Of course Cooper Webb’s run at perfection is now over, his bike having shut down in the middle of the race in one of the most unlikely outcomes I thought possible last weekend. The Yamalube/Star Racing rider seemed to be ready to grab his fourth in a row when the bike quit on him, and Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki rider Joey Savatgy seized the moment and earned his first 250SX win. Webb will be out for revenge this weekend, and Savatgy—who rode most of the race with a bent shifter—will be out to try to prove that he can beat Webb. More on the 250SX Class below.

The bigger news for me has been the ongoing saga of James Stewart’s concussion. He tried to race last weekend in Oakland and did his best for about half the race before deciding to pull off. It was a wise decision, and he later explained it in a statement to his fans:

One person who certainly can empathize with James is former factory rider Broc Hepler, whose career ended as a result of repeated concussions. Hepler was one of the first guys I know of in our industry who really approached his recovery with patience and a big-picture way of thinking—he retired rather than continue to risk exasperating the problem. Broc weighed in on his Instagram account with what he thought about Stewart’s situation.

Like Broc, I truly hope James comes back only when he’s absolutely ready. If that’s next month, or even next year, it’s definitely the best move not only for James and his team but the entire sport. The whole world is learning quickly how devastating brain injuries can be, whether from the NFL’s highly publicized problems or something like the terrible fate of Formula 1 superstar Michael Schumacher, who is still dealing with issues two years after a skiing accident. And even though we don’t know the full story, the news in the next paragraph might soon be linked to repeated concussions over the years.

DAVE MIRRA (DC)

Like everyone in the sports world, we were shocked and saddened to hear of the passing yesterday of Dave Mirra, who won twenty-four medals over the years at ESPN's X Games. Dave was one of the best freestyle BMX riders in the sport's history, and he was popular enough to break into the mainstream sports landscape. He was the host of MTV's Real World/Road Rules Challenge and was building a career in rally car racing. 

After posting a couple of photos to his Instagram account (@davemirra), he apparently got into his truck in Greenville, North Carolina, and shot himself. He was 41 years old.

ESPN said in a statement: "Dave Mirra, your courage, determination and natural skill in everything you pursued pushed the world of action sports to become a better place. From all of us at X Games and ESPN, we salute your contributions. Our sincere condolences go out to Dave's wife, Lauren, his daughters Mackenzie and Madison, the BMX community and friends of Dave Mirra."

Tough Deal (Steve Matthes)

I’ve been there, folks. You work and work and work and work some more to get ready for the supercross season and then early on—POOF!—all that work is for naught. Honda HRC’s Trey Canard is in that spot now with a DNF and now two DNSs in five rounds (including this weekend in Glendale). Canard hurt his hand in an ugly way, and he’s day-to-day to come back, though tomorrow is not the day. I thought the opener at Anaheim was pretty good for Canard despite a crash that left him seventh. The speed was there, no doubt about it.

But now the championship is over with for the #41, and if you’re Trey, you know people think you’re injury-prone, but this latest injury was nothing but a racing incident that could’ve happened to anyone. “Yeah, but still,” Honda might say as they sit down with him to negotiate a contract for 2017 and beyond. All Canard can do now is heal up and try to win some races to bring his value up. But it gets harder to run the pace with each race you miss (although Trey does seem to have a knack for being able to come back really fast). It’s a situation where you’re constantly behind the eight-ball in terms of letting your injury heal up and to try to keep your speed and fitness up.

I guess what I’m getting at is I feel for Trey and his team manager, Dan Betley, and mechanic, Brent Presnell, because they all had the highest hopes for wins and title contention. When they were out at the test track for ten hours day after day in November, this part of the sport wasn’t in the plan.

New Venue, Same Dirt (Aaron Hansel)

Tomorrow night the gate will drop in Monster Energy Supercross' new Arizona home, the University of Phoenix Stadium. A new building usually means new dirt, which can present a fresh challenge for the teams and riders. That won't be the case this weekend, however, as the races will take place on the same soil used in Chase Field.

Apparently, finding good dirt in the desert isn't easy, and Feld simply opted to move the dirt from their old storage location to a spot closer to the new stadium.

PRO PERSPECTIVE (Ping and JT$)

PING: Last weekend we saw Joey Savatgy win his first 250SX race. It was a strange main event, and it probably didn’t come the way Joey would have liked it to, but I’m sure he’ll take it. Cooper Webb was poised to run the table on the West Region Championship, but he’ll have to earn back his red plate this weekend in Glendale first. I’m not betting against Webb, but I’m curious to see what this win will do for Savatgy’s confidence and, subsequently, his riding. When I got my first win, at the San Jose SX, I dropped almost two seconds off my lap time at the Kawasaki test track the following week. Two seconds! And I had done several thousand laps around that track in the pre-season. Confidence plays an enormous role in this sport, and it is so damn tough to get. If Joey finally feels like he belongs up front, he could make the rest of this series interesting.

What I would really love to see is Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne get a win this weekend and get a taste of that confidence. That way we could have a three-way battle for this title as it heads down the home stretch. Come on, Zach, make it happen! With Dungey already pulling out a more than 20-point lead in 450SX, we need a good points battle.

JT: As Ping said, confidence is a huge factor in anyone's racing portfolio. All of these riders are very talented and capable of turning nearly the same lap times, as we see every week in timed qualifying. The difference for most is in their own minds. For Savatgy, he should be riding high this weekend with his first red plate. The interesting point to watch for is if he actually gained confidence with the win or if he still feels that Webb had the race won if not for the mechanical issue. There's no way to predict how he will react or how he views himself in the class compared to just a week ago. That will show in his riding, both in practice and in the racing. If he comes out swinging and wants to show why he has the red plate, that might change this championship landscape. I’m hoping he’s found that confidence, mostly because I want to see a dogfight down the stretch. Cooper Webb has that killer mentality and will want to squash the Savatgy uprising. How those two respond this weekend could be telling in who brings the title home.

THE KID (DC)

While most eyes were focused on the happenings out in Oakland, there was a race of some significance taking place on the other side of the country in Greensboro, North Carolina. Future Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki team rider Austin Forkner rode his second Amsoil Arenacross, following Ricky Carmichael's Road to Supercross through the Greensboro Coliseum. The Kawasaki Team Green rider did exactly what many pegged him to do: win. Forkner topped both races for a 1-1 weekend and is now qualified to start racing Monster Energy AMA Supercross if he decides to sign up for the East Region. (Not a rumor or even a whisper about him maybe doing that, just something I thought of when I heard how he swept the weekend.) The plan is still for the kid to turn professional on May 21 at the Hangtown National opener. With Savatgy going fast, Arnaud Tonus no longer sick, and Adam Cianciarulo healed up, Mitch Payton's team could come out swinging at Hangtown. 

So is Forkner already done with AX? Eric Johnson asked him pretty much that for this week's Between the Motos, and it sounds like Austin is already focused on his next goals: "Right now I have to get ready for outdoors because I’m doing Hangtown and I’m doing Daytona and Freestone Spring Nationals for amateurs. I was planning on as soon as I got my points to be done just, because I have to get ready for all that stuff. It’s over now, but I might go back and race it later because, I mean, it was kind of fun. For now I’m focusing on outdoors and then supercross after that. I had fun, but I’m glad to get out of there without getting hurt. I’m glad to do that, and I’m glad to get all my supercross points, but I’m actually kind of glad I did it, because I learned some things."

Forkner's wins, combined with Joey Savatgy's first win in 250SX and Gavin Faith’s podium at the Greensboro AX, made for quite a weekend for Camp Carmichael!

But back to Ricky’s Road to Supercross. This weekend GEICO Honda recruit Chase Sexton is on it, and he went 2-5 in the two mains last night (yes, a Thursday) at Colorado Springs. Sexton was impressive in a few of his motos last year at Loretta Lynn’s, and now he’s off to a good start getting ready for summer and then Monster Energy AMA Supercross in 2017. Gavin Faith and Jacob Hayes took the main-event wins, with the overall going to Team Babbitt's/Monster Energy/Amsoil Kawasaki's Faith. They will also be racing tonight and tomorrow night in a rare tripleheader out in Colorado.

THE NUMBER: 100 (Andras Hegyi)

The 22-year-old Joey Savatgy got a memorable victory in Oakland for several reasons. The California-born, Tallahassee-based rider got his first AMA 250SX main event win, and he also got the red plate, taking over the points lead for the first time. His win and his points lead break a dry spell for the brand that goes back to 2014. And his victory made him the hundredth winner in history of small-bore SX since it was born in 1985, in a total of 494 races.

Here are some historic notes from the history of the small-bore class:

James Stewart is the most successful rider. Bubba collected 18 wins in all, all aboard a Kawasaki KX125 between 2002 and '04. Stewart is also the youngest winner this category. He was only 16 years and 21 days when he was able to get his first victory in 2002 at San Diego.

John Dowd was born in 1965, but he was able to win also in 1998. The Junkyard Dog is the oldest winner: 32 years, 8 months, and 18 days. He got his last win aboard a Yamaha YZ125.

So far there have been ten riders who triumphed in their first race: Todd Campbell, Eddie Warren, and Mike Healey won in their debut races in 1985. Mike LaRocco did it in 1988, Damon Bradshaw in '89, Brian Swink in '91, Ernesto Fonseca in '99, Ryan Dungey in '07, and Trey Canard in '08. Adam Cianciarulo got his first win in 2014 as an absolute supercross rookie.

The veteran Martin Davalos took the longest to get his first win. It happened in his 64th career race, in his ninth season as a pro, in 2014.

The biggest gap between first and last wins goes to Tallon Vohland, who got his first in 1990 and his last in 2000. Tallon and his older brother Tyson are one set of brothers to have both won. The others are James and Malcolm Stewart. 

Only Nathan Ramsey has been able to win in five different seasons: 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, and 2006.

So far there have been thirteen foreign riders to win in small-bore supercross championship. The most came from France: Marvin Musquin, Stephane Roncada, David Vuillemin, Mickael Pichon, and Christophe Pourcel. With one each are Germany (Ken Roczen), South Africa (Grant Langston), Australia (Chad Reed), New Zealand (Ben Townley), Scotland (Dean Wilson), Ecuador (Martin Davalos), Costa Rica (Ernesto Fonseca), and Mexico (Pedro Gonzalez).

Milestones

1st winner: Todd Campbell (Kawasaki) 1985

10th winner: Keith Turpin (Honda) 1986

20th winner: Jeff Emig (Kawasaki) 1990

25th winner: Bryan Swink (Honda) 1991

30th winner: Damon Huffman (Suzuki) 1993

40th winner: Kevin Windham (Yamaha) 1996

50th winner: Brock Sellards (Honda) 1999

60th winner: Chad Reed (Yamaha) 2002

70th winner: Ryan Villopoto (Kawasaki) 2006

75th winner: Jason Lawrence (Yamaha) 2008

80th winner: Blake Baggett (Suzuki) 2010

90th winner: Jason Anderson (Suzuki) 2013

100th winner: Joey Savatgy (Kawasaki) 2016

Thinking About the Future (Chase Stallo)

Oakland was an anniversary of sorts for Blue Buffalo/Slater Skins Yamaha’s Michael Leib. It was the site of a horrific practice crash a year ago that ended with Leib breaking his right tib/fib, his right foot, right big toe, and left pinky toe, ending his season. It was also around this time that Leib had the idea to start his new business, Canvas MX.

"When I got hurt earlier this year, I put myself in the sponsor's position," Leib told us last September. "I’ve been able to take what I've learned from starting Canvas and invest into my own future to brand myself. You have to do what it takes to get the job done."

Leib’s gear company, which allows you to design your own gear and place your own logos, is now eight months old. “I can't believe the progress the company has made,” he said. “It's awesome to be an entrepreneur and go racing at the same time. It's helped me a lot on and off of the track, and it's a great tool for me to utilize to give the team the exposure they deserve.”

Earlier this year, Leib brought on former freestyle motocross star Chuck Carothers to help promote the brand. “The power is in the customer’s hands,” said Leib earlier this month. “I have always wanted to be able to give the public the freedom of doing what they wish with their gear, a lot like the way graphics companies have been doing for years. I am happy to be pushing the envelope that much further and thankful for all the work Chuck has put in to help Canvas enable that for the public”

On the track, Leib is leading the young team to new heights, garnering its first top-ten in 250SX with a seventh in Oakland. “Coming back from my eight-month ankle/foot injury last year has been a little bit harder than I anticipated to get myself back to race pace,” he said. “On the flip side, working with Larry Brooks and the entire Blue Buffalo/Slater Skin Yamaha team has been amazing, and I'm happy to call that home.”

If you’re attending a West Region Supercross round, you can check out the Canvas tent and see the final product of the dye sublimation process up close, then design your very own jersey. Visit www.canvasmx.com for more information.

Hey, Watch It!

Yamaha is celebrating its 60th anniversary as motorsports company, and we've been unearthing films online of some of their old exploits in motocross. This video with highlights of the 1973 125cc World Motocross Cup from Denmark—a one-race, two-moto, winner-take-all finale—is just amazing, especially the sound. Check it out and turn it to 11!

Eric Johnson found an incredible trove of old motocross videos from the 1950s and '60s in Europe, check them out over the weekend.

Want to see a very, very fast girl who just won the New Zealand Grand Prix in the MX2 class—against the boys? 

Courtney Duncan has come to America a few times with mixed success. Her speed was never a question, but she just had a bunch of bad luck, especially at Loretta Lynn's. Now she's going after Ciara Fontenasi and Livia Lancelot and the girls in Europe in the FIM World Championship.

What happens when Kawasaki's flat track ace Bryan Smith invites childhood idol Jeremy McGrath as well as Ryan Villopoto and Nick Wey out to do some sliding?

Things We Couldn't Get Away With Today

Hot Fresh Pulp Links

Swizcore tackles the JS7 issues and specifically the fans of his here.

Tony Blazier takes a look at the 1983 125 nationals which had O’Mara, Lechien, Barnett and Ward going at it for tiddler supremacy with words from O’Show himself here.

Troy Boy takes the podium photo from the 250SX class and writes about what about what it spoke to him here.

David Vuillemin talks about Oakland SX right here.

Random Notes

Heading to Glendale for the fifth 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 $25 (60 percent off the cover price) to get a one-year subscription, a FREE Racer X beach towel, and an extra issue!

We just got our new women’s Baja flowy long-sleeve tees back from the printer earlier this week, and let’s just throw this out there: Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching, and we’re here to help you out. Receive 15 percent off of your www.racerxbrand.com order when checking out with discount code VDAY2016 through Sunday, February 14.

The GNCC Racing crew is getting ready to head south in preparation of the opening rounds of the 2016 season. Be on the lookout for the freshly painted KTM water truck as it makes its way to the Moose Racing Wild Boar in Palatka, Florida, to kick off Daytona Bike Week on March 5-6. The following weekend it’s up to Sparta, Georgia, for the inaugural Maxxis Cannonball. Online pre-entry will be opening soon, so check out www.gnccracing.com and follow GNCC Racing on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as they countdown to the race season.

Whatever you had planned for July 9, this is a better option….

We got this message from Don Leib:

And here’s another note from Ping: