’s energy. In a few weeks we’ll know if Nico is finally ready to, as he told me he would do last summer, “Bring Budds Creek speed for the whole race,”

I think Brett Metcalfe was stuck between a rock and a hard place in Houston. With his start, it was tempting to sit back and collect a solid podium finish for round one. But then he saw Pourcel not too far ahead, dangling that first-ever career win just a few feet away. In the end, Metty charged in some spots and laid back in others, and all-in-all it was a great ride for second. There were a ton of fast Lites guys in Houston, but Metty and Pourcel were the only ones who looked fast without looking erratic.

As for Pourcel, I’m just going to give him his own column later in the week….

Back in the day when Motocross Action Magazine was the only game in town, they used to pump the “five race rule” in supercross. They said by round five of the series, you pretty much knew who was a contender and who was a pretender. Those guys were on to something, because I think we’re one round away from officially being able to ask, “What’s the problem here?” with a few 450 guys. Davi Millsaps and Josh Hill won races last year and they are struggling big time at the moment. Hill has been beat up with mid-week crashes thus far, so I understand, but as I’ve said before, when it rains it pours in this game, and bad luck doesn’t often right itself mid-season. Get in five bad ones and it gets really hard to turn it all around. Same for ‘Saps. When are we allowed to start getting worried here?

Rumors started swirling that Millsaps was perhaps burned out, and then I figured out that may have came from an interview we did with him for our webcast! For the record, DM18 never said he was burned out. He did say this:

“I’m not having that great of a year, it’s a lot of problems going on with me. I’ve got to have more fun doing it, so that’s what we’re working on this week, just trying to have fun and enjoy it. I don’t think I put too much pressure on myself, but I did expect to be doing a little better than I’ve been doing, But I’ve been training so hard and riding so much that I just have to back it down a little bit more and enjoy coming to the race track. I’m really need to look forward to racing instead of coming here and not wanting to race.”

You can watch the interview here.

I really hope Davi gets it dialed in, because I spent the winter picking him as my dark horse title favorite!

Some other guys are clinging to the contender list, like Tim Ferry, Andrew Short and Ivan Tedesco. These boys are darned close to getting to the next level, and if they keep up what they’re doing, they are in for solid seasons. IT usually seems to come around four or five races into the season, and he’s doing that again here (unfortunately he was doing the same thing last year and then got hurt at round six). I asked Ivan about this on Friday and he said his training schedule really is designed that way, so let’s hope he gets to stay healthy this year and show it off.

Shorty and Ferry are solid. What else is new?

As for the rest of the pack, Ryan Villopoto, as I figured, has too many smart people around him to blow his rookie season. He’s riding as hard and learning as he goes, but he is not trying to win the races like RC and Bubba did in their rookie years (and how did that go?). He’s letting it come to him, as they say.

Josh Grant still hasn’t put a wheel wrong all year. This is unbelievable.

I know Kevin Windham said he was really, really happy with his consistency last year. Unfortunately, we’re back to the on and off again stuff this year. Round 1 and 3 he was on it, rounds 2 and four he wasn’t. Starts played a gigantic role in that, but last year, once KW got rolling, he was finishing up front no matter where he started. Let’s give him a few more weeks to get that new Honda dialed and see which guy we have.

Poor Sean Hamblin injured his knee in Houston and is already out. Word is that Broc Hepler will be back for San Diego, but if Yamaha is smart they will hold him one more week because Hepler and California go together like oil and water.

That’s what I’ve got on the racing. For more hard-hitting journalism,check this out.