Welcome to Racerhead #9, presented by Honda. DC is on vacation, so he’s letting me handle the heavy lifting this week. I’m going to make this short and sweet, because in a couple hours I’ll be hopping in Rita’s Ford Econoline van with Mike Farber, Matt Ware and Jason Weigandt for our annual road trip to the Indianapolis Supercross. So let’s get down to it…

The Indy track was designed by Chad Reed.

Eight rounds down and nine to go in 2008 Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, so I guess you can consider this weekend’s race in Indianapolis the halfway point of the season. Looking back at what we’ve seen so far, it’s been a great year to be a fan. Of those eight races, we’ve had a total of nine new faces on the top step of the podium in both classes. Reed, Stewart, Windham and Millsaps in the AMA Supercross class (the first time since 2005 that we’ve had four different winners); and Dungey, Weimer, Lawrence, Stroupe and Canard in the Lites class. Out of all of those winners, only one of them—Stewart—is a defending SX champion. And 33 percent of this year’s winners have been aboard Torco Racing Fuels Hondas.

Now we’re coming off of one of the most electrifying races of the season—the Atlanta Supercross. We all know what happened, and we talked to first-time winner Trey Canard for our Monday Conversation and chatted with Honda Red Bull Racing’s Davi Millsaps about his first 450cc win as well. 

Canard is perfect so far in 2008. photo: Simon Cudby

Besides that, there was also some excitement happening back in the pack, in both classes. In the Lites class the big story was about Josh Grant and Ryan Villopoto, who had a little run-in during the Lites main event. Steve Cox, Jason Weigandt and Ping weigh in on this, so I’ll hold off on that.

Current points leader Chad Reed of the San Manuel/Fusion Yamaha team had a rather forgettable night in Atlanta, as a crash while leading resulted in a sixth-place finish. That just isn’t the Reed we’re used to, is it? The Weege and I always bench race about this, and one rider that you typically never see make mistakes is Chad. Seriously, prior to this race, when was the last time you saw the #22 crash in a main event?

Another more publicized incident in Atlanta involved 450cc class riders Eric Sorby, of Moto XXX/Hooters Honda, and Travis Preston, who is Stewart’s replacement on the Monster Energy Kawasaki team. Racer X reader Justin Knox wrote us about it earlier this week:

Davi Millsaps topped the SX class in his home state of Georgia. photo: Simon Cudby

“I was at the Atlanta Supercross and saw what happened between Eric Sorby and Travis Preston. I know it was just a racing incident but it sure doesn’t seem like that when you look back to what I believe was last year. If I’m not mistaken Eric Sorby messed with Chad Reed for a race or so and now he messed with Preston in Atlanta. Does anybody see the connection? It’s like Eric Sorby is paid to mess with the guys that he sees are against James Stewart…not that Preston is against Stewart but he did take his SX ride when he got hurt and he did have words with him in Canada last year. I was hoping Preston was going to drop his bike after the finish line and let Eric Sorby have it, but instead he rode into the tunnel. But then again Sorby slowed down after Preston was in front of him the last time….which only makes Sorby look even more guilty for messing with Preston.”

Here’s Jason Weigandt with an answer to that.

“Justin, I don’t think this Sorby incident had anything to do with Stewart. Sorby and Preston have had several incidents in the past, including a complete brake-check fest from Sorby that got so out of hand that he had to write a public apology letter a few days later. Another time, Sorby stuffed Preston into the finish line scaffolding, leaving Preston dangling like a pole dancer. This is obviously some bad blood between Sorby and Preston, although no one is sure what Preston did to deserve it! To further remove Stewart from the story, in Atlanta Jim Holley and I were using binoculars to watch the two ride back up the tunnel, and James’ friend Raddo came over and asked to take a look, too. He told us that Sorby no longer rides or trains with Stewart, so there’s no connection there.”

Make sure you tune in to Jason and Jim Holley this Saturday night at 7:00 P.M. ET on www.supercrossonline.com to catch Supercross Live! They really have a great show, and it’s very entertaining.

And tune in to SPEED on Sunday at 6:00 P.M. ET for the broadcast of the AMA Supercross class from Indianapolis.

Another big story heading into this weekend is West Coast Lites championship contender Ryan Dungey entering the AMA Supercross class on a Rockstar/Makita Suzuki RM-Z450. To be honest, I think it’s a pretty good idea. He has a lot of time off till the next Western Regional race in Seattle on April 26, so why sit around and think about how he’s going to make up those six points on Yamaha of Troy’s Jason Lawrence? And from what we heard, Dungey had adapted to the 450 quite well. Cox talked to him earlier this week and you can read that interview here.

There’s currently a tie in the USSTC Pro Privateer Challenge:

USSTC Pro Privateer Challenge

1. Charles Summey 67 points
2. Paul Carpenter 67 points
3. Heath Voss 45 points

RC dusted off the two-stroke RM250 for Atlanta. photo: Simon Cudby

Ricky Carmichael was in Atlanta last weekend, on a two-stroke! He broke out his Makita Suzuki RM250 and did a parade lap for the fans, and from what I hear, it was pretty awesome.

Speaking of RC, last night we heard that RC parted ways with DEI and will now run the East series for Schrader:

“Motocross legend Ricky Carmichael will be running for a championship this season in the Camping World East Series for Ken Schrader Racing with backing from Hendrick Motorsports, his manager Scott Taylor said Thursday. Carmichael will be sponsored by Monster energy drink. Carmichael, 28, who retired from full-time motocross racing after 2006 is trying to make his way up the rungs of the stock racing ladder. Carmichael had been under contract as a driver last year with former Sprint Cup Series team owner Bobby Ginn and raced about 15 Late Model events around Florida last summer. Carmichael won 10 consecutive AMA national motocross championships from 1997 – 2006. Carmichael, who began competing in Motocross at age 5, said he was feeling unchallenged by Motocross when he made the decision to retire. He competed part time in 2007 but said his only interest now is as a test rider for Suzuki. The Camping World East Series runs 13 events this season. Carmichael may also run selected events in the Camping World West Series.(Hartford Courant) on ESPN2's NASCAR Now it was reported that DEI and Ricky Carmichael were trying to work on a deal to have Carmichael run the Camping World East Series, but they couldn't work out a deal and they parted ways.”

Ryan Sipes scored his second career podium finish in Atlanta, giving KTM two of the three spots on the Lites podium. photo: Simon Cudby

Another very cool sidebar to the Atlanta Supercross is the annual Ride-4-AT Charity held by the DMXS Radio boys at Bremen Racepark in Bremen, Georgia. This year’s event raised $29,000 for the charity, so well done DMXS! For information about A-T and how to help, check out www.ride4at.com or contact Heath Hamrick at ride4at@aol.com.

Check out Amateur MX founder Chris Hultner’s weekly column iMPOUND for all kinds of very cool photos from his recent road trip to Atlanta, as well as Bremen for the annual Ride-4-AT.

Earlier this week I did a 5 Minutes With…Dave Osterman. He’s one of the nicest guys I’ve met in this industry, and he’s currently looking for a gig. Hopefully he finds something.

Let’s turn it over to Steve Cox right here:

Langston continues to have eye problems. photo: Steve Cox

I talked to Grant Langston Wednesday about his ongoing eye problem, and he said that it isn’t going great. He had water on the retina, a