Steve Matthes Observations from Anaheim 2
JANUARY 23, 2008

By Steve Matthes
Photos by Simon Cudby

When Live Nation announced that Anaheim 2 was going to be a retro night and they would honor the legendary 1986 race, I was excited. Anybody who is a regular reader knows that I am forever living in the past and now my childhood heroes were going to be recognized for all that they have done. Then when Live Nation announced that they would replicate the track from that night for today’s riders, I was practically salivating at the thought. I even watched Anaheim 1986 again, and did a podcast interview with Ron Lechien to get myself ready.

Parts Unlimited's Rob Buydos was looking sharp at A2!

When I walked the track on Friday I was as excited as Mike Farber at Ocktoberfest. Just like I imagined after watching the ’86 race, it was just random bumps thrown in wherever. There was a wall put in that almost completely stopped the riders. Of course today’s riders, with their 55hp 450s, were jumping things that the guys never thought of in ’86 but I really hope that Live Nation and Dirt Wurx look at this race and learn from it to make our 2008 tracks better. I’ve been in the belief that the mostly-the-same tracks we have had the last few years does not make for good racing. This retro track got ROUGH, there were braking bumps in the first turn that were so deep I saw German soldiers heads pop up! The triple was 10 feet further and if you tried to stick it in on a guy, you couldn’t jump it. The wall that I spoke of earlier was a great section to watch. The straightaway before the start straight was challenging and unforgiving.

What would I leave in if I was head track designer of the world? I would leave the sand; I would leave the “wall” and the big triples. It all contributed to the riders making more mistakes then I have seen in a while. Please Dirt Wurx, look at what you have done and do it some more!

All was not great in track land however; during press day Chad Reed and Nathan Ramsey were jumping farther than the designers thought. This led to some last-minute adjustments after press day where Dirt Wurx went in and steepened up the faces and peaked the jumps up.

As you probably all know, Monster Energy Kawasaki’s James Stewart is done for the season. He announced that he hurt his knee Dec 20 (the same knee that knocked him out of last season’s outdoors) at home and hasn’t ridden or trained much since then. He re-injured it in his heat race in Phoenix and during the practice for A2, the pain became too much and he is headed for the operating room. That’s really too bad for everyone: the fans, Live Nation, the guys at Kawasaki and most of all, Team Stewart. I have heard that he’s been riding without an ACL for years, which isn’t that big of a deal—until you start having trouble. Then it’s a bad thing. He got it cleaned up last season and I guess he figured that he was all good. I bet he wishes that he would’ve got it completely fixed last summer and he would be 6 months ahead in the healing process. But that’s easy to say in hindsight.

Stewart does the old "look down" in practice. Unfortunately, Stewart's shoelaces weren't untied, but his knee was.  He pulled out of A2 due to an aggravated knee injury, and Stewart said in a press conference that we probably won't see #7 until Glen Helen.

So because of that little announcement, Team Yamaha’s Chad Reed cruised to the victory at Anaheim 2. He moved into the lead on the first lap past Mike Alessi and checked out, tying Rick Johnson on the career SX win list. Fitting on retro night, huh?

Chad made a mention in his post race interview that the track was really challenging and some guys couldn’t adjust. Obviously, when one of the best riders of all time says the track was challenging, that’s a good thing. Here’s what else he told Steve Cox - 5 mins with ... Reed.

The coolest part of the day that featured many cool things? Seeing David Bailey and Rick Johnson (on a KTM with what looked like trailer numbers) ride around the track in the opening ceremonies. That was great but I have to admit, RJ should have ridden a Honda with number 5. His political correctness hurt the impact of the event, in my opinion. Jeff Ward was rocking his Team Kawasaki jacket all day, despite being paid by Honda, and I think for this occasion KTM would’ve understood.

It was cool to see "The Icon" David Bailey tour Angel Stadium on a retro CRF450R.

Hi, my name is Steve Matthes, and I would like to admit that I was wrong for literally laughing at the people in the industry that told me Yamaha’s Josh Hill was a contender for the podium. He proved me and a lot of other people wrong with a strong second. Yes, he benefitted from Andrew Short, Tim Ferry and Grant Langston having bad races but, hey, the dude podiumed in his third-ever 450 SX race! He was impressive and I apologize to all the people in Yoncalla, Oregon.

Larry Huffman was in the house!! Live Nation brought back the legendary announcer from the eighties to call the action and he was good, very good. He informed the crowd on the riders’ backgrounds and I thought he did a better job than the regular guys. You still couldn’t really hear him from the stands and that’s saying something about the noise levels. Look for another exciting podcast with Mr. Huffman later in the week.

Look people, Tim Ferry isn’t getting any younger and I need to find a new guy that I can attach myself to. I think that guy might be Ryan Dungey. I hope he likes me and doesn’t find me creepy. Dungey won for the second time this season and extended his points lead to 22. His riding style is beautiful to watch and he seems like a great kid. The key to his race was his mastering the triple onto the tabletop before the start straight. He jumped it consistently to make time on Monster Energy/Pro Circuit’s Austin Stroupe and pull away for the win. I’m going to take it slow with him, maybe just some small talk at first and see where we stand after that….

Was Ryan Dungey riding for the win at A2, or simply trying to get the race over with before Matthes had a chance to find his rental car?

Canada’s own Kyle Beaton raced his first ever supercross in the USA at Anaheim and failed to make the night show. Beets looked good but he’s riding with an injury and couldn’t get many clean laps in his practices. It’s really tough to just go out and lay down a fast lap right away but that’s what you have to do. There were yellow flags everywhere during Kyle’s practices (one of them for him!) and that hurt the little guy’s hopes of making it in. I honestly thought he would be a shoe-in for the night show… shows you what I know.

Yamaha’s Broc Hepler just waited too long before starting his charge. He moved into second on the 11th lap and then closed up a lot on Dungey. It would’ve been interesting with a few more laps. I think he took that long to get comfortable on the weirdo track; I watched him and he was killing it in the rhythm section after the triple. After the champagne shower on the fans, I was getting him for the webcast show and he was all excited saying “Hey, you’re Steve Matthes!”  I have never spoken one word to B-Hep in my life, so I suppose he’s a reader. Observations--the column that the pros depend on!

Tim Ferry was fast. Seriously, I know all of you are throwing up on your keyboard right now but he was. He was absolutely dead last down the start straight and fell in the second turn with Andrew Short and Grant Langston. He got up and charged to sixth and probably would’ve had 5th with another lap. His fastest lap was the 17th and the next closest guy was Tedesco, who got his on the 12th lap. That’s some tough luck for the big one-five at the last two races. I still see no reason why he won’t be the second fastest guy if he gets a start.

Speaking of Grant Langston, he really has had some bad luck. I wonder if he broke a mirror or something? His suspension collapsed in Phoenix and this week he got a flat rear tire about halfway through the main. Who gets flats in supercross these days? Langston, that’s who.

KTM test rider Michael Sleeter had the coolest looking bike; it was a ONE Industries graphic kit that took a page from the blue and white KTM’s on the ‘80s. I hope they sell it, it was sweet.

Michael Sleeter went old school with his KTM 450 SX-F.

I was checking out Hepler’s bike and it’s interesting to note that he uses stock triple clamps, top and bottom, which is something that Langston also did last summer. It’s just a flex issue really. Hepler’s Yami must be about the only bike on the track that doesn’t run an offset of any sort. Yamaha really blew it in their 2008 ads in my opinion. They should’ve had a picture of Grant winning with stock forks and clamps and saying something like, “Do not buy clamps and suspension for your Yamaha, we didn’t.”

Hart & Huntington’s Troy Adams didn’t qualify for the second week in a row and that’s not a great start for a guy that can do so much better. He rode great in the LCQ but came up short in the end. He has all the tools, he just can’t seem to open the toolbox. He did earn the Racer X Gas Card….

Speaking of rough starts, David Vuillemin is having one. He’ll do better as soon as he gets more seat time. DV12.com signed a deal to wear the RXR air chest protector, it’s a cool product but with his all white get-up this weekend and the fact he wears the RXR under his jersey, he kinda looked like the stay-puff marsh-mellow man.

Here is an actual letter from an actual reader in the new March Racer X:

“First off, I love the website and the magazine. Just some small criticism: anything Steve Matthes contributes in Racer X and Racer X Canada is awful. His stuff is the only negative stuff in either mag or site. Probably a nice guy, but his stuff sucks. Do yourself a favor and take the thing that tarnishes an otherwise perfect product out. Take a poll online or in the magazine, I am sure I am not the only one that feels this way.”  T.J. SIMS

I wonder if T.J Sims is an anagram for Joe Skidd?  That’s okay, you can’t please everyone, I guess, but I do wonder why T.J. keeps reading my musings if they make him so angry?

Davi Millsaps won his heat and was running third for a few laps before slowly moving backwards. He eventually pulled out with a mysterious injury of some sort. I don't know what the matter with him was, but he was in some serious pain in the mechanics area. Hope he gets it figured out… Okay, EJ found out it was Gastritis.

The track was rough and showed who was in shape and who isn’t. Josh Hansen needs to get better; he dropped back to eighth and just looked to be hanging on at the end. He’s still doing better than I thought he would, however, and will probably just get stronger as the series goes on. He’s tenth in the points and so far, Gibbs Racing looks pretty smart for signing him.

Speaking of Gibb’s Racing, legendary coach Joe Gibbs was on hand, with NASCAR announcer Jamie Little doing a feature on the coach and his new team.
Austin Stroupe didn’t make the main last week, but in the crazy world of the Lites class he went out and got a third at A2. He charges hard and looks to be the real deal. Tim Ferry endorses him so obviously that’s good enough for me. Seriously, Red Dog likes his work ethic and the fact that he is serious about getting better and has virtually no ego.

Last week’s winner Jake Weimer didn’t  have as good as luck this week as he crashed in the sand and took awhile to get going and finished 15th.

I spoke with Josh/Charles Summey about his season and it turns out that “Josh” raced Anaheim 1 and Charles has raced the last two rounds. I told “Charles” to tell “Josh” to stay home as “Josh” failed to make the main at Anaheim 1. Summey rode well this weekend to tenth.

Almost everybody had retro gear on and I think the winner was Fox and the RJ-inspired Fox gear that Stewie wore in practice and Tedesco wore (only his was blue). It was cool for sure. Tim Ferry actually wore O’Neal gear from the ‘80s in practice which is pretty amazing to me because he usually freaks out if you change anything on his bike/gear.

Once again Rockstar/Makita’s Mike Alessi got a good start; as a matter of fact he got a massive holeshot into the right hand first turn. He rode good to get fourth but he wins the award for scariest-almost-crash of the night when his hand blew off the bars upon landing off the big triple. Scary stuff for sure.

 It seems that the Branden Jessemen drama is over. He will ride for Monster/Pro Circuit on the east coast. His old/new team, the Jungle Jim Chamberlain Italian Suzuki team had him signed up and even put an injunction on Pro Circuit to keep Branden on Suzukis. The thing that tipped the scales in favor of PC was the fact that Branden hadn’t signed a contract yet, just gave Jim his verbal word. I feel for Jim and his team for sure, but I also think that Branden is going to do better on PC then he would have on a Suzuki 450.

And now a few photos from the best photographer in the ... the ... well, here are some pictures that I took:

This was probably the trickest bike in the whole pits. Bob Hannah’s works HRC 250 from 1985. The last year of the true works bike; it’s a thing of beauty and I wanted to sit on it in the worse way.

Honda even dragged out this early 80’s RIBI forked 250. Pretty cool!

Here’s Jeff Ward’s SX championship 1988 KX250. Kawi brought out some bikes for everyone to check out. They have a ton of actual race bikes from back in the day at the shop. Check out the magnesium lower fork tubes!

Look who I ran into while cruising the press box! None other than David “I hate the internet message boards” Pingree. He was hungry so we went and got some hot dogs together. Nothing like two buddies sharing some wieners!  photo: CTI Trevor