21J On Life's Travels

Opinion’s of a highly qualified lifelong fan (Who occasionally spends the night at a Holliday Inn to keep his mind sharp)

My son said to me the other day, this year’s races have been in some respects very different and unique, you should ride a story about it. So here’s a shot at what has gone down this year.

First off my son and I have been critiquing the Super Cross and Out Door Pro Motocross races for years now. I think it all started back when Ryan Dungey first started racing. He was my son and his wife’s favorite rider throughout his entire career. When Ryan retired his wife pretty much stopped watching the races. For her it was much more than how good of a rider he was, it was who he was as a human being. I’m sure you can imagine Hayden Deegan is not one of her favorite riders. Social Media has within the past few years risen to a whole new level and my son has jumped in and routinely expresses his opinions and sometimes does a little batting to get reactions.

He and I go back a long way with dirt bikes, starting when he was about 10 or 11. I think the first thing we did together was ride a family enduro as a father and son team. I welded some foot pegs on my bike I think it was a 1976 Yamaha IT400 and he rode on the back with me, I think we did that twice, eventually he got his own bike and we still rode as a team but he on his own bike. About that age we started going to HangTown together and just about every year since then, we even rode our dual sport bikes out there. We would probably make two laps around the entire course during the day and of course up and down every hill. We were there when some incredible things happened, in the more modern era when Eli Tomac went beast mode and beat Ryan Dungy by a minute and a half.

There’s no walking like that for me anymore, for the last five years I’ve worked as a security guard (What) in the Husqvarna pits and the farthest I walk is from the pits to the starting line and mechanics area to watch the races, with the factory mechanics. My son still walks around and up and down I don’t think he gets in two laps anymore but he’s still capable of hoofing it around there.

So because of our years of experience we believe we are more than qualified to comment on anything related to anything really. I at least spread my wisdom around; I have a number of equally qualified friends who I talk with regularly about what we saw on television over the weekend.

A couple of things have become apparent the last few years, a lot more riders are getting hurt these days riding Super Cross, the abilities of the riders have risen to a point the current track layouts are in some ways not as challenging or are to challenging in that they all have to go for it, if they make it great if they don’t injuries accrue and not just the mid pack back riders, the top riders are getting hurt and that results in inconsistent top riders not being available to race each weekend. We all have our favorites and when they go down for anytime at all it can interrupt the spirit of friendly competition. And some of these riders’ careers are threatened or are actually shortened by injuries.

I do not pretend to have the answers, I believe we all have suggestions, but I’m not sure the track builders have the answers, but something needs to change or we will continue to see some of our favorite riders unable to compete for championships or wins. And who wants to watch races every weekend to see who gets hurt this time? 

In Super Cross lappers continue to be an issue at critical junctions in the races, in some ways it’s a test of a rider’s ability to navigate the lappers, but far too often it can affect the racing usually in a negative way.  I think they have tried to come up with ways to have better control over this area, but it still needs to be better. I think we as fans all have ideas about how they can control this aspect of racing better. I don’t know about you but it seems to me most of the flaggers start waving the blue flag (Move over the leaders are coming) at the leaders as they approach. At Unadilla they were waving the blue flag at Levi for the rider he had just pasted which turned out not to be a lapped rider, Levi confused let up thinking he was a lapped rider and as we all saw the rider passed him back costing Levi a point.    

Speaking of outdoors, the past five years as I’ve said I have usually watched the HangTown races from the mechanics area which is very close to the track and have been amazed at just how fast the all of the riders are. And one of the biggest differences these days is at the end of the races even the 39^th place rider is still digging; they all deserve to be on that track.

One of the other things we have seen over the past number of years now is the longevity of the current riders; a number of riders are sticking around still racing into their early to mid thirties. Ryan Dungey, Ryan Villapoto, Ricky Carmichael, James Stewart all retired, when, in their mid twenties? We can all come up with a number of reasons why they are doing this these days, money, conditioning, better bikes, etc. But in a sense it has perhaps held back some riders from getting coveted rides and progressing. I’m sure some of the guys who have been around ten plus years are still making good money and the fact there are several new manufactures added to the mix doesn’t hurt. Although there is two brands Gas Gas, Husqvarna have dropped their factory efforts, but those brands will be absorbed into satellite teams so they aren’t really going away.

And there is new crop of riders, like Jet Lawrence, Prado, Cole Davies and the thing they have in common is they are so smooth. Jet started it in this current modern era; he and his brother are basically dominating the 450 class right now. It’s a lot of fun to watch riders like Hayden Deegan and Levi Kitchen ride, especially when they come through the pack. But both of those riders are going to have to learn to ride more Jet and Hunter like, especially like Jet. As fast as Levi is Cole Davies is so smooth and gets such consistent starts Levi will always have trouble catching him. Same with Deegan and Jet and Hunter and Prado until he learns to be smoother he will never last long enough in the motos to beat them. I do think he will eventually he’s just too talented and his determination is off the chart. I must say I have enjoyed this more subdued version of Deegan, I suppose when and if he starts winning 450 races he may return to the old absolutely annoying version of himself.

What about Chase Sexton, the enigma. What about him, so much talent but can’t get out of his own head, not sure about him. Should Eli continue, I guess if he wants to, but that was a gnarly crash he had, I would think that still has to be on his mind (and his families) because that was one of those that could have easily been a life altering events. Should Roxen retire, now or race next year with the #1 plate then retire? I’m not sure how I feel about that let’s see how he does in the SMX playoffs. It was great watching him this year. Will Hunter ever win another Championship? No I don’t think so. How will Deegan and Davies be when both are on 450 Yamaha’s? Unless Deegan learns how to be smoother that could be tuff for Deegan. Is Malcolm to Kawasaki a good move for Kawasaki? Yes, he’s well liked by the fans; and his dad I’m sure will be at the races with him and his dad is really a fan favorite, maybe Malcolm can expand on his ties with Bass Pro Shops, and then ride off into the sunset in a new Tracker boat. Where’s AP going to land next year? I‘ve watched him in the pits with fans he’s great and would be a great asset to any team.  He’s not going to win anymore, but neither is Hampshire, Malcolm, Barcia, Frerandis and a few others, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t valuable to some team. What about Justin Cooper is he ever going to win again? Maybe and some of these other guys can win a SX heat race now and then. One more, Garret Marchbanks, just think if Jet, Hunter, Prado, Deegan were not in the 450 class, guess who would be leading the championship, he’s kind of solidified the 5^th OA spot this year. Hampshire and Justin Cooper who are probably faster, have either missed time of been inconsistent.

There is also a great crop of young talented 250 riders who will soon be dominating that class, thanks to Star Racing’s programs and the 250 Futures Program or whatever it is they call them. I’m also enjoying the Pro Women’s Racing and hope it continues to grow, I’d like to see it become a regular on the Out Door Program and there are a lot of up and coming very fast ladies. I think all would like to see Lala Turner race with the men.

Right now it’s an exciting time in Super Cross and Out Door Moto Cross the future looks very bright. I haven’t quite gotten behind all the after the season championships, I suppose it’s good for the sport but just makes for such a long, long grind for these guys and the fans as well. But I do believe the way the point system works it in a way almost forces some riders to compete in the Out Doors Championship in order to get a better position when the SMX championship starts and that has been perhaps a bit of a savior for the outdoors, I believe. I still prefer outdoor motocross so hope it stays viable for a long time to come.