By Jason Weigandt and Chase Stallo
It had been a relatively good season as far as the injury count in Monster Energy Supercross, but the last few weekends have been tough on the field. Soaring Eagle RCH’s Broc Tickle went out with a big hit in Toronto. Then GEICO Honda’s Wil Hahn had a scary crash of his own in his St. Louis heat race. He has been diagnosed with a broken right humerus, a broken clavicle and a crack in the base of his skull. Yes, that sounds absolutely horrible but we texted Hahn on Sunday and he says it’s not all that bad—in fact he’s had worse injuries. Only a motocrosser would say that! Hahn will miss the remainder of Monster Energy Supercross. No word yet on his status for the upcoming Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championships. This week, he's in California visiting doctors to get the most accurate info on recovery.
Also, BTOSports.com KTM’s Matt Goerke suffered a broken elbow following a big crash in practice. “Beef” was just starting to find his groove after breaking his finger at the Anaheim opener. Goerke will miss the remainder of Monster Energy Supercross.
At least some riders did return from injury. GEICO Honda’s Eli Tomac was back after aggravating a previous shoulder injury in Daytona. He finished sixth in his return. “I wanted more, to be honest, but we'll keep working at it. I had some really good laps and we're healthy, so we have something positive happening right now," said Tomac in a team statement.
Honda counterpart Trey Canard made his season debut in St. Louis for the Honda Muscle Milk team. Canard missed the first twelve rounds due to a broken arm suffered during off-season testing. “Feels good. Glad to get the first one out of the way,” Canard told our Jordan Roberts after the race. “I was nervous all day, but I thought it went pretty good. I’m excited to be here.” Canard finished an impressive fifth in the 450SX main, but his riding in practice was even more impressive than that. He was jumping big things and looking fast from the get-go. It sure didn’t look like there was any rust for Trey.
Also back: CycleTrader.com Rock River Yamaha’s Ben LaMay made his first main event of 2014 in St. Louis. LaMay, who missed the first ten rounds, as well as Toronto, finished sixteenth.
Also out: Rockstar Energy Racing KTM’s Ivan Tedesco missed St. Louis following a big crash in Toronto. Tedesco is expected to be back for Houston this weekend.
On to the lap charts!
450SX Class
Lap Rank | Finish | Best Lap | In Lap | Avg Lap Time | Rider |
1 | 1 | 47.496 | 5 | 48.892 | James Stewart |
2 | 2 | 47.718 | 3 | 49.125 | Ryan Villopoto |
3 | 3 | 48.274 | 6 | 49.317 | Justin Barcia |
4 | 9 | 48.432 | 3 | 49.258 | Ryan Dungey |
5 | 4 | 48.615 | 8 | 49.297 | Ken Roczen |
6 | 10 | 48.686 | 6 | 49.666 | Justin Brayton |
7 | 5 | 48.862 | 9 | 50.010 | Trey Canard |
8 | 12 | 48.935 | 2 | 51.981 | Mike Alessi |
9 | 6 | 48.996 | 5 | 50.194 | Eli Tomac |
10 | 8 | 49.282 | 10 | 50.789 | Andrew Short |
11 | 7 | 49.310 | 7 | 50.236 | Josh Hill |
12 | 11 | 49.761 | 7 | 51.323 | Nick Wey |
13 | 22 | 50.041 | 3 | 51.808 | Weston Peick |
14 | 13 | 50.335 | 5 | 52.342 | Chris Blose |
15 | 14 | 50.525 | 3 | 52.539 | Jimmy Albertson |
16 | 15 | 51.242 | 8 | 53.414 | Cody Gilmore |
17 | 16 | 51.253 | 9 | 54.249 | Ben LaMay |
18 | 17 | 51.588 | 4 | 54.407 | Nick Schmidt |
19 | 18 | 51.812 | 5 | 54.877 | Ronnie Stewart |
20 | 19 | 52.980 | 5 | 56.454 | Killy Rusk |
21 | 21 | 53.370 | 3 | 57.981 | Augie Lieber |
22 | 20 | 54.288 | 3 | 58.725 | Tevin Tapia |
250SX Class
Lap Rank | Finish | Best Lap | In Lap | Avg Lap Time | Rider |
1 | 1 | 48.833 | 2 | 49.802 | Martin Davalos |
2 | 2 | 49.154 | 8 | 49.789 | Justin Bogle |
3 | 3 | 49.531 | 7 | 50.597 | Blake Baggett |
4 | 21 | 49.773 | 4 | 50.109 | Matt Lemoine |
5 | 11 | 49.813 | 3 | 51.603 | Vince Friese |
6 | 9 | 49.821 | 2 | 52.592 | Alex Martin |
7 | 20 | 49.959 | 3 | 52.307 | Jeremy Martin |
8 | 7 | 50.112 | 7 | 52.164 | Matt Bisceglia |
9 | 4 | 50.151 | 4 | 51.029 | Kyle Cunningham |
10 | 6 | 50.206 | 6 | 51.555 | Cole Thompson |
11 | 5 | 50.369 | 7 | 51.095 | AJ Catanzaro |
12 | 8 | 50.629 | 4 | 52.632 | Jimmy Decotis |
13 | 15 | 51.884 | 3 | 54.780 | Jesse Wentland |
14 | 10 | 51.936 | 14 | 53.760 | Gannon Audette |
15 | 13 | 52.532 | 3 | 53.646 | Jackson Richardson |
16 | 12 | 52.805 | 4 | 54.331 | Landen Powell |
17 | 17 | 52.906 | 4 | 55.164 | Justin Starling |
18 | 14 | 53.160 | 6 | 54.571 | Zack Williams |
19 | 16 | 54.002 | 7 | 55.033 | Levi Kilbarger |
20 | 19 | 54.265 | 3 | 57.650 | Aaron Gulley |
21 | 18 | 54.722 | 7 | 56.106 | Luke Vonlinger |
22 | 22 | DNS | DNS | DNS | Gavin Faith |
We haven't gotten many Villopoto vs. Stewart heads up duels through the years, so it's exciting when one materializes. We got it in the STL. Here's the full race for the two superstars, lap-by-lap.
Lap | James Stewart | Ryan Villopoto |
2 |
48.435
|
48.006
|
3 |
48.257
|
47.718
|
4 |
47.666
|
47.933
|
5 |
47.496
|
48.247
|
6 |
47.67
|
48.151
|
7 |
47.862
|
48.396
|
8 |
48.673
|
48.677
|
9 |
49.104
|
48.845
|
10 |
48.05
|
48.661
|
11 |
49.264
|
50.619
|
12 |
49.596
|
49.538
|
13 |
49.385
|
49.588
|
14 |
49.071
|
49.253
|
15 |
49.143
|
49.341
|
16 |
49.565
|
49.486
|
17 |
48.532
|
49.884
|
18 |
49.463
|
50.155
|
19 |
49.979
|
49.869
|
20 |
51.749
|
51.017
|
And since that looks so cool above, let's do the same for 250SX East title fighters Martin Davalos and Justin Bogle.
Lap | Martin Davalos | Justin Bogle |
2 |
48.833
|
49.819
|
3 |
49.661
|
49.658
|
4 |
49.252
|
49.542
|
5 |
49.507
|
49.62
|
6 |
49.463
|
49.24
|
7 |
49.521
|
49.182
|
8 |
50.041
|
49.154
|
9 |
50.382
|
49.946
|
10 |
49.996
|
49.713
|
11 |
50.333
|
51.519
|
12 |
50.206
|
49.745
|
13 |
50.124
|
50.353
|
14 |
50.162
|
49.631
|
15 |
49.754
|
49.931
|
Note lap 11 for Bogle. That's where he made an error on the dragon's back and couldn't clear a double. Dropping nearly two seconds from his time on the previous lap certainly hurt his chances for the win.
Rough few weekends for JGR Toyota Yamaha’s Josh Grant. In Toronto, food poisoning knocked him out of racing. We talked to Grant yesterday and he’s not sure if he got sick from the airport food on his connection to Toronto in Texas, or on Friday night during dinner in the city. He was back and ready for St. Louis but smashed his chest on the handlebars in his heat race. That race was red flagged when Wil Hahn crashed, so Grant went back to the gate and finished sixth in the heat. Then he started coughing up blood. He visited the Asterisk Mobile Medical unit and as always with the potential for internal injury, they decided to err on the side of caution and told him to go to the hospital to get checked out. Everything was okay, but Josh was out for the night. He’ll be back for Houston this weekend.
Rough one for Justin Brayton, too. In the same heat race, Justin Barcia crashed and Brayton landed on his bike and broke his foot. Somehow he went back to the line for the red flag restart and won the heat! “I’m glad I didn’t take the boot off after the heat of else it would have hurt worse, it didn’t look good,” Brayton said to our Jordan Roberts. In the main Brayton was running sixth until the last lap when Ryan Dungey went down, and Brayton ended up landing on his bike, too, and breaking his pinkie. He finished 10th. He plans on racing in Houston.
Season-best finish for Soaring Eagle RCH Suzuki’s Josh Hill, with a seventh. And now, time for this week’s best clip from the team post-race PR: “The 450 Main saw RCH Soaring Eagle ready to fly… until he had his wings clipped at the start.” Indeed, Hill started about 14th, had a collision with Weston Peick (is it just us or do the RCH guys and Peick end up battling a lot?) but pulled through for 7th. “I'm not that happy with 7th," said Hill. "Coming from the back of the pack is getting really old. If I get my starts where they need to be, I really feel like I can be a contender." Hill has posted three-straight 450SX top tens.
On the other end, Peick’s bike was jacked up from his collision with Hill and he was unable to finish.
Moto Mafia’s Nick Wey had a season-high eleventh in St. Louis. “It was my best finish of the season but I feel like there’s a lot more under the hood,” Wey told Steve Matthes after the race. Wey charged hard after a bad start, making up nine spots after crossing the finish line 20th after lap 1. He was especially strong on the technical parts of the track, like the dragon’s back.
Privateer Chris Blose also had a season-high in St. Louis with a thirteenth. Blose’s previous best was a fourteenth in Indianapolis. It was a nice bounce back after missing out in Toronto with a blown engine {Editor’s note: We called that a Blosed engine.]
A Night of Firsts: Privateers Killian Rusk (19th), Tevin Tapia (20th) and Augie Lieber (21st) all made their first 450SX main events of the season in St. Louis. In 250SX, Zack Williams (14th), Luke Vonlinger (18th), and Aaron Gulley (19th) all made their first mains in 2014.
GEICO Honda rookie Matt Bisceglia suffered a cracked tibia on lap four of the main in St. Louis after landing on a bike. He lost a few positions but somehow finished 7th in the main! Bisceglia posted the following on Instagram yesterday:
JAB Motorsports’ Matt Lemoine was en route to a second consecutive podium in St. Louis before he crashed over the tricky whoops to dragon’s back section. “Played the race in my head a million times and prolly will another million. Riding great but a stupid crash cost me the result. Onward and upward get ready for the upcoming races,” said Lemoine on Instagram.
Factory Metal Works/ClubMX’s AJ Catanzaro had his best finish since Indy a season ago in St. Louis. “When the track’s technical I always get a little bit excited for it. That’s what I’m good at, a little tire tap and whoops and just stuff like that,” he told us after the race.
Privateer Ryan Zimmer broke his L 1,2,3 and 4 in a chilling crash in St. Louis that was captured by the Fox Sports 1 TV cameras. The North Carolina native told us yesterday via text that he will probably skip the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championships and focus on the 2015 Monster Energy Supercross Championship. The injury will not require surgery.
After a decent rookie season with Star Racing in 2011, where he produced three top ten finishes, Gannon Audette couldn’t even get the last two seasons going due to injuries suffered at the first round (twice). This year Audette made it through the opener and has shown improvement over the last few rounds. He finished a season-high tenth in St. Louis, his first top ten since St. Louis in 2011. “Enjoying the season so far through the ups and downs happy to end on a good note with a 10th in St. Louis last night going into the break,” said Audette on Twitter.
Privateer Landen Powell has made three consecutive mains after missing the first four in 250SX. Powell had a season-high twelfth in St. Louis.
After qualifying for the main in St. Louis, Gavin Faith was unable to race the night show. We’ve heard that Faith has been dealing with health issues this season, but haven’t received confirmation as to his absence in St. Louis.
Privateer Justin Starling made his first main since Daytona in St. Louis. Starting would finish the night seventeenth.