There’s nothing like the start of a new season, and that’s exactly what Atlanta felt like last weekend. Not only was the East Region kicking off, with no less than 10 guys with a legitimate shot at the win, but Ricky Carmichael was back in the mix, Chad Reed was back in the title hunt after James Stewart’s disastrous crash at San Diego, and the jam-packed Georgia Dome was rocking like Anaheim 1.

Of course, what we saw was more of the same in the 450 class, as Stewart put together a superb race, with Carmichael breathing down his neck for much of the main yet never able to get a wheel in on the #7 Monster Kawasaki. Maybe that’s because Stewart had that incredible overhead route on the infield rhythm section, not to mention his bombastic blasts through the whoops on either side of the racetrack.

James is asking where RC went in that particular corner photo: Carl Stone

Carmichael finishing second did no good for Reed’s title hopes, which took a further hit when RC spent the downtime on the podium telling James exactly where he was catching him (bowl turns). And his “I was wearing a skirt” admission about the rhythm section was good stuff!

Now we head to St. Louis, where both Stewart and Carmichael had terrible luck (though when you think back to RC’s heat-race endo, maybe he was really, really lucky in the whole big scheme of things). Reed got a win here, but he needs to win again if he wants to stay in this thing. Losing five points again this weekend could be fatal to his title hopes, because when RC’s gone after Orlando, who’s going to get between him and Stewart and help him pull those points back?

Six o’clock Eastern is again the magic time this weekend for SX on TV. Catch the Atlanta Lites Saturday at that time—if you’ve never seen Ryan Dungey or Ben Townley race before, you’re going to be impressed—and then watch the St. Louis SX main on Sunday at that time. Again, make sure to check your local listings, or visit www.speedtv.com for more information.

And if you can’t stand to stay away from the computer or answer your cell phone all day Sunday, might as well listen to the Supercross Live! webcast of Jason Weigandt and Jim Holley, which starts up at 8 p.m. EST (5 out West), from St. Louis. And the AMA’s always interested @The Wire Live! timing and scoring will be rolling throughout the day tomorrow.

One rider who won’t be in St. Louis is Nick Wey. I spoke to the Xyience/MDK Motorsport Honda rider this morning after he was back at home following surgery on his thumb. He hopes to be back for the last three races, and then Toyota AMA Motocross Series. He and wife Nicole and new baby Ava Marie, now six days old, are doing great. Want to read more about NYK? Check out this Racer X Online interview.

It should be no surprise that Wey’s problems have him sliding down in the Racer X Power Rankings, which has a brand new sponsor: Toyota! Also, based on his impressive speed even after a three-week layoff, RC has passed Reed for second, with the idle Ryan Villopoto fourth. Where it gets really interesting is where the East Region guys come in. Makita Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey landed tenth in his debut on the poll, which makes his third-highest of all Lites riders behind RV51 and eighth-ranked Jason Lawrence.

Ryan Dungey’s solid work in Atlanta sees him move into the Toyota Power Rankings in the 10th spot photo: Carl Stone

Also, Darcy Lange debuts at 15^th based on his second-place ride—he was moving to the front, fell, then got back up there again. Lange’s effort earned the Racer X Canada crew an extra day of work; keep an eye on www.racerxcanada.com to see why. (And speaking of RXC, Steve Matthes—Tim Ferry’s “man-friend temp” from the U.S. Open and a regular columnist for the world’s best moto hockey team—put together a different kind of race wrap-up online with his “Observations from Atlanta.” If you missed it, check it out—it’s good stuff. (And don’t forget to check out Danny Brault’s Frid’Eh Update, which should have some good stuff from Georgia today.)

What is surprising to some here in the office is that Townley, who DNF’d, moved into the rankings at #19, even though his engine let go when he was chasing after Dungey halfway through the race. After all of the injuries and delays that BT101 has had in the last year and a half, it was cool to see him riding so well.

And then there’s Matt Goerke, who I actually picked to win the night before the race at the DMXS party. The YoT rider got a little gassed toward the end because he was hanging on too hard, but on the podium after the race, he basically said, “I’m going to win next week.” If he gets a good start, rides forward, and races the track, he just might.

Anyway, Goerke came in 22^nd in the Toyota Power Rankings, which means only four East guys made the Top 25, and fourth-place Ryan Morais was not among them. Nor was fast practice man Jeff Alessi or big brother Mike, who really didn’t look very comfortable during his heat or the main before crashing out when his shoulder popped out. He should be back this weekend, though.

Mike Alessi had a night he’d rather forget in Altanta photo: Carl Stone

By the way, I said Goerke was my dark-horse pick, but “Dangerous” Dave Deringer of Sano and Cycle News fame said Dungey and Lange. Together, we had the trifecta—but he had 1-2 covered.

Did you catch www.racerxfilms.com earlier this week? Eric Johnson takes you through No Fear. Very cool, though it would have been sweet to see the ’08 stuff before Skip Norfolk wisely shut Simon and EJ down before they could get in the “war room.”

Time for a non-commercial break: Suzuki has a very cool video with some old- school footage of Mark Barnett, Guy Cooper and others here. It’s narrated by Denny Stephenson and Suzuki’s own Cole “Lone Star” Gress.

British moto artist Rob Kinsey has done it again. After his David Bailey painting of the same historic day was such a success, this canvas painting of Ricky Johnson at the 1986 Motocross des Nations is stunning.

The new painting by Rob Kinsey

According to Kinsey, these will be available as a limited edition of 50 canvas-block-mounted prints, size 20” x 30”. They are £95 GB pounds each and £35 shipping by courier, door-to-door to USA. They will be protected in specially made cartons, double bubble-wrapped to ensure safe delivery. The final painting in this series will be of Johnny O’Mara on his works Honda 125 to complete the U.S.A. “dream team” of 86!

Racer X hopes to sort out a way to be the distributor for Kinsey’s work here in the U.S., just to try to get these prints into more people’s hands. We may also end up bringing over Stefan Everts’ Stairway to Glory DVD, which is an amazing piece of Grand Prix motocross history.

And speaking of the GPs, it was good to have five-time World Champ Joel Smets on hand last week in Atlanta. He brought his family over to visit his old friends Townley and Carmichael in Tallahassee, plus make the trek over to Walt Disney World. Smets got the red carpet treatment from Live Nation (thank you, Mrs. LaRocco!) and watched from the press box. (And if you heard his story about showing up at the wrong Unadilla on Supercross Live! you know he had an eye-opening trip.)

Davi did a little jetting around last week photo: Carl Stone

Team Honda returned to action at the Georgia Dome for the first time since last fall, but the results—18^th for Davi Millsaps and 18^th for Tommy Hahn—were not what anyone expected. Both riders fell early, and Hahn had his brake rotor bent. Look for strong rebounds from both this week.

But Millsaps did more than race last week. Some of the Joe Gibbs Racing and Carolina-based David Evans crew flew down to Millsaps Training Facility last week to check it out in the Gibbs Lear jet. Then they flew Davi and his mom, Colleen, up to Charlotte, NC, along with Pete Brewer (the MTF manager) and Lance Langston (Millsaps’ agent). Before the rumor mill grinds this to a pulp, remember that Davi will be with Honda a while, as he has two years left on his contract and they surely have a right of first refusal at that point. But the Gibbs folks are very interested in getting into motocross in the future, so this was more like the time they brought in Ryan Villopoto and his family before Steel City last year—they are just trying to create affinity with the top stars, plus they may want to use MTF in the winter once they start into motocross.

Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki had a decent weekend in the East opener, even without the man who was supposed to be there, Brett Metcalfe. Metty pulled out early with the shoulder injury that was carried over from the Motocross des Nations, where he rode for his native Australia. Now he’s back on the bike and going “pretty damn fast already,” according to his trainer Ryan Hughes. When asked when Metcalfe might make his ‘07 racing debut, Ryno guessed Orlando.

Tommy’s 18th is nowhere near where anyone thought #52 would be last weekend photo: Carl Stone

Let me turn this over to Ping right here:

The East Coast Lites opener certainly didn’t play out the way most thought it would. Top contenders Townley, Alessi, Hahn, and Laninovich had problems, opening the door for others to have a breakthrough race. But that might just be how this series is going to be: The talent is so deep that we may not be able to guess which rider is going to win with any certainty. Wow, I’ve almost forgotten what that’s like.

I personally think Townley would have made a race out of it with Dungey. He turned the fastest lap of the night before his bike grenaded, and I know he‘s fit. Makita Suzuki’s Dungey was impressive, though, and there is no question now that he is for real.

Where would Broc Hepler have played into all of this? It doesn’t really matter, as the Yamaha rider still hasn’t gotten the green light from his doctor after his nasty concussion a few weeks ago. The topic of concussions came up recently while I was talking with Troy Lee, a guy who not only paints helmets but also makes them. He explained to me one of his biggest concerns, especially among non-pro riders.

Ryan and Tim enjoy the thrill of victory photo: Carl Stone

“We see so many helmets that riders have crashed in, and they don’t realize the integrity of the helmet has been compromised,” Lee says. “Just because there isn’t any cracks or dents in the shell, doesn’t mean that the helmet is okay to keep using. The foam liner is designed to absorb an impact and crush in the process. You have to pull the liner out to really see it, but after any kind of crash where your head hits the ground, the foam in your helmet has probably been compressed. If you crash again and hit that same spot, the foam doesn’t give the way it’s supposed to because it has already been compressed. If it’s relatively minor, the foam can be replaced. If not, we suggest replacing the helmet.”

As far as Hepler is concerned, I don’t know if the helmet he was wearing had a previous crash on it. Most pro riders are pretty good about rotating helmets on a regular basis. Broc is certainly missed at the races, so I hope he’s recovering quickly.

On a sad note, I just found out last night that I am, in fact, NOT smarter than a fifth-grader. Who cares how many sides a trapezoid has, anyway?

Check out Ramsey's hair! photo: Ping

Check out this picture of Nathan Ramsey’s new hairdo. Nate wanted to throw some curls in, so he went ahead and got a perm. I can’t tell if he looks like pro surfer Rob Machado, Napoleon Dynamite, or Screech from Saved By the Bell. Come on, Nate, throw a pick in that fro for this weekend’s track walk in St. Louis.

And now a quick note from Matt Ware:

On Wednesday, we made the trek down to Charleston, WV, for the state’s annual Tourism Day. After a late start and some smooth talking from Carrie Coombs, we walked into the capitol building minutes before Governor Joe Manchin’s press conference on West Virginia’s third-largest industry, tourism. During the conference, Manchin announced the partnership between “two of West Virginia’s world-class companies (Racer Productions and Snowshoe Mountain Resort)” to bring the Can Am Grand National Cross Country Series to West Virginia.” For more information on the event check out www.gnccracing.com.

After the press conference, Racer Productions’ Tim Cotter and Carrie Coombs, along with Snowshoe Resort’s Bill Rock, presented Manchin and the commissioner of tourism, Betty Carver with racing jerseys. Chuck Weir from the AMA was also in attendance.

West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin welcomed GNCC Racing back to the state where it all started with open arms photo: Matt Ware

By the way, in the debate to see who has the coolest governor in the USA, we’ve got Utah’s moto-loving Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. running neck-and-neck at the top with our own Gov. Manchin! Now would that be a great Two Tribes for the magazine or what?

Last week, James Stewart and Ricky Carmichael took time out of their busy schedules to spend with a young man battling cancer. Here’s a letter and a photo we received from a very thankful family:

Dear Racer X,

This is just a brief note to say thank you to all you kind folks that helped make the Atlanta SX so special for Drew. He will remember this trip for the rest of his life. He is still sleeping nights with the number plate from James Stewart’s bike. Monday morning I had to go get our photos developed and 8×10s printed for his walls. He was “Big Man on Campus” yesterday at school in his autographed RC4 t-shirt and autographed Monster Kawasaki hat.

Meeting Ricky and James was huge for Drew and it could not have happened without the assistance you Suzuki and Kawasaki provided. Drew has been through more than you would believe in his fight with cancer. It is our hope that this is all behind us. He will continue to be scanned thoroughly on a monthly basis for the next couple years. We are operating on the assumption that this ordeal is in our rear view mirror.

Drew Horsey and his family had a weekend to remember in the ATL) photo: David Evans

Please pass along our thanks and deepest gratitude to Mike Fisher, Timmy Ferry, James Stewart, Ricky Carmichael, Jeremy Albrecht, the Monster Energy folks, Mike Gosselaar and I am sure I missed some people. Thanks again. We are eternally grateful to you all.

Regards,

Dan, Connie, Taylor, Tori & Drew Horsey

Something unique from top moto photographer Jeff Kardas: He scored a cover Down Under of Chad Reed for the 7^th Day Adventist Church’s magazine.

And now some baby news: Our old friend “Windshields” Loran and his lovely wife, Jen, have a new boy named Michael Phoenix Nicholas Loran, who was born on February 24, 2007. Well done, Windshields!

MIke Loran's new arrival

Also, look for Brayden Thomas Muye, the son of Live Nation’s Dave Muye, at a supercross soon. He entered the world at 8 lbs., 9 oz. and was 21 inches long. “He is healthy as is his mom, both are doing great. Thank you all for your concern, support and advice along the way,” wrote Dave. Right on, and good luck!

And this from Andrew Bauer:

“I am James Povolny’s race team manager and mechanic. James and I have been trying to figure out if he is the longest carrying national numbered rider at the present time? Can any of you help with this or maybe something you can post the site? We both think so but aren’t 100% sure. Thanks for all you help on this.”

At first we all thought it would be Jeremy McGrath, but then we remembered that he scored no points in 2003, so he’s out. I really don’t know the answer to this. Anybody want to help Bauer and Povolny out with some bench-racing ammo? Write us: Letters@racerxill.com.