So what do we make of Matt "Beef" Goerke winning at Southwick? And what do we make of 44-year-old John Dowd finishing second?
1Carl Stone photo.
John Dowd. Again.
There are two ways to go here: anyone younger or with better support than these dudes should go stick their head in the muddy Southwick sand and drown themselves in tears. Beat straight-up by a 44-year-old? Not sure if you can be proud of that. And then Georke wins on Josh Hill's bike, meaning he has proven, unfortunately for Hill, that both his Thor pants and his factory Yamaha YZ450F are fine.
If you're Hill, Michael Byrne, Andrew Short, Ivan Tedesco, Davi Millsaps, or any other factory rider in the field, should you be embarrassed?
Or, do we just chalk this up to the magic of sports? You just never know when an epic event will take place, when a dream scenario, a one-in-a-million underdog story will come true.
Let's do the right thing and just give the credit to Georke and Dowd, who have shown that motocross is one of the few motorsports where someone can really change the results just by getting fired up and inspired. Georke is simply pumped to be on that bike and it has turned him into a different rider--Matt has the same talent level he had when he was struggling the last few years, and the YZ is the same bike Hilly was struggling on for the last few months. But to Matt the bike respresents opportunity, and that has lit his fire.
As for Dowd, just getting fired up, and all of that knowledge of the Southwick track, carried him much further than a 44-year-old body and a privateer Kawi should be able to do. NASCAR has had a few crazy wins at just the right time, but that just ignites the conspiracy theories. No doubt that Georke and Dowdy's efforts were all real.
Plus, Chad Reed crashed out of the race for the first time since....when has Chad EVER crashed out of a race while leading? I know he went down in the Millville whoops a few years ago and busted his shoulder. And one time at Southwick he jacked his shoulder and had to ride in crazy pain. That's about all I can remember. The most consistent guy ever just crashes out? The motocross Gods just seem to go crazy on some days.
In 2005, Doug Henry rolled up to the GNCC in Florida on a beat up Honda with duct tape numbers. He went out and beat Juha Salminen straight-up in a ridiculous all-out battle for the win. They were something like seven minutes ahead of third! Henry wins, and then collapses at the finish line. Exhausted. Couldn't speak, at all. Couldn't stay up on the podium. After the race, he was just laying on the ground, his back in the sand, exhausted. He was DONE. But he won.
While watching this drama unfold, all-time classic MX and SX announcer Larry Maiers appeared next to me. I really think Larry was just beamed down by the announcing Gods for this event. I don't know where he came from of why he was there. I turned to him and said "Larry, Henry is retired and he just beat the entire GNCC pack down. That doesn't make those guys look good."
Larry responded "It doesn't make anyone look bad, because this is Doug Henry! This is what Doug Henry does, he does the impossible. A lot of motocrossers have tried to win this race, Larry Ward, Travis Pastrana, Ryan Hughes, and they couldn't do it. He didn't win because the other guys are bad, he did it because he's Doug Henry! So go ahead and use that. Free of charge."
And with that Larry beamed away, as if his appearance was just a dream.
The point was to take what Henry did as great, and don't diminish the accomplishment by investigating everyone else. By the end of that 2005 season, everyone realized Salminen was the GOAT off-road, which only further validated Henry's win.
And if Doug had been able to race Southwick this year, he might have been up there, too. Would we think any less of the current factory talent if they were beat by him? Probably not.
