Rev-Up: Anaheim 3
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Rev Up. The series has entered a bit of a bog as we begin to take a look at round six. Hey, life can't always be green lights and 6' blondes. Into every life, and supercross series, a little rain must fall. While the San Francisco track was dry, the racing action was even drier, which was a monumental bummer, what with this great push to shove our sport to the top of American motorsports. I've heard a lot of talk about the tracks being changed up to coincide with who is leading the championship points, which would be fine and dandy if one very, very important aspect wasn't hurting; the broadcast. A sport cannot thrive in America without strong TV. And, damn it, the last two broadcasts I've watched had me switching over to the weather channel. I realize I may be speaking like a Debbie Downer here, but damn! Not every NFL game is a barnburner, and I've watched boxing matches, MLB, NASCAR, and NCAA events that lacked impact, but a sport as incredible as supercross should never be boring to watch. Ever! Make the tracks faster, make the jumps bigger, go out in the desert or wherever and take a half-dozen riders (they're out there) and mock up a couple sections to see if they work or not. Saturday night isn't the time to try something new. Fix it now! Okay, rant over. My apologies, but the last couple of weeks pissed me off, and as a guy that is forever hyped on supercross, I had to lay some wood. Now, let's take a look at the last trip to Angel Stadium for 2009:
This Saturday night we'll make the third and final trip to Anaheim. Jeremy McGrath's house. Hopefully this race will serve as a reminder why we have three events in the same place. This is a really big weekend for American motorsports across the board. Of course, we have round six staring us in the face. Then on the opposite side of the country we are going to have cars on the track for the first time in 2009. That track would be Daytona, and Ricky Carmichael will be going 200mph in the draft. Let's get it Revved, baby.
While Jake Weimer won his second main event of the west coast season, Ryan Dungey is doing something that has thus far eluded him in his career; he is riding consistent. Yes, he crashed, but it was one of those deals where the track blew so he had to go for the clean job. Nothing wrong with that. It looked pretty harmless and kudos for wanting to win. We were hoping for a little more drama other than those cats, though. Trey Canard is still gun-shy from his early-season nightmare and might not be ready to throw on too much of a charge. Maybe I'm wrong? I've been wrong about Trey before! Ryan Morais, on the other hand, needs to go hell-fire crazy if he wants to win his long-sought-after tiddler crown. The rest? Hard to tell. Nobody seems to be making a real push for wins other than Jake and Ryan. Hopefully Jason Lawrence will actually make the main, avoid food poisoning, and ride like he did at A1.
Supercross
James Stewart is one missed-shift away from a clean sweep if you ask me. That single blunder rocked the industry and gave us all hope for a real title fight. Stewart's four straight main-event wins have almost put the hush on things. A quick look at the track map has me worried we'll see five straight. Did you see the 10 commandments after the starting line? That is the type of section that #7 will only touch about twice on his way through. The rest of the track seems tailor-made for Bubbalicious, too. Meanwhile, Chad Reed has watched his championship lead evaporate and he needs to counter quickly, otherwise he'll be sitting in a position he has known throughout his career. I feel for the guy. How do you stop a freight train like the one that has chased him down? For starters, you can get in his head. Every great champion knows how to do this. You can start next to him in the main, too. It's the oldest trick in the book. If you can't beat his lap-time, at least beat that bastard out of the gate and put an elbow in his ribs. The other way to look at it is that the reason he still has the points lead is because #7 went 18-1-1-1-1, and #1 went 3-2-2-2-2. The size of your lead matters not. They hand out the plate in Vegas if the guy wins by 30 or by three, and right now, Reed is still the man.
Before I go, I want to send a shout over to Daytona Beach. Make sure and tune to Speed Saturday at 4pm so you can watch The GOAT drive the #33 KHI Monster Energy Chevy to the front of the pack in the ARCA race. ARCA cars are old Cup cars with a smaller carburater and Hoosier tires. He's driving the same car that he was kicking Talladega ass in until the right rear blew. Daytona is rougher and sketchier, but a lot of people down there are looking for him to run at or near the front. The NASCAR faithful call the ARCA event the "Saws-All 200" because of all of the cars behind the wall getting sheet metal cut off them from the wrecks. It's "pucker time" for RC, but do you think he is scared? I don't.
A3, baby. Let's make this one a good one!
Thanks for reading, see you next week.