Matthes Observations from The Wick
JUNE 12, 2007

Photos by Simon Cudby  

Like sands through the hourglass, this is the report from the Wick. It’s good to come to Southwick every year, you see a different terrain, different styles are needed and different dudes run up front every year. The NESC needs some new blood however; John Dowd, Keith Johnson and Tony Larusso are still winning from what I hear. Chad Charbonneau sticks a wheel in here and there but for the most part, the geezers are still dishing it out to the kids.

When I checked into my hotel, I made sure to get the business rate and went outside to get my bags. When I got back, I signed in and noticed that the girl had put “technician” next to occupation. I asked why she put that and she said that I “looked like one of them.” Not sure how to take that, but it’s nice to know that I still have “it”.

Yours truly has gone global! It seems that the chaps at DBR magazine in England have been checking out Observations and want me to write something for them every month. After negotiating the number of crumpets and biscuits for payment, it’s all set! I will pick up the “Radio Free America” column started by a Mr. Davey Coombs in 1989 and offer my incredible wisdom and insight in 1200 words or less. Check out the website here

HAHAHAHA—that’s what I have to say to all the Ottawa Senator fans. So close, but they blew it again. I would rather have my team not qualify for the playoffs then to come so close to winning the cup. It all just seems like a waste. On another note, did you notice that when the Anaheim Ducks were hoisting the cup, the music was all Van Halen? And it was the Sammy Hagar Van Halen, not crappy-ass David Lee Roth Van Halen. The music mixed in well with Wade Redden’s sobbing. Hee hee hee.

Ok, try to stay with me here. Pro 30 are a new team that was riding Yamaha’s and debuted at Anaheim 1 with Tyson Hadsell and Jeff Dement. They also promised Shae “Shag-Nasty” Bentley (what is up with that nickname anyways? Sounds like some kind of STD. Yes, Doctor, I have a case of the shagnasty) Anyway, Shagnasty never showed and they picked up Broc Sellards, only he was on a Honda. Then the Pro-30 name went away and the team acquired Bad Boy energy drink and busted out the mid-80’s Rick Johnson Bad to the Bone image. (Who is the marketing guy that designed that? Max Headroom?) And Dement went to Canada and they got Jacob Marsack who used to ride Kawasaki’s. There will be a quiz on this next week.

Remember how I wrote a few weeks back that the mechanics seem like they have less and less to do these days? Well that didn’t sit so well with some of my mechanic buddies but they mostly agreed with me. A number of them pointed out that although they don’t do the motors, it always seems they get blamed when their rider does a Cirques de Soleil down the track after the connecting rod flies through the case. One guy told me that if that happens to him, he will send the motor guy out to push it back.

Looks like we are losing three teams next year, Motoworld Yamaha and Motorsport Outlet already have announced they are not coming back in 2008. Now it seems that another Lites team might be pulling out also.

Guess what I heard? The Outback Steakhouse/Toyota/Yamaha Gibbs Racing team is going after some riders with some impressive offers. I have tried to call Jeremy Albrecht for any info and with some rider recommendations but he won’t return my calls.

RC was the man once again this weekend, even without his man-friend J.H, he managed to go 1-1. When he was second behind Stewie, everybody knew that he would get him and pull away for the win. I was looking for an absolute 300-style battle in the second moto but it never materialized as he ran away and Stewie had his own problems with Grant Langston.

Of course Team Stewart (yes, this also means you Beeks) will be whispering in the ear of the media that they are riding for a championship and playing it safe. I don’t buy it, for whatever reason James has lost a little bit outdoors (notice I just said outdoors) and RC is running away with this. You don’t get to Stewie’s level by not having an incredible amount of confidence and ego and this can’t be sitting too well with him, but he is powerless to stop the RC train.

I’m not going to run the James Stewart Sr quote anymore as I think that we all know he’s happy, he’s Big James and everybody knows him.

LANGSTON, LANGSTON, LANGSTON!!! There, that felt better. Grant was on it at the ‘wick. He had the fastest time on Sunday morning and backed that up with a 3-3. He hunted down Stewie and passed him at one point, and looked like he was on his way when James regrouped and was able to get back by him. He was very impressive and we saw what he can do in the sand for sure. He kept Stewie honest in the first moto also. Maybe this ride will fill up the confidence bucket in his head and he can keep it going.

 

Canadian Tyler Medaglia went 17-19 for 20th overall.

 

This track, more then anywhere else, really puts an emphasis on fast opening qualifying laps on Saturday. The first practices were 3-4 seconds faster then the next session. The track changed so much that the first Lites guys all got good times, look at Canada’s own Tyler Medaglia finishing 7th in the “fast 40” group. John Dowd was 20th fastest as he was the fourth practice and the track was already getting beat up by then. I told Ferry to go out and push hard right away, but did he listen? Nope—tenth best was all he could do.

In the Lites class, Ryan Villopoto and Ben Townley split moto wins once again. As pointed out by guest analyst JoJo Keller, you could really see the different riding styles of the two guys. RV was attacking the track and blowing up the berms and BT was simply standing up and staying light on the bike. Some people were saying that RV got tired in the second moto, but looking at the lap times, him and BT stayed about same after RV fell. Should be great racing from here on out.

Did you know that out of the six motos run so far this year, positions 1 thru 5 have been filled by the same guys in four of them? In the other 2 motos, Townley had to change a wheel and Metcalfe snuck in there at Mt Morris. RV, BT, Jason Lawrence, Josh Grant and Ryan Dungey are all the class of the class. (Does that make sense?)

Where do I sign up to be president of the Ryan Dungey (and dragons) fan club? This kid is going to be great, he has a great riding style (elbows waaayy up) and with Johnny O’Mara now training him, his future looks bright. Plus he seems real cool in interviews, humble and excited to be here.

I got to go on the Racer X webcast once again, I think I am becoming one of the regular guests, kind of like how Letterman always has Regis Philbon on. Anyways, I was just getting into it when I saw my arch-enemy Jeff “six-time” Stanton coming, (damn him and his titles!) So he took my headphones and my glory again! Seriously, this guy is like my Jason Voorhies, every time I get settled in there, he pops out of the closet and ruins everything.

Speaking of Stanton, he donated his personal Arai helmet he wore in 1992 to the Doug Henry auction that was going on. That’s great to see, I replaced the helmet in his collection with a 5-DVD set of the World’s Greatest Supercrosses that I gave him so he can watch himself on a Yamaha YZ250 wearing High Point gear.

But after that I was asked to come back and offer my opinion on the races and I was quite happy with my air-time. Six-time came back for the second 450 moto, but by then I had run out of jokes and was happy for him to relieve me. I noticed he put his Factory Honda headset on the floor and I picked that up and listened to what the Honda guys had to say. I couldn’t believe it when Shane Drew said that Andrew Short was gaining on Ferry, what race was he watching? Honda shouldn’t let their chassis guys drink in between motos.

Still on the webcast front, this week the guys were coming to you from a cherry picker raised up about 20 feet in the air. That was the best they could get, Jason Weigandt was up there all day with no shelter or drinks announcing his little heart out, the guy in charge of the magazine and the webcast ( Davey Coombs) was literally running around in the woods with a remote mic trying to catch all the action. DC looked a little tired at the end of the day and Weege was fried. Look, I’m not sucking up at all but both of these guys and the sound engineer (Alan Selk) deserve a lot of credit for trying to bring the listeners closer to the action. Think Jody Weisel would run around in the bushes, getting eaten by gnats all day just so you guys can get a free webcast?

Tim Ferry was the victim of a racing incident, he was running fourth in the first moto when something hit his shifter and bent it around and put a hole in his cases. The hole caused the liquid known as oil to exit his motor rapidly and burn up his clutch. The second moto he rebounded for a fourth and admitted that he didn’t have had anything for the top 3 on this day.

 

Dusty was strong at the Wick.

 

Dusty “The Campell River Crusher” Klatt rode good on Sunday. He got bad starts and came through the pack to go 13-12 for 11th overall. The part about getting bad starts is because his gate pick time isn’t that good, then his spot on the line isn’t that good and that is followed by the poor start. He has to get out there and hammer early on in all the practices. I’m telling you guys that he rode really good; and don’t make fun of him on the internet anymore.

Ferry text messaged me and said that he saw Klatt in Olive Garden after the race, but wanted to know how he did. After I asked him why he cared about our champ. He texted back that Dusty looked real depressed, that he was just sitting there with his head down. I replied that he always looks like somebody ran over his dog, and to go and pump him up. Timmy replied that he couldn’t because “I don’t speak Canadian” This is what I had to put up with for four years people.

Poor Josh Summey, the Moose racing, Moto XXX rider has been my pick for “Breakout Rider of the Year” (presented by Ernesto Fonseca) but has had tough luck indoors and out. He was third in the first moto before crashing and getting 15th. He rode well in the first moto, and he has had terrible luck this year. Some people say that you make your own luck, but I wouldn’t say that to a guy that has “wide open” tattooed on his knuckles.

Parts Unlimted’s “Rocket” Rob Buydos has none other then 1983 125 National champion Johnny “O’show” O’Mara lined up to ride the Legends lap at Red Bud. That’s real cool, but what’s even cooler is that he is going to do it on an actual Mugen Honda 125, the same bike that he won the 1980 USGP on. I’m probably going to tear up when I see that, BTW.

I was wandering the track on Saturday and Sunday watching practice when I noticed that DV12.com was riding a little different track then a lot of guys, you can tell he’s a thinker because lots of times, he takes real unique lines. Obviously, he didn’t win, so maybe you just have to pin it and slam through things, but still it didn’t surprise me that he rides with creativity. He also came up to me and said that he knew a way for me to lose weight; he looked me in the eye and said “Jazzercise!” Then he proceeded to demonstrate for me, looking like a giant praying mantis on crack.

I saw Kevin Windham in the pits and he asked me how I was doing, I asked him the same and then mentioned how he probably can’t wait to leave and he recited the exact hours and minutes until the second moto is done. The ‘Wick has never been one of his favorites and I bet the very last lap before he retires, he rides around the whole track giving everybody the finger.

 

Matthes really, really wishes he had this shirt.

 

Got this cool picture sent in by Scott Swinehart. I really, really wish I had one of these shirts. As you can see, it’s a shirt about Ross Pederson on tour and the tour is completely sold out. I love the form Rollerball has for this jump, in fact, I kid you not, this is the exact thing that Ross did in the 30-40 radical jumps I’ve seen him do. And he won every one! The Americans could go out there and backflip, no hander whatever, and the judging was always by applause. We were always in Canada so guess what? Ross wins again!! Yay!! I like how he’s giving the thumbs up, it’s like he’s saying to everybody “I got your radical jump right here.”

Ryan Mills in the March 5th, 2007 issue of MXI-“ I signed a two-year deal so I’ll be over there (Europe) for two years”  Maybe he meant to say two months because he is back in America and showed up at Southwick on a Kawasaki 450. He did get an 8th in the first go-around before dropping out of moto two. What exactly did he do when he won that moto at Red Bud a few years ago? Sell his soul to Elizabeth Hurley?

In other Ryan Mills news, he is now reunited with his personal Cheech, Jason Lawrence. They were roommates last year and I saw them at dinner on Saturday night, just when you thought it was safe to go around J-Law…This could put Lawrence over the edge again, it’s like re-introducing a nice cuddly bear cub into the wild. Soon he’s staring over you sprinkling seasoning on you wondering how you’re going to taste.

That pop you hear is Broc Tickle’s balloon bursting. The North Carolina rider was like a fish out of water this week, going 28-15 for 19th OA. Should be an interesting Budds Creek for him as he tries to prove that it was just the sand that screwed up his great season, I’m betting on a another top ten for him next week. UPDATE UPDATE!!! Well it seems that I didn't notice Tickle running seventh in the first moto before his bike broke. Thris was brought to my attention by a Jason Thomas from flordia.  I apologize for any harm I have done to the Tickle family.  He did not look like a fish out of water.  He looked like a fish whose bowl broke

Canada’s Tyler Medaglia showed up, and just like last year scored points in the race. He went 17-19th for 20th OA. Not sure what this means, but out of both classes, Tyler had his best lap on the ninth lap, which for most people at this race the first 2-3 were the ones where they got the best time. So that might mean that Tyler’s in shape, or it might mean he was saving himself for late in the race, which I highly doubt.

Well I was talking about how bad Troy Adams has been last week so I had better talk about him when he finally rides well. He was up front all day and went 9-10 for 8th OA. That’s great for him, he has the talent and the team to do this every week, in my opinion.

 

Moto XXX has their eye on Gavin Gracyk.

 

Moto XXX is talking to Gavin Gracyk about maybe coming on board for the rest of the nationals. Not sure if its going to happen, but XXX has an empty bike after Fukudome got hurt and is out for the year. BTW, love the press release from the XXX guys announcing his injury -“after meeting with team Moto XXX doctors to review the results of the MRI”. HA! What doctors? Did they show the MRI to a vet when Ross Miles took his cat in for a check-up? It’s now official; you can put anything you want in a press release.

What happened to Bobby Moore? Does he still represent somebody? I really haven’t seen him at the races this year.

The Monster Energy/Coffee drink count was only four this weekend as it was a little chilly and I was stuck in a cherry picker for 6 hours. I did figure out that my favorite flavor is Mean Bean however.

Did you know that Jason Weigandt has his own blog called, get this, blogandt. Guess the creative department went on strike that week. He updates it every three weeks or so, well, he has been but promises to do it more now. Check theracingpaper.com for it.

Had a good talk with NESC Legend Mike Treadwell on Sunday morning, he told me that him and Keith Johnson skipped the national because they didn’t want to lose their Loretta Lynn’s status. What is this world coming to when these Southwick legends skip their home track national so can line up in the 600% humidity in Tennessee? Mike told me that it’s real important to sponsors to do well at the country’s biggest amateur race. With all these old pro’s racing Lorettas, it will soon be a washed-up pro’s race each August.

Tread also mentioned that he reads mxforum.com regularly and that yes, the Maritmers are indeed bonkers over Mitch Cooke.

Nick Wey’s mom reads this every week so I have to be careful here, she’s a great lady. Nick had a bad day, crashing “at least 8 times” and had some bike problems also. He would have been better off to push a wheelbarrow full of poo up to the gate and when it fell, just dump the poo onto the track and walk away. It was that kind of day for NYK. He will do better, there is no quit in this guy.

This year’s “Who the Hell is that Local Guy Up Front award” (Presented by Pat Barton) was Billy Ainsworth from Columbia, CT. Billy went 12-11 for 9th OA. Good job Billy, here’s to you and that national number next year!

As I was leaving the track, Skid Rows “I’ll Remember You” was playing on the radio. Man, I forgot what a great song that is, if that comes on the radio and you don’t rock out in your own way you are either:
A-Deaf
or
B-Don’t like music
The same rule applies to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’”

Well that’s it, I will be back in the Motherland next weekend so look for an Observations from the Morden CMRC national next week. As usual, if you want to comment on anything in here, please take the time to write in to letters@racerxcanada.com
Remember to spay and neuter your pets!