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For the first time in probably ten years, maybe longer, I skipped two races in a row. Two in a row! Yeah, it was weird. But let’s face it, the 2015 Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, isn’t exactly a barn burner these days. It’s raining Red Bull KTMs each week. Look, last year I went to every single American SX and MX race, a Canadian national, a Canadian arenacross round, the MXdN, Bercy (Lille) SX, and an SX in Finland to get JT to the top once again—in short, I deserve the time off, dammit!
With that in mind, I was like most of you this past Saturday night—settled and set to watch some supercross on Fox Sports 1 with Ralph Sheheen and Jeff Emig calling the action. Here’s what I observed from the comfort of my couch:
It’s time for the Progressive Pre-Race Show. Ralph and Jeff appear on screen (and my wife starts swooning at the sight of Fro, her favorite rider of all time) to recap the action from the last week in Detroit. They show Jason Anderson flying through the air, Weston Peick doing a “superman,” and the Trey Canard/Jake Weimer crash. If you’re tuning in to your first race, you immediately cross off “supercross racer” as a potential career for you or anyone you know. Supercross is dangerous.
Ralph asks Jeff if Eli Tomac can make it two in a row, to which Jeff replies “Absolutely,” which is, indeed, absolutely true because at this point in the series, it’s hard to see anyone not named Dungey or Tomac winning a 450SX main event.
Next Emig takes us through the Kawasaki track map. If I’m Emig, I’m definitely reminding everyone I stopped Jeremy McGrath’s record streak here in St. Louis in 1996 approximately 864 times, but that’s just me.
Hi, Jenny Taft! Jenny’s in her second year as pit reporter and is doing a great job. She’s super cool and very friendly, and she loves hockey, which makes me pretty biased I suppose.
Riders are on the gate for the first 250SX heat, so I guess that means the Progressive Pre-Race Show is over. I clocked it in at a whopping three minutes, nineteen seconds. Imagine what Terry Bradshaw would say if you told him he only had that long to talk about the upcoming NFL game?
I know we’re about as big as competitive darts in terms of sports and this is Fox Sports 1, but how awesome would it be to have a real thirty-minute pre-race show where you could dive into topics and break things down? Also, how awesome would it be if I had a money tree in my backyard?
Joey Savatgy grabs the holeshot and immediately stretches out a nice lead. Jordon Smith almost dies in the whoops but somehow saves it. It’s terrifying for everyone to watch, but from what we’ve seen from Smith over the years (even as an amateur), it was basically just another day at the office for him.
Ryan Zimmer is up near the front on his Slater Skins-equipped Yamaha, which looks kind of goofy, but could be the future of sponsorship in our sport if people in power actually opened up their minds a bit. Oh, wait, never mind. That’s not going to happen; we’re talking about a sport that features teams giving “insert underachieving rider name” hundreds of thousands of dollars year in and year out. Just keep doing the same stuff, people.
Then again, maybe I’m a bit biased because Zimmer’s sponsor is a dog food company and I love dogs. Ryan Zimmer immediately becomes Weege’s most hated rider because Weege hates puppies. [Editor’s note: Steve’s right. I hate dogs like a cat. – Weege]
Oh crap. The next shot is Zimmer lying there motionless. He high-sides on Smith’s rear tire and goes down hard. This is bad for my fantasy team but great for Blue Buffalo as the camera focuses tight on the huge billboard bike.
Hey, look, the split lane actually seems pretty equal for the first time in recorded supercross history.
Fro says he’s a fan of tracks with good dirt that gets chewed up and rutty. So what he’s saying is this kind of dirt is perfect for traction for you when you decide to go full “Ray Finkle” on someone like Jeff does to Mike LaRocco at 1:38 in the video below.
I still can’t believe Jeff hasn’t dropped one single reference to beating MC in St Louis in 1996.
Savatgy wins! Yay! It’s been a strange year for Joe-Dog. He’s won, I think, three heats but can’t seem to break into this Musquin/Bogle race for a main event win. Oh, by the way, Kyle Peters got second and continues his strong year for the Motosport.com/GPI/Honda Racing guys.
Commercial time! Justin Barcia is out in the dunes on his bike and runs out of gas. Weston Peick pulls up in a Toyota Tundra, gives Justin some gas, and races him back, truck versus bike. That’s a pretty cool commercial—hope I get to see it again….
We’re back and the guys throw it to Dianna Dahlgren to make a call for your social media photos on how you’re watching the show tonight. Hopefully, she says, your entry can make it onto the show tonight. I should probably put something together—it could be my big break. We can all hope, can’t we?
I don’t know why the hottest trend on TV networks involves seeing viewers’ Tweets on the screen, or, for example in our sport, fans taking photos of the unique ways they watch supercross. It’s not just the SX folks either; we see this in a lot of places. Who cares? I’m not watching TV to see how slobs like me watch TV, and I’m not watching to see what other uninformed people are Tweeting. I’m watching to see things I can’t see from my couch, and I want to listen to knowledgeable people talk about something. You see where I’m going with this?
Gate drops for the second 250SX heat, and if Musquin grabs the holeshot in this thing, it’s over. And that’s exactly what he does. Turn out the lights—the party’s over. Bogle and his leg swag get into second and we’re set. A-Rod gets a bit sketchy in the whoops. In other news, the sun came up today. Like Jordon Smith, it’s just another day in the office for A-Rod.
Nice job by Fro for picking up on the fact Bogle’s holeshot device not coming unhooked and for showing us the replay.
Musquin wins the heat. Again. Ralph interviews Marvin and of course Musquin immediately thanks everyone and anyone for his win, and he thinks the track is great, working down in Florida is great, Frankie his mechanic is great, and Ralph and Jeff are great. Marvin is the nicest man in the world!
Time for 450 heat one! This thing should start with an Andrew Short holeshot and turn into a Tomac/Seely battle if my intuition is correct.
Tony Archer gets a great jump from the outside and comes roaring into the first turn. He makes contact with the outside Tuff Blocks, bounces off those, and cleans seventy-three other riders out, including Tomac. Not very good aim there, Archer.
Get it?
Meanwhile, Andrew Short holeshots!
Ralph doesn’t get to say “SPIDER CAM!” over and over this week, but there is a camera hanging up on the ceiling that seems to be about sixty-three miles away. This camera angle sucks and is used way too much in case you’re wondering.
Short wins, which is awesome. Somewhere out there a caterpillar gets its wings and turns into a beautiful butterfly. Tomac to the semi. Super slo-mo camera shows Andrew grabbing the holeshot. You can see he’s so much farther forward than the guys around him, which I would imagine he has to do to keep the rear wheel going while he’s in third gear.
Ralph grills Shorty on his third-gear starts and tells Andrew it’s okay to share his technique. Shorty says he can’t, but as always, he’s smiling.
Commercial time! Justin Barcia is out in the dunes on his bike and runs out of gas. Weston Peick pulls up in a Toyota truck, gives Justin some gas, and races him back to camp, truck versus bike, where Coy Gibbs promptly tells Justin just how dumb he is for running out.
We’re back and Ralph talks about a vintage bike museum where a fundraiser was being held. Just about the time Ralph says “vintage bike,” the camera shows Lance Smail’s 1996 puke-orange KTM four-stroke from back in the day, which is like talking about the Mona Lisa and showing a fifth graders poop-smeared “creation”.
The next 450 heat is up, and Theodore Pauli (Nice name by the way!) pulls an “Archer” and sweeps the turn from the outside and goes flying into the Tuff Blocks.
Ryan Dungey wins! How exciting! Weston Peick does put some heat on Dungey early but settles for second after he gets buck-wild in the whoops. Think about that for a second. WESTON PEICK PUTS SOME HEAT ON RYAN DUNGEY. Still shaking my head at that.
Dungey reveals some horsepower numbers in his post-race interview and seems very relaxed. He does seem like he’s loosened up a bit this year, right? Then again, an over three-race lead in the points will do that to you.
Commercial time! Justin Barcia is out in the dunes on his bike and runs out of gas. Weston Peick pulls up in a Toyota truck, gives Justin some gas, and races him back to the camp, truck versus bike, where Peick immediately calls Justin names for running out of gas.
Dianna pleads for more social media, and the guys throw up a Tweet from Jason Bonham, currently the drummer for Sammy Hagar, who’s watching SX. Guess what? He’s got his bike in his house! How original! I would make more fun of this, but he’s drumming for the greatest front man in rock ‘n’ roll history and I might need to get Emig to get me tickets for an upcoming show because he actually knows Bonham well. So, based on that, awesome Tweet!
Commercial time! Justin Barcia is out in the dunes on his bike and runs out of gas. Weston Peick pulls up in a Toyota truck, gives Justin some gas, and races him back to camp, truck versus bike, where Phil Nicoletti is cooking some hot dogs over an open flame and complaining about something.
We’re back. Whoa! A James Stewart interview! I can’t believe this. I was just ranting on a show the other day that I can’t believe the TV crew has acted like James Stewart is just dead all season long even though he’s arguably the sport’s biggest name and will be back racing next year. I can’t understand this marketing. Stewart made a mistake and he’s been punished (unfairly in my and many other eyes), but to not mention him all year from round one to round thirteen is ridiculous. Well, he’s alive and well, folks. Imagine if you were a casual fan of SX and you of course know Stewart and cheer for him, but all season long he’s just been gone. No mention of him and no discussion of him until thirteen weeks into the series. See? It doesn’t make much sense.
It’s time for the 250 LCQ. I love the absolute silence from Ralph and Jeff in terms of not knowing who any of these guys are. Doorbell rings and it seems our dinner has arrived. I have to take some time to chow down on my chicken parm.
This just in: Do not order chicken parm from a place that’s known for its pizza.
Shawn “fantasy killer” Rife wins the 250 LCQ and poor Gannon Audette gets absolutely blown up by Taylor Potter in a berm while in the last transfer position. It’s not nice, but it’s the last spot to the main, bro. I’d T-bone my mom to get that spot.
Commercial time! Justin Barcia is out in the dunes on his bike and runs out of gas. Weston Peick pulls up in a Toyota truck, gives Justin some gas, and races him back to the camp, truck versus bike, where team manager Jeremy Albrecht is trying to direct message Peick to laugh at Barcia for running out of gas, but he can’t figure it out and just posts it to his timeline.
Next up is the 450 semi one. After Ralph correctly pronounces some Mexican MMA guys’ names correctly, Jeff says, “You’re the best Ralph” and I imagine them fist bumping each other.
Josh Grant takes off for the win. I don’t want to say that this semi is easier than other one, but yeah.
Time for Emig to drop his obligatory Michael Byrne reference into the show. You can set your watch to Fro throwing out his Friday night dinner companion’s (most nights, anyway) name.
The #722 of Adam Enticknap makes his second main of the year with his fifth-place finish, and the most scared person in St Louis is now Jenny Taft.
Ralph says, “If you ever have a chance to meet Enticknap, he’s a fun guy,” which is like saying, “Steve Matthes thinks Tim Ferry was a good rider.”
Commercial time! Justin Barcia is out in the dunes on his bike and runs out of gas. Weston Peick pulls up in a Toyota truck, gives Justin some gas, and races him back to the camp, truck versus bike. Once back, Peick sets Barcia on fire for once again running out of gas.
Next up is 450 semi two and Tomac destroys everyone. Ralph brings up Rick Johnson and says it’s “always nice to talk to the original Bad Boy,” and shows all of us that RALPH KNOWS THE SPORT. You think he’s dropping the reference just by reading a sheet? No sheet of paper can explain the Bad Boy. You just have to know it when you see it. Ralph knows.
Filthy Phil Nicoletti is third in this semi. I would make a joke about him, but I need him to get me tickets for the Yankee game Friday night before the New Jersey SX from his sister. Go Phil!
Commercial time! Justin Barcia is out in the dunes on his bike and runs out of gas. Weston Peick pulls up in a Toyota truck, gives Justin some gas, and races him back to the camp, truck versus bike. They’re both exhausted from the race back and need water, but Coy Gibbs is too busy playing Halo to help out.
Next is a feature on John and Eli Tomac that’s well done and interesting. We joke about John Tomac being gnarly, but seriously, people, just read his Wiki page and please understand just how gnarly he is. The Tomacs are great people—no doubt about it.
My wife watches the mountain bike footage with them and asks me if that’s what my recent biking has been like. I reply, “Yep, honey, my biking is exactly like what John and Eli Tomac do.”
Commercial time. And I’m speechless—the guys aren’t out on the dunes.
We’re back and we see the always-interesting GoPro camera view of Davi Millsaps. Love this stuff—can’t get enough of this action. Emig throws out there a reference to how Davi is barely touching the throttle out there.
Social-media time, and it’s babies on bikes, Emig’s old poster from 1990, and fans with Reed. Earlier in the show the guys dropped pro golfer Rickie Fowler’s name, and now Fowler has responded on Twitter. I guarantee you the folks in the truck broke the world record for fastest copy/paste graphics to make sure that Fowler’s tweet got up there.
Jenny talks about a bet between Dusty Pipes and Enticknap on the line before the 450 LCQ, and although it’s sort of cheesy to do, this is the stuff that we need more of in the sport. Every rider on that gate has a story and sponsors, and any bone we can throw to these guys makes everyone get more excited to race supercross and support the sport. Although I’m not sure, I think Taft’s voice is trembling at the thought of the 722 yelling, “You should check me out!” on the line.
Time for the 450 LCQ, and Kyle Partridge runs away with it. The battle for the last spot is just a sh** show of awesomeness, with dudes all over the place taking each other out. LCQ: catch the fever!
Commercial time! Justin Barcia is out in the dunes on his bike and runs out of gas. Weston Peick pulls up in a Toyota truck, gives Justin some gas, and races him back to the camp, truck versus bike. This time the crew shows the outtakes, where Honda’s Dan Betley actually drains Barcia’s gas and runs over a dune laughing manically.
Ralph says the start and turn one seem to be very important tonight. I like Ralph, but breaking news here, the start and turn one have been key at every single supercross race for the last forty years. Ralph asks Jeff to take him though the start and first turn, and I’ve got to be honest, I’m lost at what Jeff’s trying to do until the end when he says that you’ve got to be going in there in first position to ensure that you’re not going to be in danger of crashing.
Commercial time! Justin Barcia is out in the dunes on his bike and runs out of gas. Weston Peick pulls up in a Toyota truck, gives Justin some gas, and races him back to the camp, truck versus bike. I swear that I’m not making this up.
We’re back and they’re talking about French riders who have won 125 (250) SX championships. I get that JMB and Vuillemin never won that title, but I feel like perhaps when talking about great French racers to come over (you know, like Musquin) you should mention two of the only three French riders to ever win a premier SX race. But that’s just me. I guarantee you Marvin hopes to have a career more like DV than Roncada.
Ralph just casually drops in the fact he ran into Christophe Pourcel while they were skiing. What? Huh? Tell me more, please!
Time for the 250 main event. Marvin passes Jeremy Martin. This is over. Okay, back to some chicken parm.
Whoa! Martin gets frisky and passes Musquin back—maybe he wants some tonight. Well, not really. Marvin gets him back before the end of lap one and puts a couple seconds on him right away.
Bogle’s buried—this one is curtains, folks. It’s all over but the breaking of the baguettes and the caviar. Musquin is on fire tonight.
Jordon Smith goes down and collects a bunch of riders with him. It looks like a garage sale with bikes and riders everywhere.
Lap five and third-place Savatgy is almost ten seconds down right now, which is almost half a track. Ralph says he expected more of Savatgy going off his qualifying, which is actually pretty ballsy of him to say. Bravo, Ralph, bravo.
Time for a mid race plug of the New Jersey SX that’s coming up soon. Get your tickets now, people!
Speaking of Jersey, New Jersey’s own Luke Renzland got some good TV time. Also, Dakota Alix gets love from the guys, and Emig fills us in on the KTM kid’s background.
AJ Catanzaro is on the screen and I can’t make out what he’s riding. It’s a strange machine; it’s not an MCR bike and it’s sort of like seeing Big Foot. Oh wait…it’s a Suzuki RM-Z 250! Wow! That explains it.
Is it just me or is Emig better than ever at knowing things about some of the mid-pack guys? Seems like he’s taken a crash course on these dudes. Good stuff.
It’s over. Marvin wins. Bogle comes from way back to fourth and Musquin needs to just ride around in New Jersey to win this 250SX title.
Commercial time! Justin Barcia is out in the dunes on his bike and runs out of gas. Weston Peick pulls up in a Toyota Tundra, gives Justin some gas, and races him back to the camp, truck versus bike. I have nothing else. I’m out.
Is Marvin Musquin the nicest person in the pits ever? It’s got to be a tie between him and deposed AMA chief Steve Whitelock who was always so, so friendly.
Musquin apologizes to Bogle for perhaps screwing him over off the start, and then he proceeds to thank every single member of KTM past and present.
Jeremy Martin seems pretty happy for getting second. He, like Marvin, also thanks his practice bike mechanic, which warms my heart.
Do you think Jeremy is looking at Marvin and just thinking to himself “Wait until Hangtown, bro”?
The two Fox Sports anchors Jay and Dan bring in the highlights after supercross. These two guys were big hits in my native Canada before being wooed down to Fox with some big money. Whenever they throw it back to supercross, it seems like they’re a little bit like Ron Burgundy with the “And now, back to supercross?”
Next we get a little feature on Weston Peick and Pat, his acupressure guy. Not acupuncture—acupressure. On the BTOSports.com Racer X Podcast, we found out that Jason Thomas brought this Pat into the sport years ago and he’s a black-belt bad-ass. With the name “Pat” he’s not really going to fit in our sport that well. Most of our sport’s chiropractors and such have clever names and logos for themselves. I suggest “Dr. Five Fingers” Pat.
I’m so excited for the 450SX main event. Who’s going to win: Ryan Dungey or Eli Tomac?
Well, crap. Dungey grabs the lead down the first straight while Tomac is buried. So, yeah, Ryan Dungey’s going to win. Back to my chicken parm.
Andrew Short is close to grabbing yet another holeshot, which was awesome, but then he flies off his bike in spectacular fashion into some Tuff Blocks. Andrew Short is way too old to be doing this. Weird crash but he looks to be okay. Fly Racing really went big for their spring gear “launch” by actually launching Andrew.
Peick runs second and Ralph informs us that Weston is “hungry.” Maybe he wants some sub-par chicken parm?
Josh Grant, Broc Tickle, and Justin Brayton are all up there. Here comes Eli Tomac after a terrific start. A Dig Dug (helmeted track worker) helps Shorty push his bike back, but the back wheel is locked up from hitting the dirt. Good ol’ Dig Dug—always there when you need him.
Seven laps in and Tomac is on fire. He’s all over Jason Anderson for third, and Jeff says that Tomac is going fast enough to catch Dungey, which may actually be true if Eli were to go the same speed as the last lap for the next fifteen. Nice job, Jeff. I know you’re doing your job by trying to tell us this isn’t over, but I’m not buying what you’re selling. The truth is that Dungey is a machine up front—but that’s not very exciting to say to the viewers, is it?
Nice ride by Anderson here, but the Tomac train is coming. Seely is right there as well. Peick has some heat here as the guys in the second, third, fourth, and fifth positions are all right behind.
Anderson goes by Peick for second, which is his first time there since the opening round. Ralph says he’s found his flow, which is weird because “flow” and “confidence” and “feeling it” are all trademarks of Jeff Emig.
The replay shows us a textbook block pass by Anderson to get by Peick. This shows us that Anderson can make a clean block pass, and his “pass” on Jake Weimer a few weeks back (when he blew Weimer out of the water) wasn’t a mistake.
Tomac’s back up onto Anderson now. He quads his way past Anderson. Nothing gets Ralph more excited, and I mean nothing, than a rider jumping a quad.
We’re now settling in with five laps to go. Millsaps is working on Grant for sixth, and it’s about the most thrilling thing we have going on right now.
Hey, look, it’s Chad Reed! Literally the first time we’ve seen him. This indicates how great his night has gone.
White flag. All I can say is thank god.
It’s over! Ryan Dungey wins again and widens his lead. For the fifth time this year the Red Bull KTM guys have swept both of the classes. Feld should start charging them for champagne at this point.
Oakley’s Anthony Paggio is camera diving bad behind Dungey.
Marvin runs into the screen, and Dungey yells, “Mon Ami!” which means “my friend” in French. Somewhere out there Ronnie Mac just threw up.
Supercross win stats are shown and Dungey has passed Damon Bradshaw in career wins. Somewhere out there Bradshaw just threw up—not from being mad about Dungey passing him but from being thrown around in the cab of his monster truck.
I like the post-race interviews with riders that were off the podium. This is a nice touch. Josh Grant says he can’t get the start that he needs to run up front but says tonight he got a “decent top-ten start,” but he was actually fifth in corner two, which, to me, is actually a good start.
There have been plenty of supercross series that were amazing and featured all the best riders in the world going at it week in and week out. This isn’t one of those years, and staying at home doesn’t make it better. I think it’s time to come back for Houston and get pumped up again. Email me at matthes@racerxonline.com
