Grant-tastic?

Posted by Steve Matthes on Monday, October 20, 2008

Comment (10)

There’s a ton of interesting subplots to the upcoming supercross season. We have the top two contenders on different bikes, we have the soon-to-be-announced new format where 250Fs will be allowed in the 450 class (although don’t look for any heavy hitters to line up in the 450s. The managers I spoke to weren’t too pumped to let a big money/name rider ride a different class and take the chance of getting hurt) and the graduation of Ryan Villopoto into the big guy's class. I think that RV and how he will do is the most compelling story of the new season. Will he run with Stewart and Reed? Will he get third every race? Will he accidently shoot some rider and stuff’em?

If you look beyond the obvious there’s another story that is going to be interesting to follow (and it’s not if Hanny can make it through a full supercross season. America, the land of 8,345 chances!) and that’s whether or not we see if Joe Gibbs Racing can turn Josh Grant into a top five contender. So far JGR has hired three riders (Hanny, Summey and Gracyk) and the results are mixed at best. Summey didn’t do as well as he did on a team with the quarter of the budget of JGR, (although that is not lack of trying, some might say he tried to hard) Hanny was a disaster and Gracyk and the team just didn’t mesh well. Gavin was hurt when he joined the team and never got on track.

Photo by: Matthes

Will he be Grant-tastic?

There’s no doubt that JGR Yamaha was the most talked about team last year; the capabilities they have are second to none. The facility is, by all accounts, like the Taj Mahal of racing shops. They have Jeremy Albrecht as team manager, a guy that knows a thing or two about winning. We know the story on Grant by now. Talented and tattooed, Josh experienced everything as a 250 rider--he was the hotshot up and coming rider, the championship favorite and then the over the hill kid whose window closed on a title. Some say he made too much money too soon, others say he surrounded himself with the wrong kind of people and others say that he’s misunderstood. One thing that’s never been in question or not understood is his talent; this kid drips natural riding ability. (If this sounds strangely familiar to you, that’s because it is-the same things were written about Hansen one year ago.)

So what we have here are two people with something to prove, JGR and Grant in the 450s. It will be interesting if the free spirit can mesh with the team and their way of doing things. I’m not sure why Josh never reached his potential in the 250 class, surely you’d think by now he’d have a SX title but it just never worked out. He almost always had a bad first race and was behind the eight ball immediately. This would lead to him trying harder to win, which led to crashing, which would lead to all those questions that I asked above. As good as Josh is indoors, he might even be better outside and has a national win on his resume. This past year he was hurt in the beginning and joined the series at Lakewood. It was there when he almost beat RV that we all remembered just how damn fast Josh Grant can be.

One thing that’s never been in question or not understood is his talent; this kid drips natural riding ability. (If this sounds strangely familiar to you, that’s because it is-the same things were written about Hansen one year ago.)

I think that Josh is at a crossroads here. He has the bike, the program and the team to do well (at least that’s the perception out there), now he has to do his part. I do think Josh got caught up in the whole California scene and I also see that he recognized that and got out of the distractions of So Cal. He will be in North Carolina now with nothing to do but ride, train and eat Sorby's Pasta at the local diner. I bet he comes out swinging at Anaheim and surprises us all. I think he has no choice but to do that and I think he knows that also.

Posted by Steve Matthes on Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 11:20 am

Comment (10)

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