Saturday Night Live
Sunday, February 10, 2013 | 7:10 AM
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PrintDavi Millsaps just keeps battling and fighting and the points (and wins) keep coming. From a heat race where he was passed for the lead by James Stewart—but upped the pace and kept the heat on Stewart all the way to the finish—to the main event, where he withstood pressure from Justin Barcia and Chad Reed, there just seems to be no rattling the Rockstar Energy Racing rider. And his points lead is up to a whopping 19 after just six races.
The San Diego track was a tough one, not due to the technical design or obstacles, but because of the soil. Over the years the SD track has grown harder and slicker, and then rain before race day made it rutted and muddy in spots. Overall, traction was hard to find, and any rider who really tried to push it and make up time suffered—hence costly washouts from Reed and Ryan Villopoto.
Justin Barcia had a wild ride in his heat race, when he tagged a tuff block while leading, and ended up bouncing side-saddle on his bike. He then detoured through the mechanic’s area before regaining control, and when he re entered the track, ended up battling with Reed. Reed didn’t like seeing Barcia come over on him, and they then engaged in some bar banging. “Reed just doesn’t like me, he never has,” said Barcia. “We had some words after the heat race.”
After a rough race last weekend courtesy of a bad start and a crash, Monster Energy Kawasaki's Ryan Villopoto was expected to bounce back this weekend. But, he had another bad start and another crash. Late in the race, he was up to fourth and trying to run down Ryan Dungey for third, but when he lost the front end, he lost ground. RV was fastest overall in qualifying, but although he slowly made up ground in the main, he never quite showed the speed he normally has in the main--such as in Anaheim 2, when he gobbled the field right up. The defending champion is a full 27 points down on Millsaps, tied for third in points with Trey Canard.
Another so-so night for Canard, who had a bad start in the main and didn’t get a look at the lead pack. After starting the season on fire with podiums, and nearly taking the points lead, the Oklahoman has cooled the last few weeks.
Not a good one for Broc Tickle. The Dodge Sycuan RCH Suzuki rider finally got the start he wanted—second behind Millsaps—but he wasn’t up to the lead pace, and seemed to tighten up. He dropped all the way back to 11th, which is a worse result than he had in previous weeks where he started further back.
Josh Grant was out for the JGR team with a shoulder injury, but Justin Brayton carried the flag, running third for a long way. He ended up seventh in his best ride of the year.
Martin Davalos crushed it in practice and won his heat. Then he crashed in the main event. Heard that one before?
Simon Cudby photos
Justin Brayton keeps getting stronger following a slow start to the season. He put his JGR Toyota Yamaha up front early and hung tough with the Dungey/Villopoto/Reed/Stewart pack for most of the race. They edged ahead, though, dropping Brayton to seventh, but it was by far his best 20 laps of the year.
Rough night for Lucas Oil TLD's Cole Seely, who crashed in his heat race and had to go through the LCQ to make it to the main, and then had more troubles there and finished outside of the top ten. Two weeks ago, Seely was in the points hunt, but now he's over 40 points behind leader Ken Roczen.
Roczen admitted he didn't feel comfortable all night for some reason, but he still charged hard at the end of the race and nearly caught Eli Tomac for the win. He was angry after the main after coming up just a bike length short of stealing the win.
Tomac got held up badly by lapped traffic late, and also seemed to be taking it a little easy on the difficult track down the stretch. That almost opened the door for Roczen. Tomac leads the west in wins with four, but is down 17 points to Roczen with three races to go.
Surprise rider who was really on it? JAB Racing’s Matt Lemoine. He was flirting with top-five lap times in practice, then finished fifth in his heat and 13th in the main. Lemoine is learning quickly in his rookie 450 SX campaign.
Surprise in the 250 Class? HRT’s Austin Politelli, who ran a rock-solid fifth most of the main, and then snagged fourth when Malcolm Stewart crashed. That’s a career best for the second-year pro.
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Politelli needs more exposure for the rides he's putting in.
The 450 main was one of the most boring races I have ever seen. A game of follow the leader.
You can tell Chad has been living here in the states for awhile, nothing is his fault.
I watched the AX, it does look like it will preparate them for SX. Did you see how many tuff blocks those guys have to miss?
What is more painful to watch and listen to than a Pro-Circuit podium speech?
A Pro-Circuit tv commercial!
You can tell CR22 is not an American, he blames everyone else.
pizza...By your logic you are not American. So please go back.
That track looked slick, favored riders with smooth throttle hand, did not know Barcia was in that group, now I do. Brayton was awesome too.
So many races yet to be run, and here comes the traction, so the next few weeks have a good chance of delivering more surprises, let's hope so anyway.
The track was very one lined. I really thought CR22 was going to battle DM18 for the win. He salvaged points and lives to race again. Congrats to Davi!! Great ride!!
@Aunt Lera sometimes it takes a renthal fatbar and a broke nose to teach you the importance of throttle control some lessons only need to be learned once
Good job pizza . Some dudes ( mates / blokes ) just can't stand that Americans flat ass haul the mail.
I am going to say it over again, again, and again, congrats to Davi. I never thought I would be so excited to see someone win like that. On the last two laps it was like, don't throw it away. Also Barcia rode a smart race, just putting himself on the box.
Interesting camera shots of our top racers running 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th. It has to be real hard to break into that area for everyone else.
I cant beleive the front end problems with CR and RV.Is it really fork setup,or just their ridng styles? Are Millsaps,Barcia,Canard not running the dreaded air forks,cause they havent seemed to have had the same problems.
"You can tell Roczen has been living here in the states for awhile, nothing is his
fault."
JimM
Davi is tearing it up!!!! I know everyone thought he was an early season fluke, but apparently NOT.
I guess Milsaps is making us all look like saps because we were all saps for leaving him off of the radar while Milsaps is sapping the the points up and saps the drive out of the saps chasing Milsaps! So we will have to see if Milsaps can keep making us look like saps while the saps head east and hope they can sap some points from Milsaps point lead or he is just gonna sap up the competion like a vacum saps up the dirt!
Is that enough to sap the sap out of us saps?
You are right Welker, nothing like when Davi "Saps" the competition!
it 'sapped' all my strength trying to get inside my TV and choke out LAPPERS.
@ CZmark ---- are we addicted to moto or what? Even though I ride Harley's now I dont wanna ride with those amature street riders they scare me! I enjoy a nice cruise by myself, thank you and just dont try to think you are cool cause you just went around a corner as fast as I did , because I have not even tried to go fast yet! I learned to race on the track, but if it looks safe I will play road racer on a corner.
PS: I even have a Dissability tag (liscense plate) on my FLH but not on my FXLR.
Does anyone know who is running air forks... It would be interesting to see if there is any connection with problems. By the way, is this not an obvious article subject for racer x? Get with it guys!!! If there really has been issues with air forks than why the hell would teams jeopardize their chances for the title by running them? If there are potential advantages, verify on the test track then race with them! Could RV be at the top of the board if he simply ran with last years (proven) setup? WTF?
When was the last time a non factory bike won the title? It's funny to think that Susuki is probably paying Stuart more than double what DM is making to ride a factory bike and you have DM killing it with no factory support...
when Havoc rides 80% he almost looks like James Stewart.
everyone bashing on reed for saying he needs front end feel to push to win...
how about you get your asses off the couch and go ride a dirtbike for once in your life!
RD5 looked great fighting off a talented 6 pack to take final podium spot.. But none of them were going to catch 18 and 51... Hats off to reed for trying looked like another SD win early for sure... Not sure what to make of bubba right now all I can say is if he were still on Yamaha all would say its the bikes fault but here we are again like I said two years ago... If you qual 1st then win a heat race nearly every week it's definitely not the bike .... It's inside that helmet .... What about villo??? What's up with another off night .. He is having a rough time trying to 3 peat .. Still in it but not as easy as I thought it could be for him to do..
@Welker- yeah! we are addicted alright, strange kind of drug that gives us a "high" when we throw a leg over the seat. As we age it is still in our blood, it's what makes up our DNA, it's who we are.
@Yamiblues I never thought that the YZF was JS7s problem. I think his biggest mistake was getting rid of Aldon and only racing 20% of the races since mid 2009. The race pace has continued to climb and JS7s has stayed the same at best. Also to the guy who said JS7 is making double the cash as Davi, I pretty sure Stewart is making more like 5 times what Davi is and probably more!
Hats off to Brayton. Glad to see him getting it together. Barcia rode well too, but once again hardly any mention of Dungey (except when RV was mentioned that he "was trying to run down" RD). Hey Jason, quit worshipping at the altar of RV for a moment and focus on some other talent. RD is 19 points off of Milsaps but for some reason this article feels like it has to mention that RV is 27 points off of Milsaps. I think RV needs a new nickname, how about "JS7 Jr.?" He has been taking more dirt naps than Stewart has lately. Yes, RV is really fast. He has proved he can come from way back to get a 2nd (so has RD) He has proved he can holeshot and gap the rest of the field (so has RD), And let's not forget that RV can be hampered by 2nd turn chaos (just like RD), but so far, the one thing RV cannot seem to do is be consistent like RD and #18, which is why they hold the top two spots.
As for TC, I think he has been riding a little safe the last two weeks but I look to see him turn it back up, especially since he is tied in points with RV. TC looked good in the heat race, he kept DM and JS honest.
Finally, all one had to do to win San Diego was get a holeshot. The race was only 15 minutes and 52 seconds long (47 second lap times sounds more like AX). Are you kidding me?! These guys don't even work up a sweat in 15 minutes. Basically one line around the track and slippery if you got off your line. I am not taking anything away from Milsaps but if any of the top 7 guys got the holeshot I think they would have won. If I paid to see this race I would be pissed because I would feel like I got a short show.
PS: To all of you (mxpunk409 and others) who feel you need to compare those of us who sit and watch and criticize a rider for performance this may come as a shock to you. We do not feel like we are better than these guys. Your comment is very immature. We share our opinions. Grow up please.
These air forks are suspect. Glad to see Davi get another win. I feel bad for Reed throwing away the opportunity to maybe get a win and I also feel bad for Poto having another bad night.
I must say that Ralph has gotten better in the booth and I enjoyed K-Dub being up there, especially since Fro didn't seem to want to pick a fight with him as he usually does with RC. However, the production of the cameras during the race is NOT getting better and that is sad to see. These main events are 15-19 minute races. There is not enough time for replays! How many times are they going to cut to replay only to miss more action?! It still boggles my mind that they show the "Progressive Pass of the Race" before the race is even over. I hope they can get their TV production a little better by the end of the year. Thank goodness next weekend is Dallas and I won't have to watch on TV.
"Late in the race, he was up to fourth and trying to run down Ryan Dungey for third, but when he lost the front end, he lost ground"
The distance between Villopoto and Dungey was the same from lap 2 onward- he never made up any ground.
Hay allI was running Nitrogen in my forks on my 75 YZ125 then Yamaha put them on the 76. Yes I worked at a race shop and we sold Yamaha's They knew I was trying that. Lets leave it at that for now. Just like today they will drop you like a hot potato if you get hurt. I was just helping with some develpment and was way of fthe radar.
Hay allI was running Nitrogen in my forks on my 75 YZ125 then Yamaha put them on the 76. Yes I worked at a race shop and we sold Yamaha's They knew I was trying that. Lets leave it at that for now. Just like today they will drop you like a hot potato if you get hurt. I was just helping with some develpment and was way of fthe radar.
They have testing down to an art but no matter what it is still a guessing game.
They are all so close in talent and testing stuff just like Milsaps did , the holeshot cdounts a lot. Anything can hapen yet! I just kinda like the Milsaps ryme I put together?
Yeah but Millsaps didn't win it straight up.
In my extensive research, I have concluded that in the history of SX, no rider has ever won a main event straight up. The winning rider either had a better start, was on a better team, or the other riders made mistakes.
Jason talks about how RV usually "gobbles the field right up". NO SIR. Not USUALLY but OCCASIONALLY he (and he's not the only one) is able to "gobble the field right up" and get a podium after a bad start. Fact is RV USUALLY washes out his front while TRYING to "gobble the field right up". It's funny how when RD does the same things RV does they say he is "consistent as usual and finished top 5". Of course RV, the wonder boy, "gobbles up the field". Sorry James, the SX media has a new crush now....
As for the question who all is running air forks? Everyone worth mentioning except dungey, milsaps has been on them for two or three weeks now , barcia,canard,reed,Stewart,villipoto, pretty much if they are a factory backed team they are running air forks, but its not the forks just them pushing the limit on slick tracks the problem should go away once it hits the east
Pizzacorner isnt American he is too whiney and b!tchy and a puss to be an American..Americans dont whine and cry and complain like him..
It must be tough for James to render his crown of being the lawn dart king.
I will admit I expect Villopoto to win, he looked good in his heat race. But when the gate dropped for the main, it looked like he was struggling a bit. I thought after a few laps under his belt he would pick it up. But as the race wore on and the leaders continues to pull away, I guess reality started to set in.
@RCRDDW
You are a class A tool! Is there anything else you can talk about than RV? Talk about an inferiority complex......
RV has washed out more this year than the last 3 combined.....any coincidence he's running Air forks?
Count yourself fortunate......and news flash....he was gaining on your boy even on that crap track.......the Air fork will keep this series interesting.
PS....show some respect to the dude that stepped up and won the MXoN for your country while the #1 was being overwhelmed yet again.
Hmmmm... Reed doesn't like Barcia. What a shocker. There's not another rider out there who likes Barcia. He made his bed acting like a punk his entire career, and he's never gonna get any favors from any of his competition. He will never win a national title. Never had what it takes to beat the top guys outdoors. Supercross is his only shot, but he's all but lost it already this year. The talent is only getting deeper every year, and a rider that has made that many enemies is not going to get through a series as clean as is necessary to win a title these days.
Barcia will be a force in the future I see ay least 2 sx championships in the pipe.. He will also be an out door champ !! Cant waite to see AC-92 throw down..
For you Welker that is equevilant to Gallon of Mad dog with a rye chaser !! LOL
I guess there will be alot of discussions on the air forks and if they really work or not. I have no opinion on them really and they have been toying with that idea since the early 70's. One thing I did notice way back then is that the forks where way to stiff. Sometimes the best of ideas are not so good, but you don't know if you don't try. But I also thought that would have been something left for the off season during testing.
Welker- go easy on that gallon of mad dog!
@warrior462 on Barcia: "He will never win a national title. Never had what it takes to beat the top guys outdoors."
Did you watch the last few events of the 2011 outdoors? Barcia definitely beat the top guys outdoors on the 450. He didn't look too shabby at the 2012 MXoN either. It is certainly possible he'll never win an outdoor title, but I wouldn't count him out.
Barcia's attitude bugs me sometimes, but I respect him as a racer. Same for Reed, he can be pretty smug and arrogant, but I dig watching him race.
@TWK1 those are all good reasons why JS7 may not be able to get up front where his speed should have him sitting.. Fitness program change or just the competition has rose over the years .. Glad some are not blaming Yamaha for his results anymore it was getting old.. I think it's just heart and desire.. Been there done that mindset ...the sport demands so much and can chew you up and spit you out..
I'm finally a believer in DM. He's the real deal. If he would wear his cap right I'd pull for him. Who ever started the cap over the ears thing should be shot.
The track was horrible. Very one lined and BORING.
I'm glad they're finally leaving California. Looking forward to earlier start times and better dirt. I think RV. JS, and JB will benefit (from the dirt).
Who gives a crap how he wears a hat?? Does that really matter, my word some guys worry about stuff that means nothing.. How about the hat makers not make the hats so damn big.. How about we dont give a crap how a guy wears a hat.. At least it isnt crooked and over his ear like some wanna-be tard idiot..
@RCRDDW
You are delusional and need to check the mirror for the one with a man crush.
The filming during the race is pretty bad,or was during this race anyways.And,how about when CR,RV,and JS all get linked up and they decide to go to a replay!Killer timing for that.That happens alot,and how many times so far have you heard the crowd go nuts(because of a pass or a crash)and the camera doesnt pick it up.The amount of coverage from speed is incredible,but the quality has got to get better.It didnt seem to be that way last year.Maybe I am wrong.
Whats up with the whole "Captain condom" hat?
Good ride DM18!
Youre bona fide!
Millsaps has been running the air forks for the last several races and they don't seem to be bothering him. Barcia and Canard are using them too. This weekend's track was just too slick to really push it like Reed was doing when he fell. Though I didn't see RV's crash this weekend, I feel like his riding style (weight toward the back until the very apex of the turn) has been the biggest factor in his crashes this year on some slicker than normal tracks.
You people weren't there you dont know sit ! PERIOD...........Alot of riders fell al over the track.....Whoops gave everyone problems also............Best guy came out on top............................PERIOD move on to next race ....................Go train or something...................
@motorhead620 I have been complaining/laughing about Stewie's cum catching tipped profallactic hat for 2 weeks now. Doesn't anybody have the sack to tell some of these riders when they look like weinies? I am a big Reed fan but the sun glasses he wares are terrible. I know his glasses sponsor has to have some better looking choices. I have never been one to jump on a style bandwagon, but a lot of the riders will jump on any goofy trend that comes along. Dungey is not my favorite, but he is my favorite roll model for my son. He is clean cut and well spoken. Always has time for him at the races too. I have taken my son to 6 races now with pit passes and VIP passes and he still is unable to get a Villopoto signature.
LastBikeRM250, did you watch those last few races of 2011 MX? Because I was there in person for two of them, rewatched those broadcasts later, and watched the broadcasts for the other two multiple times. What I saw was Barcia DNF 2 of 8 motos, and beat Dungey once. And that was when Dungey started a lap down on Barcia's "home track" which has always been known for catering to local guys. How on Earth does that translate to competing for a title? Sure, he may be a little better when he's a full time 450 guy with a little experience, but not even close to enough. Did you watch last year when Tomac and Bagget constantly spotted him huge leads on the first lap, and then chased him down and always at least made it close if not just blew by him? Do you think he's gonna get those early advantages from the big boys? That's the Barcia I've always seen outdoors, not sure what you're seeing.