Check out a few photos from the stadium today, courtesy of Alec Gaut.

The Legends Speak (Jason Weigandt)

Everyone wants to bench race after Anaheim, but this week we did it with the best in the business. Jeremy McGrath, Ricky Carmichael, and Ryan Villopoto joined this week’s episode of SMX Insider, with Daniel Blair and myself, along with stat master Clinton Fowler, asking questions. (You can watch Blair and me on SMX Insider every Thursday on YouTube).

Blair asked if Chase Sexton’s third at Anaheim was good or bad. Should a guy like Sexton always close out a race when he’s leading, or is it fine to just get out of the opener with podium points, instead of digging a huge hole?

“Sexton should have been pretty good in those conditions, from where he’s from, and he’s had good races before on tracks that are rutted,” McGrath said. “I think, honestly, third is good, but third is only good if Eli Tomac didn’t win. Eli has thrown the first shot across the bow. The other riders were probably hoping for something different. They get a win there, Eli maybe doesn’t have the greatest race and then builds momentum during the season.”

“I think you need to keep your eye on Dylan Ferrandis and Cooper Webb,” Carmichael said. “You can’t sleep on Cooper Webb’s skills, and he’s certainly crafty and strong-minded. Ferrandis, I haven’t lost all hope in him. Had an incredible 250 career and has shown some decent speed in the premier class.” 

We then mentioned the advancing age of this class, with Fowler pointing out that only three riders in the Anaheim 450 main were under 25. Villopoto and Carmichael both retired at about age 27.

“I guess the first thing I would say is that I’m honestly a little jealous,” Villopoto said. “In a good way. Eli identified something that he wasn’t super stoked on. He was getting older, and he made that decision to move from Kawasaki and set up a new challenge. I think that, looking back, I’m stoked for him because he’s able to find fun in it again. These guys at older ages … I retired at 27, and I was still trying to figure out how to enjoy it. I think now, these guys have figured that out.”

Finally, we had a discussion about Jett Lawrence. Carmichael has said before that he thinks the only thing that could stop Lawrence is if he doesn’t figure out how to balance stardom and hype while still putting in the work and getting the results.

“I think Jett Lawrence’s biggest challenge is controlling the outside noise and focusing on what’s most important,” Carmichael said. “Nothing sells like winning.”

I asked McGrath and Carmichael about switching from Team Honda to Team Suzuki, a move they both made at one point. “This is like déjà vu!” McGrath said when he saw Ken Roczen making the switch. “I feel like in my day, two-stroke days, the bike was a big disadvantage. I feel like in the four-stroke era, the bikes are all pretty good. They’re capable of winning, and he’s capable of winning.”

I was at Snapdragon Stadium on Monday when we shot this show, and it was a complete muddy mess, with slop left over from the Monster Jam event over the weekend. I’ve heard that dirt has been removed and fresh dirt has been brought in for the supercross, but it just keeps raining in the area, so I’m not sure how it will turn out. I have a feeling it will be like Anaheim: not a full mudder, but soft and rutted. At Anaheim, that actually led to some awesome racing, so if that’s the case, we’ll take it.

The Dirt on Dirt (Matthes)

Like Weege said, there was a Monster Jam last weekend in San Diego, and generally when that happens, the base pad of dirt stays the same for the next SX race. Sometimes this turns into a real dry and slippery pad as it has a lot of activity on it in the weeks leading up to the SX. But this week, with the rains down in Diego, the guys at Feld, at pretty big expense, scraped off the existing pad and put a whole new one down. They also brought in some new dirt to add to the mix, so all in all, this should be great dirt for the race and it's been good weather this week down there.

Marv On the Mend (Matthes)

With all the rain out in Southern California (still), the racers have to find a spot to ride, and there's a SX track up in Hemet. That’s where Red Bull KTM's Marvin Musquin had a small crash over a double. He immediately grabbed his wrist and was done for the day. X-rays were negative, thankfully, but there's still an MRI to be done. Sounds like he'll miss this weekend’s race (ahem, ROUND TWO, people) in San Diego and maybe more depending on what the MRI shows. We all think this is Musquin's last year, and it would be a shame if the injury kept him out awhile. He didn't have a great Anaheim opener by his standards, but never forget, he won a 450SX just last year after a slow start.

Pro Perspective (Jason Thomas)

Perspective is a funny thing. The exact same situation can look and feel totally different based on prior experience, temperament, and approach. For those riders who had a great Anaheim 1, they likely didn't want or need the break that Oakland's weather emergency brought. They would have loved nothing more than to keep the proverbial ball rolling. Momentum is great when it's on your side. Your positive thoughts and hopes are reinforced by results, leading to more confidence. Having an unplanned off weekend was likely not what they had in mind, but good thoughts, given time, often lead to even better thoughts. Their mood has likely been bright and light for going on two weeks now.

On the other side of that coin are the riders who struggled at the opener. Jason Anderson, Justin Barcia, and Christian Craig all left Anaheim disappointed. They had suffered crashes at some point during the day or night, and their performance suffered. To make it more complicated, they were all looking great before said crashes. Hopes would have been riding high, only to be dashed after their individual incidents. Leaving Anaheim, they would have loved for Oakland to be held on Monday or Tuesday versus a full week later. The bad taste of a bad result can't be washed out quickly enough. Unfortunately, that redemption would be agonizingly pushed another week with Oakland's postponement. 

Arguably the most interesting part of perspective, though, is how it can be manipulated to fit a desired narrative. Both of the above groups of riders have reasons to be antsy for San Diego's arrival. Those with momentum want to get back to it, continue the positivity. Those who have been stewing on a tough weekend just want to replace that result and feeling with something more agreeable. 

Two totally different perspectives on the same static event. Some of these riders will find what they're looking for, while others will leave with more questions to answer. San Diego will decide their fate in just 24 hours.

Mumfy (Matthes)

We haven't seen the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki guys use fill-in riders lately, but with Austin Forkner going out at the opening round, I guess Mitch Payton and his sponsors figured it was time to call down to the island! Only this time they didn't go to the island: they grabbed Carson Mumford, who actually was on the Bar-X Suzuki team and was able to get out of that deal to go green. Mumfy broke his wrist in the off-season, so he's not quite ready to start with the team—he'll be joining the West when the series picks back up in Oakland for ROUND SIX. He's had a short time on the bike and told me it's better than he even expected. Carson is a bigger kid, and he's come up in the ranks used to the GEICO Honda stuff. I don't think his rides on the FXR Honda team, nor Bar-X has given him the bike that he feels is equal to the factory guys. Well, he's got one now, and it's up to him, once he's healed and ready to go, to take advantage of this shot. I'm stoked for him. He's a good kid, and the spotlight will be on him to get into the top five or better on the PC bike.

As for Forkner, damn, hate to see this kid go down again. He’s already had too many injuries in his career, a lot like AC9. Here’s hoping he gets himself sorted and back out there this summer.

2023 Kawasaki KX450SR (Keefer)

Such a SPECIAL RACER! ’Tis the season of FEs, SRs, WEs, and so on. I got the chance to swing a leg over Kawasaki's 2023 KX450SR Thursday at Glen Helen Raceway, and there will be a video up right here on Racer X Online. Last year's SR came stock with KYB bump sticks, but since the #3 is now on blue, good ol' green stuck with Showa like the standard KX450 but is much stouter in the damping department than the standard version. The coatings on the SR make it pop, but to me the big improvement was with "hold-up" on the SR/Showa fork over the standard KX450. The standard KX450 was soft and pitched on decel, but the SR has a flatter ride attitude and can be driven into corners harder. Look, I don't want to give the whole video review away here, but the SR is much more fun to ride than the standard KX450. Put a #21 on it, buy some Alpinestars gear, ride with your legs, and you're basically Jason Anderson. It's that easy, people! We also have some KTM Factory Edition and Honda Works Edition videos coming at you in the coming weeks. Stay tuned! 

Yamaha LCQ Challenge (Matthes)

We're coming back again this year! Feld has allowed us to have a race at the Denver Supercross on Friday, and I think we're going to have a deal to livestream it as well. Same deal as last year: we'll take the points of the 450SX LCQs, invite the top 17 racers into the race with some wild cards, and they'll get all the cash. Tickets are just $30. A 2023 YZ450F is up for grabs along with a bunch of other great prizes. Get your tickets HERE.

Fly Racing PulpMX/Racer X Live Podcast Shows (Matthes)

We're also back doing these again, and the first one is coming up Friday night in Houston at 3 Palms MX track. We're also locked into Indy again and looking to add some more, so if you're in the area and want to come watch us bench race and argue along with some special guests, go HERE and buy some tickets now before they’re all sold out!

Texas Radio Tune In (Mitch Kendra)

Ahead of tomorrow’s San Diego Supercross, I will be calling into the Revved Up Sports Show, a motorsports radio show in Austin, Texas. Hosts Rodney Rodriguez and Bobby Chaffee cover all sorts of motorsports, from NASCAR to short track racing to Formula 1 and even supercross. Rodriguez reached out to me a few years ago on Twitter and invited me to call into the show two previous years to preview the upcoming Monster Energy AMA Supercross seasons. This year an NCAA college basketball game on the day of the SX opener threw off our full-season preview. So tomorrow, we will be recapping the Anaheim 1 Supercross then chatting about the San Diego Supercross, as well as the SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX). Tune in! The show will start at 12 p.m. Eastern and I will be on around 12:25 p.m. Eastern. Tune into the live feed here or go to this direct link: https://arn.leanplayer.com/KTXXFM.

Motocross in Ukraine (DC)

Over the past half-dozen years or so I became friends on Facebook with seventies 250cc Grand Prix star Vladimir Kavinov, who raced for the USSR back then, before the fall of the Iron Curtain and the dissolvement of the country. Turned out that Kavinov was actually from Kyiv, Ukraine, and not Russia like I had assumed. I would share a few old photos of him as I came across them, from the Unadilla 250cc U.S. Grand Prix races or the Motocross and Trophee des Nations. The last time he popped up on Facebook he was doing an interview last summer in front of what looked like the Bucha MX track that was bombed by the Russians during their invasion.

Fortunately, thankfully, Kavinov popped again last month, though I only just noticed it this week. He was part of a meeting of the Federation Motorcycling of Ukraine (FMU), and it looks like they were trying to keep motocross going, despite the ongoing invasion. Using the translation tool it read:

Today, despite the Russian terrorist attacks on cities of Ukraine, a meeting of the Board of the Federation of Motorcycle Sports of Ukraine took place Kyiv .

• Summed up the results of 2022 and approved the results of the competition; Pogodili the composition of the national team of Ukraine with motocross on discipiplínam;
• The head coach of the youth team of Ukraine has been appointed;
• Launched the process of approving new members of commissions;
• Approved technological innovation on the form and procedure of issuing national license of athlete new sample…

Just glad to see and hear that it sounds like Kavinov and Ukrainian motocross are trying to hang it there.

Hey, Watch It!

Remembering Ken Block  - from X Games

Hoonigan's Tribute to Ken Block 

"𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙣. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙮𝙩𝙝. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙙.

@daytona 500 is a bucket list item for @travispastrana! 😤"

Check out Donnie Southers’ San Diego Supercross track preview with two-time 250SX Champion Zach Osborne:

Broc Glover and the Hill brothers got together with San Diego’s CBS 8 for this morning show hit:

And speaking of Broc, here’s him winning the 1982 San Diego SX, the year it ran up into the grandstands, to a section called the Wrangler Corral:

Something to add to watch it: And congratulations to Red Bull KTM Factory Rally's Kevin Benavides on winning his second Dakar Rally last week in Saudi Arabia. Kevin and his brother Luciano are featured in the new issue of Racer X taking Simon Cudby on an Adventure Bike Trip across Argentina.

Head-Scratching Headline/s Of The Week

"Harry Envied Wills' Sausage"

“Princess Diana's butler has told how Harry was made to feel less important than William as a child by getting fewer sausages at breakfast, The Sun reports.”

“Michael Bay Blasts ‘Reckless’ and ‘False’ Story Accusing Him of Killing a Pigeon on Movie Set in Italy (EXCLUSIVE)”—Variety.com

“KANYE WEST'S LAWYERS LOOKING TO TAKE OUT NEWSPAPER AD... To Let Him Know He's Dropped!!!”—TMZ.com

"VIP ticket for Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo clash goes for $2.6 million"—ESPN

“The pandemic may have cleared the way for a casino in New York City.”—New York Times

"Man really looked up a BuzzFeed article on how to dispose a body. Can’t make it up."—Barstool

"Luka Doncic shows up in six-wheel tank before Mavericks-Hawks game"—New York Post

"Andy Murray left fuming as he’s not allowed to use toilet during five-set marathon at Australian Open"—CNN.com

Random Notes

Looking for a cool motocross track to buy in New York? Broome-Tioga is back on the market...