This past weekend was a busy one for the motocross industry. As if another round of the 2008 Monster Energy Supercross Championships (and it's next-day television coverage) wasn't enough to keep the fans occupied, ESPN chose this as the weekend to debut their (potentially) annual event deemed the Navy Moto-X World Championships. The only problem with it was that half of the invited rider list was in Detroit, while the other half was practicing on the ESPN track in San Diego. What to do? That's easy-race an AMA Supercross on Saturday night, hop on a private jet and get to San Diego in time for practice on Sunday morning, right? Not exactly-just ask Nick Wey. The MDK/KTM rider was only able to get a commercial flight that eventually arrived in San Diego at 11:00 AM local time -the same time that practice was scheduled to begin. In other words, no track time for tricky Nicky. Not to mention that it wasn't even a direct flight-he had to connect in Denver after leaving Detroit at 6:00 AM. But what appeared to be the makings of a nightmare proved to be a blessing in disguise, as Wey not only made the main event in San Diego, but pulled off a second place-15 spots better than he did in Detroit. Other riders who made the two-hop early morning trek to Qualcomm Stadium were Eric Sorby, Joe Oehlhof, Ryan Clark, Heath Voss, Jiri Dostal, and Troy Adams.

But enough about the race that wasn't in Detroit-for more on the Moto-X World Championships, click through the links in this article-there was plenty going on in the Motor City to keep the regulars busy all weekend. One of the downsides that's common with some of the other eastern Supercross venues is the lack of an indoor pit area that's fan-accessible. This always leads to plenty of disgruntled folks, many of whom have no idea that they won't have access to their favorite riders until they go to purchase a pit pass at the stadium and... there are none. One such fan was Patty Cochrain, who'd traveled a few hours from the northwest corner of the state to meet her favorite rider: Chad Reed. "I was so excited to get down here early to get into the pits and get in line to get a photo with Chad, but when I get here I can't get anywhere near him," she said. "The closest I got was being able to see him get carted off on the medic truck after he crashed in practice."

Which leads us to the real undercurrent of the entire event-Reed's gnarly get-off in one of the track's two very tricky rhythm sections. On what Skippy himself later described as "the toughest track yet this year," the long start straight, rutted, deep, long, and nasty whoop sections were punctuated by the two very difficult rhythm sections, which featured a couple of step-on step-on tabletops in between two triples. That's where Reed's factory YZ450F bogged and sent him off of a tabletop, over the bars, and into the face of the following jump. The meager crowd let out a collective gasp as the Asterisk crew scrambled to help the fallen champion, who was reportedly coughing up a significant amount of blood while laying trackside. After the practice was red-flagged and Reed loaded into the Asterisk Medic Mule, it was clear he was miserable and in pain. More importantly, though, was the look of fear on his face, and that's what made many of those on hand worry whether his season may be over as well. After voluntarily taking an ambulance trip to the local hospital for chest x-rays, an obviously shaken Reed was back in time for opening ceremonies. The tough Aussie, who's been known to ride injured in the past, did the absolute minimum amount of racing necessary to gain a provisional entry into the main event, where he ended up a remarkable-almost astounding-12th place. In what looked to be a wash for the night and a huge chunk taken out of his points lead, Reedy managed to add nine points onto his total, losing only 12 overall to second place in the series Kevin Windham (who finished third). Only time will tell whether Chad can make at least an equally good showing next weekend in St. Louis and minimize his points loss, but we'll bet that he'll be good enough to get on the podium, at least-he's THAT much better than his competition.

Let's shift gears and get back to the track, since it proved to be the most influential player of the evening. Detroit marked the fourth installment of the pro rider designed tracks for this season, and this beauty was pieced together by Rockstar/Makita/Suzuki's David Vuillemin. Now, Le Cobra's always been known as a solid technical rider with a lot of history in the sport, not to mention being one of the few riders to win against McGrath, Carmichael, and Reed at some point. It was no surprise, then, that this track ended up being so difficult, and it was no secret that DV12 made it tough because that's how he likes it (he said so himself in a pre-race interview with Terry Boyd). What made it even more difficult was the soil which was somewhat tacky and damp all the way through, and which rutted up quite a bit during each session of use, requiring quite a lot of maintenance throughout the night. Take rhythm sections that are difficult to begin with, add a bunch of ruts on the faces of every take-off, and the recipe is disaster. Luckily, Reed had the only serious crash of the night and the cause of his was bike-related, not due to the track. Keeping with the celebrity-track-designer tradition, Vuillemin put in a great ride, nabbing the holeshot in his heat and leading both K-Dub and Millsaps for a lap before ending up third. Add to that his season-best seventh in the main event and, well, let's just say that things are looking up for Le Cobra after what's been a rough season with injuries and a brand new bike and team.

Along the lines of the event itself, it seems as though Live Nation is either A) switching things around a bit, B) made a few mistakes, C) trying to appeal to a broader range of spectators or D) all of the above. Observations: during the downtime between practice and show opening, there was a freestyle demo team and the "Sphere of Fear" to keep fans entertained. Great idea, hopefully this added entertainment stays in the program. An unusual note about that, though, was the choice of music before-hand which was punctuated by several F-bombs which were easily distinguishable to anyone even remotely paying attention. Now I'm all for playing White Zombie's "Devil Man" at any point to pump up a crowd, but if my three-year old was in earshot of the uncensored version of it, I'd have been a bit upset, and it was a very uncharacteristic blunder. Other oddities: the house lights were not turned down for the show opening, Miss Supercross Sarah Lipert's participation in the show is now down to almost zero, the Lites podium celebration no longer includes a spraying of the bubbly (!), and there were a total of four photographers on the floor shooting (roughly 1/3rd the normal number). What's going on?

Some of the best pit gossip of the weekend was what is going on with Red Bull Honda Racing's French import Ben Coisy after the Supercross season is up? We'd assumed that the factory Honda gig was going away since Benji was only a fill-in for Ben Townley (who's now riding again, and apparently doing very well) and that he'd be heading back to France. Not so. In a seemingly odd move, which speaks volumes about Coisy's desire to race in the States, he's inked a deal with the Wonder Warthog Racing/MDK team to race a 450 in the AMA Nationals this summer. We rounded up "Stitch", acting WWR team coordinator for the weekend, to check on this, "Yep, it's a done deal I guess, I just heard about it myself yesterday, so it's news to me too!" When pressed for details, it's clear he was either told to be mum or that the details simply hadn't been worked out yet: "I don't know what color bike or anything else, but I do know that all of the guys we'll have will be on 450's, Coisy included."

For the second weekend in a row-and after receiving a press release announcing it as fact-Ryan Clark's Team Solitaire bikes sported the "Brawndo" logo prominently on their shrouds. A previously fictional sports drink from a cult film titled "Idiocracy", Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator, now apparently exists. "They basically pulled the brand and entire concept out of the movie and bought the rights to be able to actually produce and market the drink just as it was in the movie. You can come by the truck and drink a can of Brawndo, and it's actually pretty good," Clark told us before practice. Very interesting and cool concept, no doubt, and if nothing else, Brawndo is definitely marketed in a unique manner. Check it out for yourself at http://www.brawndo.com and http://www.teamsolitaire.com.

There was also some racing that went down in Detroit, so let's get to it. Team Red Bull Honda Racing's Davi Millsaps made it look easy in the Supercross class, no doubt due in no small part to Chad Reed's crippled state. But all due respect to Millsaps as he was clearly the best of the rest all night despite a quickly closing Tim Ferry in the final few laps of the main event. Millsaps' lap times were solid all day, posting the third fastest in practice (only .5 secs down from Hill), so he clearly had the speed. He also had the start, which the other favorites weren't able to get. But Eric Sorby sure was. The Team Hooters holeshot artist nabbed the $1,500 Progressive Direct Holeshot award (which no doubt helped pay for his plane ticket to San Diego) before dropping anchor and fading to 15th by the end of the main event. On the flip side, Sorby put in an impressive ride during his heat in San Diego that more than made up for his results in Detroit. None of this matters to Millsaps though, and he rode smart and fast for most of the 20 laps, although a panic rev in the first rhythm section on the final lap no doubt kept him on his toes for that last half lap. "I found some really good lines in practice and got a good start in the main", which for a rider of Millsaps' ability and support, can only mean one thing-a win. "But when I got here today, I just wasn't on my game, in the qualifier I was just sort of riding around, but in the main, I got that start and just rode my own race... I was dealing with a bit of arm pump out there tonight too, so I'm just happy to have it end the way it did". Regarding Reed, Millsaps echoed the thoughts of Windham. "You know, it's unfortunate what happened to Chad tonight, he's a friend of mine and I don't like to see him get hurt. I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing, put my head down, and push every lap to see what I can end up with by Vegas." With Reed's trouble it could have easily been a zero points-paying event for him, but with the nine points he salvaged with his 12th place finish and Windham's inability to finish any better than third, Reed still enjoys a semi-comfortable 17 point gap heading into St. Louis.

On the flip side, Trey Canard isn't so lucky. In actuality, he's had plenty of luck lately, just not the good kind. In a season that eerily parallels what's happened in the western regional series (with Dungey dominating the first three rounds only to blunder repeatedly and lose the points lead heading to the final round), Canard now holds a scant three-point cushion over Ryan Villopoto, and next weekend will decide who takes home the title. Once again, the friendly Okie had troubles both keeping his CRF250R on two wheels and, once getting it up, with getting it started. Ending up with a 10th place while battling the likes of a Ryan Villopoto-caliber rider for a series lead is not the way to go about winning a first title, and Canard saw his lead drop from 17 last weekend in Dallas down to a measly 3 heading into the finale. Not good.

Beyond the two leaders, there were a couple of breakthrough rides this weekend-namely those of Boost Mobile/Yamaha of Troy's Ryan Morais and Villopoto's Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki teammate Branden Jesseman. Morais' night started out great with a solid second in his heat, followed-up by an even better move up through the fast pack in the main to end up second there as well. Great ride for the likeable Morais, no doubt. Jesseman's night, however, started out terrible and ended up grand, as a first turn crash in his heat left him in dead last with a ticket to the LCQ-which he won easily. His main event experience was similar to that of Morais, with a fair start and a persistent push to the front that landed him on the podium in third for the first time this season. It's about time BJ got back up there where he seems to belong, although it's probably too little too late now with only one round left, as the former champ still sits back in sixth position in points. Rockstar/Makita/Suzuki's Nico Izzialso made his presence felt up front for a change, actually passing and putting some time on Canard before Trey went down, although eventually conceding to the hard-charging Morais and Jesseman. A total non-factor in the results this weekend was Torco Racing Fuels/Honda's Josh Grant, who's reportedly not very happy with how his bike has been performing the past two weekends. Look for some changes next weekend.

All of which leads us to next weekend's race in St. Louis and the chances that it'll be a real barn-burner. The Lites champion will be crowned, and the Supercross series lead could well change hands, depending on how well Reed can cope with his injuries. Beyond that, it'll be business as usual for the traveling circus that is the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series. Check back right here at Motocross.com for Sunday's Race Report and Monday, for a bit more of What Really Happened.

Courtesy of MotoCross.com