Observations from Indy
MARCH 26, 2007

A joint effort from Allison Kennedy and an absent Steve Matthes
Photos by Allison Kennedy

With four rounds of the Eastern Lites series in the books and Canada’s Darcy Lange sitting second in points, I decided to make the trip to an East Coast supercross. Indianapolis seemed like the logical choice, a mere 11-hours from metropolitan Meaford and since I knew a carload of photo-hounds already making the trip, I invited myself along (a decision I am sure they are still regretting since I talked non-stop for most of the journey).

First view of the RCA Dome.

 

Unfortunately, Darcy had a frustrating weekend. Those were his words as he rolled out of the RCA Dome with his Ogio bag, headed for the hotel. He looked pretty good in practice (especially in the first one where only Dungey bested his time) and he rode to a solid heat race win. He even bounced back from being stuck in the gate to round the first turn about fifth. Just as he was about to jump into the whoops, Greg Schnell went down. Lange was committed, and he had nowhere to go and hit Schnell. He picked his bike up quickly and headed out with no clutch and a flailing front fork guard. It took a while for Schnell to get off the track, and I was hoping the red-flag gods might intervene. It would have been good karma after Lange lost his second-place start last weekend.  However, the race continued and it took him a few laps to find a rhythm again, and when he did he started picking a few guys off, but he ran out of time and ended up ninth.

Definitely not the way to start the main.

 

Points-wise, it’s a miracle he came out of the weekend as well as he did. He’s still sitting in third, with Ryan Morais coming out of the weekend with a 10-point lead over Ben Townley and Darcy just two points back. With the way this series has been going, anything can still happen, and Lange won’t be giving up.

Even though it wasn’t his best night of the series, it was amazing to see him win his heat race and to see him ride with such confidence and speed. At the risk of sounding small town, even seeing him at the Pro Circuit rig was cool. I was able to deliver our new issue to Darcy and Mitch Payton. It was a quite an issue for the Pro Circuit team, with Villopoto on the RXI cover and Lange on the RXC cover.

No points race here: Dungey and Townley celebrate after the main.

 

Dungey set the fastest lap time in the first practice session and then went on to win the main easily. He grabbed the holeshot and checked out with Townley finishing a solid second. Obviously Branden Jesseman’s win last weekend reminded him how much fun it is to uncork the champagne, as he earned his second podium in two weeks.

Honestly, I tried to pay attention to Ryan Morais during the main, but I was pretty focused on watching Lange work his way through the pack. Morais worked hard for his fourth-place finish, working his way up from a bad start and making valuable points-paying passes late in the race. His under the radar, consistent riding is paying off in a big way, and if he can avoid the one-race catastrophes that have plagued most of the top riders in the east, he just might win this thing.

Stewart had to work hard for his Indy win.

 

Well, the first race of the post-RC SX era wasn’t nearly as boring as many expected, thanks mostly to James Stewart’s dismal start in the main event. Stewart was aggressive and smart (a combination that is becoming familiar and dangerous for the competition) and he worked his way through the pack to close in on Reed by the halfway point. Reed held Stewart off, and the battle had the Indy fans on their feet. Even after Stewart made the pass, Reed did a good job of staying with him.

Tim Ferry picked up another podium finish. He rode well, although he did seem to be panning the sidelines constantly, looking for his man friend. He sent me home with a takeout container of chicken ziti for Matthes, which I will deliver in Detroit.

Langston put in a good ride.

 

Grant Langston looked good all day, battling with Reed in their heat race and then riding to a solid fourth in the main event. It was weird seeing him out there in unseeded practice during the day. He looked good on the big bike and looked to be getting some props from the Kawasaki crew by the podium after his ride.

DeHaan picked up the Racer X Gas Card.

 

Doug DeHaan came dang close to making the main, but ended up with the Racer X Gas Card instead. DeHaan, as usual, has no complaints; things just haven’t been coming together for him every weekend like he’d hoped. I did notice that the TV in the Butler Brothers pits (usually used for viewing the video of timed practice) was airing the Family Guy all afternoon.

Since I don’t have the same kind of pull as Matthes, I don’t know what they were serving at the Factory Kawi rig, but thanks to honorary Canadian Joe Powell who drives for Pro Circuit, I can tell you that the PC boys had some penne pasta with a lovely spaghetti meat sauce for lunch. Thanks, Joe.

Actually, parked right next door to Joe and the PC crew was Billy Whitley’s Cernics Kawasaki team. Blackfoot’s former driver, Kelly Zawyrucha, now drives for them so it’s just like the old days with Joe and Kelly heckling each other from across the pits.

I also stopped by Star Racing to drop off some tiny Canadian flag patches for mechanic Greg Zelinski. He wants to run them on his pit shirts, which seemed to make team manager Bobby Reagan laugh. He is being over-run by Canadians! Woohoo. I also dropped off a package for Dusty… let’s just say we can’t have him falling behind in the Trailer Park Boys viewing department.

We swung by the Road 2 Recovery go-kart race, which was a benefit for Doug Henry. On Friday night and I was lucky enough to get out in a kart with the RXI team. While I didn’t make the A or B main, I did win the ladies field and, apparently, I parked a few people in the process.  I don’t remember anything, except screaming, “Momma, I’m going fast” over and over. I think I may have found my calling. Motoworld's Paul Lindsey won the A main ... and, ironically, Branden Jesseman wasn't there to see it.

Lastly, kudos to RXC contibutor Doug Engstrom and his wife, Char, (as well as the Navitka family) who made the 17-hour trip to Indy from Manitoba just to cheer Darcy on.  They had the chance to wish Darcy luck and let him know how proud his Canadians fans are, and they scored a sweet autographed poster. Heck, they even got to sit next to Mitch Payton in the press box.

Just two East Coast rounds left and if you can make it to Dallas or Detroit, you should really go for it. Just seeing Darcy on that Pro Circuit ride is worth it.

After shaking off his Tragically Hip induced hangover, Matthes has been working the phones all morning to gather all the weekend's gossip. He just checked in with this:

I wasn't there, but after speaking to riders, mechanics and a team manager, I can offer you this:

Tim Ferry got a third after battling a little with Grant Langston. He was pulling away when he had some touble in the whoops and almost washed out, allowing GL to get by him. He passed him back and "put the hammer down" to pull away for the final podium spot.
 
When I asked him why he let Stewie pass him, he said that Stewie was going 40 mph faster than him and had he tried to get in the way, it would have been like a bus hitting a pedestrian!
 
Jason Thomas holeshot his heat race and crashed on the last lap . He got a bad start in the LCQ and that was it for him, despite having a 1984 Lorretta Lynn's champion wrench for him.
 
Last week when I was in Florida, I prepped JT's gate for him at Ferry's, and helped with some technique while they were practicing starts and this week he holeshots the heat...... Maybe I should charge people for this info? Kind of like Gary Bailey but I can just go to Wendy's with you and be OK.
 
"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."----This is what I said a few weeks back and now this week K-Dub shows up with this:

Custom Leatt graphics for the sponsors.

 
 
For all you readers out there, this is why to keep checking Racerxcanada.com, for these kind of earth-shattering predictions.
 
Ryan Morais is going to pull a Tim Ferry 1997 and win this championship. He got a really bad start on the weekend and worked his way to fourth and was going really fast from what I hear.
 
Apparently Kevin Windham's bike had the carb fall off on the first lap. After making some jetting changes, I guess someone forgot to tighten it.  Good thing it didnt happen on a big jump!

Josh Summey still isn't being given any information on what place he is or anything else--how far do they take this?  Do they put a hood on him and just direct him on the plane. What about eating?  Do they just order him anything they want and make him eat it?  The mind boggles.....
 
I have been asking people on mxforum.com for questions about, well anything, for use later on in an on-line Q&A and this is the best we can come up with after 500 views:

Were you disappointed that DV12 didn't bust out a 'Screw SteveM' butt patch after the words that led him to questioning your journalistic capabilites?--ns503

Dear Ns503,
DV and I are friends, I almost put together a deal for him to ride for Morgan Racing last year in Canada when his BooKoo deal fell apart. I also got him a pretty good offer from the Montreal SX guys that he didn't take because he had a Rob Zombie concert the same night(?!?).  He was actually a little mad at the grade thing as was Steve Lamson, Jason Thomas and a Butler Brother.  This writing thing is harder than it looks if you want to stay friends with people. I smoothed it over with DV but then he was mad at me again for making fun of him on an 80 one week.  So not sure where we stand today, but I might offer him some poutine as a peace settlement.
 
See people, that wasn't so bad, don't you want to see your name or screenname in a major online column? (Never mind, don't answer that.)
 
Send in your questions with "Ask Steve" in the subject line to letters@racerxcanada.com
 
Ok, that's it for me, I have to get back to watching Ryan Gauld say "eh" and be winded after riding one lap around a 30-sec AX track.  Remember, send in those emails!!!