THE GREAT OUTDOORS ARE HERE!!!! Round one of the Lucas AMA Oil Pro Motocross Championship took place at Pala in SoCal (one of two rounds this track will have this summer) and honestly, I wasn’t there but it seemed like a good day of racing. Weather was great, they didn’t soak the crap out of the track like they did last year, and it was a “racey” race? Does that make sense?
No?
Okay, well, whatever, let’s dive into the nationals!
RIDE RED!!! What a day for Honda, all four of their riders going 1-1-1-1-2-2-2-2 in a total domination and also releasing a new 50th anniversary bike the night before at a dinner. Then they show up in retro gear, retro look on the bikes, it’s in Southern California, all the Honda management is there, and they do that? WOW. There are dream days for a team and then there are days what Honda had at Pala. Could Lars Lindstrom possibly be any better as a manager? I mean, what’s next for the Red Riders? Curing cancer? What a day!
Let’s take a look at each guy individually:
Chase Sexton had a dream day with great starts and two crushing moto wins. Props to Ken Roczen for pulling up on him a bit in moto two, but you never really felt like Sexton was in danger. I would bet he had more in the tank if he needed it out there. First time going 1-1 for Sexton at a national and also, he grabs the red plate. You know last year Dylan Ferrandis won the opener and some of us thought, ‘Well, it’s Pala, it’s the opener, it’s weird and who knows how this is gonna go,’ and then at round twelve you’re like ‘Oh yeah, DF was the best dude all season long,’ when he was holding the number-one plate. I mean, why can’t Sexton do this? If he can smooth out, he’s got everything else he needs and apparently Honda’s got the bike working better. Sexton admitted on the PulpMX Show on Monday that he needs to get better in the sand and is working on that, and also, he’s happy with that BFRC Showa shock which is obvious. But I know from more than a few riders (Weston Peick, Adam Cianciarulo, Phil Nicoletti), they’ve never liked the way the shock acts when it gets hot. None of these riders rode for factory Honda, though.
The JETT won two motos easier than Sexton did and looked like he hardly put in an effort out there. He’s 4-0 at Pala, which is weird because it’s a different track and it’s not like he’s ridden there a ton compared to other guys in his class. It was a great title defense for JETT and he stakes his claim of being the man to beat in this class. With J-Coop not being J-Coop yet, and with RJ Hampshire being RJ Hampshire, I could totally see JETT and his brother having a huge points lead this summer and going 1-2 in some order.
Hunter Lawrence showed some real grit in the second moto in getting Jo Shimoda on the last lap for second. He didn’t need to get Jo to get second overall, and you know he was pushing, it but I’m sure he knows every point counts in this battle with his bro. I think we’re going to see a lot of the Lawrence Bros all summer long, and Pala showed that.
I mean, if you’d told me Kenny Roczen went 1-1 at Pala I totally would’ve believed that. If you had told me he went 8-7, I would’ve also believed that. It wasn’t hot at all so that saved him a bit. I don’t know man, it would be rad if Roczen won another 450MX title but it’s hard for me to see him getting through all 24 motos without an issue of some sort. Kenny was great at Pala but we all knew he probably would be right? The dude took two months off and showed up at a national and just about kicked everyone’s ass. Welcome to the Kenny Roczen experience!
I was in a bit of disbelief that Pala was Christian Craig’s first ever overall outdoor MX podium. I could’ve sworn he had done that before, but he told us he went 2-4 at Pala couple of years ago for…fourth overall! Wow. Anyway, he was clearly the third-best rider at the opener, which was quite a switch from where he was last year when he was just inside the top ten. Great start for Craig, who admitted on the PulpMX Show it was pretty cool to race with, and pass, Ryan Dungey. CC told us Dungey is so perfect out there, so good at his lines, that you have to really send it somewhere to find a way by him.
Craig’s got no pressure for this title, he’s got no pressure to find a ride (he’s with Rockstar Husky next year), and everything he’s going to do this summer will be a bonus after winning SX. Christian could be a race winner this summer, which would be wild and awesome.
I’ve been a bit skeptical of Eli Tomac’s ability to finish the whole 12-round MX series because of his MCL injury. He hasn’t ridden as much as usual since hurting it in Atlanta, it’s only a twisted-in-a-rut away from flaring back up, it hurts him as he rides longer, and in case you didn’t know, the nationals are longer than supercross. First moto he looked very strong like, the three-time 450MX champ he is, but then he mysteriously faded back. It was bizarro Eli and had me wondering how long this was really going to go. In the second moto he was better and afterward the team told that new TV pit reporter Jason Thomas that they did miss some bike settings. Christian Craig said on the PulpMX Show that Eli basically let him by (which it looked like) and mentioned that in his opinion, when ET isn’t comfortable on the bike he’s not going to push it. It looked like that in moto one but, moto two was solid. Call me skeptical with this knee injury still, but it ended up being good start for Tomac to the nationals; not amazing or anything, but good.
It was pretty damn cool to have both Ryan Dungey and Antonio Cairoli commit to the nationals this summer. Selfishly, it was great for me also because debating those two coming over (AC), and back (Dungey), gave me some good sports talk-radio debate with my guests. So, it was a win/win for everyone!
And this just in, Ryan Dungey was pretty good. And you have to think he’ll get better too, right? I mean he ran third in both motos on his way to 5-5 results. I’d say even with knowing how damn well he was as a racer, these results were surprising to me also. He was a lot like he was when he was on top, just a smidge off his very elite speed and elite fitness. That’s to be expected, right? I was impressed, that’s for sure. And you have to think he’ll get even better as this thing goes on. The guy has been retired for five years!
As far as Cairoli, he went down on the second-to-last lap of moto one while 8th and brought it home to a 10th after that. Second moto he finished sixth and that seems about right to me for his placing. One thing the Europeans who come over here talk about over and over is, the lack of track time at a USA national compared to what they’re used to. They gotta get the track down, and bike settings figured out really fast, which he’ll figure out.
SUPER cool to have both of these KTM riders here racing the nationals. It definitely adds a lot to the series, and it’ll be great to follow them along.
I waited a bit to talk about Jo Shimoda and his impressive third place. People forget, but he went 2-4-2 to end the nationals last season and now he’s picked it back up with a third. Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki definitely need a strong summer from someone, anyone, over there, and between Jo, Austin Forkner, and Seth Hammaker, the team is off to a good start.
Some other news and notes:
The BBMX team came back with Freddie Noren and Benny Bloss riding KTM 450’s, and both guys have had some strong finishes outdoors in their careers, but consistency isn’t always their forte. I made a joke on Twitter that if you took one of their moto scores each week, you’d have a consistent top ten rider. But at Pala, both guys were pretty good and Fast Freddie rode his nuts off in moto one after an early fall. Bloss was steady all day, although it seemed he got a bit tired late in moto two. All in all, for an embattled team short on funds, this was a good start with a couple of working-class heroes.
I know Justin Cooper had a pretty serious foot injury that caused him to miss supercross, andthat the recovery was going to be tough. I checked in with someone close to him and they said that he was as good as ever and would be fine at Pala. Now, he did apparently hurt his shoulder in a practice crash in the morning so maybe some of his not-so-good day at Pala was due to that, but early on, when he led laps, all looked normal. Then it all went sideways for him as he drifted backward and then had a poor second moto. Might be tough for Justin to get back to where he needs to be as the motos go on. I have no doubt he will but it’s going to be tough to get the title, in my opinion, if he’s starting in a hole.
Craziest silly season rumor I heard involves Cooper. Due to pointing-out rules, he will not be allowed back into 250SX for 2023 despite appealing to the AMA. The rule says you get one year to defend a title, and this was Cooper’s year to defend, so even though he got hurt and didn’t race, he’s done. Anyway, rumor has it that he stays with Star for 2023, skips SX and just rides 250MX. I mean, it’s different but it’s not a bad idea. A healthy and ready to go Cooper can win an outdoor title. Maybe stick him on a 450 for some supercrosses?
RJ Hampshire and Michael Mosiman both had some good crashes, but both vets showed good speed and split great moto finishes. Hampshire in particular was impressive late in moto one when he lowered his times to grab a bunch of positions. I think both of these dudes will win motos this summer, but they’re also going to give us all some serious thrills and spills along the way.
Levi Kitchen and Seth Hammaker are, to me, kind of in the same boat as riders. Kitchen a little less under the gun to be more consistent, but both riders have to show they can stay healthy and string some results together. Both kids are very fast, I mean Seth set the fastest time in practice and hasn’t raced in forever. Kitchen was right there, and although he couldn’t get off the gate as well as he wanted, showed impressive speed in coming up. Hammaker was more solid in his two motos. I think the future is bright for both these kids, but they’ve got to stay healthy. Every time you get hurt you lose time on that big treadmill of pro motocross.
I checked in with Kitchen superfan Mitchy Kendra here at Racer X for a report on his thoughts: “Not our best work but he was solid. Needs to work on starts and getting out of the gates. His move on Shimoda was nice.” …Okay, thanks Mitch!
Josh Gilbert bro. The UK rider showed up for his first ever USA national, qualified well, and ran strong in both motos. It really came out of nowhere. I was checking out his MXGP results and he’s never been as strong over there as he was here. Great to see for sure. Also, shoutout to Mexico’s Feliz Lopez for his strong day. Canada was represented also, with Keylan Meston having a solid day but our guy T-Dags (Tyler Medaglia) had a tough day.
Thanks for reading, send me an email at matthes@racerxonline.com if you want to chat about Pala or anything else. See you next week!