Let’s begin with the Daytona Supercross by Honda. Although it was one of the worst quagmires in recent history, it was good for Big Red as five of the six podium positions were occupied by Honda-mounted riders, including both winners, Kevin Windham and Trey Canard, of the Torco Racing Fuels Honda team. There were also two first-time podium finishers, as BBMX’s Matt Boni landed in third in the Lites class and Bad Boy Energy Drink’s Jake Marsack finished third in the AMA Supercross class. Well done, guys!

But that brings us to Round 11 of the 2008 Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, which is taking place inside Minneapolis’s HHH Metrodome, a venue which hasn’t seen a dirt bike since 2004. San Manuel Yamaha’s Chad Reed is taking a 23-point lead into Minnesota over Windham, and Canard has a 24-point cushion over MDK KTM’s Ryan Sipes in the Eastern Regional Lites division.

The big topic of discussion following the Daytona Supercross was the off-track excursions by Chad Reed during the main event, which ultimately led to him being penalized one position. We’ve received a ton of emails regarding Reed’s sixth-place (now seventh) finish at Daytona, including this one from Randy Webber:

How can Chad Reed score any points when he DNF’d? He didn’t make it to the checkered flag! Not to take anything away from him on the ride cause he was the dominant rider out there, but I always thought you had to finish the race! Has the rules changed?

P.S. I also I heard Ping was going to come ride the Racer X vintage weekend in Idaho. Is that true?

Reed completed 11 laps, plus most of the next lap, which put him ahead of everyone who only finished 11 laps total. Since there were only five other riders on the lead lap, he finished sixth. Which was later made to be seventh due to the penalty. In short, his 11 7/8 laps beats everyone else who only completed 11 laps.

And yes, David Pingree will be competing in the Boise round of the Racer X Inter-Am series on Mar. 29-30. David will be riding a 1974 YZ250 on Saturday and a 1981 Maico 490 on Sunday. Another rumor has it that former National star Tom Benolkin might race as well. Here’s hoping Idaho residents Bob Hannah, Darryl Schultz, and Damon Bradshaw also attend.

Chad Reed was a hot topic this week. photo: Simon Cudby

Another Reed question from Todd Gibson:

How did the AMA decide on the 3 1⁄2 minute penalty for 22? Shouldn’t he have been docked a lap or DQ’ed for the pass he put on K-dub in the left hander? I thought the video clearly showed he was off the track, accelerated forward past several Tuff blocks to ‘gain an advantage,’ and pulled even with Kevin to make the pass. Not a 22 hater. Just an inquiring mind.

The answer to that one has to do with the rulebook stating that it’s either a five-second penalty or a penalty which results in at least one position loss, whichever is greater. The next person behind him was 3:30 back, so that’s how much time they had to penalize him in order for him to lose a position.

So what’s your take on the Chad Reed situation? We asked our online readers earlier this week in our Racer X Online Poll, and after more than 6,300 votes, 34 percent of Racer X Online readers agree with the AMA’s ruling at Daytona.

Here’s another reader’s email we’ve received, and we hope someone out there can help him:

I’m moving to Okinawa Japan for three years (military – obviously). I was planning on taking my bike, but I also thought about selling mine in the states and buying a new one over there once we have a house (pronounced, “apartment with no chance of a garage”) & a place to keep it. I tried looking for a way to contact one of the American marketing organizations for the manufacturers but came up with nothing. Can you give me some information or at least a place to look (please)? Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!
David. Oklahoma City, OK

Can anyone help? Email us at online@racerxill.com.                                                                  

Steve Cox helped answer those Reed questions, so let’s turn it over to him:

No wonder Billy Payne needed eye care! photo: Simon Cudby

Exactly how gnarly was the mud in Daytona? Obviously, you’ve all seen the videos and photos, but when I talked to resurgent Lites contender Billy Payne earlier in the week, he said he had to go to urgent care for his eyes after the race in Daytona. So think about that. How many riders had goggles on by the end of that race? It might have been best for them to be using scuba goggles or something. No amount of foam is going to keep out that amount of water and mud. Payne said his secret to success at Daytona (he finished 10th, and on the lead lap after a dead-last start) was that he went out and had fun. He now sits seventh in points, in front of Branden Jesseman, Tyler Bowers and Jake Moss, and two points behind Martin Davalos. Not too bad for a guy that was working construction at this time last year (and for four years previous), huh?

Wil Hahn interviewed Josh Grant for us after the race in Daytona. See if you can pick up on the sarcasm.

Wil Hahn: Josh, you know, it was slightly muddy out there – a little more than tacky. I couldn’t tell from the stands, because it was a little foggy from the smoke and stuff blowing from the starting gate, but I just wanted to know how your night went, starting in practice and going forward.
Josh Grant: Well, Wil, my season is pretty much on a roller-coaster ride that never ends. The first drop actually goes underground, because it’s so far down right now. But you know, the track was super-tacky, as you can tell. I was just getting so much traction out there that I just didn’t know what to do with my bike. Overall, if I would’ve had a snorkel, I think I could’ve done a lot better. I think that I might just show up next weekend with a fan boat and try to do the best I can with that.

Josh Grant is on a roller coaster ride this year. photo: Steve Cox

I was chatting with Dennis Jonon the other day, and he had some news. On Tuesday, March 11, he went in for a total-hip arthroplasty on his damaged leg. Jonon has been making a go of it in the pros for the past few years despite one of his legs being quite a big shorter than the other, from a crash when he was an amateur and still growing that halted the growth of his leg. He says his goal is the be back for the West Coast Lites SX series next year, and then go on to race the Nationals after that. He says he should be back on the bike in just two or three months, but he’s going to take his time to get healthy and ready for 2009.

“I am so excited to get this done,” Jonon said. “I haven’t been 100 percent for almost eight years, and back then I was beating guys like Mike Alessi and Ryan Villopoto. I will be coming back 200 percent after this. I would love to get a chance for a try out at a test track with a big team to prove I have speed on good equipment, so hopefully something like that will come my way.” If you’re putting together a team for 2009, you can get in touch with Jonon at 913-980-1012 or via email at dennisjononmx@aol.com.

Goose may be looking for a ride this summer. photo: Simon Cudby

You may have noticed that Chris Gosselaar is racing a 450 on the East Coast. However, you may not have noticed that Gosselaar’s 450 is not adorned in the Red Bull/TLD colors of his West Coast 250F. You may have also noticed the recent press release announcing the 2008 TLD Supermoto team, and that it didn’t include Gavin Gracyk, Gosselaar or Justin Keeney in the lineup. The original idea was that some of – or possibly all of – the SX-team riders would race Supermoto for the team over the summer. Well, I ran into Gosselaar at Daytona, and he said his Supermoto plans are now a no-go. He’ll be spending the summer at home unless something else pops up. So, beings that Gosselaar isn’t running his team graphics back East, will the team even bother returning for Seattle and Vegas?

Paul Carpenter read, with interest, the story in the April 2008 issue of Racer X entitled “The Team,” where Mitch Payton talked about all of his riders. Payton said Carpenter liked to “smash things,” and his training partner – also from New York – Bobby Kiniry likes to smash things as well. Carpenter responded at Daytona: “I guess it’s just a New York thing,” he said. “We don’t really go around the bump that’s in front of us, we’ll go through it, and I guess that’s where the term smash came from. But I don’t want to smash everything or smash everybody, I just want to ride, and at the end of the day, I want to go home too. I’ve got a lot of stuff to look forward to, and that’s not my deal. I read that thing where Mitch said, ‘Pauly wanted to smash this and smash that,’ and he can think what he wants to think – he gave me a great job and he had an awesome team to ride for – but it’s not like that. I put a lot of work in, and some people don’t understand me. I want to do really good, and sometimes I’m not able to. I don’t know if it’s mental or what, but I work really hard to be ready, and Mitch and other people misunderstand me when I say ‘smash’. I just want to frickin’ do it. If there’s a better word for it, then tell me.”

Rockstar/Makita Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey will be racing his first home-state supercross, as there hasn’t been a Minneapolis SX since 2004. After finishing a strong fourth in his debut, and then running third in the muck of Daytona before finally succumbing to the elements, will he be inspired by his home race? Or will it just provide added pressure? One thing we know is that he's showing up with a pretty cool new sponsor. To read more about it, click here.

I don’t know if any of you caught the season premiere of Beauty and the Geek this week on the CW network, but it prominently featured the one and only Leticia Cline. It became obvious quite early that she’s the brains of the beauty-queen side of the house, but that’s honestly not saying much. Not that Leticia isn’t smart, but the rest of the girls are really, really stupid. One girl in the beginning of the show said she got her exotic good looks from her mom, who is from Egypt, which is “in South Africa.” This year’s series is about the Beauties versus the Geeks, so it’s girls vs. boys this time. It seems likely that Leticia will stay on the show for the long haul, as she’s the brains of the outfit – that is, unless the other girls figure that out, which seems unlikely. So check her out in the coming weeks. You probably have plenty of time to do so.

DC added this:

Jake Marsack gave Alpinestars gear their first AMA Supercross class podium finish last Friday. photo: Matt Ware

I spoke to Jake Marsack this week and found out something interesting: the third-place finisher actually got lapped! The mud master also saw the white flag twice. What happened? After a terrible start—dead last!—Marsack was doing his best to work his way up through the pack, but he was no match for the series points leader. But after Reed lapped Marsack, the Michigan rider went with him.

“I saw him come around and I was just trying to keep my eye open for where I was and just wanted to make sure I didn’t get in his way,” he told us. “I think he actually lapped me, but then I followed him through the pack, and once I saw him go down…

“So I got the white flag twice. I actually pulled over and stopped and looked back and said, ‘I think they threw the white flag again.’ I really didn’t want to do another lap, but I did and I’m glad I did. I think the second turn after that, I figured it out that I was in good position.” No doubt about that! Marsack spent the week in Georgia at the GPF, riding with MDK/KTM’s Ryan Sipes, Justin Sipes, Dave Ginolfi and some others. And yes, he is riding the same bike this week as he rode Friday night in Daytona, though his Rick Ware Racing/Bad Boy Energy Drink team tore it down and rebuilt it, sending him pictures along the way.

One more thing: Was Marsack’s third-place finish Pirelli’s first podium in AMA Supercross? Here’s another: Was this Alpinestars’ first podium in the AMA Supercross class as a riding gear manufacturer?

Pirelli made the podium at Daytona with Marsack as well. photo: Matt Ware

Just a note on the big announcement out of Aurora, Illinois: In a story first reported on Superbikeplanet.com, longtime Live Nation exec Roy Janson