After last week's difficult and technical track, the series headed to San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium for yet another challenging track created by Dirt Wurx. This week, we saw more domination from Chad Reed and Jason Lawrence as the two riders continue to set themselves apart from the rest of the field. But for more on that, be sure to check out the race report where you'll find out about everything that went down on the track. Here is where you can get caught up on everything from injured riders to new rider updates to a random question asked of some industry insiders. Below are a few links to some of the news from over the weekend. Get caught up then continue on to find out What Really Happened...
Alright, now that you're all caught up, enjoy! And don't forget to continue to check back throughout the week for everything that has to do with motocross and Supercross.
Last weekend's race-round five held at Southern California's Angel Stadium-took a few more victims, one of which was Red Bull Honda's Ivan Tedesco. The former National Champion was pitched over the bars after catching a tuff block in a technical step-on-step-off section on the difficult track. We ran into Ivan at Red Bull's ultra plush custom hospitality bus in the pits of San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium. We cornered him long enough to get his first hand explanation of just what happened.
"In second practice at Anaheim three there was an on-off section," Tedesco said. "I got a little too far to the right and landed on a tuff block. I went over the bars, and somehow I landed on my hand. I broke three bones in my hand, and I went and got surgery on Thursday. I flew to Pittsburgh to see a hand specialist there and they did surgery. They put some screws in there, and I'm just going to have to take some time off to heal up."
After a disappointing 2007 season where Ivan suffered through injuries, breaking his hand this early in the '08 season, it's definitely a let down. "It's very disappointing, especially after last year," Tedesco said. "I felt like I was doing pretty good this year, I didn't feel like I've shown what I have this year and it's kind of a bummer. I'm going to come back strong and hopefully I can show what I'm capable of doing outdoors, we'll see." As for when he's coming back, it's still up in the air. "I haven't looked at a calendar yet to see where we're at. I just have to play it week by week and see how fast I heal up."
During last week's Lites class main, Star Racing/Yamaha's Wil Hahn was involved in one of the gnarliest looking crashes we've seen all year. Towards the beginning of the race, Wil lost control of his YZ250F and had to slow down in the whoop section. As this happened, Rockstar Makita Suzuki's Ryan Dungey was charging hard from back in the pack, and came down on top of the young rookie rider bringing them both to a stop and on the ground. Surprisingly, neither rider was seriously injured, although Hahn did not finish the moto, due to an immense amount of pain, and a pretty banged up bike. "I just got cross rutted in the second whoop section, and got a little sideways," Hahn said. "As soon as I came down, Dungey came down on top of me.
I got beat up pretty good, but I'm here this weekend riding and that's all that matters."
It was Déjà vu in the Factory Yamaha pits seeing the number eight and number sixty bikes of Grant Langston and Broc Hepler sitting idly on their stands at Qualcomm Stadium again for the second year. With both riders unable to ride right now, Josh Hill finds himself as the only rider currently under the big blue awning, and just maybe a little more pressure to perform.
Despite the apparent added pressure, Hill's attitude was upbeat, with a standard goofy smile and happy tone. Josh told us he's anxious to see his teammates heal and be back under the tent and on the track. "It was like this all last year too. Grant and Hepler got hurt at the same time last year, so it's a bummer for those guys," Hill said. "I've got less of a line to sign autographs for, though, so that's kind of nice [laughs]."
We talked to the Factory Yamaha Team Manager Jim Perry to get an update on Hepler. "He had some hardware put in his thumb on Tuesday, and he'll be out for six weeks," Perry said. "Hopefully he'll make a 100 percent recovery and be back at Seattle."
As for Langston, he made the trip from his house to support the team and sign some autographs for the San Diego fans. After coming off of an amazing outdoor series Langston unfortunately discovered he has a rare medical issue that needed some urgent attention. "Basically, I have a cluster of blood cell's that are formed like a pocket behind the eye, and they're leaking." Langston told us that the leaking causes blurred vision in his left eye, which is seriously affecting his riding. "It's curable," Langston said, and although he is definitely out of contention for a Monster Energy Supercross Championship, he will be back later in the season to race a few more rounds. Check back with us on Tuesday for an in-depth talk with Grant about this rare medical problem and the specialized treatment that is required to correct it.
One Yamaha rider that was returning to action was Team Boost Mobile/Yamaha of Troy's Zach Osborne. After crashing at Anahiem I, Osborne has been healing up and sitting on the sidelines. At San Diego, Osborne made the main through his heat race, looked fast and finished a respectable 13th in the main.
The Metal Mulisha's Brian Deegan was hanging out with the promo girls and signing autographs for fans at one of the Mulisha's biggest sponsors' Rockstar energy's booth. The General hung out for a while talking with both freestyle and race fans alike. Be sure to read Deegs' response to a new section we added to What Really Happened called 10:1. It's a cool industry poll where we ask a dumb or funny question to ten riders or industry folks.
It goes without saying that the name Troy Lee Designs has become synonymous with good taste and style, but lately it's also become the same way with good taste in food! This last weekend, Troy invited us into his new Red Bull/Troy Lee Designs/Honda team hospitality area to enjoy a gourmet lunch. Lee has hired a crew to cook some delicious food for his riders, team, and friends at all of the local Monster Energy Supercross stops. This weekend, we stuffed ourselves with tons of tacos ranging from traditional beef and chicken, to Baja style shrimp and lobster. There's no better way to fuel yourself up on race day.
Like last week's track, the San Diego one was technical, difficult and unforgiving. SD has always been known for great dirt, but many riders commented on how difficult it was to get a rhythm going around it. Add the new sand section in the first turn, and it made for some interesting racing. Following the race, we quizzed Reed about it. "I struggled with it," Reed said. "I love the sand, and I went through it good a couple times, but I don't know, I just couldn't find a good rhythm through there. I think the track was challenging, but I definitely would be lying if I said that I liked it. It was San Diego, the dirt was awesome, but I think the track was pretty horrible, really. I don't know. I just didn't like it. It wasn't the design or anything like that; I just didn't gel with it at all. The sand in the first turn, in my opinion, was really dumb. It was one of the longest start straights that we have all year long, and then you're just right away into the sand." As for second-place finisher Timmy Ferry, he thought differently about the track. "It was very technical," Ferry said. "It was a little tighter, and was more like an old-school Supercross from four or five years ago. I thought it was good, but I thought that the whoops could have been a little smaller to make some more lines. I like the sand sections. Those are good for me and they are a good addition right now."
In case you didn't read the race report, and that's not cool, Jason Lawrence's win marked his third in a row, and also bumped him into the points lead with two rounds remaining to be run. As for his series rival, Ryan Dungey, he crashed again for the second race in a row. The crashed dropped him back quite a ways, and he finished the race without his visor on his helmet. With the series headed to Houston next weekend and then a long break before the final round in Seattle, look for a good title fight to come. In a press release from Suzuki Dungey had this to say. "This is the third week in a row where things haven't gone our way. At the same time, I've been riding fact , I've been riding strong, and I've been riding consistent, but I've been making some small mistakes here and there in the main, and that's costing me," Dungey said. "I just need to relax and stay focused on riding smart in these last few rounds."
One rider that deserves a mention is Team Solitaire's Bobby Kiniry. This weekend marked his first-ever podium finish in Supercross. Bobby was ecstatic on the podium following the race. Bobby rode well, got into third right after the start, and held there until the end.
Like we mentioned above, we're starting a new feature for What Really Happened where we cruise the pits with one funny or random question in mind, and ask 10 industry people or riders their thoughts. This week, with all the halftime shows and things to entertain the fans, we decided to start our own little rumor about a new addition to the show. The question, "Do you think an ATV race would be a good addition to Supercross?" Here's what this week's 10 people had to say...
10:1 Pit Poll
Derek Brush - Monster Energy Kawasaki
"I think that would be retarted. ATVs would ruin the track, ruin all the lines, ruin all the rutts, their dorks, I can go on all day about that."
Rick Asch - Monster Energy Kawasaki
"I think it would be a bad idea, because it breaks down all the lines for the motorcycles and it makes the track like a freeway. It's just not good."
John Kuzo - Von Zipper
"I think a lot of people would get hurt for one, and it would ruin the racing, because you wouldn't have the ruts and stuff for the bikes."
Tim Olson -Yamaha Motor Corp
"Personally, I think it would be a horrible idea because motorcycles and ATV's have nothing in common. If they wanted to have their own series under their own name that would be fine. But the two don't mix, it's like oil and water."
Steve Lamson - Factory KTM/MDK
"Actually, I'd be really bummed. Supercross and ATVs are totally different. They should be doing their own thing and we should be doing our own thing. Totally separate tracks, totally separate series. I wouldn't be very pumped at all. Nothing against the ATV industry, but they just don't mix."
Mario Panagiotopoulos - Red Bull
You know I've been working on a book for a long time, and it has a lot of pictures of stuff that doesn't belong and the title is called Wrong. That would be on page three because it's just wrong.
Zach Osborne- Boost Mobile/Yamaha of Troy
"Umm... I'd rather not voice my opinion about that because a lot of local ATV guys would probably want to kill me. But it's a no, absolutely not... No!"
Andy Bell - Ogio
"Getting out there with one of those sons o' bitches man? Forget it. They'd run you over. It'd be like getting run over by a Mac truck. You'd get wedged under the skid plate and drag you around and shit, so no thanks."
Chris Honnold - Oneal Racing
"Stupid, dangerous... Uhh that's so gay. I hate ATVs first of all, but they'd have to change the whole track, the corners would be all messed up. It's two different demographics and it definitely wouldn't work."
Jordan Burns - Strung Out/Moto XXX
"I think that would be absolutely f***ing ridiculous. I don't want to see ATV's on a Supercross track myself. [Jordan's attention changes to a guy walking by in the pits... Editor] I do like that Strung Out shirt that that guy is wearing over there, though [laughs]. I like ATVs in the dunes and stuff, but I don't want to see them on a motocross track."
Brian Deegan - Metal Mulisha
"Haha, that's funny dude... For a while I thought Supercross was gay when I quit, so it would probably fit right in [laughs]. Honestly dude, I've seen quads backflip, and by far that's sweeter than any dude jumping a triple [laughs]."
As one final piece of news, the jack-of-all-trades Travis Pastrana showed up to race in the pre-race mini-bike race and to ride a quick fast lap around the track. To everyone's surprise he even back flipped the finish line jump. It goes without saying, though, that Team Rockstar Makita Suzuki's Roger DeCoster didn't want Pastrana to flip for fear of ruining the loaned works RM-Z450.
Well, that's it from San Diego. Don't forget to check back throughout the week for anything and everything pertaining to the sport of motocross. Have a good week! Oh yeah, and as our good friend Ron Burgundy would say, "You stay classy San Diego."
Courtesy of MotoCross.com
