Observations from Turn Four
MARCH 12, 2007

By Steve Matthes  

It seems in recent weeks more and more people have been reading this little thing that RXC and I put together. I want to thank everybody for reading, and for the guys that maybe get a little upset at things I write, don’t worry, we’re not curing cancer. Besides, if you wait a week, each column disappears into the internet abyss. I thought it would be fun to share a few “fan” mail excerpts with you:

“Steve Matthes is pure unadulterated gold. His SX observations have no equal. We want him at the grand opening of our track in central Alberta this summer. We will let him do a parade lap on a KX 80. Good, good Stuff!!”-Jared Giles

“In observations from St. Looey, his word usage stinks.”
“Some observations of his ineptitude include…..”
” If he's gonna hassle these guys about their riding motorcycles, he deserves more than a little for how little time he spends with a dictionary before criticizing them.”—Brett S Horath
 
“And on top of it all, you have Steve Matthes' column, which is frickin' hillarious!! Steve makes me proud to be from Manitoba!! I actually check your website almost everyday to see if he has anything new on there.”—Pat Stafford

“My homepage has changed from Sears factory outlet to Racer X Canada”—Debbie Matthes (thanks Mom!)

“Hey Matthes, keep selling FMF pipes and forget about your journalist career...”—David Vuillemin


I stayed at my good buddy Tim Ferry’s this week. It was nice not to change the oil in his tractor, fix his rhino, split motors, change out his water towers on the SX track etc, etc. I also got a chance to watch him ride and boss his practice bike mechanic, Shawn, around. I did step in one time, and just like the old days, came through with flying colors when his two-year-old son Evan broke his little red wagon. I drilled out the handle and put a new bolt in for him. It was good to be back wrenching again … he even yelled at me a little bit just like his daddy used to. No word on whether or not it held together the next day.

Red Dog still knows who to call when he needs the important jobs done.

Nathan Ramsey’s crappy year got a whole lot crappier this week when he broke his arm in six places and broke both wrists. Reports from those who were there that day indicated that Chad Reed put in an outdoor section that had the guys jumping into the SX track off of the backside of a berm—then there was some huge monstrous jump combo that only Chad could do cleanly. Apparently Grant Langston cased it a few times, Jason Thomas didn’t do it and Nathan was repeatedly casing it time and time again, before finally coming up short and inflicting a ton of pain on himself. The people there were having a hard time figuring out why he needed to do this jump, since he was obviously having trouble with it. I guess that’s why they are professional athletes and I am sitting here on my couch eating chips and salsa while typing this out.

I went to the opening round of the GNCC series in Vero Beach and it was cool.  FMF pretty much owns this series and after walking around the pits, they seem to appeal to the local guys as well. This series has really blown up since I first went to one in 2000 (I placed fifth in industry class in case you’re keeping score, and if you’re a dork). There are full semis now and factory support everywhere you look. Lots of cool things going on so if there is one nearby, check it out. Shane Watts is a friend of mine from the KTM days and I actually worked for him when he made the main in Daytona 2000. He once dominated the series and has had more then a few bad breaks since then (some self-inflicted). He found himself buying bikes and parts this year. He told me that he didn’t even have an extra rear brake pedal because they were on backorder. His spare parts came from his practice bike and his race bike has old plastic on it because he is selling the new stuff for much needed cash! He then went out and won the whole damn thing. That’s a great story and I hope he keeps it up.

The Daytona track was a mixture of old school and new school with the jumps having transitions, and table-tops that were well-built, and nice rhythm sections.  The old-school parts were the nasty braking bumps, whoops, and ruts so deep I think I saw German soldier’s heads. In the last couple of years Dirt Wurx has transformed the Daytona supercross into, well, a regular supercross. They brought some of the nastiness back this year.

Like many riders, I was very happy with the speedway people choosing Dirt Wurx over Gary Bailey a few years ago. Bailey built the jumps with no transitions so it dropped guys out of the sky. He made a bunch of asinine jumps that were tall on one end and then tapered off (everybody just went in the middle), then there were the straights with just holes offset everywhere. It was like he ran out of ideas so just dropped the backhoe and let ‘er rip.

The decision to hold it on Friday night is also a good one; there were much bigger crowds and a better atmosphere. The lighting was a little sketchy the first year, but it’s better now. They started selling standing room on the speedway itself which has given the race a more intimate feel. This ain’t your pappies Daytona anymore!

There was carnage in practice everywhere you looked. Chad Reed, Tyler Evans, and Michael Byrne were just some of the victims. The track really got rough and chopped up, so I think the guys came out and didn’t respect it enough.  After crashes and near misses everywhere, the riders figured it out.

Despite a crash during practice, Reed regrouped and set the fastest time.

photo: Steve Bruhn

Jason Thomas had a new/old mechanic this week: his dad Frank. Frank has worked for his son a few times over the years and has stepped in when JT was looking to change his luck a bit. His old mechanic, Dan Truman, is still on the team and will help out in other areas while Frank spins the wrenches. Frank is a great guy who is never scared to call it like it is. He is comedy gold in the mechanics’ area also. He gets a little wrapped up in the race and runs back and forth in the mechanics area like a dog in those cages at the pet store. One time, back in the day, when JT was doing badly in a moto, he put “Too slow, pull off” on the pitboard, halfway through a moto. So JT did!

Michael Byrne had a scary get-off; he must have dragged his foot-pegs up the face of the triple, because he was in full endo-mode and stepped off in mid-air.  He got up, after a while, and finished practice. I heard that he separated his shoulder, so he must have had a shot. His twelfth-place finish was impressive.

How long until the Leatt neck brace is getting customized? With more and more guys running them, it is covering up prime real estate on jerseys and I think we will soon see them painted to match the part of the jersey they cover. You’re all welcome for that idea.

That pop you hear is Ryan Dungey’s bubble bursting. After crashing his way out last week, he didn’t qualify this week. Not sure what happened in the heat, but in the LCQ he was fourth and fell. I figured that was it for him, but he came from way back to finish one second back of the final transfer spot. He can still win next week, that’s how crazy the Lites class is.

The Kawasaki guys had chicken-ziti this week for dinner. For lunch we had our choice of 43 deli-meats and some wraps. That was after my Starbucks bottle drink and a Yoo-Hoo. Kudos to Brian Barnhart again for the grub!  And everyone wonders why I gave them an A for the report card….

Tyler ‘Hulkster’ Evans had a rough night, with a DNQ. He crashed in his heat and couldn’t start his bike.  After a few hundred kicks, he took his frustration out on the crossbar, punching it repeatedly. He finally fired it up. The crossbar was held overnight for observation.

Sean Collier of Star Racing has retired. After a decent tenth place finish in the opener; he has decided that he doesn’t have the desire to race anymore. I guess he really didn’t retire though because that means you don’t have to work anymore, so maybe he just quit. Danny Smith would be a good candidate to fill that team’s spot, I think.

Darcy Lange had an okay night. He wasn’t very good in the first practice, and then came out and was really good in the second one. In the main, he didn’t have a great start and sort of rode around in fifth for a long time before getting passed late by Ryan Morais. Outdoors have never been his specialty and this was all about survival for him. He is still set up nicely for the title but now he’ll have to deal with his teammate, Ben Townley, the rest of the way.

Ryan Morais, who raced in Canada in 2004, is still leading the points chase. Lange and Townley are only a few points back. Great series so far!

photo: Matt Ware

Or maybe Ryan Morais, the Yamaha of Troy rider will win it all? Despite not having won a main yet, he is looking really good. Maybe Ping wasn’t on crack when he said Ryan had a shot at the beginning of the year. Ryan is in shape; he would’ve had Laninovich in another lap and he just might be consistent enough to do it. Remember, I groomed him also! And to think most of us just wrote Ping off as a delusional ex-racer who sits on his pile of money and shouts weird and strange things.

In hockey news, it seems that I am developing a man-crush on Darcy Tucker of the Toronto Maple Leafs. After star defenseman Tomas Kaberle got viciously cleaned out by goon-boy Cam Janssen the other night, Tucks came out of the dressing room in his warm-up suit and wanted to fight the guy right there! That’s super cool of him to defend his teammate like that. After all there is no way Wade “noodle arms” Belak was going to do anything about it.

So, of course, after I was raving about the Cernics/Moose Racing team last week, neither of the guys qualified for the main. Jeff Gibson got the Racer X Gas Card and Paul Carpenter crashed out of the last transfer spot with half a lap left. Is there a Matthes jinx?

And keeping with that theme, I was writing about how Kyle Lewis hasn’t got any of his patented holeshots lately. Then he went out and grabbed mega-holies in both his heat and the main event. Shows you what I know. Earlier in the day, I was talking to Kyle about the track and he was really ripping into it, then he goes out and has his best ride of the year.

DV12 was not really happy with me and the mid-season report card I wrote on Racerxill.com. Come to think of it, really nobody on his team was very pumped with me, it seems they think that a C+ was a little harsh. I had to put up with a lot of grief from everybody over there and I’m sorry, but I am sticking to my guns.  Perhaps if you guys get me some chicken ziti … I will reconsider.

DV and I are back on buddy-terms again. He did remind me though that this is the second strike against me—the first being when I almost killed him at the test track one day by forgetting to tighten his front brake caliper bolts. I thought that was what they meant by a floating brake system. Who knew?

Like death and taxes, riders complaining about the track will always happen, but I think they have a legit complaint this year. It was pretty one-lined in sections and before the finish line, there was a jump on the outside of the corner that still looked brand new after practice. There were maybe three or four tire marks up it.  You can’t have something out there that is so much slower that nobody uses it.

I thought that they fixed the track after practice but it turns out they just dropped a blade and smoothed it out. This didn’t help because the bumps were still there; Dirt Wurx did that so “it makes it pretty for the crowd.”

Ben Townley will be tough to beat outdoors this summer.

photo: Steve Bruhn

Joe Oehlhof is really struggling this year on the KTM/Fire Police team. He had a couple of good rides on a Kawasaki in Canada but then he had to make the transition to a KTM when the team got funding from the orange guys. He hasn’t adapted to the new bike as well, although I’m pretty sure he isn’t tired from starting it. I spoke with him last week and he asked me about getting him another bike. I figured he was joking and letting some frustration out, but he showed up on a Kawasaki this week! Kudos to the team for letting him switch bikes and still pit with them.

When did afros come back? What happened and who authorized it? Nathan Ramsey, Chad Reed and Ryan Lockhart’s mechanic all have one. I have seen more and more pop up recently and I must have missed the memo. I can’t wait until corduroy shorts make their way back!

Speaking of Ryan Lockhart, he and Tyler Medaglia both practiced but neither one made the night program. The Newf didn’t look so good in the practice. He was so rusty, I was looking for my can of WD-40—but hopefully he’ll get back in the groove soon.

Canada’s 1995 Champ Marco Dubé was there and qualified in the top 30. He told me that he really hasn’t ridden any SX but was down in Florida riding outdoors to get ready for the season.  

Former Canadian champion Josh Woods, who races arenacross now, showed up to race. He didn’t qualify for the main but I heard he is still coming back from an injury. I like Woodrow and think he will be making mains soon.

Greg Schnell continues his assault on the east coast series. After not making the main last week, he rode to a 19th place finish this week. He also has no graphics on his shrouds and I am wondering why somebody doesn’t hook him up with something free so he can at least look like a pro out there. I am thinking of giving him a hundred bucks to get that prime real estate on his bike. “Steve Matthes Racing” would look good on there I think.

There were rumors of a protest filed against Chad Reed after his shove last week on James Stewart. I cannot confirm this but I do know that after riders’ meeting, both riders were pulled into the AMA trailer for a sit-down. I had a bunch of fans tell me this week, while I was doing my Parts Unlimited/FMF brand managing job, that they hated Chad for shoving James, since all he was doing was giving CR the thumbs up. Smart play on Stewie’s part to give him the thumbs up while yelling obscenities for the take-out move! That could be the new move for these guys, the good cop/bad cop thing.

When the guys were inside, all the team personnel and man-friends were gathered outside the trailer waiting. They were circling around each other like the gangs in the Michael Jackson video, Bad. I was waiting for someone to start breakin’.

Stewart picked up his first Daytona 450 win in convincing style.

photo: Steve Bruhn

This week was a little bizarre for Ricky Carmichael. First he found himself so buried in the pack in the heat, he probably didn’t even realize that they let that many guys race these days. Then another bad start in the main let Stewie get away and he was forced to settle for second. This was all topped off by some guy on stage with a guitar when RC was introduced during opening ceremonies. What’s next in the farewell tour? RC coming out on a float?

Mike and Jeff Alessi both had pretty good races with Mike getting a season’s-best third. Both brothers were up front for a while before Jeff got so tired he looked like he was dragging a cinder block around behind him. I was thinking that if you combine Mike’s outdoor skills, Jeff’s ability in the technical sections, Mike’s heart and desire and Jeff’s body structure, you would have a super-Alessi! I am not sure the world is ready for a super-Alessi though, but I bet you it would be a better speller.

The temperature was pretty hot in the daytime before cooling off at night and I think some teams didn’t adjust for the drop in temps. There was so much popping out there in the main event, I thought it was the Daytona supercross brought to you by Orville Redenbacher.

Andrew McFarlane pulled the holeshot in the Lites main event and was battling with Ben Townley in the early laps. These two were battling in the 250F class in Europe just two years ago and I’m sure they had many races together in Australia and New Zealand over the years. Now here they are, a million miles away, on the biggest stage in the world racing yet again. That’s pretty cool, if you ask me.

What was up with the flagmen? They looked like they were pulled out of a bar at 3 a.m., given yellow flags, and shoved out there. Take a look at this guy here:

photo: Steve Cox

Here we have enough chest hair to make a rug, the gun show is in full effect and somewhere Crocodile Dundee is missing his hat. In case you were curious, his shirt says “Rusty’s fishing tournament 2006.”

There was also a dude wearing a full-on orange KTM shirt while flagging the Daytona supercross brought to you by Honda. I am sure that will go over well when the Honda execs look at photos. They did have red t-shirts on when the night show rolled around but somebody needs to realize that there are a ton of photos taken during the day.

I saw all I need to see to convince me that something has to change in Supercross—the displacement of the bikes, the tracks, something. Langston and Davi Millsaps collided in a corner when Grant was passing and they almost came to a complete stop six or seven feet from the triple—no problem for them as they just gassed it and cleared this sixty something foot jump. You shouldn’t be able to do the biggest jump on the track with a six foot run at it; the 450’s are just too much for the tracks and it is hurting the racing. I was once told by somebody smarter than me not to complain if you don’t have a better solution, so I guess I’ll shut up about it now.

I checked in with Steve Lamson on the comeback plans for Hangtown. He said they are still a go and he has been riding and training for it when time permits.  He also said that he is looking for a mechanic. I mentioned Mike Gosselaar (his old guy) and he said that RC is racing and he can’t do it. Whats up with that?  Maybe Goose needs to realize that Lammy was his original gravy train and that RC will be okay without him. The nerve of some people. Some other names I threw out were Dan Bentley, Cliff White and Brian Lunniss.

Stewie rode a flawless race on the whooped out, rutted track. I never saw him get out of shape once [Ed. note: obviously Matthes has not seen the race on TV yet!] He looked completely in control, which, for him, is a rarity. I didn’t get a chance to go to the press conference, but I saw James Stewart Sr. after the race and he had this to say, “I'm always happy. This is Big James! This is me. I’m always happy. You guys know that. Everybody knows Big James. I'm always happy.”

Near the end of the main, like lap 15 or 16, Stewie had fifty-four seconds on the likely second place outdoor rider, Tim Ferry. This being a longer, rougher track, it doesn’t bode well for the competition in the nationals.  

Tim Ferry rode well, he got Kevin Windham for fourth late in the race and, after a couple of bad weeks, is right where he was to start the season—the next best guy after the three “big” guys. He was running in the same second as JS and RC in the practices and keeps getting a little more confident that he can beat one of the guys sometime. The tire choices for the heat were discussed in length, and I actually added some input on what we used to do when I was his slave (mechanic). I still have the “gift,” since he told me what I suggested had worked for him in the main. Yes! Toot, toot!

I read an interview with Heath Voss in the latest MXi magazine. This is an actual quote from Heath: “I am back on a Honda again because if you ask anybody, if they are going to buy a generator, they are going to buy a Honda.”  That’s okay Heath, you’re doing fine, just keep riding your generator … errr … bike.  

Davi Millsaps finished a credible ninth. His speed is okay but he is badly out of shape. I am a little worried because when you get tired, you make mistakes and crash. Now I know a broken femur is gnarly and I am impressed with how fast he came back, but I can’t help but think maybe he should’ve waited until he was 100 percent fit to prevent guys like me writing about how he isn’t in shape.

This just in—after Tim Ferry told me a couple of weeks ago that he is “El Diablo” and Mike his mechanic is the “Magic Man”, Timmy said he wants to be “Magic Man” and for Mike Williamson to be “El Diablo.” I will alert CNN immediately.

Mike Williamson is also a trainer for Ferry. When Shawn (practice bike guy) and I were going to Dairy Queen one night this week, I asked Timmy if he wanted anything and he said no. We weren’t in the car more than two minutes when I got a text message from Mike reading “Don’t you dare try to give my rider ice cream in the middle of a title chase.”

Way to keep a secret Red Dog.

Team Moose Racing/ Moto XXX tried a new trick with Josh Summey this week. After a few weeks of posting top ten times and not making all the mains, they thought that maybe he was a little too impressed with who he is racing with. So this week they just gave him laps and times on his pit board, never telling him who was ahead or behind him, nor letting him know what place he was in. It must have worked because he got tenth, his best finish in a while