Weege's Observations from Steel City
AUGUST 28, 2007

By Jason Weigandt
Photos by Matt Ware

Matthes disclaimer: I wasn't at Steel City, I was at the Parts Unlimited National Sales meeting in Madison Wisconsin for the past week. The Weege volunteered to write the Observations column and I thank him for that. After all, the ALJS system people would get mad that they weren't getting their monies worth if something didn't go up. Here's the thing: Weege is funny. In fact, he might even be funnier than me and that can't happen people. So I ask you to read the following but don't laugh, don't even crack a smile and don't send him any letters telling him how much funnier he is than Matthes! That will make him start his "Blogandt" column and he will blow me out of the water.  Thanks for reading! 

The Championship battle got even more intense at Steel City.

 

Well, the damn finally broke. Steve Matthes just couldn’t take the pressure of going to the races every weekend to research and write this column, so he has finally succumbed to his true desire: drowning in a pool of Cheetos and Funions and listening to the races over the internet, visiting message boards and flaming riders with the caps lock pinned, using nothing but hunches, emotion and bias to form his pointed opinions. Hammertime, I hope you were ready for this!

As for me, I was only doing the Racer X Webcast and the Racer X Motocross Show and covering the Lites class for Cycle News, so I had plenty of extra time to fill in for Steve. And even while I’m writing this Matthes is probably crafting an email criticizing me for not updating Blogandt! Well, for the record, someone stole my old server, and now we’re switching over to the Racer X site—yes, www.blogandt.com will soon be a full functioning feature of the Racer X empire, so if you like what you see here, bookmark that site soon.
    (And if you don’t like this column, send negative comments to matthes@racerxcanada.com).

Actually, doing this column isn’t that easy. Even though Steve spent absolutely zero effort coming up with a creative title for it, he does deliver a lot of scoops and information each week, so I had to step up my game at Steel City’s Monster Energy Kawasaki National this weekend to live up to these standards. Here goes.

Can you believe how good this series is? We have four riders going for the title. FOUR! I don’t care what races you’ve watched or what golden years you want to wax on about, but it isn’t going to match up to this one. Not only are four riders within ten points with two rounds of racing to go, but it’s four riders who did not expect to win the championship when the AMA/Toyota Motocross began in May, and, it’s four riders who didn’t expect to win any races until about a month ago. Normally, one or two riders slowly build confidence each week and eventually gap the field while everyone else waves the surrender flag. But these 450 guys were fighting for third every week for the first few months, so no one really got a mental edge. Now, it’s too late. Even if someone goes out and sweeps it in Texas with a 1-1, the points will still be so close that anyone can win. You just can’t get a better scenario than this.

You’re seeing the opposite happen in the Lites class. Remember Jason Lawrence, Josh Grant and Ryan Dungey? Those guys (and their teams) thought they had the stuff to challenge Ryan Villopoto and Ben Townley, and they were actual threats back in the spring. But week after week, they fell by the wayside. At Hangtown, remember that Lawrence was out to “establish the tone” for outdoors by showing that he was faster than RV? Do you really think he goes to the line thinking he can beat him anymore?

Same with Josh Grant, who won High Point and then did a whole ton of testing at Southwick heading into that race. He didn’t win there, and now he’s not nearly as close to RV and BT as he was in June. The only guy who I thought was impervious to this was Dungey, because he just seems happy go lucky and shocked to be here in the first place, so he can’t get discouraged. You know how Charlie wins the Magic Ticket and gets to go to the Willie Wonka Chocolate Factory, and he’s the only one that survives? Well, that was Dungey (and dragons). It was. Then something seemed to go wrong at Millville when he was way off, and then when I interviewed him Saturday morning at Steel City, he was far from his “Golden Microphone” self. He seemed bummed out, but when I asked him if he was all good he said yes. Then about five minutes later he crashed and broke his collarbone. It’s like he had a premonition or something.
 
By the way, I’m not trashing Lawrence, Grant or Dungey. This is just how the sport works—one or two guys get an edge, and that’s it.

The ultimate proof came at Steel City. If there was one rider who could topple the Mitch Payton army, it was Broc “Hulk” Hepler. The dude has killed it at Steel City from the 65 class all the way to the 2006 AMA Lites National, and he never, ever, lacks in the confidence department. Hepler is like a relief pitcher. He could be sitting there not involved in anything that’s going on, but hand him the ball and he will throw his fastball down the plate every time and say “hit this.” He won’t change everything and try new pitches, or try to throw curves and junk and paint the corners. He’s gonna’ throw that fast ball because he believes what he’s got is good enough to beat anybody.

What program is Hepler even on? Does he have a trainer? A motorhome? An agent? A man friend? The only people I ever see around him are his parents and Shift’s Rob Salcedo, but I think Rob just hangs out, he doesn’t appear to be on true man friend duty.  So why should Hepler think he can beat the unbeatable Monster Energy/Pro Circuit juggernaut with their celebrity trainers and all of this momentum and a 15-moto win streak? Because that’s just the way he is. So he did beat them in the first moto, but it was on a technicality.  

Austin Stroupe pulls off the impossible at Steel City.

 

 Austin Stroupe was racing his first pro race ever, and he pulled off the impossible. Not only did he finish an amazing second in his very first moto, but he also performed his “welcome to the pros” moment…on everyone else!    Usually someone runs it in on a rookie to show them just how tough it will be at this level. But Stroupe got an unbelievable jump on everyone out of the gate and veered left, trying to dash to the inside of the first turn. He made it and grabbed the Holeshot, but he clipped Villopoto, which started a chain reaction of crashes, including Townley’s. Can you even imagine this? In his very first race ever for Mitch Payton, you cause a first turn crash that takes out BOTH of his star riders!!!

Stroupe ended up second in the moto, he looked gassed trying to hold off Villopoto down the stretch, and he also seemed a little worried about causing that whole incident. It’s a bummer because that overshadowed the fact that he did finish second in his first moto ever. Second! That’s unreal. He also got off the hook with Mitch, because DC asked him about that start, and Mitch admitted that they told Stroupe not to back off going into the first turn no matter what, so he was just following orders.

 

RV's speed, even coming through the pack, was unreal.

 

All seemed right with Hepler taking yet another moto win at his home track, but then a look at the lap times told the real story. RV had turned in a lap nearly four seconds quicker than Hepler during that moto. RV is turning into a real powerhouse. He was also quicker than any of the boys on 450s (although I’ve said before that a PC 250F might not be a disadvantage compared to a 450). RV’s speed is getting to a scary level right now, and even Townley, a guy with World Championship credentials and Aldon Baker and Ricky Carmichael on his side can’t figure out a way to beat him.

This was the coolest thing that happened all weekend: Carmichael started texting DC during the webcast because he was listening. You think Barry Bonds will send a text to Tim McCarver during the World Series this year? (By the way, I know a lot of Canadians are reading this, so if you want, replace the Hepler relief pitcher thing with “Hepler is like a Defenseman” and the Bonds/McCarver thing with Sidney Crosby texting some guy on Versus Network. And while we’re talking baseball—go Expos!)

The GOAT has some high standards for Townley.

Anyway, after the second Lites moto RC texted some, uh, not good stuff about Townley. Yes, getting to learn from the GOAT is good, but he sets some damn high standards to live up to. In a related story, I’ve heard Ivan Tedesco is headed to Tallahassee, too. Who would have thought camp Carmichael would become Honda Land again?

Here are a few more observations from the Lites class (man, the title for this column is so functional). First, I give Lawrence major credit for running the open face helmet during his sighting lap. I don’t know why he did it, but it was awesome, and once again we need more guys doing stuff like that at the races. Also, Lawrence actually did have the fastest lap time of anyone on Saturday, but he had that time taken away due to an odd AMA rule. To prohibit riders from short cutting the track, if a rider is seen off the track, his fastest lap time is removed from the session. Lawrence beat Stroupe’s time by one hundredth of a second, but then his buddy Daniel Sani crashed. The medics were already busy with Chris Gosselaar, who had knocked himself out, so Lawrence put Sani on his bike and rode him over to get some help. But, that still counts as leaving the track, so his lap time was removed. (Someone made the joke that if Villopoto had gotten the fastest time and then went off the track to help a downed rider, the AMA would have automatically awarded him the fastest time the next Saturday, too. But I didn’t make that joke, so don’t get mad at me).

Stroupe’s run was unreal, but his fellow rookies did pretty well, too. Nico Izzi was as consistent as you could get with 7-7 scores for fifth overall (in comparison, Villopoto went 3-1 so he needs to work on the consistency if he wants to match Izzi). Trey Canard was down on the ground with that huge pileup, in fact, his bike was actually holding Villopoto’s on the ground since they were so tangled, and RV even gave him a look back when he took off. Canard had some more crashes and finished outside the top ten. He was way back in moto two as well, and at one point found himself battling all of his teammates, Grant, Jake Weimer and Ryan Sipes. But he ate those boys up and charged all the way up to Izzi, and then they battled for like five laps. Canard finally got around and finished a hard-earned fifth.

You know, the rides of all three of these kids are impressive, but we had Jeff Stanton on the webcast and he mentioned how often adjusting to life as a pro is actually harder than turning it. By that, he means going from Loretta’s to a national isn’t as big of a transition as moving to California in the off-season, getting the big paychecks, testing factory bikes and riding supercross. Some of these boys gets stuck in that trap. Keep reading. 

Let’s move to the 450 class. Some riders are already planning on it. Josh Hill, for one, must have given up on his plan to “work on eating more salads” to lose weight, because he wants to ride a big bike. He’s been riding a stock YZ450F at home, but he told me he will be testing a works bike this week so he can race it in Texas. But I’m also hearing that might not be Yamaha’s plan. And since Josh just pulled 19-21 moto finishes at Steel City and is 14th in points, has he earned any favors? By the way, if you had asked me the odds on Josh Hill not making the grade as a pro at this time last year, I would have given it 1000 to 1, because I thought he was a sure bet for sure. That just goes to show what I know.

Also making the big jump was Tyler Bowers. The big 16-year-old didn’t take the same career path as Izzi, Stroupe or Canard but he can definitely ride, in fact, I think his riding style looks as good as anyone in the sport today. But apparently I didn’t make my positive thoughts for Tyler positive enough, because when I went over to interview him on Saturday, I got into a 20 minute “discussion” with his dad, Tim, over some stuff that I said about that last AMA Arenacross race in Nashville. Also, he was unhappy about an interview I did with (Canada’s own!) Darcy Lange a few months ago. Darcy had been racing Tyler all winter in BooKoo Arenacross, so I asked if he had gotten into any problems with Tyler. He said no. But Bowers dad thought that question was unneeded. So I’m just gonna’ put this on record now: Tyler is awesome. There.

What is unfortunate about the negative press Tyler has received is that he really is a nice kid to talk to, and he actually explains a lot of things and lets you know what’s going on. It’s not mindless sponsor drops and the like, which is refreshing. Once he sorts everything out, I think he will make a great addition to the pro ranks, but he definitely does have some stuff to sort. Not qualifying for your first national? There’s really not much I can say that’s positive about that. But Tyler’s wrist is still broken, and he says he’ll just try to heal up and try again in Texas.

Since Matthes wasn’t around at Steel City, I knew I had a lot of work to do. Not only would I have to take this column from him, but I knew Tim Ferry was tied in points coming into the race and would need man friend assistance more than ever. But Timmy told me he’s gotten more advice in the last two weeks than he probably has at any point in his career, and he’s also averaging ten people a day saying “if you just get a start you could win.” So, I knew words weren’t going to be enough for Timmy. I had to take action.

An ill-prepared Weege tries to shine Timmy's helmet.

 

First, I had his Evie grab Tim’s helmet so I could shine it up for him. Sadly, I was not prepared for the gig and could use only my shirt to wipe the helmet, and it was already muddy because I got roosted by Chad Sanner while talking to Tim Bowers behind the starting gate of the Motocross Consi race. Realizing my efforts were futile, Evie pointed me toward another piece of gear that needed cleaning—Timmy’s muddy riding pants. I wasn’t too pumped to have to handle those .

 

Weege discovers the downside of man friending.

 

Honestly, this man friending is tough.   But I was looking for a payoff—I knew Kawasaki always hosts the best food in the business at their truck. But what’s this? Big B was gone for the weekend because he and his wife are expecting a baby, and in his place, Kawasaki had no one cooking food! Now I know why Matthes wasn’t at Steel City!!!    

I think my foul mood had an affect on Timmy. He actually got a decent start in the first moto (based on his recent standards) and had a chance to catch Langston early in the moto, and Windham late. But he couldn’t do it. In the second moto he got tangled with Jeff Alessi in the first turn and found himself way back again.

In case you’re thinking that the Alessis are running Ponca City in the 1990s tactics and they’re sending Jeff in to help Mike, trust me, even Jeff isn’t a team player enough to rip his shoulder out of the socket just to stop Ferry. Timmy was actually worried after the race when he heard Jeff got tangled in his rear wheel and hurt his shoulder –he didn’t even realize he did it. Timmy shouldn’t be too worried, though. After screaming in pain for about 15 minutes while they put the shoulder back in, Jeff got a sling and headed up to the broadcast booth to help us call the webcast! Those boys are dedicated to PR!

Jeff, and everyone, should be impressed with the ride his brother Mike put in. This was another step in the right direction for him, this time he grabbed the start but was able to race everyone straight up. There was no blocking, no defensive riding, Mike stayed strong and rode like he belonged up there the whole time. In fact, it looked like he was just following the leader at times waiting for a mistake so he could pounce, which is not the typical Mike Alessi style of always wanting to be out front. Mike had enough speed and strength at Steel City to let the race come to him, instead of trying to run and hide. We’re pretty sure his first moto win was KTM’s first ever in the big class, and he very nearly won the overall, too.

But then there’s Grant Langston. Langston is just a gamer, and when the situation called for a clutch move, he had it. Langston didn’t just pass Alessi and Windham late in the second moto, he ripped the positions right from them. He dug deeper, focused harder and wanted it more, and that’s why he’s won so many titles like this before. That’s also why he does stuff like try to pass Alessi in the final turn at Hangtown in 2005 when it’s only the first round of the series and really doesn’t matter and ends up with a broken ankle, but hey, you have to play to your strengths. Right now the GL express is all fired up and chugging toward Glen Helen, but it’s not over until it’s over with this guy. Matthes told me all about how that wheel broke at Steel City in 2001….

 

Andrew Short is one of four riders left in the title fight.

 

And your final contestant in the 2007 title chase is Andrew Short. Short didn’t do anything great at Steel City and he didn’t do anything bad. And as a result he went from right in the thick of the points chase to, well, staying right in the thick of it. But I’m not convinced Short is a real player for this championship no matter what the math says. The pressure of the title may have made Langston and Alessi elevate their game, and it may even be making Ferry press (I said may, Steve) but at least it’s doing something. It seems like Short doesn’t even realize what’s happening. Then again, Shorty has proven that he’s not immune to pressure before, so maybe he’s pretending he’s not in the hunt just to trick himself into winning it. This is the best part of these close title chases: the bench racing is awesome!

So where exactly are Carmichael and Stewart? There was a lot of buzz at Steel City because the #4 bike went through tech on Saturday, but apparently that was just in the slim hope that Ricky would do so badly at his car race that he would get angry, hop on a plane, and take it out on the field at Steel City. If you want to insert your own joke here about that not being that slim of a chance, do it but you didn’t hear it from me (this is Matthes’ column after all. matthes@racerxcanada.com)

Meanwhile, Kawasaki finally, finally produced a press release regarding Stewart’s condition. It read: IRVINE, Calif. (August 25, 2007) – Monster Energy Kawasaki announced today that James Stewart will sit out the remainder of the 2007 AMA Toyota Motocross Championship with a knee injury.

Well hey, all we asked for was an official word and we got it, so I can’t complain. But obviously Kawasaki Heavy Industries doesn’t build PR machines. (Attention KHI, address complaints to matthes@racerxcanada.com).

With Stewart and Carmichael out, the big Monster Energy Triple Crown Money was up for grabs for someone else. And Red Bull KTM’s Mike Alessi got it! Kudos to Scott Sepkovic who even said on the podium that he will still give Mike the money even though he’s a Red Bull guy. Gavin Gracyk also picked up some major coin for landing the top privateer award. Gracyk pulled two more great starts and finished 8-6 for seventh overall. People are whispering that Gracyk is riding an overbore, so he wants to get this out in the open once and for all and clear his name. Gavin will put up $5000 to charity if someone protests him and he gets caught running a big bore. Gavin doesn’t even have $5000, but he says he doesn’t need it since his bike is legal and he won’t lose the protest. Will anyone step up and challenge him at Texas or California? Gavin says he’ll send $2500 to a foundation for Lou Gehrig’s disease and $2500 to Road to Recovery if you do.

Martin Davalos has come a long way recently on his results, including a career-best fourth in the second moto at Steel City. He says a lot of it stems from some new-found confidence, which is because, as he said, “KTM has a guy who helps with confidence.” Some sort of mental coach over there, maybe? Or maybe he just got a man friend who can blame everything bad on everything else. Also, Zach Osborne was back this weekend for KTM, and he rode well, too. A crash zapped him from the top ten in moto one, but he finished sixth in moto two.

So the KTM kids are building confidence. In a related story, Matthes asked for Wal-Mart stories in his last column. Here’s my take:

Wal-Mart is an unfound gem in the battle for confidence. We know how important mental strength is in racing, folks, and if you want to boost your fortitude, just head to Wal-Mart and take a gander at the clientele there. There is no doubt you are better looking than them, and you’ll probably soon think you’re more accomplished, wittier smarter and richer than them, too. Viola! Instant confidence. It’s like Dusty Klatt going back to Canada to go race some and maybe win some so he can get his confidence back. Dusty, all you had to do was go watch for some falling prices and you would have been feeling good!

Did I just compare the Wal-Mart clientele to Canadian motocross? Send all of your hate mail to matthes@racerxcanada.com

And get well soon, Dusty. It’s like he was going to Wal-Mart to get some confidence back, and the door was locked.

Last week Matthes wrote that Parts Unlimited’s Rob Buydos was the RC of motocross announcing. He received this letter in response, and I am going to print it this week for him.

Dear Steve,

You’re an idiot and your judgment sucks. Rob is merely at the same level of a Hannah or maybe an MC when it comes to announcing. The GOAT? I think that’s a little ridiculous and Jason Weigandt is the one that aspires to GOATness. You’ll see this weekend.

Jason Weigandt

How GOAT-like am I? Even at the top of my game, I’m taking this weekend off from the AMA/Toyota Motocross tour, just like RC. We have a Can-Am GNCC round in Pennsylvania and I’m covering it. Matthes is going to be filling in for me on the Racer X Motocross show. Consider this a trade, his column for the webcast.

And that’s it for Observations, because these were my observations. Steve will be back next week.