Steve Matthes Observations from Phoenix
JANUARY 15, 2008By Steve Matthes
Photos by Simon Cudby

Round two of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series took place in Phoenix and at least we could count on normalcy returning to the series. Chase field in Phoenix is a dome and even if it wasn’t, it rarely rains in Arizona anyways and even if the track was a woodcross, it would still be better than the old Sun Devil Stadium. Now we would see if Chad Reed really had something for James Stewart.

I thought the track was great, maybe a bit too short but overall it featured a lot of options and gave the fans some pretty big, safe jumps to watch. The Lites class in particular featured some great passing and options for the riders. There were a few turns that you could go outside or inside and triple/double down the straight. There was a split section of whoops, too bad the inside was clearly faster but it was a good idea.

The track in Phoenix featured a fast layout, with some wider than normal sections and a split section, where you could go whoops/triple or triple/whoops.

I read some internet chatter about the lap times being too short, in the 47 second range for the humans. If you think about it though, you add at the most 10 seconds and that’s a two and a half minute longer main event, hardly anything to get upset about.

I did wonder about one section on the track, after the first triple there was a right hand turn and five jumps followed by the second triple. If you were up high you could see that right at the fifth jump the lane took a right. Strange to see and you had to angle your bike to compensate for this bend. The Lites riders needed everything their bike had to triple out and more than a few clipped the tough block upon landing after not turning to the right.

Speaking of that jump, it was a good indicator of HP in a 250F. The guys that looked to have the easiest time: the Torco Honda riders. The riders that looked like they needed a bit more: all of the Yamaha riders.

James Stewart and Chad Reed are now tied in points, after Stewart's win in Phoenix.

As you know, James Stewart won by leading all twenty laps and taking his first win on the season. Chad Reed kept him honest however and even gained 2-3 seconds around the half way mark. James looks like he’s realized that a win by 4 seconds is the same as 40 seconds, he looked in control of the race the whole time.

I think if I’m Chad Reed, I’m happy about my ride. Like I mentioned, he gained a little bit on Stewie and that’s something to take home with you. He mentioned in the post race interview that he knew what he did wrong and that he was going to keep that fact to himself and work on it. What could it be? Did he forget to put plutonium in his YZ450 and therefore when he got to 1.21 gigawatts, nothing happened? I guess we’ll see at Anaheim 2.

Torco Oils Honda's Jake Weimer scored his third big pro win in Phoenix. His first was a moto win at the Calgary national in 2005, and his second was the Saturday night victory at this year's Rockstar Energy Drink U.S Open of Supercross. Ryan Dungey took second and extended his points lead to nine points over Jason Lawrence, while Brett Metcalfe claimed the final podium spot.

Jake “The Snake” Weimer won the Lites class after a terrific six-way battle. The crazy thing is Weimer didn’t even qualify the week before! He rode a smart race and probably won because he made the least mistakes out of the six. We need to get somebody on the whole who was the last rider to not qualify and then win the next weekend. I think Matt Walker did it a few years ago. Congratulations to Jake, looks like that time in Canada served you well.

Broc Hepler should’ve won it. When he got into the lead on lap six with a gorgeous pass on Ryan Dungey “And Dragons," I figured that his experience and veteran savvy would allow him to walk away with it. Dungey got him back but Broc re-took the lead on lap ten. He made two big mistakes on lap 11 and dropped from first to fourth, very uncharacteristic from a guy that’s been there before.

Ryan Dungey should’ve won it. He led the most laps and took the checkers the previous week. A few cases on some jumps and riding a little too defensively cost him. When Hepler passed him right after the finish on the inside, Ryan immediately switched from his faster outside to protecting that inside and he couldn’t master the line like Broc. That cost him, not to worry however; he widened his points lead in the series and looks like the favorite.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Mike Alessi got the holeshot and was riding pretty good until he clipped a tuff block and the cover of it got wrapped around the shifter and dangled dangerously around his sprocket for a few laps. He’s going to be a factor in the series simply because of his starting ability, after a few rounds he’s going to see what the big dogs do and learn on the job. I saw him in the lobby on Sunday morning and he called me the right name (instead of Dave Dye) and said he read all the columns. He even referenced my column two months ago! There goes another guy that I can’t make fun of anymore.

As I mentioned, Mike Alessi got the holeshot but when he was up on the podium accepting his check, someone had written Jeff on it! I bet that was the first time anybody had mistaken Mike for Jeff in his career. Somewhere, Jeff was probably smiling and nodding.

With the rains in Southern California making the factory test tracks a quagmire, pretty much everybody but James Stewart and Tim Ferry rode at the Alessi compound last week. By all accounts it’s pretty gnarly, you have to be there by 10:30 or you cannot ride, there’s a riders meeting, hot lap and you have a structured practice, heat, LCQ and mains and everything--just like a real SX. There were so many guys that Tony Alessi broke it down by skill level, top guys on one day, privateers on the next.

Mike’s teammate, David Vuillemin has had a rough start to his season. He had two pretty good off season crashes that have held him back from being 100 percent and this weekend in Phoenix, it seemed that he had bike problems throughout the day. He was seen revving the crap out of his bike on more than one occasion. Right after the main event, he again was not happy with his ride. How can Mike’s bike run so good and DV’s not? I heard that they are running completely different EFI ignition maps and as DV’s bike gets hot, things start getting goofy.

DV12 has had a less than stellar start to the series, going 10-15 in the first two rounds.

The Campbell River Crusher, Dusty Klatt, was in the house at Phoenix.We spoke for a bit and he’s shooting for round seven for his comeback from a broken collarbone. Luckily there is no shoulder damage and once the collarbone heals, he’ll be 100 percent. An interesting tidbit is that Kyle Mace, his fill-in on the Cernics Kawasaki team is guaranteed six races. Could that be why Klatt is shooting for round seven? BTW, Dusty was rocking a headband that combined with his long shaggy blond hair, made him look like a refugee from Woodstock.

What was the real story behind the Reed/Hill “fistfight” at the Yamaha track? From what I gather, Hill made an aggressive move on the inside of Reed and the next corner Reed squared him up and returned the favor. Bikes went down, riders got into a shoving match but it was quickly broken up and nothing else happened. Really not a big deal and I don’t think either side holds any grudges.

The tuff block that Alessi clipped in the main took out two of the top podium contenders in Tim Ferry and Davi Millsaps. Both riders went down when they had nowhere to go but straight into it. Ferry remounted first and came from 19th to 10th, posting the fourth fastest time of the night in the process. Millsaps wasn’t as good and could only muster a 14th. Whispers at the Honda truck have them not happy with Davi already as his weight is up and he still hasn’t got any sort of “program” to help him along.

I spoke with eight-time mechanic of the year Jeremy Albrecht of the Joe Gibbs Racing team for a while and he just couldn’t stop raving about Josh “Charles” Summey.  He said that when I called him last year trying to get Josh on the team, he had no idea about the kid but he was glad that I did. He said that Summey’s a hard worker, a real down to earth kid who wants to get better and has been great to work with. The team had a good night as Summey got ninth and his teammate Josh Hansen secured eighth. Good ride for both of them.

Joe Gibbs Racing's Charles Summey didn't make the main event at A1, but he made up for it with a ninth in Phoenix. Rather than call him Charles or Charles Josh Summey, maybe we could call him "Chuck?"

What’s up with the name switch for Josh, errr ... Charles? I don’t know and can’t really understand it myself. I also don’t know what to call him so I either use both first names or just Summey when I talk to him. His bike stand sticker says Charles, his posters say Josh. I wonder who rode this weekend, Charles or Josh? Whomever rode A1 and didn’t qualify, tell that guy to stay home and let the Phoenix guy race the rest of the season.

Grant Langston had his rear suspension collapse on him early on in the race. He DNF’d the race and those points could prove costly to him down the road in the chase for third in the series. Bummer for Yamaha and Grant, afterwards I was poking around for information and was told that the spark plug failed yet again. Who knew?

I really don't think it was the spark plug that broke, if I had to guess I bet it was the shock spring retainer clip that broke. If the linkage bolt breaks there is usually wreckage underneath and there was none when GL rode by me. But what do I know? Canada’s adopted son Michael Willard failed to make the Lites main but did get the Racer X Gas card for being the 5th place guy in the LCQ. And he summed up his Canadian MX days perfectly when he told Terry Boyd to “Party on!”

Monster Energy/Pro Circuit’s Austin Stroupe failed to make the main after crashing and getting a bad start in the LCQ. I would not want to be him this week around the PC shop that’s for sure. He has the speed but these things happen in the Lites class.

Man, after watching YOT’s Jason Lawrence come through the pack from seventh to fourth, I was thinking that he might just win this thing. It was not to be as J-Law hit the wall around the tenth lap and dropped back to fifth. He has the speed, just needed to be a little more fit on this night. Either that or get the holeshot, that would make things a little easier.

I should have been in one of those Mastercard commercials this past week. It would’ve gone like this: Gas to drive down to LA to watch my Toronto Maple Leafs: $200.00; 4 tickets to watch my Leafs play the LA Kings and Anaheim Ducks: $400.00; watching them get blown out 5-0 and 5-2: priceless. I’m not sure what to think of these guys but if I saw Andrew Raycroft walking down the street being chased by a pack of killer grizzly bears, I would throw honey on him.

Kevin Windham is the standout Honda rider thus far in the 450 class, with a fifth at A1 and third in Phoenix, K-Dub now sits third in the series.

Reports of Kevin Windham’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. KW got third and you don’t think he was smiling under his helmet as he held off two of the riders that Honda decided were more worthy of a factory bike then him, Andrew Short and Ivan Tedesco. Because of Tedesco and Ben Townley being hired, Honda decided that they didn’t have the money or parts to supply KW with a full works bike and so Pro Circuit is doing the motor and pipes. Don’t go and shed a tear for KW just yet however, upon closer inspection of his bike, he still has the top of the line forks and shock and works clamps and races. The power that PC gets him is probably real close to the factory guys, and after talking to somebody at Factory Connection, I was told the biggest difference is the weight. With KW’s bike being 5 or 6 pounds heavier than his last years 450, I would guess that a lot of it is probably in the transmission and carburetor. A great ride for the Louisianan.

This just in: MDK/KTM’s Justin Brayton is for real. After getting his first podium last week, he was at the tail end of the six-way battle for the lead before he fell late in the race. If you’re looking for a guy that could be a sleeper in the next few races, look at the #114.

James Stewart was upset with the AMA after practice, when number seven came around to the split whoop section there was a tuff block laying in the middle of the track and he actually jumped over it one lap and the next time went into the other lane to avoid it. After seeing this, the AMA deleted all of Stewie’s practice times for cutting the track, even though it was due to the tuff block. When James came around the next lap, unbelievably there was another block out there and a track worker ran out there to grab it and when he had his hand on it and saw James coming, he let it go and ran off the track! Now Stewie was really mad because he wasn’t sure if the guy got scared (likely) or saw that it was James and wanted to jack with him. Anyways, all was forgiven afterwards when James laid down the fastest lap after that.

He’s one of “my guys” and I always cheer for him but Nick Wey really stunk it up this weekend. I tried to contact him to find out why but he didn’t get back to me. I have to think that he was hurt or his bike had problems. Something to explain his lackluster ride in the main, he honestly looked like he wasn’t trying and that’s not the Nick Wey I know. He finished 16th after what I thought was a pretty good first race last week.

Man, I feel for Troy Lee Designs Honda’s Gavin Gracyk. As I’m sure you all know, his father died this week and the funeral was Thursday and he went right to the race. Now if this was Hollywood, Gavin would’ve gone out there and won or at least made the podium for his dad but this wasn’t Hollywood as he didn’t make the main event after crashing in the LCQ. I watched him walk off after the LCQ down the tunnel and it was nice to see the crowd acknowledge the unbelievable grief he was feeling that moment by giving him cheers. It will only get better from here for last year’s privateer hero.

Two other riders that are struggling early in the season are Ryan Clark and Manuel Rivas. Neither has made a main after being main event staples last season. Rivas in particular looked real good last season in his first season of supercross but he’s not having the same success this year. I’m not sure about Clark, this weekend I will track him down and ask him what’s up.

My wife likes to look for rescue dogs even though we already have three and that’s all we’re going to have. We both laughed at this dog and the description underneath it.
 

Rocker: Cute & feisty, Maltese & Shih-Tzu, special needs for aggression, male, 18 months.

Well that’s it for this week, make sure you read Observations after Anaheim 2 as it's retro night and I’m as super pumped as RC will be there and I’ll fill you guys in on everything. As usual, please email me at matthes@racerxcanada.com and share your thoughts.