by Bad Billy
Bench Racing Ammo: The Perfect Storm?
Thursday, January 6, 2011 | 4:30 PM
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Welcome to our first installment of Motorex’s Bench Racing Ammo for the 2011 season. With Anaheim 1 only two days away, it only makes sense to bench race about the big season kick off.
Last week we posted the Anaheim 1 pre-entry list for both classes, and like so many others, I always take some time to scour the names and numbers and who is riding what class. Each season it seems the AMA Supercross class is always more stacked than the previous, but I decided to actually count how many riders lining up Saturday night have wins on their resume, either in the premier or Lites class, indoors or out. Check out the list of race winners below—it’s huge!
James Stewart
Chad Reed
Ryan Villopoto
Ryan Dungey
Kevin Windham
Trey Canard
Josh Grant
Jake Weimer
Andrew Short
Mike Alessi
Ivan Tedesco
Davi Millsaps
Tommy Hahn
Matt Goerke
Austin Stroupe
Nick Wey
Of those fifteen riders, nine of them also have a professional championship (including 250/Lites SX) on their resume. Those riders are Bubba, Reed, RV, RD, K-Dub, Canard, Weimer, IT9, and Davi Millsaps. That’s a pretty impressive list of riders who have already won major races and titles lining up against to do battle.
Chad Reed and Kevin Windham are still part of the perfect storm.
Photo: Simon Cudby
Has there even been a pre-entry list with more past winners? Well, the 2005 season was dubbed as “The Perfect Storm,” and many believe it stood as the high water mark for talent. In the Anaheim 1 main event from 2005, I counted thirteen past winners: Kevin Windham, Mike LaRocco, Ricky Carmichael, Seb Tortelli, James Stewart, Nick Wey, David Vuillemin, Ernesto Fonseca, Travis Pastrana, Damon Huffman, Chad Reed, Robbie Reynard, and Jeremy McGrath. So with 15 winners in comparison to 2005’s 13, will Anaheim 1, 2011, be an even more perfect storm?
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When the lights go off on supercross and racing hits the daylight with the launch of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, everyone gets to start over. Page 110.
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first! can ryan dungey hold all those guys back.... we will see//i hope..but ryan villopoto is my pick for the season title
it is on!!!!
I noticed that nick wey is included in that 2nd list but not the 1st? doesn't that meen there are 16 winners on the gate!
Let's go Villopoto! Redemption time
i liked the "andy bowyer rev up" of old a lot better. just sayin.
Hell yeah!! Ernie was in that photo!
Here we go again with this "perfect storm" BS that we hear every year. HERE'S the Perfect Storm: 1997 with EIGHT different winners!!! Albertyn, MC, Huffman, Lusk, Dowd, Henry, Emig, and Windham. Beat that...and stop hyping so much. We all know that by round 3, it will be down to 2 guys...
I really like the new website but, I love the short articles like these. Good job guys.
They called 2005 the perfect storm and the storm was Carmichael, Stewart, and Reed all together and healthy for once. This season, the perfect storm is about Dungey, Stewart, Reed, Villopoto, Canard, and quite possibly Grant and Short. Either way, I think this is gonna be one of the best seasons ever!!!!
2011 will be better than '05. 05 was 4 guys reed, kdub, RC, Bubba. PT MC didn't count and neither did TP who never won a premier race. '11 is 5 and one surprise, kdub, reed, bubba, villi, dungey and the surprise could be grant or canard.
No more Rev-Up's???
X 2, asd, it makes no sense that Nick Wey was listed as a past winner in 2005, but not this year??? Or can it be that Nick Wey is not on the entry list for A1 this year? COME ON, RacerX, can you clarify this?
I added Nick Wey. My bad, fellas.
podium: Stewart, dungy, canard. Not cecessarilly in that order.
Did you count Weimer? He's a bad man if he's gonna ride with screws in his arm! Man the whoops would suck!!
NICE READ BILLY U.
Does anyone know if austin stroupe is racing, and yes If they all stay healthy it should be an awesome season.
peelout, the Rev-Up is still out there. Keep looking. And drop the gate already, this is killing me.
Jimmy, I heard he was racing a Valli Yamaha, Not sure what number though.
JS7 my pick for the win
Stroupe #75. I guess he's takin Hills #?
Good fix Billy Bad Ass. The help you had with this must not have been very good.
My personal podium picks for A1 1-JS7 2-RD 3-CR or RV???
podium, RV, JS, RD. If everyone stays healthy all year I say RD gets 3rd, RV and JS will battle for the title.
2011 isn't Perfect Storm -- it's Clash of the Titans!
Alot of guys saying Stewie is done. Not a big fan of his ego myself, but he is only 25 guys. He isnt anywhere near done. Like I said a few weeks ago, if he has no pressure, and is having fun, he is very hard to beat. When he raced RC, alot of people expected RC to win the title. Which he did, but without alot of pressure, Stewie ran with him and won alot of races. And its the same now. All the press is all over Dungey, and can Dungey handle that?? We know what pressure has done to Dungey in the past. He handled it well at the Des Nations, but that is one weekend, how about 17 weeks.
Ummmmm, BD 200, I think that you are forgetting when Dungey won the 250F MX title after battling all year with Pourcel, the MXdN in '09, which was also big pressure, his battling with Villopoto until St. Louis...he cant handle pressure? Please...
No I havent forgot that at all. He has grown alot and is a great rider. But he even said last season that he didnt expect the supercross season to be so long and demanding.. I am sold on Dungey, dont get me wrong, he is a deserving champion. I just wonder if he can keep pace for all 17 weeks with 3 or 4 guys all racing up front every week, thats all. I saw first hand at Indy just last year, during practice, it tookJ-Law about 5 minutes to get into Dungeys head. That kind of stuff bothers Dungey, and he lost that race to RV2 that weekend too. 17 weeks of intense pressure is a long time.
We all know there are 3 or 4 riders that could or should win the championship. After 4 or 5 rounds we will see the cream rise to the top. Are any of the riders from the dairy belt?
Mike Alessi!? I haven't even heard his name mentioned in all the bench racing BS that 's been going on. Will he win? Seriously doubt it, but......He actually could win. Just 2 seasons ago he was arguably the fastest 450 rider on the circuit. Just seems interesting that once again he's completely evaded the radar.
Alessi was never the fastest 450 rider. In SX he would holeshot and teeter out. Everytime.
BD, Im sorry that I attacked you in the other thread. I agree with your assessment of Dungey. I think that he has gotten the cracking under pressure thing behind him, but we will see for sure as the season progresses. No wonder that these guys get burned out so quickly: running the entire SX and MX season, the MXdN (if you are picked) and then overseas races, testing, etc.
Alessi was the fastest rider to the first corner when he was on yellow.Unfortunately after the first lap he would fade. I think if Tony would step back and let others who actually know what they are talking about (The Man) he would build some self confidence and do much better. He does have speed.