Southwick is a cool national, it’s awesome that we get a sand track on the USA circuit (Lommel just threw up in its mouth BTW, because this sand isn't that kind of sand) and it’s tucked away in this tiny town. Little field of dreams-ish even. Love going back there, I have some good memories of the place for sure but also remember pushing my factory Yamaha back to the pits after the spark plug wire broke inside the housing and the bike died. That was a long way back bro.
But still, Southwick is cool.
Something we talked about on one of my dumb shows this week is that fans have to be a Doug Henry or John Dowd guy. You can’t be both! Look they’re both legends for sure (along with JoJo Keller) but even back when they were in their prime, I hear from people that a lot of people around those two had their camps. Myself, I liked Dowdy more than Doug just because of Dowd’s amazing story of his late start in the sport and his longevity. It always seemed that Henry was more talented and Dowd just grinded his wins out. Also, to be honest, I knew John way better than I know Doug and Dowdy was always so cool to hang out with. Again, Doug’s a legend, I just don’t know him as well.
Funny that those two were always linked because of their roots but also because as privateers, they both won the massive mudder one-moto only 1991 Hangtown national. Then they hit their prime around the same time, culminating with 1998 when they were both on Team Yamaha and swept both classes at Southwick.
Ok, well, Jett Lawrence and Haiden Deegan both won their classes. Again. And it looked rather easy at that. Again. Tour de force performances. They both led every lap and were never challenged. They both have big points leads and they both look, barring injury, to win their respective classes. Jett in particular, probably because he was on a 450, seemed to be having fun jumping the braking bumps, trying to hop his way around the track.
Great rides, not sure what else to say about them really? Haiden won’t talk to me, and I didn’t get a chance to talk to Jett about his race (I chatted with him about a bunch of other stuff in the Honda rig when I went in to talk to Johnny O’Mara) so I don’t have much more to add other than, both riders were awesome at the ‘Wick.
Hunter Lawrence rode great at Southwick and count me as surprised when he caught, passed and dropped Eli Tomac at Southwick. Southwick is ET’s best track in terms of wins (not win %) and yeah man, he rules there. But H Law wasn’t having it, he worked away at ET’s lead in moto two and took off. It was pretty impressive for sure. Hunter’s streak of getting a top five in every 450MX moto he’s ever raced is still going BTW and pretty impressive. As we talked about in our review show, did anyone have Hunter being this good back in the 250F days? Like, he’s a good rider but he’s approaching status of “elite” rider, or I suppose he’s there now (I’d like to see him do more in SX but whatever, if he didn't get hurt this year maybe he would have). Great day.
As far as Tomac goes, 3-3 on the day is…okay? He continued his weird thing where he gets a so-so start, starts laying down heaters, catches up to the lead group and…just sits there. He did it again. It’s not something we’re used to seeing but that’s three motos this year where he did just that. Look, he’s the only dude to win motos this year other than Jett so it’s good but he’s definitely been more hot and cold than we’re used to seeing. Not the old Tomac hot and cold, either, with like a weirdo day of finishing eighth. This is different, because he goes fast IN the moto where he doesn't get the good result. Especially after a week off although it sounds like he spent some of his time off chasing around a rouge bull on his property?
I’ve written about this before but through four rounds just two riders have broken into the top five in a 450MX moto other than Jett, Hunter, Eli, Justin and Aaron. It was Jason Anderson with a fifth at Pala and Jorge Prado with a fifth at Hangtown. So, fifth was the highest. Well, step up RJ Hampshire because he topped that with a fourth in moto two! Great work for Rick, he’s getting healthier each week, and we had him on the Pulpmx Show Monday where he talked about his wrist and how he’s finally getting some strength in it, no taping needed and he admitted that at some point when he’s older, he’ll have to get it fused.
Speaking of Hampshire, him, Justin Cooper and Joey Savatgy (in moto one) passed SO MANY RIDERS. The ‘Wick is a tough place to pass at the best of times, but these guys put in some serious work. RJ passed 30 riders after a first turn crash in moto one! Props to these guys for doing it the hard way.
Justin Cooper got terrible starts BTW, when has that ever happened to him two motos in a row?
I thought it was a good day for Jorge Prado and Kawasaki. He ran up front and was in position for a podium overall without a crash in each moto. I mean, it was a lot better than High Point or Lakewood, right? So, it was with that in mind when I spoke with him after the race to get his thoughts and ICYWW, nope, he does not think it was a better day. You’ll have to read the interview HERE but yeah, lots of work still to be done by Jorge and the guys to get him where he needs to be I guess?
We had Kawasaki R&D rider Broc Tickle on the PulpMX Show and read him back some of Prado’s comments. First, yes keep in my there's the typical Euro bluntness with Jorge, which we’re not used to. For some reason, Americans and American-based riders don't speak as candidly as riders fresh out of Europe do. But Tick did say, “I’m disappointed to hear that” at one of the comments. Also, earlier that day Broc had tested a new motor for Prado, and then they took it out of the bike and overnighted it to Club MX where Prado is based. Also Kawasaki staff is there at Club (after spending the week before the off-weekend there also). You can’t say Team Green isn’t grinding this out looking to make Prado happy.
Tom Vialle rode great in the first moto, he fell down early while in third, went back to tenth and then shredded to get back to third. It was impressive for sure, and I have to think that maybe that work in moto one tired him out for moto two as he again rode well but lacked that oomph to get closer to Jo Shimoda.
Levi Kitchen was spicy in moto two as he kept Deegs honest for, I don’t know, the first 5-6 minutes? Then he dropped off the pace rapidly before regrouping strongly. Afterwards he explained that he got a side cramp which had to have sucked but props to Kitch for sticking it out and picking his speed back up to get a fourth. His 2:23 lap definitely hurt him out there.
Jo Shimoda’s really good at Southwick and his second in moto two was proof of that (he won the second moto there the last two years). He went down in the first turn moto one (Southwick has a lot of first turn crashes ICYWW because the inside gates are kind of dumb) and passed 27 riders on his way to a 10th. Second moto he got second, good day for Jo and lots of hard work involved also.
Some other random thoughts about random things:
-Cooper Webb went 7-7 and I think that’s, checks notes, the sixth time he’s gotten seventh in a moto this year?
-The battle for the leader in SMX points is going to be interesting, I think Justin Cooper will top it. He’s 30-some points back of Webb and we saw the last two years of SMX that the points gap does matter. These guys like money and SMX pays a lot of it. Webb should still be ok, the worst he’s gonna do is be third behind Cooper and Plessinger but I’m sure this will give him some motivation.
-Triumph’s Jalek Swoll has raced two races now this year after coming off a torn Achilles and he’s been very impressive to me. Never mind that 15th in moto two, he was 6th and crashed twice on the last lap. Which sucks but let’s just give him that sixth and he’s 7-6 on the day. And High Point was good also!
-Speaking of Triumph, Mikkael Haarup had his best race and probably not that hard to realize that it was because he was in the sand, right? Second moto he didn’t get the start he needed but he really worked his way up. It wasn’t so much his speed to me that enabled him to get that far up but to me, he just didn’t wear down like some of the other riders. Who said Danishes are soft?
-Michael Mosiman had some bike issues strike him again in moto one which caused him to drop from second to fourth and second moto he got a so-so start and rode hard to get to fifth. Mosiman’s got that last lap crash at Hangtown and two bike issues in two motos hurting him but man, he’s been really good this year. As he told me after the race, he’s never really raced this long into the season before!
-Justin Barcia came back! The #51 had a top ten ride which is a good place to start on a track he really made his name at way back in the 85cc days. Bam also passed a lot of guys in the first moto to get to tenth. Good to see Barcia back for sure.
-Jason Anderson and Colt Nichols are not having a fun time out there this summer. Nichols crashed out of both motos, Anderson was sick and there are too many DNF’s for these two guys to make them or their teams very happy.
-Harri Kullas had his best ride of the year, grabbing 9-13 scores for 11th in the 450 class. He told me afterwards that it’s been some bike set-up stuff that’s affecting him, he thinks he’s got it figured out and that he should be inside the top ten when he’s on his game. Which checks out. He kind of had a ride like Haarup in his moto two where he moved up and it wasn’t because of raw speed, he just didn’t get tired as much.
Thanks for reading OBS from Southwick, we’re onto Redbud this weekend where we’ll see the debut of the Ducati which is pretty sweet. Please email me at matthes@racerxonline.com to chat about this or anything else.
