After a weekend of good racing, the 2008 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series is now official underway, and we were there to witness it all. The festivities began Thursday with a press conference with last year's champions and runners up. After which everyone held their breath and hoped for the rain to hold off long enough for the race to stay dry. As it turned out, the rain came Friday night and was done, for the most part, on Saturday, leaving a track that was largely in decent shape, with some standing mud that was gone by the time practice was over.
Just in case you missed the race report, or the live coverage on SPEED for that matter, here's a link to all of our previous coverage over the past four or five days. Feel free to click through, and when you're done, continue reading to find out What Really Happened at Anaheim I.
Alright now that you're all caught up, let's get into it...
Just like you read in the race report, this year was the first time since 2004 that Team San Manuel Band of Mission Indian's/Yamaha's Chad Reed had won the opening round of the series. During the press conference Reed talked a little about it. "I won it tonight and it's been since '04. I'm like an Olympian I guess; I bring it every four years," Chad said. "Ricky and James have taken the sport to the next level, and now it's my time to step it up. Ricky is gone and I need to fill that void. A lot of people doubted me for stepping away in the summer time and going and hanging out, but for me, I think it was the best choice. So for all the doubters, what's up?"
During practice, Chad took a pretty bad fall over a difficult infield triple. He mentioned slightly injuring his hand, however, by the main event, he hucked the same triple on the first lap, and after that never made a mistake as he rode away for the win.
Unlike Reed, second place finishing James Stewart didn't experience an uneventful main event. The Monster Energy Kawasaki rider went down in the first turn, and was forced to fight for every position for the entire race. "After going down, I just wanted to get to the top five and let these guys kind of get a bit of a gap so I could start picking them off," Stewart said. "I got into the top-five and I could see that I was catching Timmy [Ferry] and Grant [Langston]. Once I got around them [into second], I thought it was a pretty decent night. Chad was gone, and there was nothing I could do. To be honest, coming from last to second was like getting a win. I think I showed some heart, and I feel good."
Moving on to the Lites class, Team Boost Mobile/Yamaha of Troy's Jason Lawrence finished second after leading, battling with Team Rockstar/Makita/Suzuki's Ryan Dungey, and then going down. If you ask him, though, he was still pretty pumped to have finished the night second. "I want the Championship. The wins are good, but I want the championship the most. If I get second every single race and win the championship, I will be happy," J-Law said. "Ryan [Dungey] won the first race last year and he didn't win the championship, so hopefully I can get it. I just realized this year that I need to take it a little more seriously. I hired Ryno, and I think that was a great decision. I have the speed, I have the fitness, and I have the equipment. There are no excuses, it's all on my shoulders."
Another rider who is taking the championship seriously is race winner Dungey. After getting a few wins in his rookie season last year, the young racer is hoping to be more consistent this year, and just like Lawrence, take home the championship. "It was a great night," Dungey said. "I put it all together and came out on top. I was proud of myself. Last year as a rookie, I might have freaked out in the beginning of the race, but this year, I acted more mature and let it come to me. Now I know how to take the pressure. The second, third, and fourth round last year, I wasn't patient. Now this year, as long as I'm in the hunt throughout the series, the championship at the end is what I want."
Just like every year, the opening round is usually a good chance to check out some of the new bikes, gear, and teams in the paddock. This year was no different, as the highly anticipated Joe Gibbs Yamaha team debut as well as the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/Honda team, and the Motosport/Xtreme/Kawasaki team just to name a few. We must say too, the JGR Yamaha and Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/Honda bikes are probably some of the coolest in the pits.
Troy Lee Designs' team gave a home to privateers Gavin Grayck and Justin Keeney along with former Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki rider Chris Gosselaar. After having a few hard years, Grayck is excited to be on the team. "I had Cycra backing me through the nationals and they feel like they were successful now that I've moved on to the next stepping stone with the Troy Lee/ Redbull/Honda Team," Gavin said. "My mechanic Dave is never shy of excellence and we're here ready for Anaheim 1." Grayck, the only TLD rider to make it into the main went on to finish seventh in the Supercross Lites class. Troy Lee's Supermoto team manager Bob Webber was on hand to support the new team and team manager Matt Jory at their maiden race. "We're thrilled to have Gavin on the team, he's got a ton of heart and he's riding amazing," Webber said. "We have gotten to know him last year wearing our gear during the nationals, he was ready for an opportunity to ride Supercross, and we felt like he was the right guy to plug in here as well as Goose and Justin."
Troy Lee's presence could also be seen elsewhere in the pits at Toyota Trucks' cool new Troy Lee Designs/Elrod's inspired interactive display, and vintage moto was theme. The cool "Classic Racer Garage" was riddled with historic moto memorabilia from Danny "Magoo" Chandler's helmet to Tony D's jersey and a wealth of original vintage photo's, poster's, and banner's. Troy even dug up some signed customer's dollar bills from the early days of painting in his garage to paste on the wall. Troy happened to be getting his first look at the display after it's conception as we were poking around the classic treasures. He gave us his thoughts on the "Fast House". "Kenny Alexander called me, which I do Day in the Dirt stuff with, and said Toyota wanted to put a retro theme with old race stuff and everything else and I was like, ‘Ah cool I love history of the sport.' So Howie, another good friend of mine came down, and he was putting this thing together. We went through my vault down at the shop, kind of walked around the shop, and just let them pick what they wanted to hang up here. It was kind of a fun day, because we pulled a bunch of stuff out of the vault that I haven't seen for a long time. It's really cool to see this little museum of history."
Another new team-well not new, but they have a new sponsor-is Factory Red Bull Honda. We attended their official announcement party last Thursday. For more on that, be sure to check out the link above. Their best finishing rider was Davi Millsaps.
Hart & Huntington/Rockstar Energy Team owner Carey Hart was on scene. "It's my first year as a team owner and I have a lot to learn," Hart said. "I'm not expecting a whole lot and am glad to be around racing again." An injured Josh Demuth didn't race and former WBR Rockstar Suzuki rider Troy Adams didn't qualify due to the mud. He is, however, looking forward to making his presence known in Phoenix for round two next weekend.
While we are on the subject of new teams, and riders switching teams, we spoke to team Rockstar/Makita/Suzuki rider David Vuillemin about his thoughts on the new season, his new team, and his expectations for the new season.
David Vuillemin Interview
For a little privateer flavor, we also interviewed Honda-mounted Andy Bakken. The past few season, Bakken has ridden out of the Motoworldracing.com/Yamaha rig, but with the team closing up shop, he was forced to find somewhere else. Thankfully, his friend Jeremy "Twitch" Stenberg hooked him up and allowed him to pit out of his rig for the entire West Coast SX Series. Click the link below to find out more.
Andy Bakken Interview
During the rider's meeting, Jimmy Button and Bob Moore made a very important announcement for the Road 2 Recovery foundation. Beginning this year, they will be offering a catastrophic insurance policy for every single professional AMA rider. "One of our main goals with Road 2 Recovery was to eventually provide a catastrophic insurance policy for the riders," Button said. "This year, with a lot of help from endemic sponsors, we've been able to go ahead and do that for the Supercross and motocross series. Every single rider that participates is going to be provided with this, and I'm really happy to announce that." Moore went on to say. "As you know, this all first started when Jimmy Button was injured at the San Diego Supercross a few years ago, and it's kind of something that we can do to give back," Moore added. "Right now, there is $200,000 sitting in a bank that is for this fund. We're asking for as many people as you can get to become members of the Road 2 Recovery foundation. Every rider can become a member for $35 and friends and family $25. All of that money will go into this fund and it will continue to grow." For more information on the Road 2 Recovery foundation visit www.road2recovery.com.
It goes without saying that there was a lot of talk about the mud at Anaheim, and due to the impending threat of rain-which never materialized-many teams had the bikes outfitted with mud protection-foam, handguards, and some extra grip on the sides of the bikes. We ran into Stomp Grip's MX Team Manager Noel Garvin who coincidentally had a pretty cool new seat that he was fitting on numerous riders' bikes. "It works great for traction," Garvin said. "It works better than grip tape and will be great in the mud. Stomp Grip is going to be stoked today, because our product is this new seat cover and it's going to do nothing but help the riders."
Also because of the mud, numerous teams had two bikes for their riders. They put them through tech, but due to the rules, the one they used in practice was the one that they had to ride with.
Normally, teams don't have to do much cleaning to their bikes, however, due to the muddy conditions 10 pressure washers were provided in the tunnel for teams to wash their bikes off. We still spotted a team or two hosing off their bikes in the pits-we'll withhold names to keep the guilty from getting in trouble.
That's it! Check back next week for more coverage from the 2008 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series.
Courtesy of MotoCross.com
