2010 AMA Motocross

[dt]

Bubba Stewart Update:

What do you think? That’s the question posed in a Motorcycle USA Article regarding James Stewart’s open letter to “his fans” after the fiasco at Unadilla last weekend (see earlier posts^^). Yeah, once again, McUSA rubs me with this article by not coming forward with a real story (instead, oh, tell us what you think…), but I believe they got their answer if you scroll and read the responses to their question in the comments section. The only thing I’ll add is, as it relates to Bubba’s multiple mention that they’re really an SX-only team, I recall the dude not just winning every outdoor MX national in 2008, but every single moto in every one of those nationals (albeit with a different team). Add to that the fastest lap times in qualifying last week. I think the guy probably knows how to ride outdoors.

Barcia’s Go-Pro ride at Southwick:

Although we’ve got to wait another week for the next round in Southwick, Massachusetts, it looks like Justin Barcia is getting an early start getting used to the sandy track. Here’s a vid c/o MXPTV of Justin doing a couple laps with a helmet cam. LINK

[dt]

The championship series is in Southwick, Massachusetts today, with coverage on Speed at 9:00 PM tonight (Lites right after at 10:00 PM). Southwick is the only sand track on the 12 race series.

With a 111 point lead, an overall win today by Ryan Dungey will put the Championship out of reach of anyone else and put the champions plate on his No. 5 Rockstar Makita Suzuki. That would give him the SX and MX championships in his rookie year. One never knows, but although Ryan is a Minnesota native, his base operations are on the Florida sandbar in Tallahassee…so the sand isn’t going to be stopping him today.

That will leave Andrew Short (307 points) and Brett Metcalf (293 points) fighting over second. That will continue to make for some excitement in the premier class.

Oh, on Wednesday Bubba Stewart announced that he’d officially withdrawn for the rest of the season. Article, should you care to read.

Ryan Dungey at Unadilla


In the Lites Class, we’ll see if Trey Canard (4 overall wins and 349 points) can continue his charge toward the championship or if Christophe Pourcel (leading with 2 overall wins and 365 points) can hold him off. Sixteen points doesn’t seem like much the way Ice Trey's been riding, but then it’s Lites…there’s a whole lineup of talented riders that want/deserve some attention too. Lites may come down to the wire.

Ice Trey at Unadilla



Enjoy!

[dt]

There you have it…Ryan Dungey is the 2010 Outdoor Champ. It’s the first time ever that a rookie won both the SX and MX Championships in their rookie year.

450 Motocross Southwick Results:
1. Ryan Dungey (Suzuki) 1-1
2. Mike Alessi (KTM) 3-4
3. Matthew Goerke (Yamaha) 6-3
4. Kyle Chisholm (Yamaha) 4-6
5. Kevin Windham (Honda) 7-5

450 Motocross Championship Points:
1. Ryan Dungey, 468
2. Andrew Short, 317
3. Brett Metcalfe, 314
4. Mike Alessi, 273
5. Ben Townley, 271


Like I said in the previous post, there’s a lot of talent in the ranks of the Lites, and they were all working it in Southwick. While Trey Canard won the first moto, he only closed 3 points on Christophe Pourcel’s 16 point lead on the championship going into Southwick. Tyla Rattray, Justin Barcia and Will Hahn each had a great day, and it didn’t help that Trey crashed in moto2. Justin Barcia’s practice on the sand track paid off with a win in moto2.

250 Motocross Southwick Results:
1. Tyla Rattray (Kawasaki) 2-2
2. Justin Barcia (Honda) 4-1
3. Trey Canard (Honda) 1-9
4. William Hahn (Honda) 3-5
5. Christophe Pourcel (Kawasaki) 7-3

250 Motocross Championship Points:
1. Christophe Pourcel, 399
2. Trey Canard, 386
3. Tyla Rattray, 364
4. Dean Wilson, 363
5. Justin Barcia, 291

Justin Barcia at Southwick


Jessica Patterson


No blood drawn on the WMX championship as Ashley and Jessica split the motos at Southwick. The WMX will be at each of the final two rounds at Steel City (Pennsylvania) and Pala in California. The spread on first and second over the next two rounds (four motos) though isn’t going to get Ashley an extra 22 points though to close the margin. Something is going to have to happen.

2010 WMX Southwick Results:
1. Jessica Patterson (Yamaha) 2-1
2. Ashley Fiolek (Honda) 1-2
3. Tarah Geiger (Honda) 3-3
4. Sara Price (Kawasaki) 4-7
5. Vicki Golden (Yamaha) 6-5

2010 WMX Championship Points:
1. Jessica Patterson, 288
2. Ashley Fiolek, 266
3. Tarah Geiger, 229
4. Vicki Golden, 190
5. Sara Price, 180



Good Photoblast of Southwick and VitalMX.


Next stop is the Steel City MX Park in Delmont, Pennsylvania on September 4 and the final round at the new Pala Raceway in California on September 11.

[dt]

Ice Trey won both motos in Lites Class today but he only racked 6 points on Christophe who was right on his tail crossing each finish. If the same thing happens next week in the final round in Pala, Pourcel takes the championship by 1 point.

250 Motocross Steel City Results:
1. Trey Canard (Honda) 1-1
2. Christophe Pourcel (Kawasaki) 2-2
3. Tyla Rattray (Kawasaki) 3-4
4. Eli Tomac (Honda) 4-5
5. Broc Tickle (Yamaha) 7-8

250 Motocross Championship Points:
1. Christophe Pourcel, 443
2. Trey Canard, 436
3. Tyla Rattray, 402
4. Dean Wilson, 387
5. Justin Barcia, 317



The two leading riders in WMX had a repeat of last week in Southwick. Short of a DNF, it looks like Jessica has it tucked away. Btw…Ryan Dungey had a DNF today.

2010 WMX Steel City Results:
1. Jessica Patterson (Yamaha) 2-1
2. Ashley Fiolek (Honda) 1-2
3. Mariana Balbi (Yamaha) 3-4
4. Alexah Pearson (Yamaha) 7-3
5. Sara Price (Kawasaki) 5-5

2010 WMX Championship Points:
1. Jessica Patterson, 335
2. Ashley Fiolek, 313
3. Tarah Geiger, 261
4. Vicki Golden, 217
5. Sara Price, 212

On a final note for the weekend, Roger DeCoster announced that he’ll be leaving the Rockstar Makita Suzuki Team at the end of the season…next weekend. He’s led the team for 15 years. The news didn’t include what he’s going to do.

[dt]

450 Motocross Steel City Results:
1. Kevin Windham (Honda) 1-2
2. Brett Metcalfe (Honda) 2-3
3. Justin Brayton (Yamaha) 5-4
4. Andrew Short (Honda) 4-5
5. Mike Alessi (KTM) 7-7

450 Motocross Championship Points:
1. Ryan Dungey, 493 (Won Championship)
2. Brett Metcalfe, 356
3. Andrew Short, 351
4. Mike Alessi, 301
5. Ben Townely, 291

Way to go K-Dub! Yup, Kevin Windham, who’s filling in on Davie Millsap’s Geico Honda won the overall in the 450 class yesterday. Where was Champ Ryan Dungey? He placed 6th overall with a 40-1…dnf in moto1 with crash damage and first in moto2. Did I not say somewhere that Brett Metcalf would pass Andrew short in points this week?

Kevin Windham at Steel City

[dt]

Just a reminder that the final round of the AMA Motocross is tomorrow at the new Pala Raceway in the San Diego Area. SPEED is covering the racing starting at 7PM (Lites at 8PM).

In the 450 class, it’s down to who’s number 2 between Brett Metcalf and Andrew Short. I think I know who that’ll be, but ya never know.

In the 250 class, it’s down to the wire. Christophe has only a 7 point lead on Trey Canard. Like I said last week, even if Trey wins the motos with Christophe coming in second in each, Pourcel wins the Championship by 1 point! It's going to be good no matter what the outcome.

Set your dvrs!

[dt]

…and the Lites Champion is … “Ice” Trey Canard.



Well, the final round at the new Pala track to determine the 2010 Champion wasn’t the battle we’d expected. Points leader Christophe Pourcel crashed inside of the final two minutes of the first moto and suffered a dislocated shoulder. At the time he was well ahead of Trey, but still in third; riding like he needed to, except for the crash of course. The round itself was owned by Dean Wilson who won his first National of the year and placed a respectable fourth in championship points in his rookie year.

250 Motocross Pala Results:
1. Dean Wilson (Kawasaki) 1-1
2. Tyla Rattray (Kawasaki) 2-2
3. Trey Canard (Honda) 4-3
4. Eli Tomac (Honda) 8-4
5. Justin Barcia (Honda) 6-5

250 Motocross FINAL Championship Points:
1. Trey Canard, 474
2. Tyla Rattray, 446
3. Christophe Pourcel, 443
4. Dean Wilson, 437
5. Justin Barcia, 348
6. Eli Tomac, 327
7. Broc Tickle, 287
8. Blake Wharton, 285
9. Martin Davalos, 251
10. Will Hahn, 213

Even with both Trey Canard and Christophe Pourcel moving to the 450 Class, the Lites still have huge talent pool. Next year I think it comes down to Dean Wilson and Justin Barcia. Yesterday, Dean pulled a little freestyle at the finish of each moto.



In the 450 Class, Aussie Brett Metcalf held his points going into Pala even though Andrew Short put on a great charge. Both will see each other again in a couple weeks, but will be representing their countries rather than their teams at the Motocross of Nations.

450 Motocross Pala Results:
1. Ryan Dungey (Suzuki) 1-1
2. Andrew Short (Honda) 3-2
3. Brett Metcalfe (Honda) 2-3
4. Ben Townley (Honda) 6-4
5. Ryan Sipes (Yamaha) 4-6

450 Motocross FINAL Championship Points:
1. Ryan Dungey, 543
2. Brett Metcalfe, 398
3. Andrew Short, 393
4. Ben Townley, 324
5. Mike Alessi, 314
6. Kyle Chisholm, 266
7. Josh Grant, 260
8. Ryan Sipes, 244
9. Kyle Regal, 224
10. Nick Wey, 223


I was really rooting for Ashley Fiolek, but Jessica Patterson just had too much of a points lead. Ashley did win the Pala National yesterday with a 2-1, but no incremental points on Jessica who went 1-2.

2010 WMX Pala Results:
1. Ashley Fiolek (Honda) 2-1
2. Jessica Patterson (Yamaha) 1-2
3. Vicki Golden (Yamaha) 3-6
4. Tarah Geiger (Honda) 7-3
5. Mariana Balbi (Yamaha) 5-5

2010 WMX FINAL Championship Points:
1. Jessica Patterson, 382
2. Ashley Fiolek, 360
3. Tarah Geiger, 295
4. Vicki Golden, 252
5. Mariana Balbi, 239

That’s it for the AMA outdoor championship, but we still have the FIM Motocross of Nations event on September 25, which is to be held this year at Thunder Valley in Lakewood, Colorado. So we’ll get one more look at Ryan Dungey, Andrew Short and Trey Canard before SX, but this time against all the international pros. Not yet sure what the television schedule is for that, but I’ll let you know…

Watch your favorite race on Allisports Archive.

[dt]

On a final note for the weekend, Roger DeCoster announced that he’ll be leaving the Rockstar Makita Suzuki Team at the end of the season…next weekend. He’s led the team for 15 years. The news didn’t include what he’s going to do.

Announcement by KTM: KTM signs Roger Decoster to manage its US Factory Team. Well, this was announced on the 5th and not one word was mentioned about it on Saturday. Hmmmm. I’ll tell you what’s interesting is that Chad Reed just left the Monster Kawasaki Team yesterday. He was formerly on Decoster’s Suzuki squad. Maybe Chad will be riding orange when the Supercross kicks off.

[dt]

The Motocross of Nations is next Sunday (September 26). I’d mentioned that I’d check into TV schedule. It appears that it’s going to be aired at 8:00 PM on America One Network. Go to this LINK, click your state, and it will show what channels it’s on by city. Unfortunately, in Tampa it’s only on Brighthouse and I have Fios. I’m looking for a ppv channel.

Here’s a link to the Motocross of Nations Website.

Here’s Team USA in their duds. Ryan Dungey, Roger DeCoster (Captain), Trey Cannard and Andrew Short.

[dt]

I think I found a site that’s going to livecast the Motocross of Nations tomorrow. It looks like there’s a free version and a high-resolution pay version. The pay version is 6 Euros ($8.08). The link to the free (or basic) version is right below the main screen. I’ll start with the free version and if it sucks I’ll cough up the change. Here’s the link:

http://www.motocrossmx1.com/tv/live/

In today’s Qualifying Heats, Andrew Short (Open) and Trey Canard (MX-2) won and Ryan Dungey (MX-1) came in fourth. These are FIM classes. The MX-1 and MX-2 are the same as the AMA 450 class (250 2-stroke to 450 4-stroke) and 250 lites class (125 2-stroke to 250 4-stroke). The Open class is up to 450 2-strokes and up to 650 4-strokes. Motos are 35 minutes, plus 2 laps (compared to 30 minutes, plus 2 laps of the AMA).

[dt]

Well, another overall win for the USA in the Motocross of Nations. Ryan Dungy (Suzuki) won the MX1 and Open, Andrew Short (Honda) took second in the Open Class, and Trey Canard (Honda) placed seventh in the MX2, after a crash in the first lap. Good enough for the overall win though. Congrats Team USA!

[dt]

Final points standings in the Motocross of Nations by Country.

1. USA, 23
2. Belgium, 30
3. Germany, 44
4. Great Britain, 45
5. Italy, 50
6. Australia, 54
7. France, 71
8. New Zealand, 90
9. Portugal, 94
10. Puerto Rico, 99
11. Switzerland, 102
12. Austria, 109
13. Spain, 115
14. Finland, 116
15. Estonia, 118
16. Canada, 119
17. Latvia, 121
18. Brazil, 123
19. Japan, 128
20. Ireland, 142


Holy crap….what is this? College football? Photoblast on McUSA.