After a short week of whale-watching, I’m back on the case with Racerhead. The Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship holds its one and only Friday night race tonight, so we’re trying to pull Racerhead together a little earlier so everyone can watch and listen for the event. Unfortunately, there is no webcast for the race at Daytona International Speedway, but there will be same-night coverage on Speed TV, beginning at 11 p.m. If you can’t stand not knowing who won what, just click on www.amamotocross.com and hopefully the lap counter will be up and running throughout the evening.
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Can Trey Canard make it three in a row? |
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photo: Simon Cudby | | | If you’re coming to the race, you will get to hear the familiar vocal cadences of our own Jason Weigandt, who was invited by the Speedway folks to join Larry Naston on the microphones to announce the race live. I’m super-pumped for Weege because announcing this race has been a goal of his for some time, so I wish him luck. I truly think he’s the best host/announcer in the business, so I think he will do just fine.
I am typing this from the Daytona press office (yes, I got credentials this year—again) which has been abuzz all week long with the announcements concerning the immediate future of AMA racing in everything from motocross to hillclimb. Daytona Motorsports Group is now in charge of AMA Pro Racing, and everything is now falling into place. Check it out.
So where does that leave motocross? In very capable hands. The details are still being sorted out, but I consider this to be a very positive development for our sport. There will be an official AMA press conference regarding this development tonight at 6:00 p.m.
This also marks the first Daytona without Ricky Carmichael since 1996, when Florida’s fastest son was still doing Loretta Lynn’s area qualifiers this time of year. RC had a hand in building the track, along with fellow former Daytona standout Mark “Bomber” Barnett and his partner Glenn Bates. But we didn’t see too many radical changes, as the field here in between the finish line and pit row severely limits what every track builder, since Gary Bailey started here in 1971, can actually do. There’s a water sprinkler system that snakes around the field, plus the big Daytona logo is off-limits completely.
So yesterday, right before it got dark, RC threw on the gear and went out and rode a half-dozen laps on the track. He looked fast immediately—like, podium speed. It was really cool to see him riding again. Later, we had a few beers at the Ale House and he told me how much he was enjoying life, his family, and his aspiring car career. Ivan Tedesco was there, and so was BT101, Live Nation’s Todd Jendro, J.H. Leale, and a bunch of other SX folks. It was a pretty cool deal.
Can Trey Canard win three in a row? Canard is 2-for-2 in his career as a supercross racer, which is something only Damon Bradshaw in 1989 and Ernesto Fonseca in 1999 have been able to do in the history of 125cc/Lites SX racing, which began in 1985. In fact, Bradshaw won his first three 125cc main events at Miami, Atlanta, and Daytona Beach before his streak ended at the Houston East-West race, which was won by Mike LaRocco. Bradshaw went on to win the championship by one point over Mike Kiedrowski.
And speaking of 1985, here’s my annual chance to brag about my one and only top-ten finish in my own brief SX career: eighth right here in 1985, riding a KTM 125, worked on collectively by myself, Mike Rosso from KTM, and a fellow racer named Eric Posten, who was kind of enough to spend the evening before the race out in the parking lot of our hotel helping me replace the top end.
I was just telling a small piece of that story to Charles Summey yesterday in the Charlotte airport, where I connected and the Gibbs Racing/Toyota Yamaha rider was just starting his short trip here. Summey, who looks like a real biker with his tattooed sleeves, is a genuinely nice guy and also really friendly to talk to. He told me he didn’t have the best of races last week in Indy, as frustration with a first-turn crash led to a few more crashes, but he’s been having a pretty good year. The pressure will be on this week, as team owners Coy and Coach Joe Gibbs are flying the team jet down tomorrow afternoon. Here’s hoping for a great score for both Charles and his teammate Josh Hansen.
Is Tim Ferry really coming back? You have to watch the shocking video that Jason Weigandt and Matt Ware filmed at the Monster Energy Kawasaki factory rider’s practice track yesterday for Racer X Films.
Matt also put together some cool vids from the opening round of the 2008 Can-Am Grand National Cross Country Series, which has become the premier off-road race during Bike Week. The series continues on to Georgia now, though 18th-place finisher Travis Pastrana—yes, he finished!—will likely not be going with the GNCC caravan north. At the same time, I don’t we will see him out on the Daytona SX track either, doing back-flips off the finish line or front-flips down the main section whoops like he did a couple of years ago!
And clip and save this: When Pastrana’s astounding new documentary film 199 Lives comes out in theaters next month, make sure you take a night to go see it. It is extremely well done, with Gregg Godfrey and his crew doing the filming, while Travis himself pitched in with some of editing.
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That's Jimmy Button on the cover! | | | And speaking of Racer X Films, there’s also an excellent Trey Canard piece that Vurbmoto’s Wes Williams put together this week on #48 as he did some practicing in Texas. And #48 is the number that Andy Bowyer tossed into the always-entertaining Shift Number Cruncher this week, which has a Redux coming—especially after former Daytona winner Jimmy Button reminded us that his one and only MXA cover came when he had #48 on his bike while riding for DGY Yamaha.
In the 450 class, it’s going to be really hard to beat Chad Reed. After letting Steve Cox in on the extent of the injury he suffered in his frightening practice crash in the mud at Anaheim 1 – he flew off the side of the triple after the finish line and really did break some bones in his hand—he’s won six of the nine races in the series so far. Indy was his first outside the state of California, and with the success he’s had here against everyone, including Carmichael over the years, he’s a heavy favorite to keep it all rolling.
I didn’t get to see last weekend’s race, as I was in Mexico, but I did listen to the Supercross Live! webcast, and I have to say that Rockstar/Makita Suzuki rider Ryan Dungey finished exactly where I thought he would—a rock-solid fourth. I think he’s being smart by coming back East to ride the 450 and get his groove back on before next month’s Seattle showdown with West Region leader Jason Lawrence…. As long as he stays healthy, of course! And there’s no way he will do worse here than he did last year, where he crashed in both his heat and LCQ and failed to actually qualify.
No word yet on the returns of Mike Alessi, Ivan Tedesco, Grant Langston, James Stewart, Broc Hepler or any of the other guys out—maybe Ping or Cox will have something farther down. And congratulations to Ping and his wife, Amber, on the birth of another baby girl, Emma Jean (Michel) Pingree. No, Ping will not be in Daytona.
Okay, let me turn this over to Billy. I have some work to do, and I can’t wait to get started!
Thanks, DC.
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K-Dub and J-Grant check out the Daytona track. |
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photo: Simon Cudby | | | People have been emailing us all week about when the Daytona SX is going to be broadcast. For the past few years it has actually been live on Speed, but after looking at www.speedtv.com, it looks like it’s going to start at 11:00 p.m. ET. It’s going to be a late night for Monster Energy AMA Supercross fans on the East coast!
And while you’re up tonight, tune into Fox’s Best Damn Sports Show Period tonight at 11:00 P.M. PST as there’s a cool feature on the Metal Mulisha!
First of all, check out Simon Cudby's Practice Report from Daytona right here.
Here’s Steve Cox:
Last weekend marked the supposed last AMA supercross round to take place inside the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, as next door, construction on the new Lucas Oils Stadium looked to be nearly complete. However, one rumor I heard in the pits was that the RCA Dome isn’t going to be torn down right away, and it’s possible that as early as next year, we may have a combo weekend of AMA supercross and the Indy Trade Show, with the show staying in the RCA Dome and the SX being run inside Lucas Oils Stadium.
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Chad Reed and Josh Hill went 1-2 in Indy. |
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photo: Steve Cox | | | With San Manuel Yamaha’s Chad Reed designing the track in Indy last weekend, it’s interesting to note that he wasn’t fastest in either practice, and nearly lost his Heat race to Torco Racing Fuels Honda’s Kevin Windham, who was doing what amounted to a quad into the rhythm section after the finish-line double, as he was jumping from one jump, over another jump, and over a tabletop, and then triple-tripling out. Most other riders were just jumping to the top of the table, bouncing over the next jump, and then triple-doubling out. Windham’s line was definitely faster, and Reed even expressed disappointment in his Monday Conversation after the race, where he indicated that he designed the section to do exactly what Windham was doing, and then didn’t actually do it himself. However, he said that he was prepared to step it up and do the jump in the main event if he had to, but he never did, as no one was really close to him from lap two on.
A lot of people are wondering what happened to Windham in the main event, after being so good in the heat race and being fastest in the opening practice session of the day. It turns out that it’s not that complicated. After the heat, Windham knew that he had the speed to potentially win the race, but then he didn’t get a great start, and between the battle with four other guys over second place, and watching Reed get away, Windham got tight, pumped up, and then didn’t have much fight left after that and faded to fifth. Still, Windham has yet to finish outside the top five this year, which is part of the reason why even though he’s 34 points behind Reed in the championship, he’s also 34 points in front of everyone else.
Yamaha’s Josh Hill matched his best finish of the year, with a second-place finish in Indy. However, he has been very inconsistent this year, so it’s going to be interesting to see how he does in Daytona tonight.
Speaking of Daytona, our own Jason Weigandt is going to be the floor announcer at the Daytona Supercross. Basically, he’s going to be Daytona’s Terry Boyd, except his facial expressions will probably change depending on his tone of voice.
It rained quite a bit last night in Daytona, and it’s set to rain some more this afternoon and into the evening, so will we have a repeat of the 1987 Daytona Supercross mud race? That was the race where Rick Ryan became the first and only privateer ever to win a 250cc… er, 450cc… er, “Supercross-class” main event. Mud is a great equalizer, but will the mud in Daytona lead to another surprise winner?
Rockstar/Makita Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey nearly had himself a podium in his first shot on a 450 in Indy, and he can ride mud – after all, he’s from Minnesota. And if he doesn’t at least podium this weekend, I’m going to have to wear a friggin’ CHIEFS jersey in Dallas, thanks to Andy Bowyer. So, my heart tells me that he will, because I don’t know if I can survive wearing a Tony Gonzalez jersey (barf).
Honda Red Bull Racing’s Davi Millsaps was running a strong second in Indy before going down with less than a handful of laps left to run and finishing 17th. However, it should be noted that Millsaps won Daytona in the Lites class in 2006, and probably would’ve in 2005 if not for a crash.
Speaking of the 2005 and 2006 Daytona Lites races, Torco Racing Fuels Honda’s Josh Grant was second in both of those races. The 2005 event was the one where he and Josh Hansen went down together on the last lap, leading to a Rocky II-style “whoever gets up first wins” finish, and Hansen got up first. However, it should be noted that on both occasions, Grant finished second to riders who are now racing the 450cc… err “Supercross class” now.
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Josh Hansen won the Daytona Lites main in 2005. |
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photo: Simon Cudby | | | The track in Daytona is designed by Ricky Carmichael, so it would probably be tough to do 20 laps on at speed even in the dry. However, with the likelihood of rain, the race could become survival of the fittest, even more so than usual for Daytona. If you can’t make it to the track, plop yourself down in front of your TV at 11 p.m. EST or 8 p.m. PST and turn it on Speed, where it will be broadcast on a tape delay in High Definition (where available).
If you’ve been paying attention to the weather in the Daytona area lately, you’ve probably noticed that, depending on where you look, there is as much as a 60% chance of rain. Not only does this throw a wrench in the works for the race itself, but remember a few weeks ago when the Tornado hit in Houston and tore down all of the team awnings? Well, if they haven’t gotten their new ones yet, they’re not going to be happy. We talked to Torco Racing Fuels Honda team manager JC Waterhouse, whose team was one of those who lost its awning in the Texas Tornado, and he said he won’t have his knew awning until next week. His fix is easy enough, as Honda sponsors the event and has plenty of spare room and supplies, but it may not be as easy for KTM or the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki team.
Here’s a link to the weather in Daytona Beach.
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