Alessio Chiodi – Italian Legend

Italian Legend

While it might be Antonio Cairoli who now leads the Italian motocross scene, with his eight world motocross championships and 80 GP wins, nearly 20 years ago it was very much another rider who strode into the record books as the best Italian rider ever.

Alessio Chiodi a three-time Grand Prix motocross world champion made a name for himself in the late 1990’s and will always be remembered for his domination on the 125xx/MX2 class in 1997, 1998 and 1999.

He was the 1997 F.I.M. world champion in the 125cc class on a Yamaha. The following year he switched to the Husqvarna factory racing team and repeated as 125cc world champion. In 1999, Chiodi won his third consecutive 125cc world championship, also on a Husqvarna. Chiodi was also a member of the winning Italian teams in the 1999 and 2002 Motocross des Nations.

Chiodi, who was a free spirit, with his dreadlocks and passionate attitude to racing, was a breath of fresh air for the sport, a sport he dominated in the 125cc class for many years.

I remember once doing an interview with the Italian legend, and him mentioning how he wasn’t even interesting in the glory of being known, but preferred to sit at his home and just relax, a humble man, with a determination that made him one of the true legends of the sport.

In 1993 Chiodi finished top ten in the 125cc championship with 238 points, just behind him was now KTM boss Pit Beirer, and the champion that year was Dutchman Pedro Tragter.

A year later Chiodi had risen to second in the world behind Bobby Moore, the difference of just 48 points separating the two. It was clear that the Italian was a future champion.

Unfortunately, though 1995 would not be the year as he had a huge battle with fellow Italian Alessandro Puzar. Puzar making something of a return to the top having won the 250cc championship back in 1990, the older Italian would beat Chiodi by just three points, taking the championship victory in the very last round in Germany with 1-2 results compared to the 2-3 score by Chiodi.

Behind them finished a young Frenchman by the name of Sebastien Tortelli. At just 16 years old Tortelli could win the 125cc title in 1996, beating home British rider Paul Malin.

Chiodi however had made the move to the 250cc class, a move that didn’t do his improvement any good, as he finished down in 16th place in the points race.

A year later and with Tortelli moving up to the 250cc class, Chiodi moved back down to the 125cc classification, and this is when his legend began. Again, it was the battle between the two Italian riders, Chiodi versus Puzar, but this time Chicco as he was known to the fans would win by a margin of 40 points, again it went down to the final GP of the season in Holland.

With his first championship in the bank Chiodi moved to the Factory Husqvarna team, and this was an era that nobody could beat the little Italian. Victory in 1998 and 1999, plus victory in the MXoN with Italy in 99 saw him arrive as the best little bike rider in the world.

His reign at the top didn’t last much longer though, a wrist injury at the Bologna Supercross in Italy saw him drop out of contention for the world championships. He missed most of 2000, finished sixth in the 250cc championship in 2001, 10th in 2002. He dropped back down to the MX2 class in 2003 and finished 8th, even finished a stunning fourth in 2004, but was more than 200 points down in New Zealand’s Ben Townley by season end.

Chiodi did make one last charge at the FIM Motocross World Championship with his last hurray in 2005 when he finished third behind Andrew McFarlane and Alessio Chiodi in the MX2 championship. A brilliant performance for a rider who had already captured three world titles, and several top three moto finishes showed there was still some fight on the old dog.

2006 and a 12th place in the MX2 series was enough for the legendary Chiodi to call it a day. The new era of Italian riders had arrived, and led by Antonio Cairoli, Chiodi had nothing more to prove, and while he did race the odd international event, or Italian championship event, his place amongst the world elite was over.

Now retired Chiodi earnt his place in the motocross hall of fame, and will always be remembered as the greatest Italian rider, until Antonio Cairoli turned up.

Cairoli...Italian Legend!

Italian Motocross – Legacy

While Italy might be known for its pizza, pasta and magnificent cities, it is also the land of Antonio Cairoli and motocross, and in recent times the MXGP champion has introduced massive amounts of non-motocross fans to our sport.

It isn’t just Cairoli though who has helped Italian people come to love the sport of motocross. In recent years, it’s been circuits like Mantova, Maggiora and Pietramurata that have brought the southern European country action and excitement. Huge crowds, beautiful weather and typical Italian warmth has seen Italy shine.

In years gone past there have been many GP’s held in the south of Europe. From that very first Italian Grand Prix held in the famous motorsport city of Imola there has been a steady growth for motocross in Italy.

For seven years, between 1957 and 1963 Imola held the 500cc GP and many legends won at that circuit, including Bill Nilsson, Sten Lundin and Rolf Tibblin. The Swedish heroes owned those first seven years, with Nilsson winning in 57 and 61, Lundin in 58, 59 and 60 and Tibblin taking the top step of the podium in 62 and 63.

Many magnificent circuits have followed on from Imola, from Gallarate, Cingoli, Faenza, Asti, Castiglione del Lago and Montevarchi. All typical Italian circuits, cut into the side of a mountain or hillside. Rock hard, where throttle control was of a maximum. A challenge for every single motocross racer, as Ryan Villopoto found out in 2015 in Pietramurata.

In recent years many highlight events have happened in Maggiora, of course the home of the 1986 Motocross of Nations, and again in 2016. Sadly, this circuit has been taken off this year’s schedule, and replaced. Let’s hope we see Maggiora return, and as soon as possible.

A lot of people will think about the 2009 Motocross of Nations, held at the Autodromo di Franciarcorta circuit in Italy, the first time this event had returned to Italy since Maggiora in 86. That 2009 MXoN was a turning point for the sport in Europe as riders like Antonio Cairoli and Gautier Paulin took it to the American riders. Sure, Team USA took the trophy that year, but the writing was on the wall that the sports leadership was in change, and just three years later Europe had taken over as the world power in motocross. A reign they continue to hold now in 2017.

Italian legends such as Michele Rinaldi, Andrea Bartolini, Alessio Chiodi, Alex Puzar, David Philippaets and Antonio Cairoli have made sure the Italian public had something to scream about, and the delight for the massive numbers of spectators that arrived at the Italian Grand Prix’s continued to grow.

Now we head to Ottobiano Motorsport Circuit for the next leg of the FIM Motocross World Championship, and the MXGP of Lombardia. A sand circuit that has seen pre-season Italian championship races, but never a Grand Prix.

In a little over a weeks’ time, the riders, mechanics, team owners, media and Youthstream will arrive, as this great tradition with Italy continues.

Taylor Robert takes Hare & Hound win at Utah

Utah Hare & Hound

Photo Credit: Mark Kariya

KTM’s Taylor Robert led home the field of riders at round six of the AMA National Hare & Hound Championship to win in Utah.

The AMA KENDA SRT National Hare & Hound series returned to the state of Utah for round six hosted by X12 and USRA and SIDRA. Rocky hill climbs, steep canyons and wide-open grassy fields made for a course that was a jack of all trades.

Considering round six plays as the last race before Summer break, riders were out to give it all they had in effort to gain valuable points. In the build up to the event JCR Honda rider, and 2016 champion Ricky Brabec confirmed he would miss the event. 

Off the start, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing's Jacob Argubright looked to have the holeshot wrapped up until Tuffy Pearson edged him out at the turn onto the course. Over the next 5-miles, the top 5 settled into their place, until an unmarked turn sent both Jacob Argubright and Purvines DA8 Yamaha's Nick Burson into a river. The course error, unfortunately, ended both of their days with mechanical issues. 

As the race went on, Purvines DA8 Yamaha's Axel Pearson held the lead on loop one with Tuffy Pearson, Taylor Robert and Gary Sutherlin behind. After coming through the pits and heading out to loop two, FMF KTM Factory Racing's Taylor Robert swiftly took the lead with Purvines DA8 Yamaha's Gary Sutherlin making the move into second. 

 

Photo Credit: Mark Kariya

 

A challenging loop three welcomed the racers with rocky terrain, steep uphills, and descents. Ultimately, it was Taylor Robert who would take the checkered flag first, followed by Gary Sutherlin and Tuffy Pearson. Pearsons per, who has been on the rise since returning from his racing hiatus just a couple months ago. 

Finishing within the top 10 overall, the FMF Pro 250 class had an exciting race long battle of their own! Off the start, current points leader Tyler Lynn joined both Argubright and Burson in the river off the start, forcing him to DNF. Coming in from loop one, Ryan Karell led the competition 20-seconds over Daemon Woolslayer, Nick Tolman, Braydon Bland and Clayton Gerstner. 

Over the second loop, Karell lost his lead as Tolman made the pass to get up front. Tolman maintained his pace in the lead, while Karell, Gerstner, Woolslayer and Bland all battled on the final loop for their podium spot. Ultimately, Tolman earned himself the class win ahead of Gerstner and Bland at the checkered flag, while Karell and Woolslayer finished top five. 

The excitement of the Women's class continued as new contenders showed up to challenge the front runners. Women's Motocross talent Brandy Richards entered her first ever National Hare and Hound, while past National Hare and Hound Women's Champion Maggie Pearson returned to her first round in two years! 

Coming in from loop one, Maggie Pearson led the entire Women's field coming in 25th overall. Unfortunately, a mechanical issue would cause her to DNF, allowing Britney Gallegos to advance. Richards keyed off of Gallegos in second, while Martinez-Coy fought to close the 3-minute gap. 

Over the next two loops, the runnings stood consistently until Gallegos ultimately raced to the checkered flag with the win. Richards claimed second in her first ever NHHA event, while Martinez-Coy finished nearly 6-minutes behind. 

Kacy Martinez-Coy maintains the points lead over Britney Gallegos and Stephanie Woolslayer heading into round 7.

 

Photo Credit: Mark Kariya

 

Racing kicked off bright and early Saturday morning with the 50cc race. KTM mounted Ryker Sperry who took an early lead ahead of Brennen Watson, Grady Ballow, Tanner Smith and Sean Taylor Freeman. Over the course of the 30-minute, 3-lap race, the ranks shifted dramatically by the final lap. Both Sperry and Ballow suffered from a mishap that allowed Watson to advance with Smith and Freeman in tow to the finish line. Given the results, the points chase gets even MORE interesting as both Sperry and Watson now sit TIED heading into summer break. 

In the Girls 12-15 class, local talent changed up the usual ranks, making for a solid day of competitive racing! But for Kortney Kearsley, a lead from start to finish would prove her impressive talent. Jaquel Bennet, who maintained 2nd place from start to finish, kept her head down to hammer out laps in an effort to catch Kearsley. Meanwhile, class points leader Kassidy Laswell made it out of a battle with Alijah Delatore and Emily Taylor to take the third place podium position. 

What has become one of the most intense seasons of racing in the Big Wheel class, continued without disappointment as the action played out Saturday morning. Off the start, Mason Matthies, Hagen Boyce and Porter Black charged for the holeshot. But coming in from lap one, it was Davin Rhodes who led the group before ultimately being passed by Matthies. Meanwhile, Boyce and Black fought for the third overall position and ultimately secured them as Rhodes DNF'd on the second to last lap. Aaron Rhodes and Dawson Woods would round out the top five in a tough class of competition. 

AJP’s PR7 Rally bike ready for business

We’ve been keeping a watchful eye on Portuguese bike builder AJP as their PR7 rally bike transforms from prototype to bonafide racer. With the Africa Eco Race pencilled in for 2017, Henrique Nogueira puts the bike through it’s paces…

Alpinestars Tech-Air™

Alpinestars – Tech-Air

Alpinestars Tech-Air™, the world’s most advanced active rider air bag system, has been honored at the annual Consumer Electronics Show Asia Innovation Awards in Shanghai, China. Celebrating outstanding product design and innovative engineering in new consumer technology products, Tech-Air™ took away the top prize in the ‘Wearables’ category.

Alpinestars Tech-Air™ is the world’s first and only independent airbag system providing complete critical full upper body protection. It functions without relying on external sensors, including GPS and can be used with any make or model of motorbike. Tech-Air™ uses a sophisticated algorithm which has been evolved over a decade of research and development, hundreds of thousands of miles of road testing and a multitude of full-scale crash tests in order to detect all types of crashes and ensure the airbag is fully inflated before the rider suffers an impact.

Alpinestars has launched two versions of the system Tech-Air™ Street (2014) and Tech-Air™ Race (2016). The technology is now available from Alpinestars dealers across Europe and markets worldwide.

Alpinestars is the world’s leading performance motorsports apparel, motorcycling airbag protection and technical footwear company. Developing performance technology with market leading style and innovation sets Alpinestars apart and today the company has headquarters and R&D facilities in Los Angeles and Italy, with regional offices in Tokyo and Bangkok.

Alpinestars leads the way in active air bag technology for riders and their passengers and the CES Innovation Award winning Tech-Air™ technology featured on the Alpinestars Stand and as part of the main technology exhibition at the CES Show in Shanghai, China, between 7 and 10 June 2017

Parity or just to early to judge?

AMA Nationals – Parity

Parity in American Motocross is something that does not happen a whole lot. Every year, a clear favorite seems to find a rhythm and start clicking off consistent wins. In fact, in the 17 years that we have been in the new millennium, three 450MX Motocross championships have ended with only one rider winning every moto. Ricky Carmichael was the first rider to have a perfect season doing, it in 2002 and again in 2004. James Stewart followed with a perfect season in 2008. So when there are a lot of different riders who not only have a chance to win, but are actually winning, it is very noticeable.

The last two weeks in American Motocross have been wild. There have been eight motos ran: four at Glen Helen and four at Thunder Valley. Both classes ran two motos at each race, and they produced a result that has not occurred seen since May 28, 2000. In eight possible races over two weeks, eight different riders won a Moto. Here is a look at how the motos laid out at Glen Helen and Thunder Valley:

It is incredible. Last year, only three riders won motos in the 450MX class all season long and now four different winners have won motos in two weeks. So when was the last time this happened? Well, you have to go all the way back to the second and third rounds of the 2000 MX season. In 2017, it was also the second and third round where this strange occurrence happened but this happened at Glen Helen and Thunder Valley. Back then, rounds two and three took place at Hangtown and High Point. This was also back when the classes were still regarded as the 125cc and 250cc classes instead of the four-stroke era 250MX and 450MX classes. Here is how it broke down back then:

It took 17 years for it to happen again, and it seems so weird that it would happen now. If someone told me that this would have happened in the 2017 Motocross season and that Eli Tomac would not be one of the guys to have won a moto during this bizarre stretch, I would have laughed. Tomac has had some bad luck during this span, so he is very capable of turning things around once the series resumes in a week and a half at High Point. But for now, we have five different moto winners in both classes after six motos this season.

Looking at this eight moto run of ridiculous unpredictability, there is one thing different about this 2017 sequence when compared to what happened back in 2000. With eight different moto winners, you would have to believe that there would be four different overall winners as well; assuming that one of the riders who won a moto, also won the overall. Well, that’s not quite how it went down. In 2017, there were four different overall winners, but there were only three different overall winners. This happened because David Vuillemin won back-to-back weeks by going 2-2 for the overall at Hangtown and then 3-1 for the overall at High Point in the 250cc class. Even though he didn’t win a moto at Hangtown, he still claimed the overall. This actually connects the 2000 sequence to 2017 in a weird way as Zach Osborne won the 250MX overall at Glen Helen going 4-2 even though he did not win a moto in the past two weeks.

Realistically, I don’t bring this up to say that we are really in for a wild year now. History shows that multiple successive race winners are a very rare occurrence and the chances of this trend continuing are slim to none. In 2000, Ricky Carmichael ended up winning the 250cc championship by 83 points over Sebastien Tortelli. There is still a lot of racing left but that also means there is plenty of time for someone to find their groove and go on a winning streak. No matter what happens, nobody could have predicted this wild start to the season and it has certainly made for some great racing.

360 Helmet Cam: Jeremy Martin at Glen Helen

Get an adrenaline rush as you ride along with professional Motocross and Supercross racer, Jeremy Martin, at the Glen Helen Raceway in this year's 2017 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross season

Down under with KTM Australia’s Lyndon Snodgrass

Newly recruited Australian KTM Enduro Team Rider Lyndon Snodgrass shows us around one of his training compounds. How'd you like to have a course like this in your backyard?

KTM Is Riding High!

Austrian Power Plant

Hard work pays off, and there is no harder working teams in the motocross world than the Red Bull KTM Factory team, and their little brother (who is probably growing up quick enough to be the big brother one day), Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory team.

While KTM might not have won the last two MXGP titles (they went the HRC and Yamaha), you cannot deny they are the strongest team in world motocross, and it doesn’t look like they will be slowing down any time soon.

At present, they have big points leads in the MXGP (Antonio Cairoli), MX2 (Pauls Jonass) and AMA 450 motocross championship (Marvin Musquin), and their Husqvarna rider, Zach Osborne leads the AMA 250 championship. Oh, did we also mention they have already won the 2017 AMA 450 Supercross championship with Ryan Dungey, and Osborne gave the Husky a title in the AMA 250 SX series.

With names like Roger De Coster, Joel Smets, Heinz Kinigadner, Jacky Martens, Antti Pyrhonen, Pit Beirer and so many other former racers working for them, and some of the best technicians in the sport, the future looks bright for the orange army.

In the toughest motocross championship in the world, the MXGP class, KTM and their little brother Husqvarna are first and second in the manufacturers classification, KTM with 374 pts, Husqvarna 316pts, and HRC third with 311 pts. They are also first and second in the rider points with Antonio Cairoli and Gautier Paulin.

In the MX2 manufacturers classification they are first and third, with 414pts for KTM, Suzuki second with 341pts and then Husky with 336pts. Can the Husky boys put the Austrian brands first and second after Russia?

When Blake Baggett took his KTM to victory last weekend, ahead of the KTM of Marvin Musquin and the Husqvarna or Jason Anderson, it was just what the many in Europe expected. In the championship Musquin leads Kawasaki rider Eli Tomac, with Baggett and Anderson third and fourth, while Dean Wilson is 6^th in the points standings.

In the AMA 450 Motocross championships Osborne leads with 119pts to KTM rider Alex Martin. This against the all-mighty power of the Pro-Circuit Kawasaki team.

In the biggest national championship in Europe, the Dutch Masters of Motocross Jeffrey Herlings leads the 450 class, followed by Gautier Paulin (Husqvarna) and Max Anstie (Husqvarna). In the MX2 class its Thomas Kjer Olsen (Husqvarna) leading two KTM riders in Brian Bogers and Calvin Vlaanderen.

Hey, even Christophe Pourcel is winning on a Husqvarna in Canada!!!

'Jim Ross' calls highlights of Thunder Valley National

Race Report like you've never heard before!

The action was so incredible at round three of Lucas Oil Pro Motocross at Thunder Valley that it almost seemed fake. Did Justin Bogle really win after a fire broke out in the RCH pits? Did El Chupacabra return from the depths? Did the 250 Class really come down to four riders and one point? Was this all scripted? Hmmmm, maybe it’s best to hear it through the voice of legendary pro wrestling announcer “Jim Ross.” Enjoy racing like you’ve never heard it before!