Bench Racing Ammo: Thunder Valley

July 26, 2007, 10:08am

With Ricky Carmichael leaving outdoor motocross, the racing was supposed to get boring, right? Well, if last weekend’s Colorado National was any indication, that statement couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact, in both classes at Thunder Valley we saw a total of five riders tying in points for the overall win, which is quite impressive. Has that every happened before?

Besides RC and Grant Langston, when was the last time you saw a rider pass James Stewart?

In the AMA Motocross class, when the dust settled from over 70 minutes of wide-open racing, James Stewart, Mike Alessi and Andrew Short all finished with the same number of points – 40. As we all know, the second moto is the tie breaker, so Stewart got the nod for the overall win. Both Alessi and Short keep getting closer, though, and they’re due for a win (although if Stewart gets back to 100 percent health, it might get tougher).

But of those riders have been in this position before. At last year’s Southwick National, Short, Alessi and Brett Metcalfe all had pretty consistent moto finishes. Short went 1-4, Metcalfe 3-2 and Alessi 2-3. Short got the overall win with a total of 43 points, and Metcalfe and Alessi tied for second overall with 42 points.

And what about our moto winners in the premier class last weekend? We had two different winners who both missed finishing on the overall podium and they didn’t even have a mechanical failure! First moto winner Davi Millsaps dropped anchor in the second moto, and went 1-8 for fourth overall, while Tim Ferry washed out early in moto one and went way back in the back, climbing back to 11th. His 11-1 relegated him to fifth overall and cost him a shot at gaining points on Stewart.

The other two riders tying in points for the win were Ben Townley and Ryan Villopoto in the AMA Motocross Lites class. No matter what, a 1-2 and a 2-1 both equals 47 points, and as we’ve seen so many times this season, Ben Townley’s better second-moto performance gave him the nod for the overall.

Another interesting sidebar is the fact that all four Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki riders led at least a lap. That’s pretty impressive in such competitive class like the Motocross Lites, and it’s a true testament of the type of work that Mitch Payton and the entire Pro Circuit team put in to their products.