Steve Matthes' Observations from Washougal
JULY 31, 2007

By Steve Matthes
Photos by James Lissimore

All apologies to the point-shaving league formally known as the NBA, but the AMA Nationals are FAN-tastic. Wow….wow and wow again. The last two weeks have been epic for sure. In the 450 class we’ve had four different winners in the last four motos. When was the last time that happened? (Paging Davey Coombs) The 250F’s are going down to the wire with a couple of guys who are going to be battling for the next 10 years. We witnessed the champ of that class put on an absolute riding school AFTER eating dirt and rag-dolling himself. I was telling the NPG’S John Ayers that I never realized how bored I had gotten with the runaways until they aren’t there. Man, I was excited, and it wasn’t the Monster Java’s that have never did show up at my house either.

A guy on a green bike who was the second oldest guy on the track won the 450’s, by the way.

Parts Unlimited’s Jeff Finup and Joel Bayerl…………….There, you guys made the column; now stop harassing me and making jokes about me and a certain red-headed Floridian.

James Stewart was healthier going into this race. He laid down the best time in practice and then, unlike in Colorado, motored to the first moto win. He fell early in the second moto and was around 38th when he got going. He, of course, put on an incredible charge and got all the way up to third. He wasn’t going to catch Kevin Windham or Grant Langston but he was still going to get the overall when disaster struck. In a slow part of the track, he hit a rock, got sideways, did the “Bubba Scrub” by accident and the first thing he landed on was his leg. He DNF’d with a knee dislocation and no doubt will be getting an MRI done to see if there’s any more damage. Wow….that’s all you can say. I feel bad for James, he has shown a ton of courage (it couldn’t come at a worse time) the last two weeks.

Did you know that his teammate is now only seven points back of Stewie?

More on Stewie, he tried a Leatt brace in practice but took it off for the motos. I spoke with him and he said that the new way of looping around his armpit was better than the chest straps, but mentioned that it still bothered him but he will try it again soon.

The track at Washougal was a little different this year as the promoter took the infamous Chuck Sun tabletop jump out as well as the catchers’ mitt corner that followed it. This was done for AMA and vendor reasons and I talked to a few riders that mentioned the new section had the best dirt. Why don’t the track guys do this more often? Just move the track over a few feet; there you go, brand-new dirt.

Funny story time: in 2003 during the week leading up to the national, me and DV’s mechanic, Gothic Jay, were talking about the 1980 500 National champ Chuck Sun tabletop when Reed’s mechanic Dave Dye was curious what we were talking about, and the story behind it. (Chuck’s throttle stuck or he got whiskey throttle and he cleared this tabletop by about forty feet, I guess) So at the race, before practice Dave was asking where this jump is and saying how he can’t wait to see Chad fly over this legendary jump, how big is it and on and on. All we can see is the top of the jump from the mechanics’ area and our suspension guy was talking during the very first lap of practice and really building it up. Just as he was telling Dave to get ready, Reed’s connecting rod blew through the case and he went idling across the top of the jump, bike billowing smoke and barely rolling. Dave, without missing a beat, says, “Well, that wasn’t the memory I was looking for.” Maybe you had to be there, but it was in the top five funniest things I have ever witnessed.

Langston won the second 450 moto.

Grant Langston won the second 450 moto with a great ride. He grabbed the lead from Kevin Windham early and checked out.  I thought Stewie was going to catch him as he was getting reeled in around halfway but then he got his second wind and held it strong. He was good in the first moto as well, he just didn’t stick with the guys early on. In other news, Langston Racing must have sold out of his $19.95 signature goggles because he showed up with Smith this weekend.

He also showed up at the press conference with a pretty good cut on his chin, he told this crazy funny story about the champagne cork hitting him and cutting him open. Except that he didn’t make it up, it really happened. He’s also stopped flying his plane and the banner behind it saying he hates his bike. He now has an ’08 frame and all is well with him.

 

Kawasaki Japan's test rider, Hiroki Ogawa.

 

Kawasaki Japan had one of their test riders at Washougal racing the 450 class. He was pitted on the side of the Kawi factory truck. His name was Hiroki Ogawa and he didn’t make the program. He’s a top ten guy I guess in the Japanese series. He had a lock-down rear shock for the starts. It’s similar to the fork one, in which its spring loaded, and releases as the rider goes over the gate. After looking his bike over I found a whole bunch of neat little parts as well. The USA guy that was with him stopped for groceries and told Hiroki to get some food for race day and he came out with water and potato chips!

Bobby Kiniry had a good ride going on in the first moto for a while,  finishing 11th. In the second moto, he crashed and broke his left collarbone and right wrist, what a combo. He’ll be out for a while. Good luck healing up!

David Pingree was in the house! Every time he sees me he starts doing a Frank the Tank impression, not sure why but it’s funny anyways. I was talking to him about the X Games supermoto and his thoughts. He said he’s got limited time on a 450 but is comparable to his teammate on the concrete. He also added that the Supermoto guys were going to use three lanes of the X Games Supercross track and that he’s strong on the dirt. After talking to him, I am thinking that he could be a sleeper for a medal. Look for Jeff Ward, Mark Burkhart and Jeremy McGrath to be the favorites but I am putting my money on Ping for second.

I had a ferry nice weekend by the way, thanks for wondering. (Thanks to Dave Hayes for that.)

I got to work the Racer X webcast for the 250F motos with The Weege. Nobody yanked me off halfway, I didn’t get replaced by a champion—it was my 70 minutes of announcing glory! I think I did a pretty good job, although my lovely wife Angie was not pleased when I said that “Villopoto is 18 seconds back, and you can ask my wife, that’s a long time, Weege!”

Just like Alan Parsons, the Dusty Klatt Project is also over. Star Racing and Canada’s “guy” have mutually agreed to end their contract. I spoke with all parties involved (The agent, Dusty, and Star Racing) and it just wasn’t working out. Dusty’s results have been going downhill and Star has not been happy with him for a while. In these types of things, there is a tendency for people to want to find out whose fault it is. My take on it, (and I have to be careful here because I like Dusty and I also like Brad at Star) is that Star is and always will be a team that is tough with their guys. Bobby Reagan, the owner is not one to pull punches with guys and has a big financial investment in the team. Dusty is not the best communicator, combine that and you have an unhappy rider and manager who don’t talk to each other about the problems they have. I do have to criticize Dusty here though.  I was checking out his practice bike that he brought back and it looked like it was brand new, so it seems to me that he’d thrown in the towel long before this race. He went 29-18 in his farewell ride for Star in this day.

So Tony Gardea (his agent) and I were talking about what’s next and rumour is that Blackfoot already has a bike ready if he wants to race the last few rounds in Canada. By the end of the day though, I had spoken to 2 team managers that would be interested in having him ride their 450 for the rest of the AMA Nationals if everything works out. And Dusty told me that he wants to give it another year of 450 indoors and out in the U.S. I guess we’ll know soon.

Moose Racing/Moto XXX’s Josh Summey must have thought he was racing a Mickey Thompson event and went after the most passing points. (For you youngsters, these races were called Ultracrosses and they made the fastest qualifier start at the back and he got passing points in the main.) He tangled with Gavin Gracyk off the start in the first moto and I’m not kidding when I say that he was a minute and a half back of the last guy. He rode well to get nineteenth. The second moto was more of the same as he fell on the first lap and was only second-last on the first lap. He ended up with 14th and he hasn’t signed a thing for ‘08 as of this weekend. He has an offer and Moto XXX has the right to match it.

Do you remember when I commented that Starbucks in Canada doesn’t put the lids on for you? Probably not, but in my last two visits up there (When I was “hating Canada”) this practice was driving me bonkers. I don’t want to grab a lid out by myself, you never end up grabbing just one, so now my hands and everyone else’s grubby hands touch a whole bunch of other lids that the next unsuspecting sucker puts on his cup. That’s an invitation on the first train to germtown if you ask me. This bothered me enough to write an email to Starbucks to ask them why. I also asked in the stores in Winnipeg and Victoria and the baristas (coffee making dudes) could never give me a straight answer. Well I got my answer, it’s a Canadian health code reason it seems. So in effect, the Minister of Health in Canada thinks that the coffee making dude’s hands are grubbier than some other guy that accidentally grabs ten lids and puts nine back. If you bothered to read this whole paragraph, thank you.

Let me set the scene for you here, the names have been changed to protect the identities.
Some (Ryan) Dungey warehouse, a bunch of people sitting in a circle, looking down and shuffling nervously.  Nobody wants to talk but finally someone stands up slowly and begins to speak….
Bob-“My name is Bob and I am an Alessi-holic”
Group-“Hi Bob!”
Bob-“I admit, I thought he was going to rule the world at first. I even bought and wore a ‘Believe the hype shirt’”
Dan-“We all did Bob, we all did” (begins sobbing)
Bob-“And when Alessi weekly told me about how he beat Ryan Hughes at a four-stroke national, I was hooked….then he podiums his third pro race”
George-“I even took my pants off, went on Mototalk and told everybody that RC better watch out”
Dan-(sobbing like a baby at this point) “Why?? Why?? Why didn’t he rule the world…Damn you, Mike Alessi! Damn you!”
Doors burst open….A guy who looks like Weege but better looking runs in… panting and out of breath.
“Everybody pay attention….stop what you’re doing and look at the recent results…….He’s back!!’
Bob and George look at results and rip off their coats to reveal bright red “Believe the Hype” shirts, high-five each other and yell “WE’RE BACK BABY!”

Nobody is going to talk about Mike Alessi this week in the race reports. He fell in the second moto and went from 36th to 7th! And in the first moto, he showed that he’s something special. He didn’t get his start, as a matter of fact, he was 11th after the first lap. He went by some of the best riders like he was shot out of a cannon. I was very impressed; he fought through the adversity and rode well. He’s here, get used to him and just embrace the little guy. He’s going to be around a while. I just wish him and Jeff would stop calling me Dave Dye.

Mike also uses the ALJ device from Merge Technologies….just thought I would throw that in.

The guy who won the 450’s is a friend of mine.

Windham's mistake handed Ferry the overall.

 

Kevin Windham should expect a nice bottle of wine from the winner and a box of monkey poo from Grant Langston at X-mas time. What did he do? He was in second and after getting the white flag signaling one lap to go, he promptly stood up and slowed right down. He even took one hand off and we were all wondering what happened. The third-place guy caught him, looked at him like he was drunk and motored away to the checkers. K-Dub’s move cost GL the overall. Kevin admitted that he thought it was the finish flag and was surprised when the Kawasaki guy passed him so aggressively. Kudos to K-Dub for admitting what he did; I would’ve blamed my mechanic for the bike cutting out.

Yamaha’s Broc Hepler rode a strong race. He was battling for the lead much of the second moto when, SURPRISE!! His motor blew with four laps left. In talking to some people, they reported that they saw smoke for a few laps then he didn’t come out of the back late in the race. I also tried to talk to a Yamaha guy and he reported that he couldn’t tell me anything because “everybody reads you and wants to know what you think”. I got nothing out of him except that the bike lost a fluid and that caused it to stop. I used to work at Yamaha for three years, the guys there are my friends but c’mon guys—that’s ridiculous to have so many problems at a factory level. I’ve never seen something like that, even when I was working on the motors and I’m almost the biggest hack there ever was.

Kawasaki’s Mike Young made some delicious pizza this week. Brian Barnhart, Kawi truck driver was resting up for his big drive back to California and left the cooking duties to Mr. Kristen Young. He made a delicious BBQ chicken pizza that I almost didn’t try because it didn’t look good. Man, was I wrong! It had a real kick in the sauce and just the perfect amount of cheese and chicken. Thanks Mike!

 

Townley wasn't thrilled about the way he won.

 

Ben Townley won, he continued his second moto dominance and went 2-1 for the overall and took the points lead. He rode a smart and steady race but when I spoke with him at the press conference he wasn’t happy. He said he needed to “get better” and it was a “joke”. He was not happy with Ryan Villopoto beating him pretty handily in the first moto and then almost catching him in the second after crashing. I reminded him that it was Ryan’s home track, not to worry-after all, he won!

I’m also going to get him hooked up with Kicker this week so he can rock out to some Spilt Enz and “Six Months in a Leaky Boat”.

Davi Millsaps is a mystery wrapped in a riddle. He wins the first moto last week, and then grabs the early lead before getting so tired he looked like me taking out the garbage in the second go-around. This week he rode uninspired in the first moto getting a seventh, second moto he ran third for a few laps, got passed by three guys on one lap, and pulled off the next lap. His bike didn’t break, maybe he did?

Saw Moto XXX manager Alan Brown and Kelly Smith talking in the pits for a long time…I’m just saying.

Ryan Villopoto was on fire this weekend. On his home track, he blitzed the first moto win and fell on the first lap and was pretty much last. Just like Stewie, he put on a charge and caught up to third before having a monstrous crash. The bike kept running and he somehow got up (I would’ve waited for the medics, but that’s just me) and charged back to third again. You know what was the most amazing? His best time and the best time of the whole race were achieved on the last lap. Truly an incredible ride!

The oldest guy on the track, 63 year old Moose Racing/Moto XXX’s Kyle Lewis had his best outdoor ride of the season. Kyle went 11-8 for 9th overall. He got good starts, rode a strong race and went out with a bang. When I tried to give him my “leave it all out on the track” speech he informed me that he will probably come back and race there next year. He clearly likes the place, as he podiumed there in 2002.

 

Dungey and Hepler battled at Washougal.

 

Another good ride by Ryan Dungey (and dragons) with a 3-2 for third overall. Johnny O’Mara was there to watch his new protégé and Ryan showed everybody his beautiful elbows up style around the picturesque Washougal track. I like this kid and am filing  adoption papers this week. He’s my guy for this year, look for shameless plugging from here on out.

Speaking of good rides, did you hear about the guy who won the 450’s? Now that was a ride!

Troy Adams did great as well, 12-9 for 10th overall. He has the talent to do this every weekend in my opinion and needs to start building momentum for next year. I spoke with him after the race and he doesn’t have anything lined up for 2008. He’s made the calls to the teams that everybody else has (L&M, MDK, Gibbs) and is waiting. I told him that if it all falls through, I can contact some Canadian teams for him. John Nelson and Ranger Rick, please pick up the bat-phone.

Back to Ben Townley, he said that after my comment about a man-friend war down in Florida, his guy Rueben has stepped up and taken the lead. He says he hasn’t seen J.H Leahle at all and Rueben is the man. Ding … ding.. We have a winner! He also mentioned on Saturday at the Parts Unlimited Dealer Showcase that on Saturday for the Lites consolation race, the AMA guy started grinding while he held the thirty second board. Please god no, I do not want to see any of those dudes doing that.

In talking to one of the coolest guys in the pits, Honda’s Eric Kehoe, he mentioned that he is going in to get his hip replaced this week. That’s kind of gnarly and he says he will be upright in about four weeks. Good luck to The Hog.

As reported by TFS last week, there is a shake-up at AMA Pro Racing. Steve Whitlock is not going to be at the races much anymore. He and his wonderful PR skills have been moved into the office in Ohio. Jeff Canfield is going to get some of his responsibilities on the sponsor side and long-time AMA good guy, Jay Mitrowitz, is going to handle the racing and track stuff. Karen Myron is going to take some of Jeff’s old duties. This is a good move I think, I’ve known both Jeff and Jay a long time and they are straight up good guys who know their stuff.

When I was at the airport, I saw this lady had a dog with her. She wasn’t blind or anything. I was watching this dog when she started rubbing its head, shaking its paw and then the dog took a tennis ball and squishy toy out of a bag and started playing with them! I walked over and noticed the bib on the dog said “Therapy Dog”.  What a cool idea, I didn’t know you could do this at all. I googled it and it turns out that there is such a thing as just having a dog to help you out emotionally, and you can take it anywhere! I’m starting to feel sad already, I think I need Hank with me at Millville.

The off-road guys were back again? What’s going on here? Don’t they ever race off-road? Ricky Dietrich, Bobby Garrison, Destry Abbot and the infamous Bobby Bonds all showed up to battle. Bonds, Dietrich and Garrison all made the motos, but Abbot crashed in the whoops on Saturday and got carted off with a reported collapsed lung.

I wonder if Mitch Payton went over and gave Bonds a big hug. Probably not.

Yamaha of Troy’s Jason Lawrence had an off weekend. He was fast in practice but started at the back and went 10-20 on this day. He has been fast for sure but maybe this isn’t the year he wins a moto like I predicted.

I noticed a guy in Colorado named Kyle Summers riding really good. He went 18-18 there but I didn’t think that much of it because he was a local Colorado guy. Then he showed up this weekend and got a sixteenth and a twenty first! He’s number 394 on a Kawasaki 450 but will have a national number next year. Good rides for sure.

Its coming…..I can’t help myself……I promised Lissimore I wouldn’t talk about him…

 

Short has the speed to win motos.

 

Andrew Short had a good day. The last two weeks he’s shown he has everything he needs to win except for a tiny bit more fitness. He’s getting caught at the end of the motos by some guys (a certain Kawasaki rider wearing number 15). Not a big deal, I’m sure he’s aware and he will work on it. Plus he’s a reader of this column, I like him and he’s moving up into the ranks of my favourite riders.

Does anyone have an X Games pass for me?

Ok, can’t help it…here it comes…

TIM FERRY WON THIS WEEKEND!!!!!  REPEAT—TIM FERRY WON THIS WEEKEND!!!!
In a win that is only surpassed by his 1999 Summercross win, Kawasaki’s Tim Ferry got a gift from Windham and won the overall with a 2-2. He never gave up and I couldn’t get them, but I bet his lap times were very consistent the whole race. Man, what a race…He should’ve won the last few weeks in my opinion (I’m a little biased, however) and got one when maybe he didn’t deserve it but you make your own luck and the moto-x gods rewarded him for his effort. He provided another whacky moment in the race when he almost cartwheeled going across the finish line when his bike got kicked up in the whoops. He saved it but told me that he already had it figured out that he had enough momentum to roll up the finish line jump! He is absolutely on a roll right now and he could win this title. If that happens, look for me to poop my pants with glee at Glen Helen. He’s been through so much in the last few years that I’m really proud of how much he’s overcome to get back to the top.

On another note, whats up with this guy and winning nationals with a 2-2 score?
He’s won Hangtown, Glen Helen and now Washougal overalls without winning a moto. Add in his 1997 SX title when he didn’t win a race and it gets spooky. He has won 6 motos and never won the overall when winning a moto. Hmmmmm…

 

Matthes and his best bud.

 

And I’ve been getting calls this morning (Monday) about him winning and how I must be freaking out and kissing my pictures of him on my wall, etc etc. I’ve heard it all. To be honest, he rode absolutely phenomenal in Lakewood last week and that race was probably the best I’ve ever seen him ride (and I’ve watched him a little bit in the last eight years). This was just the cherry on the cake for him after Colorado.

As usual send your praises to matthes@racerxcanada.com for all of you haters out there, just have another swig of your Haterade yo.