[Ed. Note: As we were going to press, we heard news out of Freestone, Texas, of the terrible crashes involving Zac Commans and Tyler Hoeft. There are varying reports coming from Freestone, and once we know more we’ll provide information. For now, we want to send our thoughts and prayers to the Commans and Hoeft families.]
Welcome to Racerhead, coming to you from the backseat of a Toyota Tundra sprinting across Ohio en route to the Detroit Supercross. But we’re making a detour along the way: the West Virginia University Mountaineers are playing their first round NCAA game at 2:10 this afternoon in Columbus. They play the University of Buffalo, and with luck, we will be back on Sunday to play Round 2 … and then Kentucky. Ugh.
But the Monster Energy Supercross race is the big thing, and once again it’s everyone against the Red Bull KTMs of the streaking Ryan Dungey and Marvin Musquin. And once again they have taken KTM further into the supercross season than the brand has ever been. Dungey is rapidly climbing up the all-time wins list, having just dispatched Kevin Windham, and is now tied with Damon Bradshaw—with Jeff Ward in his sights. And Marvin is finally healthy and riding at the peak of his abilities, something we haven’t really been able to see since he arrived here from Europe.
You can watch the Detroit Supercross live tomorrow night on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 7 p.m. and tune in all day long to @racerxonline for updates, photos, results and more. And Supercross Live!, featuring Jim “Hollywood” Holley and Andy “Kansas” Bowyer, will be on all afternoon long on www.supercrosslive.com.
We will get into all the SX stuff and goings-on below, but I want to start with a bench-racing mystery. Like every moto fan, I love to deep-dive into results, statistics, rankings, and more. I grew up hanging out by the mailbox waiting for Cycle News once a week so I could go over the results, write them in my notebook, compare them from the previous week, and just be my own MotoDynasty League Commissioner. My friend Andras Hegyi from Hungary, a regular contributor here, has the same love of stats and stuff, and he’s always looking for some interesting numbers, records, or benchmarks. So last week, when he reported that Ryan Villopoto was the 34th American to win an FIM Grand Prix, I got a couple of notes asking how and where the number came from, because they had RV down as the 33rd, or even 32nd GP winner. And so off we went on a daylong bench-racing mystery!
Let me begin by saying that records books for our sport are filled with strange numbers and scoring criteria that have evolved over the years. For instance, in 1985 the AMA Supercross Championship included two main events per race, but the overall winner for any respective race came from their “moto” tally: a 2-2 was better than a 1-3, based on the stronger second moto. To confuse matters more, they awarded points for heat-race finishes too. The year before, there were two SX series, one called AMA Supercross that lasted all of two events (Daytona and Talladega), the other call InSport which included all of the other rounds. Technically, Jeff Ward won that two-race AMA series, but Johnny O’Mara won everything else—and when the AMA and InSport reconciled, all of the numbers were pulled back together and O’Mara was the 1984 AMA/InSport Supercross Champion. Sports history is full of these mysteries and seeming inaccuracies, based on the nuances of the rulebook and changes along the way.
Fast-forward to Ryan Villopoto, the 34th American to win a Grand Prix. This number is in question because of the many rulebook changes that came to FIM Motocross over the years. How they determined overall winners has gone through various changes, and even now they are apparently up for debate. Let me explain by example.
Marty Tripes was named the winner of the 1978 250cc USGP based on his 2-2 score, which was equaled by his Honda teammate Jimmy Ellis’ 1-3 (Bob Hannah won the second moto). Back then the points were different: 15 for first, 12 for second, 10 for third, 8 for fourth.... That meant Ellis actually had 25 points to 24 for Tripes. However, they did not take points earned into account for the overall, but rather used the Olympic scoring system, where 2+2 = 4 (not 24 points) and 1+3 = 4 (not 25 points). And the tie-breaker was NOT the highest finisher in the second moto, but rather total elapsed time of the two motos, and in the case of Unadilla '78, Tripes' two motos were shorter in time than Ellis' two motos (by just 0.73 seconds) so he was declared the winner of the Grand Prix.
Yet Marty Tripes’ name is not in the FIM record book listed as a GP winner; Jim Ellis is instead.
But on another site, the very well done http://www.memotocross.fr, Tripes is named the winner, not Ellis.
In 1983, the same situation occurred with Jim Gibson (2-2) and Marc Velkeneers (1-3) at the Finnish 125 Grand Prix. The French points chart shows Gibson as the overall winner, but the FIM has Velkeneers as the winner. My colleague “MX Geoff” Meyer, the longtime GP reporter, was as puzzled as I was, so I sent Gibson himself an email and asked him what he remembered about that race.
“I won it was the strongest second moto,” wrote Gibson, who rode for Yamaha’s 125cc Grand Prix team in ’83 after helping Team USA win the ’82 Trophee and Motocross des Nations. “I got sidetracked and no one took me to the podium, no pictures—Europe was weird that way! I had first-corner crashes in both motos and came all the way to 2nd both motos for the overall. Heikki Mikkola was my team manager and he was at that race he was very impressed—that made me feel real good.”
So what happened? I'm guessing it could have been the same thing that happened with us when Larry Lawrence helped us build out the Racer X Online Vault: when old results are keyed in, the computer tabulates them based on current results standards—25 points beats 24—and not on the old methods.
It's important because we all want to know how many Americans have won Grand Prix races now that Villopoto has earned one, but we don't know whether Tripes and Gibson count in that tally, and Ellis certainly should not, based on all the race reports and coverage from 1978. Obviously the new system works better in regards to the championship, but it can be confusing. For instance, when the AMA switched in the eighties from Olympic scoring to most championship points, no one told the announcer at the '89 Gatorback National, and they almost handed the first-place trophy to Jeff Stanton (2-2) instead of Jean-Michel Bayle (1-3).
And there's the whole fiasco involving "First American" Jim Pomeroy, the overall winner at the 1973 Spanish 250 Grand Prix. In the September 2002 issue of Racer X Illustrated we featured on article on the late Pomeroy's breakthrough win, where he went 1-4 to Hans Maisch's 3-2 scores: "A newly introduced FIM rule gave points according to moto finishes, but it also combined moto time to determine the overall winner. However, the track officials ignored this new procedure and declared German Maico rider Hans Maisch the winner. At the trophy presentation Pomeroy was given the second step and Maisch was handed the winner's trophy. Sunday evening, after a mountain of protests from the Bultaco factory, the FIM reversed their decision and awarded Pomeroy the victory for that day. However, all the newspapers had already gone to press declaring Maisch the winner..... Monday dawned with Pomeroy as the new points leader going into round two in Italy. By the time the scoring mix-up was figured out, Maisch was gone with the trophy, which has yet to be returned to the proper owner. No matter, Jim Pomeroy had become the first American ever to win a Grand Prix of motocross."
But then in digging through the extremely entertaining Cycle News Archive (well, well worth the modest price!) I found this explanation of what really may have happened: With the race being in Spain, and the first win for not only Pomeroy but the Spanish-built Bultaco, pressure was applied to the FIM to make sure the hometown win at the Sabdell circuit stayed just that: a historic hometown win for Bultaco and for the young American.
So for 1973 (and ’73 alone, apparently) an exception was made—and it was made in the right way, based on points. But then the system switched back, and the same system left Jimmy Ellis out of the winner's circle in 1978 and gave it to Tripes instead. So by this math, it’s Velkeneers who should be the winner in Finland in '83, if he went 1-3 to Jim’s 2-2, but I don't have access to the elapsed times and Cycle News did not cover the race. So it's all up in the air.
Now here's the funny part: had the FIM used the old system to score last weekend's Grand Prix of Thailand, Clement Desalle's 2-2 would have beaten Villopoto's 1-3 for the overall because the Suzuki rider’s combined time for the two motos was 63:38, while RV's was 63:42. Of course RV is the rightful winner, but the jury is still out on whether he’s the 34th American, the 33rd American, the 32nd… If someone reading this has more insight, please let us know, because all of us—Andras, Geoff, Eric Johnson, Jim Gibson himself—would love to get to the bottom of it!
With that, let’s turn it over to Andras himself.
THE NUMBER: 19 (Andras Hegyi)
Ryan Dungey stepped up higher on the all-time winning list. With his 19th win he caught Damon Bradshaw, the Beast from the East, on the all-time wins list. Bradshaw raced in supercross' premier class between 1989 and '97 full-time beginning in 1990. He took part in 95 races. The two-time series runner-up Bradshaw won in every season between 1990 and 1993. He got his 19th and final win in the 58th race of his career in 1993. Dungey earned his in his 94th main event.
Since the start of 2015, Dungey has overtaken (in order) Jean-Michel Bayle, Mark Barnett, Jeff Stanton, Kevin Windham, and now Bradshaw. Next on his list and just up ahead with twenty wins is Jeff Ward.
PRO PERSPECTIVE (David Pingree and Jason Thomas)
PING: There are probably a handful of guys in Detroit this weekend who are excited to be there. That isn’t a dig on the ol’ Motor City because, really, who wouldn’t be thrilled to spend a little time in downtown Detroit? Am I right? Am I? Well, either way, the point is that Dungey, Musquin, and the slim few who have an outside shot at these titles or race wins are still amped up and ready for round eleventeen or whatever of Monster Energy Supercross. Many others are feeling the effects of nonstop race weekends since New Year’s and long weeks at the test/practice track since early in the fall. How do you get through that burned-out feeling? For the guys feeling that way, it may be a good time to mix it up a little bit and do something different. You still have to do the work, but throw something in you don’t normally do and change up the routine a little.
Any time I started getting “blah” in the middle of a series I would switch up the riding I was doing. If it was supercross season, I would head to a motocross track; if it was summer I would go find a technical trail ride to mix it up or ride in the hills. The bottom line is you need a perspective shift. Even one of the best jobs in the world can become a grind after a while, and you need to step back and appreciate how lucky you are to be doing what you’re doing. If nothing else, just be thankful you’re still in one piece and able to keep racing on the weekends, because the number of guys staying home healing up on the weekends grows every week. If that doesn’t work there is always happy hour at Chili’s.
JT: These are the dog days of the series. For the riders who are not in a points battle, it’s tough to find motivation for these rounds. The weather is typically uninviting at these Midwest rounds, and the riders have been racing nonstop for three months straight. Every weekend brings another trip to the airport and another hotel and all of the inconveniences to go along with that. It begins to drag and riders start to look toward the end of the schedule. If there is a time when riders are simply going through the motions, this would be when it begins.
I know many of you are reading this with no sympathy for a supercross rider being bored with his job. That is totally understandable and I am sure that none of the riders are asking for compassion. Having said that, when you see riders seemingly unhappy to be at the races, this may give you an idea as to why. Motivation comes and goes, and it will soon return. But this may be the toughest time of the series. Most of the riders have found their ceiling and have become accustomed to finishing in that general position. All of the excitement of the first few rounds has worn off and those thousands of miles crisscrossing the country are adding up.
In my racing days, while I felt this as well, I really tried to take advantage of that. I knew that many of the riders were just trying to make it through. I always tried to put in a high level of effort during this time in hopes of scoring that great finish. In fact, most of my best finishes in my career were in the middle to latter points of the series. I could sense the lack of focus from my competitors, and I fed off that. If I had any advice to give, it would be exactly that: don't fall into that trap. Find ways to energize and motivate yourself. It is the absolutely perfect opportunity to make a splash and turn heads.
FEBRUARY SOCIAL STATS (Chase Stallo)
Hookit has released their February social media report, and for the third consecutive month Ken Roczen is #1, generating more than 1.6 million interactions from fans across social media. Over the month, Roczen’s fan base grew by 4.7 percent. He now has more than 928,000 fans across social media. The currently suspended James Stewart is second with 877,096 interactions and is trailed closely by Ryan Dungey with 850,096.
Adam Cianciarulo once again leads the 250 Class, generating 684,000 fan interactions. He also saw his fan base grow by 12,000 last month. Cianciarulo is currently sixth followed closely by another 250 star—Malcolm Stewart. Malcolm had 443,105 interactions in February.
The fastest-growing athletes in their respective classes, according to Hookit, were Blake Baggett and Vicki Golden. Baggett’s fan base jumped by more than 6.6 percent while Golden saw an increase of 19.4 percent. Check out more from Hookit below.
THE NUMBER: 14 (Andras Hegyi)
Ryan Dungey is now the 14th rider to get at least three consecutive wins in the Monster Energy AMA Supercross' premier class. Going back to the first time it was done (1975) by Jimmy Ellis, these are the other men to have won at least three races in a row at some point in their career: Bob Hannah, Mark Barnett, Ricky Johnson, David Bailey, Jeff Stanton, Jean-Michel Bayle, Damon Bradshaw, Jeremy McGrath, Ricky Carmichael, Chad Reed, James Stewart, and Ryan Villopoto. Of course Jeremy McGrath is the King of Supercross, and he was able to get at least four wins in a row on eight different occasions.
Only Carmichael and James Stewart were able to get three consecutive wins with three different brands. Carmichael did it with Kawasaki, Honda, and Suzuki, while Stewart did it with Kawasaki, Yamaha, and Suzuki.
And Dungey could have laid claim to being the only rider to win three in a row on a non-Japanese brand if not for Jimmy Ellis, who pulled off his three straight wins in 1975 aboard the North American-made Can-Am motorcycle.
MEL POCOCK UPDATE (Chase Stallo)
Britain’s Mel Pocock, a former European Champion and current MX2 Grand Prix rider, had a brutal crash last weekend at Hilton Park, the opening round of the Maxxis British Championship. The 22-year-old posted on Instagram earlier this week that due to the crash he has lost half his thumb. “Unfortunately I have lost half my thumb, but so thankful to the surgeons who managed to save my whole hand. I will be fighting the whole way,” he said. “There has been 2 ops already and at least 3 more to go.” Later in the week Pocock posted on Facebook that he has "feeling through all four of his finger tips and small movement… .even feel movement in my stumpy thumb.”
Team owner Steve Dixon described the crash on Facebook earlier this week: “In all my years of GP's with so many injured riders I have never Seen such horrific damage, after a career best 6th overall last week in the GP to this injury is cruel justice.”
The crash had drawn ire from fans for the way his injury was reportedly handled. On Track Off Road’s Adam Wheeler reports: “There was concern at the circuit over the length of time that it took for Pocock to get proper treatment beyond the initial first aid steps and he allegedly did not leave the track for over an hour after the accident occurred. He was taken to hospital in Derby where hand specialists were able to make an early assessment. The delay for attention caused the race programme to be reduced from three motos to two.”
MXVice.com spoke with Wilvo KTM team owner Steve Tuner this week, who was also upset with the way the situation was handled: “I was ashamed to be associated with the meeting. It was like being at a poorly organised club meeting from 30 years ago. How could you take a sponsor to that and hope to impress them.” (You can read the entire interview here.)
The ACU Event and the Organising Club issued a joint statement this week, which in part read: “The Medical Cover at the event was above the minimum requirement for an ACU International event and there were TWO Paramedics (plus Medical Centre, two Ambulances and appropriate staff) in attendance from 8.15am onwards. The Club is not in a position to make medical comments but we have been told that Mel was not administered certain drugs at the circuit for medical reasons which include the possibility that if an immediate operation was needed upon arrival at the hospital this would have been counter-productive.” Read the entire statement here.
MX Vice is also reporting that Brian Higgins has resigned from his position as championship manager. “It would appear that a very high percentage of the criticism regarding the championship (and round one on Sunday) is targeted at me personally and my close connection to the Tamar Valley / West Devon Clubs,” said Higgins in a letter. “These two clubs in the past have introduced venues such as Landrake, Little Silver, Farleigh Castle, Brampton, Duns and obviously Hilton Park into the championship over the years. In order to protect the championship I can clearly state that the above clubs will not be organising any Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship events in the future.”
Higgins’ full letter is here. This is an unfortunate situation that seems far from over. Get well soon, Mel!
THINGS WE COULDN’T GET AWAY WITH TODAY…
HEY, WATCH IT!
Here's the track that will host the third round of the FIM World Championships in Argentina, a big step up from the unfortunate circuits they ran the first couple of rounds on in Qatar and Thailand...
Remember Cody Cooper? He's still at it back home in New Zealand, and he's the 2015 MX1 Champion there. Here's a video our friend Sharon Cox sent along of his final race of the championship.
HEAD-SCRATCHING HEADLINES OF THE WEEK
"Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Ride to Top Five Finish in the Circle City"
"Podium Ride Cut Short for Savatgy in Indy"
-Varying results for Kawasaki in Indy, as evident by their PR headlines.
AP correction: “[Robert Durst] is a real estate heir; Fred Durst is the former frontman of Limp Bizkit."
RANDOM NOTES
Head over to www.RacerXdigital.com to check out our new May issue!
Heading to Detroit for the twelfth round of Monster Energy Supercross this weekend? Stop by the Racer X booth—located in the Party in the Pits—to pick up a free copy of Racer X Illustrated. You can also sign up or renew for just $20 (60 percent off the cover price) to get a one-year subscription, a FREE pair of Racer X socks, and an extra issue!
DeCal Works and Motion Pro are sponsoring the Detroit round of Racer X MotoDynasty Fantasy Supercross and will be giving out prizes to the winners of the 250 and 450 classes. Click HERE for a chance to win.
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading. See you at the races.
