Matthes Observations from the Indy Trade Show
FEBRUARY 21, 2008 By Steve Matthes and special guest appearance by Jason Weigandt
Photos by Matthes and Dan Stenning

Before we get into what I did on the weekend, here is a report from none other than Jason Weigandt on the Houston SX …

Well I had better get used to writing some Obs since Matthes may no longer be going to the races. See, Live Nation not only survived a weekend without him, but I think they were better off. I believe I heard now we won’t have to deal with Canadian labor laws getting thrown around on Saturday. Or maybe that was just talk about the Vancouver supercross? Either way, credit goes to Kristen Gibson of Live Nation, who filled in masterfully for Matthes down on the floor of Reliant Stadium. Matthes helps me and Hollywood Holley with the post-race interviews by grabbing the riders and making sure they talk to us on the webcast before they go back to the pits after the race. The goal is to interview all three podium finishers in both classes, but it’s not easy to hold two riders there while we’re talking to the third one. Kristen got the job done, which means she is either very good or Matthes’ job is very easy. Any guesses?

But surely Steve wants to return to the races. This weekend he missed the Racer X Supercross trading card which just happened to feature none other than TIM FERRY!!! And then even worse, (one of) Canada’s finest returned to the track in his much anticipated debut for the 2008 season. DUSTY KLATT!!!! By the way, I’m still holding out hope that we can turn the word Dusty Klatt into an insult term that has nothing to do with the actual rider. “Dude, stop being a Dusty Klatt!” has a ring to it, or even, “She does not have a Dusty Klatt!” The name works. As a racer, Dusty did okay, making the SX main in his first try by grabbing second in the LCQ. He did have a little help from Troy Adams, who was running third in the LCQ, crashed and took down about 17 riders in the process. Dusty then turned his 20th gate pick into a 16th place finish in the main, just one spot behind Matthes’ other boy, Jason Thomas.

Meanwhile, up front, the news reverberated so hard that I’m sure even everyone up in Indy heard the cheers when Kevin Windham scored the win. The stars aligned here, since K-Dub designed the track, and had a ton of Louisiana-ites cheering him. If each rider picked who they would want to have end Reed’s streak (besides themselves) it would be K-Dub. He’s a likeable guy and a respected veteran. The fact that he was written off by many a few months ago only makes this renaissance greater.

Windham’s win was legit. He had a seven second lead at the 10 lap mark when Reed got into second. He also had some lapped traffic ahead. But Reed couldn’t make a serious dent in that seven second gap. Also, although Windham designed the track, all he really wanted to do was build that cool jump over the start straight, and have rhythm lanes with a few different options. Kevin didn’t build any of the obstacles that he has on his track at home.

The enigmatic Chad Reed continues to not let on to what “problems” he is dealing with. When he finished second he said “Some of the issues we’re having, caught up to us tonight. I’m not gonna lie, I really wanted to get out there and win those races and break that record that RC and MC have. Some of our issues caught up with us this weekend.” Since he doesn’t give any other info, I took a guess that maybe when he said “it caught up to us” maybe he meant the pressure of trying to win out for the whole season? He said no, there was no pressure. So now I once again have no clue what his issue is. I do know he can now only win 14 U.S. Supercrosses this year and tie MC and RC’s single season win total, so I guess the real question is: would a win in Toronto count for the record books? (I’m sure RXC readers have their vote.)

I actually liked the fact that Reed was mad about finishing second, though. The guy could have gotten into second and said well, “I have a huge points lead so I’m going to just accept this spot tonight.” Chad, this year, will not accept anything if it’s not first, which is good to hear.

TIMMY FERRY GOT THIRD!!!
Fourth went to Josh Hill and fifth to Andrew Short. We saw Shorty in the pits after the race and he was not happy. I asked “Did you see Reed do that triple when he was next to you?” and Short said “Oh yeah, I saw it. I saw him pulling right away from me!” Short was pretty close last weekend in San Diego and thought he would get closer to the podium riding in his adopted state of Texas. Instead, he was further back. He was so upset that he almost wasn’t smiling when I was talking to him after the race! By the way, I saw Short eating at a Mexican restaurant on Friday night (through my telephoto lens). I thought he had fallen off the training wagon, but he ordered chicken fajitas with vegetables.

Also, it looked like Travis Preston pulled off the track for no good reason in the main, but he actually had another rider's peg bust out the spokes in his front wheel.

In the Lites, someone flipped the switch on Austin Stroupe. He got passed by Ryan Dungey on the first lap of their Lites heat race, fell two seconds behind while battling some others, got back into second and then started making time on Dungey. He even recorded the fastest lap time of any Lites rider in the heat race. Then in the main, same thing: he was right behind Lawrence and all of a sudden, you almost saw the light bulb flash over his helmet with the thought of “I can beat this guy.” He started going faster, putting on pressure, and then made a pass on a rider who has dominated the last three races. Wow! Had Austin gotten a little extra confidence a little earlier in the series, he would be right in the title hunt.

But you know what we really want to talk about. That Lites trash talk! This week’s J-Law quote is: “That might be my A game, being smart, which is something Ryan Dungey hasn’t been.” Boo ya!!! Rumor has it Lawrence also had words with Dungey in the mechanic’s area during practice, in the tunnel heading down to the track before the main, and was even (brace yourself) KNOCKING ON THE DOGHOUSE before the gate dropped just to annoy Dungey! A few of the industry guys down on the floor told me what happened. JL and RD lined up on opposite sides of the dog house for the main. When they were getting into their spot, Lawrence was hitting the dog house just to annoy Dungey. These may be school yard tactics, but, all you can say is that Dungey had the holeshot and the lead, crashed, then crashed again coming back through. That’s 10 crashes in the last four main events for Dungey, if you’re scoring at home (or even if you’re alone). Now the question is: what does Lawrence do to continue the mental onslaught for the next two months before we go to Seattle? Does he prank call Dungey? Ram his cart at the grocery store? Egg his house?

We won’t see anything at the supercross races because next weekend in Atlanta kicks off the East! 

Thanks, Weege! I appreciate the hard work and I’m sure you kept all the cool stuff for Racerhead. I myself might’ve written a bit more about Tim Ferry, but hey. Now go and get busy on Blogandt!
You’re probably asking yourself, “Why did Matthes get Weege to write a Houston SX OBS?” Well that was because I am incredibly lazy and the fact that I was at the motorcycle dealer show in beautiful, sunny, not-cold-at-all Indianapolis. As usual, there was your fair share of half naked girls, brand new cool products and the usual late night shenanigans. Some highlights were once again watching Team USA get beat down in the annual Racer X hockey game. I had to laugh at some of the USA written descriptions of it being a close game. It was 1-1 after one but the shot count had to be 40-13 in the Canucks favor. It was just a matter of time before the dam burst. And burst it did as 83 year old HGH specialist Rob McCullough potted three biscuits in the basket for the Canucks.

Matthes' was more than stoked to see MX Jesus (also known as Rollerball) on the newest RXC cover.

Team Canada's Dan O'Reilly pulls out his "draw" stick against Team USA's Scott Walleneberg. Nice laces, Scott!

D4 Performance's Scott Donkersgoed is robbed by USA's Danny Walker on a penalty shot.

Team Canada once again took the gold with a 6-3 win over the Yanks.

A few Fan of the Week's brought out a Team Corona/Honda race bike.

 

 

The Racer X/Ogio party was fun for sure; Andy Bell of Ogio is always a train wreck and exciting to watch. I didn’t do too much else to be honest, I was feeling under the weather the whole time and the three days of talking to people trying to sell Merge Racing Technologies was taxing on my small brain.

You’ll see all the new products that were at the show everywhere so I thought I’d focus on the people of the industry that really make this whole thing so much fun. These are the movers and the shakers of the motorcycle world, and I’m happy to report that these guys are my friends as well.

Here is Randy “The Rubber Man” Richardson, he is the rep for Michelin tires and one of the smartest comebackers in the sport. Good luck getting Randall to be at a loss for words, he always has a quick comeback. Little known fact about Randy: he qualified at the Charlotte SX in the 125 class in 1995. He got a good start in the LCQ and “blocked like hell” to get fourth. Thereby becoming the first man to make a main event for Michelin. Not nearly as cool as me being the mechanic for Michelin’s first ever USA win, but still pretty good.

 

 

Here is 1990 125 East Coast champion Denny Stephenson. He works for Smith Googles as the … well I’m not really sure what his job is actually. Denny is always good for some sort of story and I wonder if he lies awake at night wondering what would have happened had he taken his career more seriously? He is the second fastest rider to ever come out of Nebraska, just behind Brian Deegan (kidding.) Denny would be a great guy to have on for a podcast show but I don’t think any of his stories are G-Rated.

Steve Van Zylun (aka Dutchie) is the Moose pro rider support manager. Basically, I call him when I need gear and he jumps through hoops to get it done for me. That’s his only job. Here he is with his arm around Broc Sellards. I’m kidding, that’s not really Sellards people, it’s just a dummy.

 
 

Randy Valade is the rider support guy for MSR. His job is to make sure that MSR riders are set up with what they need to represent MSR. I think his only job is to be Nick Wey’s manfriend, as in if you kicked Nick in the stomach, Randy would say “ow!” RJV as he is called, also has a Canadian 125 championship to his credit, pretty cool and he’s only trailing Ross Pederson by 28 titles now.

 

None other than Racer X Illustrated’s brand manager, Mike Farber. Mike used to own a bar in Morgantown WV that DC used to frequent. They became friends and DC hired him to guide the brand at all the SX/MX races and represent RXI at all after parties and functions. Mike is very good at his jobz.

 

Here is freestyle legend Carey Hart. He is now the proud owner of a race team that we at Merge Racing Technologies are proud to sponsor with our products and engines and suspension development. I first met Hart in 1998 when he was a struggling (is there any other kind?) privateer racing supercross. He hung out with me and Jason Frenette during the weeks while we were driving the circuit. Despite the fame he’s achieved since then, I have to say that he’s the same guy as he was in ’98. Just a hell of a lot more tattoos.

 

Two people that are the driving force behind their brands, Dave Kaizer of Renthal, and John Anderson of QTM. I first met Dave when he was at Answer a long time ago and he now does a great job at Renthal supplying me with bars and sprockets for my KX450. Just don’t ask him about Renthal’s quick adjust clutch perch. John used to work at White Brothers and left there after a long time to move to QTM. QTM just became the official distributor of Talon wheels which means John will be busy trying to get me a set for my bike.

 

 

SPAM ALERT. Here is the Merge Racing Hydraulic Preload Adjuster. We introduced this cool piece at the show and the response was great. 15mm of sag adjustment with just an 8mm T-handle! No more hammer and punch and trying to turn the spring while being burnt by the pipe. Another cool thing was me being the top salesman at the show, outselling big time people like former team owner Michael Holigan and mad scientist/GP mechanic Jim Lewis. I tell ya, I could sell ice to an Eskimo!