All of us supercross carnies were in Indianapolis this week. Considering I didn’t go to Atlanta last week, and I was in Indy for the Motorcycle Dealer Show the week prior, I was pretty familiar with the fine city of Indianapolis. It kind of felt like Groundhog Day for me but without the groundhog driving a truck over a cliff.

Live Nation continued its “Hey riders? Bitching about our tracks? You design them then!" program with Chad Reed drawing this one up. As you can imagine it was real technical with lots of different ways to do something and a sand section. It was made even more challenging by the massively deep ruts that developed during the night.

Guess what? Chad Reed won!! We’re now 2 for 2 with riders winning on their designed tracks. (Stewie designed Atlanta but didn’t race, but with him admitting that it was a direct copy of his practice track at home, can I get a 3 for 3? I mean c’mon--James would’ve waxed those guys had he raced; it was his practice track everybody!)

So guess who designed Toronto? That’s right, the big one-five. I dunno if he is going to be ready for that one but I’m going to do whatever it takes to get Ferry to TO, even if I have to carry him on my back like a pack mule.

Anyways, CR absolutely destroyed the field, grabbing the holeshot, checking out and winning by 10 seconds. And that was with him going six seconds slower on his 19th lap. I believe the reason he won was because the track was so technical, you couldn't make any mistakes. When you add in ruts, and tricky jump sections, you get dudes that were making mistakes everywhere, every dude but Reed that is. He’s probably the most technically sound guy out there, he rarely makes mistakes (last week was a shocker for sure) so all that added up to a butt whipping for the two-two.

I heard from a source that Reed is also meeting with Gibbs Racing about next year. But I’m sure we’ll hear that CR is meeting with everybody about next year. That’s the smartest thing to do.

Travis Preston, fresh off a podcast show with me, had what I think was his best race since he came back (coincidence?) He finished 6th after starting 12th and looked strong. What is even funnier was his mechanic Mike Williamson putting on his pitboard “Bunny would be proud” when TP went by on the last lap. Who is Bunny? It’s his donkey! Travis Preston has a donkey and his sixth place finish means Bunny gets a bag of carrots this week.

Trey Canard is having a dream season. He’s led every lap of his heats and 29 out of thirty in the mains. He led the most important last one at Indy to claim his second win. He looks really good and it seemed that there were faster riders than him but he kept his cool when chaos ensued and rode off with the win. What’s funny is his teammate Josh Grant had the hype surrounding him but is once again self destructing, making the humble, shy Oklahoman the top guy on the team.

Ryan Villopoto probably should have won the thing. He caught Trey and was all over him before passing him down the start straight. Too bad for RV that he wasn’t on the salt flats of Bonneville and he had to actually stop for the next turn. He couldn’t get his Kawi slowed down in time and the stoppie he did all the way to the turn was cool, but the rear end coming around and hitting the Tuff block, sending him tumbling, was not cool. RV then couldn’t start his bike for a bit but still came back to second. A great ride that might come back to help him at the end of the series.

Andrew Short seriously is probably about three inches shorter after this weekend. In his heat, he was in the wrong gear before the finish line and still attempted to jump it. He came up horrifically short and just crumpled like a double-stuffed Oreo in my mouth. To his credit he got up quickly and raced to a transfer position. Then, in the main, while he was riding really well, he started making these mistakes in the rhythm section after the finish, casing jumps and on/offs like it was no one’s business. He dropped from second to fourth but recovered for third and a good ride, but I bet his ankles and knees really took a beating.

After he was done with the webcast interview (during which he thanked his mechanic), Andrew asked me if I wanted him to wipe off the sweaty headset for the next guy and then said that it was too bad Ferry got hurt and to wish him well. Hmmm, offering to clean the headset and well wishes for a guy he traded aluminum with the week before? You stay classy Andrew Short!

The Supercross (still a dumb name AMA) class had only 31 entries. Yes, that’s right, you read that right. That left us with 12 riders in the LCQ; not a good “look.” Memo to the AMA: your qualifying rules need to be a little looser.

Torco Racing Fuels Honda’s Kevin Windham was riding strong, being the first guy to jump this tricky triple and pressured Reed in the heat, making me think that the main was going to be a goody. But in the main when he got past Davi Millsaps and into third, something happened ... .the old KW came back and he really, really faded. He almost got passed by Nathan Ramsey who was a half track behind KW at one point. He ended up fifth but it was not a good ride. He was shaking his head coming by the mechanics area at one point. I asked around but no one seemed to know what the deal was; maybe by the time this thing hits the internet, we’ll know.

Ryan Dungey jumped to the big boys class and showed he’s got some spunk. It’s probably better to be racing instead of sitting at home thinking about how he blew a 31-point lead in the West coast Lites series. I really didn’t think he could get top five like his agent Tony Gardea said he could—I just didn’t think Ryan would have the extra endurance you need on a 450—but Tony proved that he’s smarter than me. Now 84 percent of the industry knows more than me.

Ben Coisy had a good race finishing fourth, but he did a bad thing when he passed Ryan Morais on the second lap. It wasn’t the pass that was bad; it was the fact that he put Ryan right over the Tuff blocks when it seemed he didn’t have to. If I had any doubts on whether it was dirty or not, they were put to rest when I found out that Team Honda told him after that it wasn’t cool. Good for Honda to point that out.

Antonio Balbi, who would win the vote hands down for the “rider most likely to grenade himself at any moment,” had an exciting night. I was down on the floor with an industry insider and we were talking about Balbi and how the ruts were sure to cause problems for him. Then we watched his heat race and covered our eyes and looked away as Antonio almost ate it five times in one lap. He goes fast and makes it exciting every lap.

Balbi and Ryan Clark had an eventful LCQ with Clark slamming the Chilean charger and taking the final spot away with two laps to go. With one lap to go Balbi hit Clark pretty good and broke RC’s clutch perch, the hit allowed Jacob Marsack to squeeze by with two turns left to go. Ryan crept around the second-to-last turn and realized his clutch was broken and went slowly to the inside of the final turn to avoid stalling. Unfortunately he went too slow and Marsack squared up and stuffed him, taking the last transfer spot and relegating Clark to receiving the Racer X Gas Card. It was great racing, all three guys never gave up.

I was checking Tyler Bowers out (no, not like that) behind the gate and let me just reaffirm this common belief—he’s too freakin’ big for a Lites bike. He’s a monster.

I saw the infamous Rupert X Pellet at Indy, and it’s always good to see Rup. Please start posting on the internet again Rup, I get your humor and we are soul sisters.

Charles Summey had a rough night. Well, rough main event. He was on it in the heat and looked great but went down hard twice in the main. The second time was with four laps to go when he high-sided in the whoops before the finish and knocked the wind out of himself. He literally crawled off the track and just laid their waiting to die. Poor little Summey. I text messaged him on Sunday and he said he was fine and good to go for Daytona.

Ryan Sipes went down in the first turn and was way back at the start. When he got up he slammed his fist against his cross bar and started charging. With all the chaos and confusion with the Lites guys ,Ryan went from 14th to 4th, eventually finishing 5th. Another good ride for Ryan and the MDK KTM squad.

I know, I know, DV12 only finished 9th and had to ride the LCQ so on the outside you would think that he didn’t do well. Ahhhh, but that’s why you read Observations, to know the real story. The real story is that in the main, he rode great. He had a crappy gate pick from the LCQ and was 18th going into the first turn, 14th at the end of the first lap and finished 9th with a malfunctioning front brake in what I think was one of his better rides this season.

Also on the DV12.com front, last week Jason Weigandt said on the webcast that DV didn't want to be called "The Cobra" anymore. Well, I did some fact checking and have decided that Weege must've came up with that one in his usual drunken stupor.
This is the text message from DV:

ME -"Is it true you don't want to be called the Cobra anymore?"
DV -"No, I like that name"
ME - (Throwing my fellow journalist under the bus) "That's what Weege said"
DV -"He doesn't know anything"

Observations - The column that keeps on giving!

Sure, Reedy checked out, but the battle behind him was fantastic. Davi Millsaps, Short, KW and Josh Hill waged a war with Honda teammates Millsaps and KW even coming together a few times. First it looked like Short had a good grip on second, then KW was coming and finally Davi grabbed hold of second and pulled away for what I thought was a second. But Millsaps continues to be a magnet for Tuff blocks as he hit some, went off the track in a pretty good crash and took a while to get going. So finally Hill finished second and matched his career best finish. Good for Yamaha, who needed that good finish.

The Campbell River Crusher, Dusty Klatt, had a miserable night. The Canadian hero was feeling the effects of the flu. He didn’t ride all week and came to Indy to try his best. But he probably should’ve just stayed home as he DNQ. He was up front in his races but couldn’t stay there as he just had no energy. Klattapuss needs to get some luck for sure.

Billy Payne continued his strong comeback season with an 8th. (When I say comeback, I really mean resurrection as he is coming back from just a small eight-year (!?!) sabbatical.) Also, Jim Holley’s strange obsession with all things Payne continues every week and is almost as fascinating as Payne’s strong rides.

Tyler Medaglia didn’t look as good as he did in Atlanta. Maybe the ruts just didn’t agree with the Canadian as he struggled during the night show. One positive thing is that Tyler seems to have no problem making the night show; he’s in there every week and hopefully soon will be a player.

Nathan Ramsey’s bike blew up right before the finish on the last lap, so what did he do? Well in true Ryan Hughes-style he pushed his bike up and over the finish. A few weeks back Dan Reardon had the same thing happen and he couldn’t make it up but Nate Dog pushed it pretty easily. Maybe we could make this some sort of intermission show? Which rider can push his steed over the finish the quickest? We don’t need any semis, this would be the perfect filler!

Kyle Keylon had the heartbreak of the night as he was in qualifying position in the Lites LCQ with a short ways to go. Like a hundred feet or so before he slid out and DNQ. That sucks for Kyle but I've watched this kid last year and this year and he’s got some talent.

Billy Laninovich jumped up to the 450 class also this week but he didn’t fare as well as Dungey (and dragons). BL132 went down in practice and hurt his shoulder and didn’t line up for the night show. Too bad for Billy, I think his future is in the 450s and he needs to show that he can do something.

I’m in Florida right now as I write this and we took in a foster dog a few weeks back that is all jacked up. His name is Prince and he just came back from surgery to have some tumors removed from him. He’s back to 100 percent but has some gnarly stitches in him. We now call him Franken-prince, check it out below