Steve Matthes Observations from Millville
AUGUST 15, 2007

By Steve Matthes
Photos by Doug Engstrom

Round 9 of the AMA Toyota Motocross Series presented by FMF took place at Millville, Minnesota. One of my favorite tracks, I am a little biased as I have raced there about 20 times, including a few 500cc Nationals back in the day. It poured on Friday night and the track was pretty sloppy on Saturday; some of the big dogs didn’t even practice. In fact, the AMA pushed the Lites’ consi to Sunday morning to help the guys working on the track. The first big news, in case this is the only thing you read after each race (which I’m sure it is), was that Kawasaki’s James Stewart didn’t show up. His really slow-but-awkward crash at Washougal injured his knee and he wasn’t able to get enough strength in it to race. I called his mechanic Mike Williamson on Thursday before the race and expressed my opinion that it wasn’t right to keep the fans of motocross in the dark for two weeks—James is the Sidney Crosby (that’s hockey talk for the Yanks) of our sport and if Sidney Crosby has an MRI on a Monday, the fans would know via the media on Tuesday the status of Sidney. In my opinion, either Team Kawasaki or Team Stewart should have at least issued something early last week, even if it said basically we don’t know anything right now.

But Mike countered with the fact that the team simply didn’t know if he would be there and if they said something and he didn’t show, and some people bought tickets specifically to see James, then Kawasaki would be the bad guys. I certainly see both sides (but I like my side better). What do you guys think?

RC still goes pretty fast.

Did you hear that Ricky Carmichael showed up? The legend came out and rode his last AMA National (not sure if I believe it, but whatever). He captured his 150th win in style with a 1-1 that was never in doubt. What can you say about this guy that hasn’t been said already? It will be a loooooong time, if ever, before a rider comes along to topple all of his records. I used to think that James’ Stewart would maybe beat his records but I simply don’t think Stewie will stick around motocross long enough to get close to those records.

That being said, don’t let the door hit you on the way out RC! With Stewart hurt, the last few races have been phenomenal, with several different moto winners and a real sense that anyone can win the title. That hasn’t happened for years and I like it! You’re all going to think I’m saying that because I’m a “Red Dog” fan, but seriously, it’s good for the competition that RC is retiring. He was amazing to watch, but we almost always knew who was going to win.

I had a bunch of friends from Winnipeg come down and went to dinner with them after the race; it’s always interesting to listen to some fans talk about what was good and bad with the race. Some of the complaints were that the SPEED TV helicopter was too low and people couldn’t hear themselves talk, that they couldn’t hear the announcing everywhere around the track; that some big TV screens would be great so that they knew who was who and where they were. The good things were the track itself, RC, Bob’s Cycle Supply and the girls.

“Personal problems” has replaced “stomach virus” as the reasons riders don’t show up for the race. Doug Dehaan and Branden Jesseman were both no-shows this weekend and that’s what their respective teams reported as to the reason they weren’t there. This is a step in the right direction for the teams instead of just outright fibbing to the media and fans as they have in years past. Now if we can just get the teams to tell us how a “sparkplug failure” is the reason for the connecting rod sticking out of the cases, we will really be getting somewhere.

DV12 will be out for the remainder of the nationals, and maybe longer, after going down in the first corner.

We had another red flag, the second 450 moto had two gate drops as the first one was scrapped after David Vuillemin got run over, causing a re-start. It looked like a dude swapped and took out DV’s front wheel, he had nowhere to go and Kyle Keylon ran him right over. As of Monday night, he has a list of injuries longer than a guy that got beat up by B.A Barracus in that one episode of The A-Team. He was held overnight in Rochester and is going to be out for a while. Get well soon, DV12.com!

My Canadian buddies said that they were walking around the pits in the intermission and DV was the only big name rider they saw outside. He was just standing in his underwear blowing out his helmet liner. You don’t just get entertainment on the track at a national folks.

Wal-Mart is great! I have come to the realization that they will take ANYTHING back. It’s a super policy, a few weeks back we had bought Fred the dog a harness so his delicate neck wouldn’t get hurt when I yanked on his leash like I was in a tug-a-war competition whenever he gets near another dog. So anyways, the harness was too small and I went to Wal-Mart to exchange it, I just strolled in and found the right harness and went to the customer service counter. I didn’t have a receipt or anything, just explained what I wanted, showed her the old harness and she let me go! I could’ve just walked in, picked up two harnesses and did the same thing and gotten Fred a free harness. So last week I had to return some black weed cover thingee, I threw away the clear outside wrap, took the label off and cut off a foot before I realized that it wasn’t going to work for what I needed it for. No problemo! I just rolled it back up, scotch-taped the label on and returned it to Wal-Mart to get my money back. (I did have a receipt this time.) It was a foot short, people! So now with my curiosity piqued, I decided to try and swap out a half-eaten box of Cocoa Puffs with a new different brand of cereal………….THEY DID IT! This is unbelievable everybody. The girl didn’t even care.  I didn’t have the heart to go through with it and confessed to her that the box was actually half-gone, she just shrugged her shoulders and said that “It felt full.” Next week I will try to return Fred saying that I want my money back even though they don’t sell dogs and I don’t have a receipt. Send in your Wal-Mart return stories and we will run a special section in my next column.

The amateurs are coming! The amateurs are coming!  As is always the tradition, Millville featured the debut of some of the countries best amateurs (if you can call getting unlimited bikes, “travel” money and all the free stuff you need “amateurs”). Trey Canard, Nico Izzi and Kyle Keylon suited up, with Izzi doing the best overall with a 10th. Canard did get 4th in the second 250F moto, and Keylon got 13th in the second 450 moto. Austin Stroupe is going to make his debut at Steel City for the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit team, he was told by team owner Mitch Payton to not show up at Millville as he didn’t have enough time on the bike in Mitch’s opinion. This should also prove that when everybody is saying that a top Kawasaki amateur rider “has a full-on PC bike,” that he really doesn’t.

Trey Canard(140) made quite the impression in his first ever pro national, pulling a holeshot and finishing fourth the second moto.

Butler Brothers Racing Jason Thomas went 15-12 on the day. He told me that he got a great start in the first moto and was around tenth when “some kind of farm-beetle-fly thing” was inside his goggles and started crawling around on the lens! He said that he couldn’t help but watch it crawl around wondering if it was going to bite him in the eye and started going backwards in the pack. He re-grouped and when he finished the moto, he called over a team member before he took his goggles off so that no one would think he’s crazy for giving them the reason for his fade. Good one JT! After the red flag in the second 450 moto, he got back to the gate and asked his dad for the water that he had when Frank Thomas told him that it was too late, he dumped it over his head when the gate dropped the first time.

In 2008 news, Butler Brothers is expanding with a Lites team and they hired Keylon for it. Shaun Skinner is going to ride the Lites class. JT and Bryan Johnson have signed for next year. Don’t look now but the Butler Brother’s will soon have half the riders in the motos next year!

Tim Ferry was on such a roll coming into Millville that his name might as well have been butter, but the roll stopped on this day. He, RC and Langston were three seconds faster then everybody else in qualifying, so he had the speed but a first turn crash in the first moto leaving him 39th didn’t help. Come to think of it, neither did the 17th place start in the second moto. He salvaged an 8-6 and now is tied for the points lead with Andrew Short with six motos left. He lacked the blazing speed that he had the last few weeks but that might have been due to getting nailed in the back while lying on the ground in the first turn.

Nico Izzi had the best overall of the rookies, finishing tenth in the Lites class.

In other Ferry news, it looks like he is going to the MXdN for team USA. When the inevitable James Stewart-out-for-the-year press release comes out, he is the alternate with Ivan Tedesco the Lites alternate if RV can’t make it.

I hope the Kawi guys don’t get mad at me for the press release thing because that would mean I would never get to have that fantastic Bar-B-Que chicken that driver Big B cooked up on Saturday. It was cooked to perfection, I tell you. He made a mean pasta dish and some of those itty bitty shrimp with that sauce to compliment it.

Mike Alessi quietly had a good day in Millville. He is in the title hunt and went 4-3, briefly leading the second moto even. He remarked on the podium that he now has an RV that his dad bought him, so I can’t wait until they have some BBQ there too.

Ryan Villopoto was very, very impressive this weekend. He was winning the first moto and getting caught by Ben Townley when he checked up and waved BT by. Shades of Stewie and Reed a few years ago! Unlike that incident however, BT took the lead and checked out—not such a good strategy in my opinion. I was speaking to Mitch Payton and he mentioned that RV knew he was getting caught and wanted to see why, only he never found out!

Even though they're teammates, RV51 and BT101 aren't afraid to trade paint!

So the second moto went off and BT grabbed the lead early and I figured that, with BT’s domination of the second motos it was over. RV dug deep and on this day he was the better rider, slowly catching BT and dropping his lap times almost every lap! He motored by Townley and to BT’s credit he dropped his time down to a 2:18 also, but couldn’t close the gap. It was hot, the track was rough, and one could say RV’s trainer Randy Lawrence beat out BT’s trainer Aldon Baker on this day. Very good ride by RV and BT both! 

Townley still has the points lead however and let me be the first to tell you guys that unless somebody has a “spark plug failure” these two are going to go 1-2 the rest of the way. They were so much better than the third place guy, it wasn’t funny.

Speaking of that third place guy, it was Brett Metcalfe! He was all alone in the “third fastest guy” contest. He looked really good and has been getting better and better since coming back from his thumb injury. I have to wonder if the Australian MXdN team selector guys are going to regret picking Andrew McFarlane over Metty. Andrew has been going pretty good but is not as fast as the number 123.

Jason Lawrence’s season is going off the rails lately. He qualified at the back this weekend, which had people scratching their heads. But then he didn’t finish the first moto, and was in street clothes for the second. That’s when it became obvious something was wrong.  Turns out he was sick with food poisoning—he looked horrible—and it will be interesting to see if he pulls it back together for Steel City. He also didn’t do well at Washougal and my prediction of him winning a moto this year is looking about as good as my Raiders winning the Super Bowl. Even though we have Jamarcus Russel and Daunte Culpepper slinging the pigskin.

Moose Racing/Moto XXX’s Josh Summey tied his best overall finish with a seventh at Millville. He rode great in both motos and is really riding strong now. Gavin Gracyk was probably 30 seconds ahead of Josh in the first moto early on, but by the end, Josh had caught him and pulled away. He is going to Gibb’s Racing next year and they have to be pumped to see him getting better and better. Check out this interview with Josh.

Speaking of Gibbs’ Racing, I finally spoke with manager Jeremy Albrecht and got to ask him the question that everybody in the industry wants to ask. Was he drinking when he decided to hire Josh Hansen? The answer is…. No. Jeremy knows that Josh is a risk as he has not put together a full season for, well, his whole career really. The thinking behind the hire is that there is no doubt that Hansen is a talented rider, and maybe he will put it together and do something as opposed to hiring a guy that, to quote Jeremy, “Just rides safely around in 15th.” It’s a high-risk hire, but Gibbs’ Racing has written some iron-clad clauses in his contract to protect themselves if Josh doesn’t do what the team wants--on and off the track.

Tim Ferry didn't have his best weekend in Millville. Is he feeling the pressure?

The Whoop Monster was in full effect at Millville. He has a hydraulically equipped Yamaha Rhino that he drove around the pits to the tune of “Low Rider”. When I first saw him years ago he was kind of scary with his get up but now he looks kind of harmless. Jason Weigandt commented that he could probably lose the AMA pass around his neck and it would be ok—nobody is going to ask him for it, and what kind of “monster” has to get clearance to go anywhere anyways?

I got to do the Racer X Webcast for the second 450 moto and was really funny, in my opinion. I don’t know much about announcing or writing or working on motorcycles but I think I was hilarious. So there!

Parts Unlimited’s “Rocket” Rob Buydos was wrapping up a road trip of 22 days by announcing for the 15th day. What a feat! He did Washougal, Loretta Lynn’s, X-games, the Sturgis Rally and finally Millville. He has some kind of magic spray for his throat to help his voice out and you’re actually supposed to take it every 30 minutes or something and by Millville, he was using it every five minutes! He is the RC of announcing and I will now prepare to get some hate mail from Weigandt.

Congratulations to Moose Racings/Cernic Kawasaki’s Paul Carpenter for clinching the Canadian MX1 title. He showed a lot of tenacity and skill in clinching the title this past weekend in Sand Del Lee, Ontario. I wish JSR would not have got hurt to see what would’ve happened between these two. It also is bad news that he won’t be coming back to defend his title as him and his cousin are starting their own Honda team with the help of a (rich) friend. In other news, the Canadian government seems to have stopped all shipments of Mousse’s into the country. How else to explain all these riders getting flats lately?

Minnesota’s own Ryan Dungey “and Dragons” struggled at his home track going 35-8. I think his bike broke in the first moto but I can’t confirm that. Second moto, he got a bad start and worked his way up to 8th. I’m sure that he would have liked to have done better and I also would have thought he would have been right up there. Big E. from Answer gets a mulligan from my attempts to get him to put “and Dragons” on RD’s butt patch because he was sporting “Never Forgotten” in honor of the late Donny Schmit, Millville’s favorite son. Good job Big E!

Moto XXX is still talking to Kelly Smith by the way. Team manager Allan Brown was also seen talking to Steve Boniface.

Tim Ferry spent his week before Millville at a Christian kid’s camp in Ohio just hanging out, talking to the kids and doing some riding. Steve “Chappy” Hudson was also there spreading the word to some kids. It seems that the little kids maybe didn’t appreciate and respect the current 450 class leader as one 6-year-old told him that he was “happy that RC beats you” and another kid asked him if he got free Etnies shoes. When Red told him that he did, the kid asked if he could have them! So somewhere in Ohio there is a size 4 kid wearing Tim Ferry’s size 9 Etnies walking around like he’s Bigfoot.

Grant Langston is inching up on Ferry and Short in the points and can smell the blood in water.

There was a big storm on Friday night at the track, big winds came and picked up the Bridgestone semi’s tent and flung it up and around the truck. This sucks for sure, but what sucked even more was that the tent was anchored down with 5-galllon pails full of cement. As you can probably guess, these buckets went flying also with one of them crashing through the roof of a motorhome and missing the sleeping guy by about a foot. Who was the guy? None other than Dunlop’s Marshall Plumb! I knew the tire companies were pretty competitive with each other but this is ridiculous.

Andrew Short is tied with Ferry for the points lead but after Glen Helen he might be ruing the points he lost along the way. Ivan Tedesco ran him down in the second moto and passed him late in the race. Maybe the long season is catching up to Andrew because he’s lacking a little in the fitness department and leaving some points on the table here lately. He’s a great guy and a regular reader so if nobody hears from me in the near future, it’s because he has beat me up for saying this.

I was secretly snickering to myself every time Grant Langston was going on and on about his bike and how it didn’t work for him. He was telling people that all he needed was the ’08 bike and all would be good. I was thinking, Yeah, sure GL, tell your story walking pal…. Well, he got the ‘08 at Washougal and has gone 4-1-2-2 since, so that goes to show you what I know! He is the guy with the big mo(mentum) going right now and with his finish this weekend he has pulled to within 11 points of the lead. Chooooo…chooooooo! All aboard the Langston Express!

Haven’t talked about Ryan Clark much this outdoor season but he got the most points he has gotten since Hangtown at Millville going 16-10 for 10th overall. He’s a good guy that I admire for starting his own team and doing it himself. I also hear that he is going to have a battle on his hands in keeping his Lites rider Ricky Renner on team Solitaire next year.

One of two guys that is punching himself in the gonads repeatedly since Stewart got hurt, Kevin Windham (Chad Reed being the other, I don’t care what he says in any interview) started strong in the first moto before fading back to 5th. In the second moto his chain broke on the first lap but he got a reprieve when the moto was red flagged. Factory Connection installed a new chain during the break but in the 2nd start he checked up down the start straight and looked down at his bike. He pulled into the mechanics area a couple laps in, with the chain doing more damage inside the motor it seems.

The remains of Dusty Klatt's YZ250F??

Some silly season news—Jason Lawrence and Ryan Morais have resigned with Yamaha of Troy and Tommy Hahn is out at Honda and looking for a ride. He’s talking to YoT as well.

Justin Sipes got picked up by MDK Honda for the rest of the nationals. After offering Nick Wey’s bike to Gavin Gracyk and then almost giving Dusty Klatt the bike, they decided to go with Sipes. He didn’t have a lot of time on the machine and didn’t finish either moto.

In what will no doubt make Weigandt and Billy Ursic giggle with delight, Moto XXX rider Yoshihide Fukudome made his return to racing. The Japanese rider didn’t score any points on this day and was upstaged by his countryman Yoshitaka Atsuta who rode a factory Honda to 20-7 finishes. Atsuta was on strict orders from Honda to finish 6th which he failed to do and probably now faces termination.

Ok, I need to settle something here. When I went riding at the Racer X “Tell your boss you’re doing PR” Castillo Ranch ride day a while back, I got a lot of crap from some dudes about having my bike done up to look like a certain Monster Energy Kawasaki rider. They said it’s dumb, I’m swinging from his nuts, etc. etc.. I think it’s cool and so do the Kawasaki guys. So here is my bike, is it really dorky to dress your steed up like a pro riders? Help me be cool.

Is Matthes taking this "man friend" gig too far?

And in part 3 of 3 of the exciting Matthes’ dogs bit, let me introduce you to Buddy or Budders or Buddrick Von Budderstein. He is 9 years old and when we got him from the shelter he had been abused, kind of. His old owners form of abuse was feeding him everything possible (sounds good to me, but what do I know?). When the shelter got him, he was 80lbs when he should be around 45 and we have him down to a svelte 58 right now. Because of the weight loss his skin has stretched and he kind of has an udder that just swings around and causes him to hit his wiener on the doggy door. (Ouch!)  He is a very loyal dog who isn’t very affectionate like Fred and Hank but his actions speak of his love for me. He has bit my wife but that doesn’t matter, she probably deserved it! (I’m kidding)

 

Meet the newest member of family Matthes, Buddy.

Thanks for all the letters from the X-Games column and I am still working on writing back to most of you, but not the crazy guy that told me that “You’re going to get yours!” If you want to write in feel free to address it to matthes@racerxcanada.com.

I am cool enough that I got a “Matthes” Racer X Canada shield sticker also made for me by the Label-It Guy. If you want one, email me and we can figure something out.