Welcome to Racerhead. If there are two rounds of Monster Energy AMA Supercross that stand out from all the others on this year’s schedule, it’s Daytona and Toronto. Daytona is the oldest, roughest event on the circuit, and it’s the one round not organized by Feld Motor Sports. Toronto is the only one in another country. So it should be no surprise that in between these two events we’ve had a lot of drama—and don’t forget that the Toronto SX airs live tomorrow night beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern time on Fox Sports 1.
First was the Daytona track, which seemed more one-lined than it’s ever been before. Having worked down there with the RCSX, it’s not as simple as you might think to lay out the course much differently than it already is. There are power lines, cables, drains, and more underneath that grassy infield, and the SX track can’t run on them, which in turn makes designing it a challenge. Sometimes the weather helps and the soil is loamy and deep, but this time it was mostly dry. The results were mixed: the 450SX main was rather uneventful, while the 250SX main was fantastic, as Jeremy Martin pressured Malcolm Stewart the whole way before finding an opening, even while he himself was being pushed by Justin Hill and Martin Davalos. The 450 main might have been better had Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey pressed Eli Tomac a little harder, but he’s in the driver’s seat for this series—Dungey leads Ken Roczen by 39 points, and he’s 59 ahead of Tomac with eight rounds left. Plus, Tomac was just on it at Daytona. Dungey is a big-picture guy, which is why he now has 25 straight podiums, tying him for the all-time record with Chad Reed.
Of course it wouldn’t be Daytona without some kind of James Stewart drama in the mix, and it came when he crashed violently in the whoops, looping out and injuring his back. He’s out for Toronto, with no word on when he might return. There was some bright news in the Stewart camp, though: Malcolm got his first Racer X Illustrated cover, shot by Simon Cudby.
Neither red plate changed hands at Daytona, but the 250SX East Region is about to see a new points leader. In one of those really surprising stories that catches you off-guard (i.e. Davi Millsaps being dropped by Monster Energy Kawasaki or Dean Wilson getting stuck in Canada a few years back), series points leader Martin Davalos will not travel to Canada this weekend due to what’s been described as “personal reasons,” but is actually a problem with his visa that might prevent him from getting back into the U.S., just like Wilson in 2010. How the Ecuadorian rider got into this predicament is a mystery, as he’s traveled out of the country before, and this race has been on the schedule since May 1, 2015. This marks the second time that Davalos has lost the red plate without even racing; two years ago, he got hurt while practicing, injuring both ankles and losing what we all thought was his last shot at a title. Turns out it wasn’t his last shot, but that doesn’t make this any less disappointing for Martin or the Rockstar Husqvarna team. (And the fact that Christophe Pourcel is also out only adds to the drama.)
Let’s pivot here and let Ping and Jason Thomas weigh in on this whole deal.
PRO PERSPECTIVE (DAVID PINGREE AND JASON THOMAS)
David Pingree: I’m not sure what the hell is happening here, because it isn’t like this race in Toronto was a big surprise that Feld threw out at the last minute. Davalos and his team have known that they would have to cross the border to Canada this weekend, and now it’s going to potentially cost the Husqvarna team a championship. I’ve heard that this responsibility falls on the rider’s shoulders solely. I don’t condone illegal activity, but if it were me wearing the red plate and I whiffed on my paperwork, I’d stuff myself into one of the parts compartments on the semi and pop out when it parked in the pits. And curiously enough, Christophe Pourcel had some type of random injury this week that will apparently heal in exactly one week. Huh? Do you really mean that the Frenchman’s visa is also out of order? This whole thing is really a head-scratcher for me, but it’s devastating for Davalos and his team.
Jason Thomas: Blame Canada, blame Canada! Okay, so even though the South Park song is awesome, I know this isn't Canada's fault. I actually love Canada and am thrilled it's back on the schedule. As for this debacle with the Rockstar Husqvarna team, it's a shame that this wasn't handled properly. Davalos has admitted that things aren't kosher with his visa and he’s scared to get stuck here, but Pourcel claims he suffered a 7- to 10-day "injury" and will miss this race as well? I don't happen to believe that and think he is in the same boat as Davalos, but that's my personal opinion and mine alone. In any case, it's a shame for both of these riders, as they were having success in their own respective classes—and for Davalos particularly, because he has essentially forfeited any chance at this title. As frustrating as it is for me being involved on a sponsor level, I can't even imagine how frustrating it has to be for team owner Bobby Hewitt. These teams work day and night to compete, and to give up the ghost in this fashion has to be tough.
Admittedly, I don't know the exact details of what it takes to process the paperwork for these guys, but I do know that the schedule has been out for a long time, and it's their job as professionals to have this in order. After Dean Wilson's 2010 disaster, one would think this would be glaringly important. It is tough to understand how this could happen, but I’m sure no one is more devastated than Davalos. Where's a trustworthy, upstanding human trafficker when you need one?
IT TAKES HEART (Weigandt)
Between the podcast Matthes and I did; the Ugly, the Bad and the Good of Daytona; a look at the fast kids at the RCSX; and my column today about the Baker’s Factory, we’ve got Bike Week pretty well covered here. I do have one small, interesting tidbit I learned, though. While watching Marvin Musquin and Jason Anderson do laps at Baker’s, Michael Ford from LITPro was there tracking their moves with a GPS tracker and a heart-rate monitor. We could literally watch them racing around the track like a video game just by watching the iPad. Dave Prater and Michael Prince from Feld Motor Sports were there to see how some of this info could be integrated into supercross television. I was most interested in the heart-rate data. We already have live lap times. We can already see the lines the riders take. What we don’t have is a way to see their heart rates live, so this is a game-changer to me.
Well, maybe not. When Dungey was asked about heart-rate data a few weeks ago, he mentioned that every person’s heart rate is different, and just because one rider is carrying a higher rate doesn’t indicate who is in better shape. Some people just operate at a higher number, but they will feel exactly the same as someone with a lower number. I tracked Marvin and Jason around the track and noted it—Anderson had the higher resting heart rate and the higher heart rate while out on the track. But he sure as heck didn’t get tired. This is just the way his body operates. I’d always hoped we could get the heart-rate data on the TV shows as a way to explain who is hitting the redline and about to fade, but now I know you’d have to know how each rider reacts to each number. For Musquin, hitting the 190s might be unusual, but another rider might stay in that range for 20 laps and hold it the whole time. Data, then, begets more data—we would need live heart-rate monitors and a database on each rider to indicate what it really means. Thus, the search to show the world how hard it is to race a dirt bike continues.
RCSX (DC)
The first big amateur race of the season took place on the Sunday and Monday after the Daytona Supercross. The Ricky Carmichael Amateur Supercross featured some of the top young riders in America, not to mention some of the fastest older riders as well. The track was tamed down and shortened a bit from what everyone saw on Saturday night, and the races went off with just a few glitches (including the unfortunate rider who got his leg stuck in swing arm of another rider off the start, his leg twisted so badly that the track crew couldn’t free it, so the crack Daytona Medical Crew pulled out the “jaws of life” they use for auto crashes and snapped the swing arm right off).
Among the big winners were kids you will probably be seeing racing on Saturday nights in the future, including Mitchell Falk, Jo Shimoda, Bradley Taft, Jett Reynolds, and Stilez Robertson, all of whom traveled all the way from California to participate. South Carolina’s Max Markolf, Utah’s Pierce Brown, and Florida’s own Jalek Swoll also got class wins.
The standout rider of the race had to be Austin Forkner. The Missouri kid has been getting a lot of attention this spring as he prepares for his professional debut with Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki at Hangtown in May. Some questioned why wait he would that long, given that Mitch Payton’s team has been hobbled by injuries, but Forkner and his family stuck with their plan. At Daytona he didn’t win every race, but he rode with what could be described as “aggressive creativity,” trying different lines around (and sometimes above) the RCSX track.
Also, remember the name Cameron McAdoo. He is getting support from MotoConcepts Racing, which had their rig there for the Amateur SX, along with all seven of the manufacturers: Honda, Husqvarna, Kawasaki, KTM, Suzuki, Yamaha, and Cobra. Anyway, Tony Alessi was telling me about this rider, who hails from Sioux City, Iowa, but now lives at Club MX in South Carolina. I have to admit that until Tony mentioned him, I don’t think I have ever heard of him. The best he ever finished at Loretta Lynn’s was eleventh two years ago in the Open Pro Sport class. At Daytona he was extremely fast. He’s got good style, and he gave the likes of Forkner, Taft, TLD KTM’s Sean Cantrell, and Husqvarna’s Michael Mosiman fits, finishing second in 250 A, 250 All-Star, and Open Pro Sport. I’m not sure what Cameron’s plan is for the rest of the season or when he might be turning pro, but I will definitely keep an eye out for this kid from here on out.
Here are the complete results.
And here’s a couple links to a galleries of some of the action.
And here’s a summary of all of the various events that make the first part of Bike Week at Daytona more like Dirt Bike Week.
WMX (DC)
Last Friday in Racerhead I wrote about Hannah Hodges making her debut in the WMX at Daytona as part of the RCSX. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. Hodges crashed on Sunday and was injured, so she had to watch again from the sidelines—only this time not because she was too young or riding minicycles. What she did see were some excellent motos by defending WMX #1 Kylie Fasnacht and title contender Kaitlyn Morrow, who traded wins, with Team Green’s Fasnacht taking the second race and the overall from Yamaha-supported Morrow. Finishing third on her KTM was Taylor Higgins.
A really good battle was shaping up in the WMX Amateur class between Yamaha riders Jordan Jarvis of North Carolina and Jazzmyn Canfield of Florida, but then Jazzmyn went down. She finished her qualifying heat in twelfth but then DNF’d the actual main. Jarvis won both, with KTM riders Jamie Astudillo and Aspen Neely rounding out the top three.
GETTING BACK (Matthes)
A couple of notes about some heavy hitters and when we can expect them back. JGR Yamaha’s Justin Barcia had surgery on a thumb that he injured before the season, and he’s finally back riding as of last week. In talking to manager Jeremy Albrecht, the team is shooting for a Santa Clara return for the #51 if there are no issues. J-Bone admitted that Weston Peick probably needs some time on the sidelines to rest his battered body and might be able to do just that when Barcia gets back. Or if Weston is feeling good, then Filthy Phil Nicoletti goes back on the sidelines and starts testing outdoors.
Davi Millsaps of the BTOSports.com KTM team crashed on the last lap of Daytona and bruised a lung, cracked some ribs, and was forced to drive back to California because he wasn’t allowed to fly. Manager Forrest Butler is also expecting the #18 to be back by Santa Clara, but that one might be a bit riskier than Barcia’s return. Also, Butler reaffirmed that Millsaps will not be racing the outdoor series. There was talk that if SX went well, maybe he would hit the nationals, but the team’s going to stick to its original plan and just have him race indoors.
TEAM GREEN (Andras Hegyi)
Before 2016, Eli Tomac had nothing to do with Kawasaki. He didn’t ride for Kawasaki Team Green as a kid, nor Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki as a pro. During his amateur career he had ridden with Cobra, KTM, Suzuki, and Honda, while in his first six professional seasons he was always a Honda rider. But this season he became Kawasaki’s top contender. The results did not happen quickly for the Tomac-Kawasaki duo, but now he’s got a big win at Daytona, as well as a couple of milestones for the brand. Eli became the 30th Kawasaki rider to get podium in supercross’ premier class. (The Kawi rider with the most career podiums is Jeff Ward with 66.) And with his Daytona win Tomac became the 17th Kawasaki rider to win in AMA Supercross’ premier class. (Ryan Villopoto is the winningest Kawasaki rider with 41 victories.) Daytona marked Kawasaki’s 136th win in history of SX premier category.
Kawasaki's SX winners
Ryan Villopoto: 41 wins/
James Stewart: 25
Jeff Ward: 20
Ricky Carmichael: 15
Mike LaRocco: 7
Jeff Emig: 6
Mike Kiedrowski: 5
Jim Weinert: 4
Ron Lechien, Chad Reed: 3
Mark Barnett, Damon Huffman, Ezra Lusk, Jeff Matiasevich, Gaylon Mosier, Sebastien Tortelli, Eli Tomac: 1
DÉJÀ VU DAYTONA (Andras Hegyi)
On March 11, 2005, Mike LaRocco placed third at the Daytona Supercross. That gave The Rock his 81st podium finish during his AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame career. Eleven years later another podium milestone happened at Daytona, this time by Ryan Dungey. The series points leader’s second-place finish gave Dungey his 81st podium in supercross’ premier class. But there are some differences between the two riders’ accomplishments. The current GEICO Honda team manager LaRocco got his 81st podium in his 215th race, while Dungey did it much quicker, in only his 109th race. That 81st podium by LaRocco marked the last of his epic career. Dungey will no doubt expand his number of podiums. LaRocco was 34 years old when he got his 81st podium, while Dungey will turn only 27 this year. As it now stands only Chad Reed, Jeremy McGrath and Ricky Carmichael have more podiums than Dungey (and the factory KTM rider can catch up with GOAT this season).
THAILAND (DC)
As you may have heard or seen, the facility for the second round of the FIM World Motocross Championship held in Thailand was not exactly the best to ever come along—let alone the track—and that brought the ire from veteran riders like Ben Townley and Shaun Simpson. That, in turn, brought out Giuseppe Luongo to meet the press, and he complained about Ben complaining, and so on and so forth.
I wasn’t at the race, but I do have empathy for the promoter of this event. Kraitos Wongsawan is the biggest motocross fan you may ever meet. I ran into him a few years back on the infield at the Motocross of Nations at Teutschenthal, Germany, and we ended up watching the motos together. He and his family have been at the forefront of motorcycle racing in Thailand for some time, and he has tried to find the right venue to bring the Grand Prix to his country. Sometimes things don’t work out so well, just as we have found out with venues like Lake Elsinore and Miller Motorsports Park. Regardless, I’m sure Kraitos will keep trying, and he will keep doing all he can to make motocross big in Thailand.
The winners were defending MXGP Champion Romain Febvre and Jeffrey Herlings, who now has 49-career wins in the MX2 Class. Here’s Adam Wheeler’s full race report.
GIMME SOME SUGAR (Weigandt)
Things got crazy at the opening Amsoil Grand National Cross Country round in Palatka, Florida, on Sunday. About an hour into the race, Canadian motocrosser Tyler Medaglia and Andrew DeLong, who was off the radar following an injury-plagued 2015, were up front, while three-time and defending GNCC Champion Kailub Russell was way, way back. I mean way back—like twelfth place! Eventually Josh Strang restored some order by getting the lead and taking off. Strang might be getting overshadowed by riders like Ryan Sipes, who is well-known from the motocross world and from his ISDE win last year, or Grant Baylor, who finished second to Russell in the 2015 standings, but Strang is the most likely to win this title if Russell falters. He’s won the title before, he was second in points last year before getting hurt, and he ended the season last year with three wins in four races. Russell was injured by then, but if the champion doesn’t bounce all the way back from ACL surgery, Strang is more than ready to pounce.
So the Australian Strang stabilized the race a bit by taking the lead. But it was nuts behind him! Medaglia and DeLong rode well, Johnny Campbell Racing Honda’s Chris Bach was in the podium mix, and then Russell suddenly caught fire in the last two laps. He went nuts, ripping from seventh to fifth to third, all leading to a wild last turn with him, Bach, and Daniel Milner practically colliding off of trees and each other to make the podium. Final order was Strang, Milner, and Russell; Bach missed the podium by two-tenths of a second after three hours and five minutes of racing.
As cool as that all was, Milner’s ride for second was probably the biggest. The Australian moved to the U.S. last year to ride for Randy Hawkins’ factory N-Fab AmPro Yamaha unit, and he was known around the world for being very, very fast. He’s also a diabetic, and it was basically impossible for him to complete the three hour GNCC races. Last year, he had just two finishes in the top ten.
This year he’s living and training with Strang, and his diet is under close watch to ensure he has enough sugar to get to the finish. The team even handed him a Coke on the last lap! It’s a trying process for any diabetic to get through the day right, but way harder to do it while racing a dirt bike for three hours in sand whoops. After a year of trial and error, Milner looks to have figured it out. There could be a new contender in the mix now.
Check out highlights here.
Don’t forget to tune in this weekend to watch the second round of the Amsoil AMA Grand National Cross Country Series, the Maxxis Cannonball round from Sparta, SC, streaming live at 1 p.m. on Sunday at racertv.com.
ICE ICE BABY (Matthes)
I did a podcast this week with rapper/TV star/actor Vanilla Ice, aka Robbie Van Winkle, about his time in moto and being the biggest star in the world in 1990. If you think about it, I’m not really understating it. Vanilla Ice was a massive deal before the internet, and the cool thing is, he’s as moto as it comes. A good racer when he was young, Ice has always had a bike and always been in and out of the scene. Thanks to Forrest Butler for helping to set it up, and yeah, it’s hard to get time with Ice, as we had two or three missed appointments before we managed to get it done. I was sworn to 30 minutes by his people, but Rob was cool with talking longer, and I think he enjoyed getting asked about his passion. He made a remark about just being a construction guy with a hard hat like lots of other guys, but I had to stop him and ask him how many construction guys “dated” Madonna!
THE NUMBER: 2002 (Andras Hegyi)
Yamaha has had some important wins this season in the small-bore 250SX class. Yamaha has recalled former victories in some places where the brand has been unable to win for long time. Thanks to Cooper Webb, Yamaha won the West Region season opener for first time since 2001. And with his win in Arlington, Texas, Yamaha got its first win since 2000 in the Dallas area. And now, thanks to Jeremy Martin, Yamaha has its first win in Daytona since 2002. Before Martin the last Yamaha winner in this class at Daytona was Chad Reed.
So far Martin has repeated his 2015 performances. One year ago he began the East Region with a fourth and a first like he did this season. This also marks his third consecutive season in which he got at least one win. The only two Yamaha riders to do that before are John Dowd and Ernesto Fonseca. Dowd did it between 1996 and ’98, Fonseca between 1999 and ’01.
Needless to say, it’s a much better start for Martin than he had in 2013 and ’14, where he failed to qualify for the first main event of each season.
HEY, WATCH IT!
Toronto Animated Map
Racer X Eating Contest
Racer X Films: 2016 Suzuki RM-Z270 Big Bore Build
East Coast is Toast - Episode 2
HEAD-SCRATCHING HEADLINE OF THE WEEK
"Crashing Into A Waffle House Pantsless And Drunk Is The Most Florida Crime Ever" - Jalopnik
FRESH HOT PULP LINKS
Denny Stephenson knows more about Arenacross than any of us out there so when he went to Omaha AX I made him write his Denny-Servations here.
And after he was done with that, Denny also interviewed Travis Sewell about his indoor success here.
Moser profiled Team Surf-N-Turf’s Tony Archer about coming up Just Short in Daytona here.
Swizcore did NOT like the track in Daytona and expressed his thoughts here.
The Fly Racing Moto:60 Show has JT and Weege joining me to discuss Toronto SX and more here.
RANDOM NOTES
Racer X Brand is home to some great deals right now. Check out our Spring Blowout Sale to get more for less. Sizes and quantities are winding down by the day.
Congrats to Malcolm Stewart for landing his first Racer X cover. Subscribe today for as low as $9.98 and receive a free cover shirt!
We're making some one-off, print-to-order Racer X shirts for all of the hard-working Loretta Lynn's hopefuls this year. Pack your Racer X Destination: Loretta's shirt in your gear bag and take off down the road to the 35th Annual Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn's. The Destination: Loretta's shirts are available for both adults and kids. Best of luck to everyone this year!
For news from Canada, check out DMX Update #10 presented by the Toronto Supercross.
That’s it for this week. Thanks for stopping by, and see you at the races.
